New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1905-12-06

longs the substitution of loyalty to a class for
loyalty TO the nation. This inevitably brings
about tendency to treat each man not on MS
merits as individual, but his position as
belonging to a certain class in the community
If such spirit grows up in this Republic II
will ultimately prove fatal to as in the past
1t has proved fatal TO every community in which
1t has become dominant. Unless we continue
TO Keep quick and lively sense of the great
fundamental truth
INDIVIDUAL WORTH that our concern is
OF INDIVIDUAL MAN. with the individual
worth of the in
dividual man. this government cannot perrna-
nently hold the place which it has achieved
among the nations. The vital lines of cleavage
among our people do not correspond, and in
deed run at right angles to, the lines of cleay-
age which divide occupation from occupation
winch divide wage workers from capitalists
farmers from bankers. men of small means
from men of large means, men who live in the
towns from men who live in the country: for
the vital line of cleavage is the line which
divides the honest who tries TO do we'll by
his nefghbof from the dishonest man who's does
Ill by his neighbor In other words. the standard
we should establish is the standard of conduct
not the standard Of occupation, of means. or
of social position. 1t is the mans moral quality
mis- attitude toward the great questions Whleh
concern all humanity, his cleanliness of life, his
power to do his duty toward himself and toward
others which really count; and If we substitute
for the standard Of personal judgment which
treats each man according to his merits, another
standard in accordance with which all men of
one class are favored and all men of another
class Disseminated against. shall do ire
parable damage to the body polite. believe
tnat our people are too sane, too SeIt-reSpectlng
too fit for self government ever to adopt such
an attitude. This government is not and never
shall be government by a plutocracy. This
government Is not and never shall be govern
ment by a mob 1t shall continue to be in the
future what it has been in the past, govern
ment based on the theory that each man, rich
or poor. is to be treated simply and solely OF
his worth as man, that all his personal and
property rights are to be safegUarded, and that
ne is neither to wrong others nor to suffer wrong
from others.
The nobIest of all forms of government is self
government. but it is also the most difficult.
We who possess this priceless boon, and who
desire to hand it on to children and our
chldren's children, should bear in mind
the thought SO finely expressed by Burke: Men
are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion
to their disposition to put moral chains upon
their own appetites; in proportion as they
disposed to listen to the counseIs Of the wise
and good in preference to the hattery of knaves
Society can not exist unless controlling power
upon Will and appetite be placed somewhere, and
the less of It there be within the more there
must be without. It is ordained in the eternal
constitution of things that of Incorporate
minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their
fetIers