The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1904-12-25

Power exercises a great influence
over him who holds IL. A head must
be very we'll balanced not to be dis
turbed BIZ il. The sort Of dementia
which took possession of the Roman
emperors in the time of their world
wide rule, is universal malady whose
symptoms belong to all times. In every
man there sleeps tyrant, awaiting
only favorable occasion for waking.
Now the tyrant is the worst enemy of
authority, because he furnishes Us its
intolerable caricature, whence come q
multitude of social complications, col
liSions and hatreds. Every man who
says to those dependent on him: DO
this because it is my viii and pleas
uTe," does i'll. There is within each
one of us something that invites us 70
resist personal power, and this some
thing is very respectable. For at bot
tom we are equal, and there is no one
who has the right 10 exact obedience
from me because he is he and / am l;
II he does so, his command degrades
me, and / have no right to suffer my
self to be degraded
One must have lived in schools. in
workshops, in the army, in govern
ment offices, he must have closely fol-
lowed the relations between masters
and servants, have observed a little
ever " mere WHeiE the supremacy OF
man exercises itself over man, TO form
any idea of the injury done by those
who use power arrOgantly. OF every
free soul they make q slave soul, which
is to say the soul of rebel And it
appears that this result, with its social
disaster, is most certain when he who
commands is least removed from the
station of him who obeys. The most
impiacable tyrant is the tyTant him
self under authority. Foremen and
overseers put more violence into their
dealings than superintendent and en-
pl0yers. The corporal is generally
harsher than the colonel. In certain
families where madam has not much
more education than he rmaid the re-
lations between them are those of the
convict and his warder. And woe
everywhere to him who falls into the
hands Of a subaltern drunk with his
authority,
We forget that the first duty Of him
who exercises power is humility.
HaughtinesS is not authority. 1t is
not we who are the law; the law is
over our heads. We only interpret it.
others. we must first be subject to it
ourselves. To command and to obey
in the society of men, are after all but
forms Of the same virtUe-yolun-
tarY servitude. If you are not obeyed.
il is generally because you have not
yourself Obeyed first
The secret OF moral ascendency rests
with those who rule with simplicity.
They soften by he spirit the harshnesS
of the fact Their authority is not in
shoulder straps, titles or disciplinary
measures. They make use of neither
ferule nor threats. yet they achieve
everything Why? Because we feel
that they are themselves ready for
everything That which cOnfers upon
a man the right TO demand Of another
the sacrifice of his time, his money.
his passions; even his life, is not only
that he is resolved UpoI, all these sac
rifces himself. but that he has made
them in advance. In the command OF
a man animated by this spirit Of re
nuuciation, there is mysterious force
which communicates itself 20 him who
is to obey, and helps him do his duty
IN all the provinces of human activ-
ity there are chiefs who inspire.
strengthen, magnetic their soldiers;
under their direction the troops Go
prodigies. With them one feels him
self capable Of amy effort ready to go
through fire. as the saying has 1t; and
if he goes. il is with enthusiasm.