The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1904-02-04

exactly the kind of thinking that a
hundred years ago In France caused
many a man of good intentions to lose
his head, first in the general tumult
and afterward by the guillotine: exact
ly the same kind of thinking that re-
volted against absolutism under Louis
XVI, only to fall under the absolutism,
first of Mirabeau, then of Robespierre
and then of Napoleon; exactly the
kind of thinking that in it's hatred of
royalty beheaded a king, and then in
almost the same breath voted more
thar a thousand to one to place a
military despot upon an imperial
throne.
Still more. Here are books by the
hundred and leaflets and pamphlets
and papers by the thousand sent all
over the land disseminating the opin-
ion n the feeling that justice is to
be had in our courts only by purchase;
this and similar opinions. Are they
read? Yes. and more. They are fed
upon and brooded upon and passed on
" Tic UclSuDOI leu uDOu Ill
upon by the earnest and sincere man
az well as by the agitator and the sui
len malcontent.
Men of good intentions? Yes. many
of them, but We are to bear in mind
that good intentions are not an insur-
ance policy against evil consequences.
Good intentions. as a rule. are back OF
the manufacture Of nitro-glycerin. but
its sensitiveness and destructive pow
er are none the less for that reason.
It explodes Just as readily from the
careless touch Of good intentions as
/ from the %concussion of calculating dew
iltry. and the destruction is inst as
widespread and Just as complete. A
hundred years ago rivers of blood ran
In the streets of Paris and elsewhere
In France and no n thing had con-
tributed to this red flood more than
good Intentions: good intentions ex-
pressed in isms apparently. but that
nevertheless led to anarchy and the
Reign of Terror. And the nitro-glyc-
erin In this case Is the way men are
feeling and thinking.
Silent Forces at Work.
This suggests the silent forces at
work.: forces subtle but potent: forces
as insidious as malaria and as silent
In their activity as thought itself. for
just as certainly and as silently as the
twilight of evening steals upon the
MONDAY to turn it into night, just so
do these pernicious beliefs steal into
the thoughts of men to darken them.
and as certainly as these things creep
into the thoughts of men just that GER
tainly do they steal away the minds
and hearts from Uncle Sam.
Not strikes. not riots. not lynchings,
not any particular outbreak Or any
particular series of outbreaks that at
tracts general attention: not anarch-
ism or socialism or democratism or
any other particular ism, not any of
these but more: these are but mani
festations of the condition of mind in
which they are conceived and out of
which they are born. but the NANTES
tations are no more the condition
itself than the leaves and the other
drift upon the surface of the stream
are the current itself.
There is a process of nature called
electrolysis. a sort of chemical decom-
position that is said to be eating its
way into the steel-laid foundations of
the majestice buildings that stand in
u large cities as monuments to nine
teenth and twentieth century enter.
prise. If this is true, and nothing is
done to circumvent 1t. then one day
these proud structures will crumble
into ruin and when they go they will
take many a human being with them.
But no man sees electrolysis doing its
deadly work. At the foundations of
this republic lack OF faith in our insti-
buttons and want of respect for them
is the electrolysis that is at work this
day. To what extent no a knows,
but we do know that II is there: we
do know that It is ceaselesslv at work,
and we do know that its in~sidiousness
is more to be feared than the mailed
warriors of all the world.
The Test Of Vitality.
So here in Marion is a typical Amer
lean city: in these particulars a min
iature America; more, a miniature
C~hristendom. Take a map of Europe
and mark where unrest of a similar
sort is most significantly manifest.
The map will soon be covered with
spots. with this qualifcation-if you
take another map and mark where
intelligence is supposed to be most
general, you will find that one map
will serve very well as a substitute for
the other. The little learning that is a
dangerous thing. o may say. and it
is no doubt true that the general diff
fusion of a little knowledge about
many things has done much to quick
en- and to intensity the disquietude
that is in man by nature; just as a
little knowledge prompts many a one
poison in a Plato and at the same time
to reject the antidote that is to be
found in his deeper truths. But take
another map of Europe. This time
mark where flame and sword had dew
astated in the decade ending fifty
years ago.. Again the map is covered
with pencil marks. Now compare the
quarter Of a century Of European his
tory just preceding that decade with
the decade just ended in this country.
There is an analogy to set n to
thinking. Now add these vital facts
that half q century of tranquility IL .
rare thing in the history of nations:
that fifty years of peace are perhaps