New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-03-30
A LETEL-HEADED PEOPLE

This is an uncommony good time for men
Of intelligence and good homey common sense
10 keep their heads level and their feet on the
ground. The vast majority Of the people is
doing 1t. But this vast majority does not have
accorded to 1t the weight and significance to
which II IL entitled for the simple reason that
It is undemonstratve and calm. 1t is not In
evidence, and apparently cuts no figure in what
seems to the casual observer to be general
hullabaloo. That is not strange Half dozen
noisy and passionate declaimers jumping up
and down. with wild gestlculatlon and foam
Ing at the mouth with real or simulated emo
ton, will always attract more attention and
create more stir than the hundreds or thou
sands Of quiet folks who manifest no emotion
md are apparently undisturbed by the racket,
but who really dominate the situation It's
the fakir who makes the most noise that draws
the crowd But the fakr's success in attract
ing the multitude is only temporary and short
lived The sober citizen listens a moment. out
of curiosity, TO mis- rawlings and passes on. The
fakir Is not so important n factor in the bust
ness affairs of the world might think
from the crowd he gathers around him He
sells something at very low price that isn't
worth II, and makes more noise about Il than
whole city full Of merchants in the transac
ton OF their ordinary business. But the busl
ness affairs of the world, after all are con-
Quoted not by fakrs but by solid men of sense
and discretion. who pursue their vacations calm
ly and steadily without ''holerin'."
For the last four or five weeks II has seemed
al times as though the business, the politics
and the craftsmanship Of the whole world had
IN fol
dervshes. One might suppose from reading
some. and perhaps a majority, OF the metro
polltan newspapers that the American peoplc
had gone Off their feet in wild and unreason-
ing craze for war. Never. even during the most
exciting times or the war for the preservation
or me Union, We're our newspapers so redhot
with infammatory matter; with mischief-breed-
ing appeals to the passions of the mob: with
nnbrlded exaggeratons Of actual facts. and
falsehoods without shadow Of foundation: with
coarse and brutal imputatons of selfish and
corrupt motives TO men Of conservative views.
and with violent and vtuperative assaults upon
the characters Of public men and high officials
who have borne themselves through It all with
such discriminating tact and wise discretion as
TO extort the praise OF unfriendly peoples and
challenge the admiration Of the world To n
superficial observer oil this sound and fury
might seem an indication that the whole Ameri-
can people had gone Off their feet, half of
them IN war craze and the other half in war
scare.
1t is not so. The people are calm and self
possessed. They are neither crazy for war nor
scared at the possibility OF It, Their heads are
level and their feet are on the ground Stocks
may go up, and sensational press may have
the inmeasurable baseness to charge that the
President and his Cabinet and men high in the
Nations councils are in collision with operators
TO put them up by proposing shameful
peace" They may 20 down. and the same pur-