New-York tribune., 1903-06-09

y-body that voted for him hasn't in the first
year got everything he wanted.
For long time We itch 20 interfere in Spains
trouble with her colony, and at last IN "iii.e
neat over the explosion of naval vesseI we 90
rush into war. but not before being caught IN
the ebh OF the same tide and swept by II INTO
the sentimental declaration that we VIII never,
no. never, permit our country to reap from tis
expenditure Of its money and its young life such
security and advantage as every other ha'ioil
which ventures on the solemn sacrLice cI the
treasure and blood Of its people mas Ielt pouiiu
to require from the beginning of time, ana was
bound to require. Next the whole country is up
in arms in another gush Of sentiment TO pio.et
that instantly without safeguards of any sort,
a little island off in the Atlantic. more than a
fourth of the way over to Africa must be given
admission at once 20 all the rights and privileges
Of American citizenship. Presently the sent-
mental wave turns the other way, ana another
island nearer, larger, vastly more important
with vastly greater claims over which we nave
asserted a species of protectorate for three
quarters Of a century. and which we profess 70
be tenderly guiding into the family OF nations, Is
kept waiting for months and years for help long
since acknowledged to be plain duty Far
from being mother to this suffering orphan,
whom We have ourselves dragged 10 door
and dropped helpless there. exhibiting
capacity, colossal as our strength, for being a
stepmother
Next we forget all about these burning issues,
put them behind if they had never existed,
and plunge pellmell clergy. editors. laity and
all classes and conditions Of men, into race
with the politicians for the favor and the polit-
ical influence of the downtrodden contract coal
miners who were only getting three dollars
day and had proclaimed against free labor in
so-Called free country lest competition might re-
quire them to work a little more than hVe or
six hours day and make coal cheaper for the
multitude. Thus between own meddllng
and the dull inactivity Of the employers. idly
dreaming that it viii soon blow over, we prolong
the industrial paralysis till Winter is at hand
and the President himself is forced to intervene
| in unprecedented way to save us from a ma
tionaI calamity.
one day we go wild over guest because he is
the brother Of an Emperor; the next we are IN
a pet because the same Emperor wants TO COL
leCt money from unwilling debtor who doesn't
pay his debts to either. One day we pro-
claim Russia as our dearest friend. and fret
with but half concealed contempt at Chinese
complaints about the massacre of their country
men in Wyoming. Italian complaints about
similar atrocities in Louisiana, or foreign COM
ment generally on our burning OF negroes at
the stake: and the next day demanding
that Government shall at once and officially
I serve peremptory notice on that same deti e7l
friend at St Petersburg that we won't stand the
equally wicked persecution of Jews in kishinefr
in the heart of Russia We are bent on an
isthrnus canal al Nicaragua. and can hardly
keep our hands off our ancient ally for attempt
ing one at Panama; we laugh loud and long at
the De Lesseps collapse as proof of all we nave
said about the utter impractica bility OF the
Panama route. then suddenly turn around, buy
up the bankrupt. abandon the Nicaragua con-
cern and set out 70 finish that same impractical
bic and preposterous Panama scheme ourselves.
Thus wave after wave Of half considered
opinion sweeps over the country; we fash into
flames Of sudden excitement, which fortunately,
for the most part. die out like heat lightning;
feel eqrally fit 10 fout all the worlds experience.
solve al sight all its problems, fight all crea-
tion at the drop of a hat and are always in dan
ger OF going off a half cock into new party or
out of it into some untried policy or out of 1t,
into some monstrous injustice or out Of 1t, into
war or out of Il.
ONE MAN AS GOOD AS ANOTHER.
A graver change, amounting to a distinct de-
generation in the average American character
may be further consequence, and is at any
rate further accompan animent of the tendency to
loss of faith and loss of purpose 1t is the ex-
trava giant notion. never held in the days of the
Fathers, that this is land of equality. and that
one man is as good as another 1t has never
been a land of equality, and one man never has
been good as another. and never viii be, III
this country or any other, in this life or any
other-til the just God turns unjust and the
creature that does i'll becomes in His eyes as the
! creature that does well.
What is true and it is he shining glory Of the
Fathers to have established it, is that this is
land where all par just once in
their lives. for they have equal start Each
is guaranteed certain fundamental essen
tials al the starting posths life his liberty and
the pursuit Of happiness in mis- own way so long
as he respects the corresponding rights OF others
Beyond that il is fair field and 10 favor, and
from the very moment of the equal start some
draw ahead and others lag behind The equality
has disappeared like the morning mist; the in
equality that lasts to the end, and is greater
here than anywhere else in the world is the in
spring fruitage of those blessed republican in
stitutions under which no man can be too low
to rise 10 the top. if he is fit for it.
But the delusion of equality remains and pol
sons The laggard declares he is just good
the that has outstripped him, and that
he is the victim Of a mOnstrOus injustice in being
left behind. The spendthrift finds il iniquitous,
since one man is good another. that he
should be poor and needy, while the frugal and
careful neighbor that started equal level
with him is free from want. The idler swaggers
up TO his employer with the declaration that,
since one man IS as good as another, II is i'm
position TO pay him any less than the industrious
workman at his side, and that he viii prove and
maintain II by logic you can't resist. One man
Is good another. and therefore il is such an
outrage TO deprive q OF his merely be
cause he has been thief murderer that
the Governor must pardon him before the ex-
piration Of his term in the pehitentiary. in order
that the cloud his free and independent
American citizenship may be removed and he
may resume his rightful share in the business Of
governing the country.
This temper soon carries The false doctrine of
equality one step further Il comes next that
since one man is just good another, If
the other doesn't think so, he must be made
In fact If he does not agree with the devotees
Of the doctrine at time when they have start
ed out to enforce it their employer,
their associates the community. he will
do well to seek liberty TO earn his living in
land Of despotism-the home of the free is no
place for him and is full Of danger. The Walk
ing Delegate is just about as obliging as the
traditional foreman Of the fire engine who said.
You may paint de machine any color you
please, s'IongS you paint il red You may 60
as you like in this land OF liberty, long
you do what our Union tells you
But let be fair to the laboring man, and
Delegate. This American intolerance OF dissent
( is not confined to the Trades-C nion. The
powerful Trust may be just as exacting and in
tolerant till its demands have once been sue
cessfullv challenged; and it has not times
been bashful about making these demands on
aois1ar1,ras on the courts even on the highest
departments Of the Government and on national
candidates II is thought to be not bashful at
this moment in Wall Street about making them
upon the inevitable candidates Of the party in
power The party machine has been accused or
the same intolerance Of dissent; doctors and
LAWYERS and bankers have small room for the
inconsiderate man who dares differ from what
MOI q thought