The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1904-05-07
ARE AMERICANS CowARDs?

President Eliot of Harvard, address,
ing st. Louis alumni of Harvard re-
Gently, said that he was forced to be-
lieve that the American people were
coward1y in that so few of them dare
to stand against the crowd; and he
said that he had been surprised of late
to find what timidity there was among
American business men, having in
mind, no doubt, their supineness in the
face of the demands of the trades
unionists, says an editorial writer in
Harper's Weekly.
This is no new charge against us as
a people. The tyranny of public opin-
ion and it's overriding of individuals is
something that impressed Lowell in
1860 when he wrote to Charles Nord-
hoff that 1T was time to take the
height of the sun of righteousness =
and to quit running by dead-reckoning,
and he added, as it the effect of de-
moeracy to make all our public men
towards? An ounce of pluck now
were worth a kings ransom" year
later the war broke out, which reveal
ed the men of the north and of the
south as men of courage physical and
moral It was a purging process that
revived the national health.
Wendell Phillips, diagnosing the eff
feet of democracy upon individual
character, contended that entire equal
ity and freedom IN political forms al
most invariably tend to make the in
dividuaI subside into the mass and
lose his identity in the general whole.
In a country like ours :.
public opinion is not only omnipotent,
it is omnipresent. There is no refuge
from its tyranny, there is no hiding
from its reach: and the result is that
if you take the old Greek lantern and
go about to seek among hundred,
you will not find one single American
who does not fancy at least that he
has something to gain or lose in his
ambition, his social life, or his bust
ness, from the good opinion and votes
of those around him. And the conse-
quence is that instead of being mass
of individuals, each one fearlessly
hurting out his own convictions, as
nation, compared to other nations, we
are a mass of towards. More than all
other people, we are afraid of each
other"
Phillips attributed what he thought
he saw to a desire for appreciation
characteristic of Americans, their de-
kind; and Charles Follen, who came
from Germany and taught at Harvard,
told Harriet Martineau in 1887 that
our moss striking national character
istics were deficiency of individual
moral independence and extraordi-
nary mutual respect and kindness.
Here the two things are related, in the
order of effect and cause: we are SO
eager to be on good terms with all
men that we betray our ideals. We
love peace more than we do the right
Emerson contended that "all the
American geniuses lacked nerve and
dagger" and Mr.. J. J. Chapman has
pointed out how initiative and secon-
dairy all of LoweIls work over his own
name was, compared with the work
he did anonymously in which the
dagger cleaned.
Viewed from one standpoint, what
the country most needs now is a great
issue which will compel men to take
sides, which will cause brother to be
arrayed against brother, class against
class, section against section. Then
would poets sing again, preachers
emerge of national and international
repute, oratory emerge from the con-
versationaI type to the inhammatory
and persuasive sort, and great Htera-
tuEe be born.
We are living now on the neutral,
commonplace stage of undue regard
for each others feelings. Magma
nirnity, which, it has been said by Mr..
Charles Francis Adams, that we love
above all things else, has -verged on
pusilIaninaity. For lack of fearless
speech, resoIute action, and positive
programmes. our political parties, our
churches, our literature are suffering,
and with them our national character.
'tAn American explorer. an American
settler in new lands, an American man
of business pushing a great enterprise.
is a being as bold and resourceful as
the world has ever seen" says Mr.
Bryce, and he speaks with authority.
But Americans as statesmen think
ers, preachers, educators, are they
equally bold and resourceful?