The Minneapolis journal. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1888-1939, 1903-09-07


between tyranny and disorder, and a final
complete loss Of liberty to all citizens
destruction In the end overtaking the
class which had for the moment been
victorious as well as that which had mo-
mentarily been defeated. The death knell
of the republic had rung as soon as the
active power became lodged in the hands
of those who sought, not to do Justice
to all citizens rich and poor alike but
to stand for one special class and for
Its interests as opposed to the interests
Of others.
Our Future Assured.
The reason why our future is assured
lies In the fact that our people are gen
timely skilled in and fitted for self-govern-
ment and therefore will spurn the leader,
ship OF those who seek to excite this
ferocious and foolish class antagonism
The average American knows not only
that he himself intends to do about what
Is right but that his average fellow coun-
trynan has the same intention and the
same power to make his intention efrec-
tive. He knows, whether he be business
man, professional man, farmer, mechanic,
employer or wage worker, that the well
fare OF each Of these men is bound up
with the welfare Of all the others; that
! each is neighbor to the other. Is actuated
by the same hopes and fears. has funda
mentally the same ideals, and that all
alike have much the same virtues and the
same faults.
Our average fellow citizen is a sane and
healthy man, who believes in decency and
| has wholesome mind. He therefore feels
an equal scorn alike for the man of wealth
guilty of a mean and base spirit Of AFRO
gance toward those who are less we'll off,
and for the man Of small means who in
his turn either feels, or seeks to excite In
| others the feeling Of mean and base envy
for those who are better off. The two
! feelings, envy and arrogance, are but OPP
/ posite sides Of the same shield, but diff
| ferent developments of the same spirit
Fundamentally, the INSCRIPTIONS rich
| man who seeks to exploit and Cypress
| those who are less we'll off Is In spirit not
| opposed to, but Identical with, the un-
scrupulous poor man who desires to plum
der and Cypress those who are better off.
courtier and Demasos Alike.
| The courtier and the demagog are but
Developments of the same type under DIFF
/ ferent conditions, each manifesting the
same servile spirit, the same desire to rise
| by panderirg to base passions; tho one
panders to power in the shape Of q single
| man and the other to power in the shape
Of a multitude. So likewise the man who
| wishes to rise by wronging others must by
right be contrasted, not with the man who
likewise wishes to do wrong, tho to diff :
ferent set Of people, but with the man who
WISHES " w JuSLiCS W Oil pSOplS dllo u
| wrong none.
The line of cleavage between good and
bad citizenship lies, not between the man
Of wealth who acts squarely lby hts fell
lows and the man who seeks each days
wage by that days work, wronging no one
and doing his duty by his neighbor; nor
yet does this line OF cleavage divide the
INSCRIPTIONS wealthy man who exploits
I others in his own interest, from the
der1agog, or from the sullen and envious
being who wishes to attack all men Of
property, whether they do we'll or ill., On
the contrary, the line of cleavage between
| good citizenship and bad citizenship sepa-
rates the rich man who does well from the
rich man who does i'll, the poor man of
(good conduct from the poor man OF bad
conduct. This line,. Of cleavage lies at
right angles to any such arbitrary line of
Edivisfon as that separating one class from
another, one locality from another. or
men with a certain degree Of property
from those of a less degree of property.
| Qualities Of Good Citizen.
The good citizen Is the man who, what
| ever his wealth or his poverty, strives
| manfully to do his duty to himself, to his
family, to his neighbor, to the state; who
! is inca pable of the baseness which mani
! tests itself either in arrogance or in envey,
but who while demanding justice for HIM
self is no less scrupulous to do justice to
| others. It is because the average Amer
| lean citizen, rich or poor, is Of just this
| type that we have cause for our profound
| faith in the future Of the republic.
t Ours is a government of liberty, by,
| thru, and under the law. .Lawlessness
and connivance at law-breaking- whether
the law breaking take the form of crime
| Of greed and cunning >of crime Of
violence-are destructive not only Of Or
der, but of the true liberties which can
/ only come thru order. If alive to their
| true interests rich and poor alike will
set their faces like flint against the spirit
| which seeks personal advantage by over
| riding the laws. without regard to whether
| this spirit shows itself in the form Of
bodily violence by one set Of men or In
| the form Of vulpine cunning by another
| set of men.
Let the watchwords of all our people
| be the old familiar watchwords Of honesty,
| decency, fair dealing and common sense.
The qualities denoted by these words are
| essential to all of rs, as we deal with the
! complex Industrial problems Of to-day, the
| problems affecting not merely the @aceum
ulation but even more the wise distri-
! button of wealth.. We ask no mans per-
mission when we require him to obey the
law; neither the permission of the poor
naan nor yet Of the rich man. Least Of
all can the man of great wealth afford to
break the law. even for his own financial
| advantage; for the law Is his prop and
support, and 1t Is both foolish and pro-
foundry unpatriotfc for him to fail in Civ
ing hearty support to those who show
that there is In very fact one law. and
one law only, alike for the rich and the
poor, for the great and the small.
Men sincerely interested in the due pro-
lection Of property. and men sincerely in
terested in seeing that the just rights of
labor are guaranteed, should alike remem-
Der not only that In the long run neither
the capitalist nor the wage-worker can
be helped in healthy fashion save by help
| ing the other; but also that to require
I either side to obey the law and do its full
duty toward the community is emphatic
| ally to that sides real interest.
Mob Violence Depfored.
There is no worse enemy OF the wage
worker than the man who condones mob
violence In any shape or who breaches
class hatred; and surely the slightest ac-
quaintance with our Industrial history
should teach even the most short-sighted
that the times of most suffering for our
people as q whole, the times when bust
ness Is stagnant, and capital suffers from
sfrinkage and gets no. return from It's
investments, are exactly the times 81
hardship and want and grim disaster
among the poor. II all the existing instrll-
Ementalitfes Of wealth could be abolished
the first and severest suffering would come
among those OF US who are least well of
lat present. The wage-w worker is we'll off
only when the rest of the country Isl wei
off; and he can best contribute to this
general we'll being by showing sanity anc
fa ffru1 purpose to do justice to others
ryo xyyysxr f$orffe