The Washington times., 1905-07-16
he Bous of 1905.

Senator Beveridge proffers the
youth of America square meal Oh
good advice in one of the weekllcs
under tie heading: The Young Man
in the World" Every sentence in
the article is full of meat. Every
thing the brilliant young statesman
has to say is worth the saying. But
the best thing he says Is this:
mans first opportunit,- in life and the
greatest opportunity he will ever have
That father has made lots of mistakes
IN his life: but you will never MAKE the
mistakes he made if you will listen to
him. Re has made many successes in
l:fe; but his successes are only the
a@orDs 20 the oaks OF your deeds,1f you
will bat take his words as seed for your
future enterprises.
No advice ever given in the world
rang SO true or reflected so complete
a union of deep affection and worldly
wisdom as that the average American
father gives his boy. He loves his
son with the same force that makes
him the best productive business
man on the globe, and the experience
upon which this love draws for the
material of his advice is a wonderful
mixture of the sharpest Yankee
shrewdness, the most powerful Ell
ergy, and the purest idealism. And
the voice In which this advice is ex-
pressed invariably takes on strange,
suppressed tone Of pleading as the
grown-up boy recalls the excellent
advice he had in his turn and reflects
upon the easy Indifference with which
he neglected it
Senator Beveridge has done his task
well. But, with all Difference, 1t is
appropriate to suggest that the mod
ern American youth is equipped with
a training in character his sterling
father knows little of. OF the two
he bids fair TO become the stronger
man-and the better man.
Of course this is heterodoxy There
is no character like the old cnarac-
ter; and thirty years ago there was
no character like that of the genera
ton just gone; and thirty years be-
fore that fathers told the same story
of stronger characters all passed
away. This is Orthodoxy-it is also
moonshine
AS the world has grown older it's
men have grown better Today's
generation is nearer a practical ideal
ism than any that has ever gone
before. Tomorrow's will be nearer
still. The only Americans who 90
not understand this are those so oc-
cupied with the marsh grasses or
graft in the foreground that they can
not see the fair landscape sweeping
| before their eyes in the perspective.
Thirty years ago there was graft
in America that makes the Postoffice
| frauds and the Land Office frauds,
| and the scandals in the Senate lock
like little potatoes. Thirty years ago
4, these things were arrested, not by an
aroused public conscience, but by the
| tardy activities of few officials
And the grafters escaped. Who was
| punished for the star route frauds
! Who answered for the open lawless-
ness of the Union Pacific lobby? Who
went to Jail for Black Friday? No
| body.
But this generation is awake II
/ is discovering and prosecuting both
And the chief difference in the spirit
of the two campaigns against graft
| is this: In the one case the middle
aged and the young either did not
know or did not care; and in the
other the middle-aged and the young
rot only care but know accurately
Many things have contributed tc
this advance-the public schools
chiefly, and modern means of com
! munication secondarily But the
causes, whatever they have been
| cannot contradict the result These
boys to whom Senator Beveridg'
! writes have an equipment III al
activity of conscience and an adjust
ment of their standards of business
conduct TO the standards of their per
sonal professions which their father.
had tn do without