The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1903-12-13
The Right 10 Talk.
Memphis Commercial-Appeal.

Suppose President Eliot, of Harvard,
should declare in public address that
John l.. Sullivan was the finest flower of
American citizenship, and that some of
the New England papers should demand
his resignation, could it be justly said
that they were interfering with the right
of free speech? Not at all. They would
be objecting, not to President Eliotts
right to hold such an opinion, but to the
opinion itself They would say that this
is an utterly absurd utterance, and that
the man holding such view is a fool,
and fool has no business at the head OF
n great university. Or suppose that the
president of Yale should write a paper for
the North American Review in which he
declared that jefferson Davis was the
greatest statesman this country had ever
produced? Could we blame the people of
New England if they objected to having
,heir sons taught such a view? Much as
we Of the South admire the dead chief of
the Southern Confederacy, we could not
expect the people of the North to accept
such doctrine: and we know that if any
Northern professor should make It, his
resignation would be Immediately demand
ed.
The question of free speech is not in
volved in such matter. When Prof. Bas-
sett declared Booker Washington to be
the greatest American except one in
hundred years, he did not state fact,
and no honest man North or South can
say that ii is q fact. Indeed IL was an
utterly absurd statement. 1t seems to us
that it is incumbent upon our professors
no matter from what section of the coun-
try they come to talk sense when they
talk and not to offend grossly and gra-
tultously the prevailing public sentiment
Of their own sections. A minister of the
gospel has perfect right to tell his con
gregation that Bob. Ingersoll was Chris
tian gentleman, but he need not be aston
ished If his congregation should prefer
somebody else IN the pulpit.
A Southern editor would have a per
feet right to depreciate the people of his
own section and exalt those of New Eng
land, but it would be nothing more than
human if his subscribers should discon-
tinue their paper, and he should find that
he was editing a newspaper In the wrong
section. So too, the American editor who
is always against America and for Europe
Is not entitled to prosper at the hands OF
ances and actions have a great deal %
do with the position he occupies. If he
gets drunk every night and spends some
of his time in gambling, he is not apt TO
be retained long in any position of trust
II he proves himself batherskite. he
will soon cease to be available as the
spokesman of a respectable community on
important occasions The DOCTOR will
l..
clan. The preacher who has a passion
for ward politics is looked upon as a
PARADOX.
Speech is free in this country, but all
of us have the right to approve or dis.
approve of particular utterauce When
ever a man says anything he must be
prepared to take the consequences of his
own speech. What he says may be true,
but there may have been no sense in his
saying it. He might be absolutely within
the truth if he told woman that she
was ugly. but he would be fool all the
same The sensible man uses the gift OF
speech reasonably. He does not tell every
thing he believes. He may have no re-
ligion at all, but he does not denounce
religion as a fraud TO priest or minister.
He does not rise in the church and take
issue with the preacher on some particular
doctrine. He may not like the dinner set
before him. but he does not tell his host
So The wise man has some regard not
only for the opinions aud habits of others,
but for their prejudices as well. Where
vital principle is involved. and there is
need for a candid expression of opinion,
no true man will temporize, or fail to
make his position clear.
Public men, who wish to be true lead
ers. must have convictions and must when
the time comes. express them; but even
with them IL is not necessary that they
should take up trivial or dead issues and
make themselves noisy over them. 1t is
incumbent on every man to know what to
say and when to say il; for by our words
are We largely judged. Especially is it
imperative that college professor should
guard his tongue so that it viii subtract
nothing from the sum total of human
knowledge. The foolish man is sure to
talk himself out of a job, for we are all
apt to think that the man who talks like
a fool is not going to act like a wise man.
And il is what man says that brings
about his undoing usually, and not his
s,.4 -, . IL &