Danville intelligencer. [volume] (Danville, Pa.) 1859-1907, 1905-12-08
LET US BE
REASONABLE.

n UST now there is a strong ten
u dency to overdo the crusade
against all forms of grating and
crookedness by making it appear that
the official and business life of the
country is rotten to the core. Un-
supported statements are accepted as
indisputable facts and suspicion is
aroused where none is justified.
Discussing this feature of the re-
form wave which is sweeping over the
country the Washington Post suggests
that we run to extremes in every
thing we do. Whatever absorbs our
attention for the moment is about the.
only thing in the world worth think
ing about; if we take sides in any
controversy, we are sure to overdo it,
as we did in our japanese partisan.
ship during the late war, and if we
are against anybody, they Immediate
ly become the offscouring of the
earth.
1t should in fairness be said that
we are equally hasty and unbalanced
ir our judgement of ourselves,
whether favorable or disparaging. In
some moods, and along certain lines,
and they are not Il few, we are the
most cocksure dogmatists and the
most expansive and unblushing brag-
gadocios that walk; on the other hand,
we sometimes paint ourselves in such
black colors that the fate Of Sodom
and Gomorrah might well be looked
for to full upon us inconsistently.
Since the recent disclosures of
rapacity, dishonesty, and official un-
faithfulness, continues the Post, we
have been indulging to the full in one
of these black periods, representing
ourselves day after day TO all man
kind as the basest and most un-
worthy of people. We would by no
means detract from the seriousness of
these disclosures, or assume that
considerable degree of national heart
searching and works meet unto re-
pentance would not be becoming and
and salutary; but we deny and resent
the assertion that is being constantly
made, and which many here and
abroad are coming to believe, that we
are corrupt from center to circumfer
ence; that no one any longer is hon
est, and that civic virtue has taken
its flight from our midst. We de-
cline even to join in the insincere con-
fession that "there is no health in
us" If that were indeed the case,
we might well despair, for we should
have nothing to build on.
The fact is, and study of any
period of our history will confirm the
statement, that relatively to our pop
ulation and wealth, and to the num-
Der and magnitude of the business
transactions that daily take place
among us, there never was a time
when there was as much health in us,
or so much honor and civic virtue, as
there is today. Nor should it be
forgotten that temptations of our
times are vastly greater in degree and
in number than at any previous per-
iod, and that vigilant and omni-
present press drags to light and
spreads abroad everywhere with too
much and too sensational exploitation
of detail, everything discreditable that
takes place. In earlier days such
things were much less often made
known and were not spread abroad
and talked of and written about as
now, and there can be no doubt that
we have gone too far in that direction.
Not that all wrong-doing should not
be uncovered and ventilated, but it
need not be dwelt on and magnitied
till every one comes to doubt his
neighbor, and wonder whether his
own good purposes are not mere fig
ments of a transcendential and wholly
impractical Imagination, which, if ad-
hered to, will leave him behind in the
race.
1t is also greatly to be deplored
that denunciation and depreciation of
our public men has become so undis-
eliminating and universal. A man
is very likely to become after a while
what every one says he is, and if he
is continually told that he is q thief,
and led to suppose that every one be-
lieves it, it is not to be wondered at
if he becomes one. Public men are
in no wise different from men in priv
ate life, and, like them, are not in
frequently untrustworthy and dis
honest; but take Congress as a whole,
they are upright, honorable men, and
conscientious in their performances of
duty.
The body polite is like an indivi-
dual. His health varies with his sur
roundings and occupation, and is
better at some times than at others.
Sometimes he is so absorbed in his
pursuits that he grows careless of it,
and suddenly finds that he must pull
himself up and mend his ways OF
life. That is just our condition now.
In period of vast expansion and in
creasing wealth we have neglected the
ordinary rules of moral hygiene, but
are coming to realize it, and amend
ment will speedily follow. An indi.
vidual who finds himself afflicted with
boils, which indicate coming out Of
the bad humors of the system, pre-
paratory to renewed healthy condi-
tions, would not go about proclaiming
that he was diseased through and
through and in hopeless condition,
but that is just what, as people, we
have been doing, and it is time to
stop it.
Every one must expect to be taken
largely at his own valuation, and if
We. continue to write ourselves down