Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1900-10-19
The Ants and the Jingos.

! 1t can never safely be used, however,
with sensible, serious people. A jibe
may raise laugh and even leave a
lasting impress upon putty brain,
but it never moves a serious or
thoughtful man in forming his opin.
ions or shaping his political course.
Whenever ridicule is used as a polit-
ical weapon, one of two things may be
inferred. Either it is used as feather
to tickle the fool or as a mirror to
temporarily blind the man who is
looking for something you do not wish
him to find.
Speaking politically, there are two
general classes of people, the Ants
and the Jingos. They both have their
uses. Should either class always have
its own way the result would be dsas-
trous. They are really necessary to
each other, and both are necessary to
the good of the State. Each brings to
the political compact an element of
strength. Because we have them
both, and because we have had them
always, this country has made its re-
markable growth-a growth at once
normal, wholesome, symmetrical and
without deforming excresences.
What then is Jingo? He is not
bad fellow as regards either head or
heart. His is optimistic and has an
ardent temperament, full of hope and
confidence and courage and vigor.
He furnishes the push necessary to
the launching of enterprise. He is
never without his vision, and its castles
are always stately and sun-bathed. If
he could have his way, we would all
leave the prosaic comfort OF things
safely attained, things substantial and
attested, and seek his castle in Spain.
The vision is good. As a nation we
need to lift our eyes once in a while
from our muck-rake. We need an oc-
casionai glimpse OF the stars to guide
us-a dash OF the ideal TO inspire us.
1t is good to carry ones head above
the clouds, but if you want to keep
your head unbroken, keep your feet
firmly upon the solid earth. And
right there the work OF the Anti comes
in. He may be trifle stolid and un-
emotional: he may be unimaginative
and given to over-value precedent and
experience; but he links the body
polite to those things that are stable
and that stand approved by the ex-
perience of the ages.
He is never reactionary. He studies
the past, not from love of it or its
forms, but for its lessons, to the end
that the present may be securely en-
trenched as a base OF operations
against the future. The lingo may
prod him into an occasional sally be-
yond the works, but he will be very
sure not to get too far from his base.
The achievements of mankind may
be divided with two great classes
the things already attained and the
things yet to be attained. The Anti
stands guard over the former, the jim
60 strives after the latter. Some
things have been attained. We hold
them securely within our hand.
They may not be all we would like to
have, but they are what they are and
il We would only think they have cost
the race great deal-centuries of
time and oceans of blood, among
other things. The Anti prizes them
for what they are worth. He believes
in keeping them, and taking good
care of them for they represent the
net result of the martyrdom OF man.
The Anti is in full sympathy with the
Jingo, so long as the pursuit OF his
vision does not mean the abandon
ment of any of these things. When
it means that, he adjudges the Jingo
to be temporarily demented and pro-
ceeds in all brotherly spirit to put the
victim of the vision into a straight
jacket and keep him for a time, under
kindly restraint.
Some things have been attained;
once for all ascertained and settled.
The multiplication table for instance.
The Anti would be apt to oppose any
new mathematical system that would
not square with the multiplication
table. Some things political have
been ascertained and settled. The in
alienable rights of man, for example,
as defined in the Declaration of Inde-
pendence. The Anti is sure to oppose
any political policy that does not
square with the principles enunciated
in the Declaration OF Independence.
The Jingo has been seeing political
visions. Two years ago it was Castle
in Spain. Now it is Castle in Porto
Rico, and another in the Philippines; !;