The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-01-06
NEED OF A HIGHER
ETHICAL. STANDARD
THE SOVEREIGN REMEDY FOR
PUBLIC ILLS.
Read This Striking Address by
President Hadley, Of Yale, Deliv-
cred on Tuesday Before the Con-
vocation Of the University of Chi
cago.

cago.
"An unusually well informed foreign
critic, Mr. Murhead, has recently pub
lished the opinion that the standard of
personal morality in America Is de-
cidedly higher than in England, that
of commercial morality probably litt!,
lower, and that of political morality
quite distinctly lower. There Is reason
to think that in this view he represents
the consensus of opinion of well in
formed observers on both sides of the
Atlantic.
"The causes for this condition Of
things demand serious attention. \
failure to carry into politics the same
kind of ethical standard which Is ap-
piled in matters of personal morals i'm
plies. as n rule. that there is something
in peoples political condition to
whose understanding 1t has not fully
grown up. Such failure implies a de-
feet in public judgment rather than in
individual character. 1t Indicates that
we do not know what virtues must be
exercised for the maintenance of or
ganized society as we'll as we know
what virtues are necessary to the har-'
monious living of individuals among
their neighbors.
STANDARDS OF POLITICAL NOR.
AITY.
"The difference between standards Of
political morality and of personal NOR
ality attracted attention as long ago
as the days of the Greek philosophers.
From that time onward every moralist
who has really studied the subject has
realized that there were certain dis
tinctve political virtues, elements
superlatively necessary in the conduct
Of a good ruler or member of the rul-
ing class. which might be relatively
less important in matters outside Of
politics. What is to be regarded as
par excellence the virtue Of the ruler
and the freeman Is a question which
is answered differently in different
stages of society.
I'm the earliest developments Of civil
ization, stress is chiefly laid on cour-
age to maintain authority: in later
stage greater Importance Is attached to
the virtue of self-restra int, to submit
in person to the authority imposed on
others: while in still later develop
ment at least equal prominence must
| be given to public spirit. to use for a
| collective or unselfish end the meas
| ure of authority bestowed on each in
dividual American society has wit
messed the passage from the first stage
| to the second: much must be done be-
| fore we have attained to the third.
| VIRTUE OF COURAGE REQUIRED.
| I'm the beginning of civilization the
virtue of courage is necessary pre-
requisite for any and all governments.
! When people so far emerge from super
stition that they begin to distrust the
| authority of the priest, Il strong and
| fearless hand is needed to create an
organized police authority which can
| repress license and disorder. Whoever
has this courage will have authority.
for without it there is no authority at
| all. If it is possessed but by few we
shall have an oligarchy: the more
| widely Is it diffused the more nearly
shall be approach democracy. We can
have no social order, oligarchic or DEM
| ocratic, without the personal courage
| and physical force to maintain it, So
| fundamental are these things that
there Is a disposition in certain stages
Of society to condone in the possessors
of courage and fighting efficiency the
| want of many other virtues: to lei
them vindicate the majesty OF the law
| by hanging the wrong man if tbs
right man is not to be found; to let
them assert their authority to make
| laws by an assumption of an author
ity in their own person to break tho
laws which they have made: to despisc
| and suppress the base mechanical
who would protest against this arbi-
trary irfraction of legal principle.
"But the base mechanicals.' how.
ever unjustly despised in nations
beginning, prove necessity for its
| progress beyond those beginnings. The
state, as Aristotle says. having begun
as a means of making life possible
continues as a means of making life
| prosperous. When once the necessary
basis of authority is established that
| authority becomes, with each genera
tion, the more impartial ana more abb
solUte, protecting the laborer as wei
as the soldier or politician. The brave
citizen can in these latter generations
best serve the cause of his country
not by an excess of persona! zeal IL
behalf of his nation. but by n rcadi.
ness to submit his claims to the arbi-
trament of tribunals which have beer
| established for the determination o
justice.
FROM ONE VIRTUE TO ANOTHER
"rhe change from the virtue of for.
titude to that of temr"rcntia Is mani.
fest in every doparimcnt Of human &c,
tivity. as soon as it advances bcS ont
a certain rudimentary stage. Fightinc
ceases to he n matter of personal cour
age and becomes matter Of discip
line, 50 that the ideal soldier IL NJ
longer the leader of n cavalry charge
but the organizer of victory. who car
give and take orders as part of A.:
larger whole Success in business i.
no longer the perquisite of the ven
turesome trader who starts on a voy
age of exploration, but the painstak
ing merchant who understands tn,
laws of supply and demand and ca,
regulate his conduct by those laws
In snort, the whole feudal organic I
tion of society, where authority rest,
on courage and services given in re-
turn for personal protection. gives
place to q newer and larger order
where the authority of personal prin
ciples is recognized as superior to tina
Of any person, and where that MAJ
serves the world best who can hes
take his share both in WELDING and i,
recogrizing this authority.
'Tfrouch these two stages, (which l
has taken Europe centuries to accom-
Pllsh. America has been passing /.
comparatively brief period. First W.
have the lawless frontier community
where men have such rights rs the!
can defend with their own revolvers
| where In case of emergency the Ylgl