Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1905-10-30

est, law-honest and dishonest Against
this casuistry of the contingencies
and of the law Office, against this sub
terfuge and deceit, real character will
stand like d rock. This university,
and ali universities, in season and out
Of season, must keep clearly in view
before themselves and the public the
real meaning Of character; and they
must never tire of preaching that
character alone makes knowledge,
skill and wealth help rather than
harm to those who possess them and
to the community as a whole"
1t is only another, but more force
full, portrayal of that moral oblique-
ness" which the Frick committee was
first to point out. Hardly a day passes
that does not reveal some new victim
of the faint heretofore considered i'm
mune. And each fresh shock to the
publics moral sense gives our cynics
another opportunity to exploit their
conviction that virtue has gone out of
fashion, that every man "has his
price, that our whole commercial sys-
tenn is rotten from turret to founda-
tombstone.
1t is not, of course. For it stands
and fourishes and progresses-wh
it could not, were there inherent and
fundamental defects in the structure.
But it has somehow happened that the
sciolicts and the moral weddings in
many of the higher walks of business
and politics have elbowed and wormed
themselves into the foreground and,
in the stolen liveries of giants, have
managed to awe ali unthinkig public
into respect and admiration, if not
obeisance. They may have their little
day, but they must finally give way to
the moral forces that rule the world
Perhaps we have all been living and
working and thinking at too short
rage, where the senses are despotic
Our educators and commercial and
political leaders will all do well to
measure themselves and discover how
far away they may have got from the
fundamental moral principle whose
lack President Butler has brought so
Sharply to view. That character
whose need he so emphasizes has not
been lost or destroyed. 1t is largely
a latent power-once described as "a
reserved force that acts directly by
presence, and without means" 1t can
be trusted to reassert itself every
where. Men of character are all
about us. They have not been quite
bowed out of the world by the sha
low pretenders. Their influence and
their victories are by demonstration
of superiority, and not by the crossing
of swords. Iole knew that Hercules
was a god because he did not wait
for contest; he conquered whether r
stood or walked or sat" And the NOR
all giants OF businessdom will all be so
recognized sooner or later.
In the present circumstances, says
President Butler, it requires some
courage to follow Emerson's advice
mot to bark against the bad, but
rather to chant the beauty OF the
good which easily suggests "the
sage's" impersonation of Character,
the building of which the head of Col
umbia breaches:
The sun set; but set not his hope:
Stars rose; his faith was earlier up:
Fixed on the enormous galaxy
Deepet and older seemed his eye:
And match his sufferance sublime
The taciturnity Of time
He spoke, and words more soft than
rain
Brought the Age of Gold again;
His action won such reverence
sweet
AS hid all measure of the feat.
We rn11ct haun fn ond r,ntioroo