The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-09-07

power of governing themselves and
thereby OF governing their state; and in
no way has this loss Of power been so
often and so clearly shown as iU the
tendency to turn the government into. a
government primarily for the benefit of
one class instead of government for
the benefit of the people as whole.
Again and again in the republics of
ancient Greece. in those of medieval
Italy and medieval Flanders, this ten
dency was shown, and wherever the
tendency became a habit it invariably
and inevitably proved fatal TO the state.
In the final result it mattered not one
whit whether stfleznaeVenent was in ia
Vor of one class or Of another. The out
come was equally fatal whether the
country fell into the hands of a wealthy
oligarchy which exploited the poor or
whether it fell under the domination of
a turbulent mob which plundered the
rich. In both cases there resulted Vio-
lent alterations 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 mOmentarily been de-
feated. 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.
The reason why our future Is assured
lies in the fact that our people are
genuinely skilled in and fitted Tor self
government and therefore will spurn the
leadership of those who seek to excite
this ferocious and foolish class antagon-
ism. The average American knows not
only that he himself intends to do about
what is right, but that his average fell
low cOuntrynan has the same intention
/ and the same power to make his inten-
ton effective. He knows, whether he
be business man, Professional man.
farmer, mechanic, employer, or wage
worker that the welfare 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 fundamentally 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 a wholesome mind. He there
! fore feels an equal ScOrn alike for the
man of wealth guilty of the mean and
base spirit of arrogance toward those
I who are less well eff. 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 opposite
sides of the same shield, but different
! developments of the same spirit. F'unda-
mentally, the INSCRIPTIONS rich man
/ who seeks to exploit and Cypress those
who are less well off is in spirit not OBJ
posed to, but identical with, the I'M
ScrupulouS poor man who desires to
/ plumber and Cypress those who are bet
ter off The cOurtier and the dema-
gogue are but developments of the same
type under different conditions, each
manifesting the same servile spirit. the
same desire to rise by pandering to base
passions; though one panders to power
! in the shane of a single man and the
other to power in the shape of multi
tude. So likewise the man. who wishes
4 to rise by wronging others must by
/ right be contrasted, not with the man
who likewise wishes to do wrong, though
to different set of people, but with the
man who wishes to do justice to all peo-
pie and to wrong none.
The line of cleavage between good
and bad citizenship lies. not between
| the man of wealth who acts squarely
by his fellows and the man who seeks
each days wage by that days work.
/ his neighbor; nor yet does this line of
| cleavage divide the unScrupulOus
wealthy man who exploits others in his
own interest. from the demagogue. or
from the sullen and envious being who
wishes to attack all men of property,
whether they do well or i'll On the con-
trary, the line of cleavage between
separates 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 division as that
isepara ting one class from another, one
locality from another. or men with e
certain degree of property from those
of a less degree of property.
The good citizen is the man who
wha tever his wealth or his poverty
lstrives manfully to do his duty to him