The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1903-09-08
President Urges Business Man, Farmer
and LGbOrer to LUOrk Together fOrI
the Common Good of I'LL Classes

, free institutions are Of avail only to people
who possess the high and peculiar Characters
tons. The century that has just closed has
witnessed many and lamentable instances in
which people have seized government free In
form, or have had II bestowed upon them, and
yet have permitted it under the forms Of lib
erty TO become some species Of despotism or
anarchy. because they did not have in them the
power to make this seeming liberty one OF deed
instead Of one merely of word. Under such
circumstances the seeming liberty may be sup
planted by tyranny despotism in the first
place, or it may reach the road OF despotism
by the path of license and anarchy. 1t matters
but little which road Is taken. In either case
the same goal Is reached People show them
selves just as unfit for liberty whether they
government whether ii be the government OF
d plutocracy or the government of a mob, is
equally incompatible with the principles es-
| tablished in the days of Washington and per-
petuated in the days Of Lincoln.
Many qualities needed by people which
would preserve the power of self-government IN
ties are forethought. shrewdness, self-restraint
the courage which refuses to abandon one s
own rights and the disinterested and kindly
good sense which enables one to do Justice to
the rights OF others. Lack of strength and lack
OF courage unfit men for self government on the
one hand; and on the other brutal arrogance
envy in short, any manifestation of the spirit
OF selfish disregard whether Of ones own
duties or of the rights of others, are equally
fatal
DANGER IN CLASS RULE.
In the history Of mankind many republics
have risen, have hourished for less or greater
time, and then have fallen because their citi-
zens lost the 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 in the tendency to
turn the government in government primarily
1or the Dehent or one class instead OF d gov
eminent for the benefit Of the people as a
whole.
Again and again in the republics Of ancient
Greece in those Of medieval Italy and me-
shown
and wherever the tendency became n habit it
Invariably and inevitably proved fatal to the
whit whether the movement was in favor of
one class or Of another The outcome was
equally fatal, whether the country fell into the
hands of wealthy oligarchy when exploited
the poor or whether it fell under the DONNA
ton of a turbulent mob which plundered the
rich. In both cases there resulted violent al
formations between tyranny and disorder, ana
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
ir 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 It's In
terests as opposed to the interests OF others.
The why future is assured lies
in the fact that people are genuinely
skilled in and fitted for self-government and
therefore will spurn the leadership 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 rlght
the same intention and the same power TO
make his intention 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 nave mucn
the same virtues and the same faults. Our
average fellow-cltizen Is 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
the mean and base spirit of arrogance toward
those who are less well off. and for the man
OF email means who in his turn either feels
or seeks to excite In others the feeling of
of. The two feelings. envy and arrogance,
but opposite sides of the same shield. but
different. developments Of the same spirit.
Fundamentally the unscrupulous rich man
are. less we'll off is in spirit not opposed to.
but identical with, the INSCRIPTIONS poor man
who desires to plumber and Cypress those who
are better 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 shape of single man
and the other to power in the shape OF null
titude. So likewise the man who wishes to
trasted not with the man who likewise wishes
to do wrong though to different set of peo-
pie. but with the who wishes to do JUS
tice TO all people and to wrong none.
GOOD AND BAD CITIZENSHIP.
The line Of cleavage between good and bad
citizenship lies, not between the man of
wealth who acts sQuarely by his fellows and