The age-herald., 1900-08-20
WORDS OF INGALLS,
 WRIT FROM WISDOM

All outside the penitentiary have the same political rights duties and obliga- tions
 The politics of the country will not be purified by demanding an impossible stand ard, either of intelligence or morality, in candidates for office. The saloon keeper and the doctor of divinity are politically equal They have the same rights, and the bartender may be better citizen than the clergyman.
 The way to reform politics is not to re- form office-seekers, but to reform voters, by melting them to the discharge of the duties of citizenship. ;. As soon the farmer has bank ac- count he ceases to be interested in ab- stract questions of finance. The capacity to draw a check makes him conservative. The artisan who owns his home and has constant occupation at living wages thinks less of communism and the redistribution of the assets of society.
 Political issues, like poets, are born and not made They are organic and not in- vented. They are not kept in stock like canned goods in a grocery, nor hand-me- downs in a Hebrew misfit parlor.
 If in any community taxes are excessive, revenue spuandered, officials dishonest, it is the fault of the people.
 sI,p,a ;x, Cfa&a upright men than knaves and scoundrels. Honor and integrity are in the majority every where if they choose to assert them- selves.
 In a popular representative democracy, based on universal suffrage, every man ought to be a politician. Not in the nar- row and restricted sense of aspiring to official station, but in the broader view of taking an active, constant and intelligent interest in public affairs.
 And not only should the citizen be a poli- tician, but he should be a partisan also. Political parties are groups in the State composed of those who hold similar views about public questions, and every man should ally and actively identify himself
  cord with his own convictions as to the policy of the State
 
 Habit, temperament and heredity have much to do with party affiliations It is not a matter of morality, but of inclina- ton and expediency Nothing can be more senseless and unjust than the attempt to impugn the patriotism or the conscience If Iai ic ct Democrat, or a Republican, but both are open to question if he be neither the one nor the other.
 Good men ought to seek office. The more the better. The wider the range of selec- tion the less chance of mistake. It is a duty they owe to society, to themselves and to the political system of which they are components.
 What is needed is some legislation that will give brains to the brainless, thrift to the thriftless industry to the irresolute and discernment to the fool. Till this panacea is discovered the patient must minister to himself.
 Anniversaries are the exclamation points of history. The mind takes mysterious pleasure in their return. The birthday of a hero recalls him from the tomb and he lives again in the souls of millions who rehearse his triumphs and deplore his death.
 Socialism is the final refuge of those who have failed in the struggle for life. It is the prescription of those who are born tired It means the survival of the unfit, and the inevitable result would be degen- eration. It would deprive ambition of its incentive, industry of it's stimulus, excel- lence of it's supremacy, and character of it's reward.
 Individualism would lift all to the level of the higher. Socialism would drag all down to the level of the lowest. Indvid- ualism is progress and life. Socialism IS stagnation and death.
 What chance has the poor man in 1900? About the same, I should say, he had fifty years ago. In some ways rather bet ter, if he can adapt himself to the changed conditions of society. Many avenues open then are now shut. Many opportunities once free no longer exist. Competition is more selfish and strenuous, but the world was never so ready as now to pay for what it wants There has been no time when the man or woman who can do anything better than anybody else was so sure of instant recognition and remuneration.
 
 The real difference in men Is not want of opportunity, but in want of capacity to discern opportunity and power to take ad- vantage of opportunity.
 2
 THE COLER AND ODELL HALOS From the New York JournaI