The Butte inter mountain., 1903-09-07


little which road is taken. In either case
the same goal is reached. People show
themselves just as unfit for liberty whether
they submit to anarchy or to tyranny and
class government, whether it be the gov
erninent of plutocracy or the govern
ment of mob, is equally incompatible
with the principles established in the days
of Washington and perpetuated in the
days of Lincoln.
To Preserve Power.
"Many qualities are needed by a people
which would preserve the power of self
government in fact as we'll as in name.
Among these qualities are forethought,
shrewdness, self-restraint, the courage
which refuses to abandon ones own rights,
and the disinterestcd 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-yovern-
ment on the one hand and OIL the other,
brutal arrogance. envy, in short, any mani
festation of the spirit of selfish disregard,
whether of ones own duties or of the
rights of others, are equally fatal.
In the history OF mankind many
republics have risen, have nourished
for less or greater time and then
have fallen because the citizens
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 into
government primarily for the benefit
of one class instead of a government
for the benefit of the people as
whole.
In Republics Of Past.
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 habit it invariably
and inevitably proved fatal to the state.
In the final result it mattered not one
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
olgarchy which exploited the poor or
of turbulent mob which pundered 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 rcp,fb-
lie 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.
Why It Is Assured.
The reason why our future is assured
.f.. -
uiney skilled and fitted for self-gov-
ernment and therefore will spnrn the
leadership of those who seek to excite
this ferocions and foolish class antag-
onism. The average American knows
not only that he himself intends to do
about what is right but that his average
fellow-countryman has the same inten-
ton 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 have much the
same virtues and the same faults.
Average Citizen.
"Our average fellow citizen is sane
and healthy man, who believes in decency
and has a 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 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 tie same spirit
| Fundamentally, the INSCRIPTIONS rich man
who seeks to exploit and oppress those
who are less well off in III spirit not op-
posed to, but identical with the unscrupu-
lous poor man who desires to piunder
| and Cypress those who are better Off
| The courter and the demagogue are but
| developments Of the same type under dif-
| fcrcnt conditions, each manifcsting the
same servile spirit, the same desire to rise
| by pandering to base passions; though
| one pandcrs to power in the shape OF
single man and the other to power in the
| shape OF multitude So likewise the
man who wishes to rise by wrongng
others must by right he eontrasted not
| with the man who likewise wishes to do
wrong, though to q different set OF people,
| but with the man who wishes to do JUS
tice to all people and to wrong none.
'Twixt Good and Bad
"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. wronging no one
and doing his duty by his neighbor nor
yet does this line of cleavage divide the
unscrpulous wealthy man who exploits
others in his own interest from the dema-
gogue or from the sullen and cnyious
| 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 ILL., the poor man
of good conduct from the poor man Of bad