The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1905-01-04
tCopwtsh 1905 hyJ. S. 0giiotc Pub. Co.
wy SVcSO Yors. ifb

More malevolent than pride inspirsG
by wealth, is that inspired by power
and by power / mean here all power
which one man may have over anoth
er, whether 1t is great or little. | Sc
no way of avoiding that there shpul
be men in the world unequally power
full All organization supposes a hier.
archy of forces. We can never go
beyond that. But I fear that IL tho
taste for power is very widely spread
the spirit of power will be lost BY
understanding 1t badly and by misus
ing it, those who hold any parcel of
authority almost everywhere end by
compromising it. 70
Power exercises q powerful influ
ence over him who holds it. 1t needs
a strong hand not to betroubled by it.
This sort of dementia, which claimed
the Roman empeTorJ in the days OF
their despotic power, is a universal
malady, whose symptoms have exist
ed in all ages. A tyrant sleeps in ev-
cry man, and only waits propitious
occasion to awaken. Now this tyrant
is the worst enemy of authority, be-
cause he furnishes us an intolerable
caricature of it. From there come a
multitude of social complications, fric-
tions and hatreds. All men who have
said, "You will do this because 1t is
my will" or better, because it is my
good pleasure, do evil work. There
is something in each of us which in
yites us to resist personal power, and
this something is very respectable.
For at bottom we are equal, and there
is no person who has the right to eX-
lct obedience of me because he is he,
md | am l. In this case. his COM
nand aliases me and 1t Is not permit
ed to let ones self be abased
One must have lived in schools,
,tudios, in the administration of pub
iic Offices, to have followed closely
The relations between men and SER
Jants; to have stopped a little every
where where the supremacy of man
5 exercised over man, to have an
lea of what those do who practice
heir power with arrogance. OF ev-
3ry free soul they make soul en-
laved, that is to say, soul in re-
ot. And it seems that this terrible
lnti-social effect is more surely pro
luced when he who commands is near
he condition of the one who obeys.
rhe most implacable tyrant is tho
mall tyrant. A foreman in a york
hop, or an overseepJ puts more feroC.
ty in his Surroundings that the direcs
or or the owner. Such corporal is
larder on his soldiers than the colo
vol nartain bp,tcna mharo mo
lame has not much more education
lhan her maid, the relations between
hem are like those between a galley.
lave and his guard. Everywhere woe
o whoever falls into the hands of a
subaltern, drunk with his authority.
We forget too much that the first
luty of whoever exercises power is .hu-
mility. Grandeur is not the authori.
ty. 1t is not We who are the law. The
law is above all heads. We intepret
1t only; but to make it valuable in the
eyes of others we must first be sub
missive to IL ourselves. Commandment
and obedience in human society are,
after all, but two forms of the same
virtue, voluntary servitude. The most
Of the time we are not obeyed because
we have not obeyed first.
The secret OF moral ascendancy be-
longs to those who command with
simplicity. They soften by the mind
he hardness of the fact Their power
IS not in gold lace, nor in the title, nor
in disciplinary measures They do
not require ferule or threats, and yet
they obtain everything. Why? Be-
cause each one feels that he is, him
self, willing to do anything. That
which confers on one man the right to
ask sacrifice of another man-his
Jime, his money, his passions, AMI
even his life-is that not only is he
re olved to make all those sacrifices
himself, but he has inwardly made
them in advance. In the order which
is given by man animated by this
spirit there is. know not what power,
which is communicated to him who
should obey, and aids him to do his
duty.
In all the walks of human activity
there are chiefs who inspire, sustain,
electrify their soldiers. Under their
direction troop does prodigies. They
feel capable with them of all efforts,
ready to go through fire, according to
the popular expression, and with en-.
thusiasm they would pass through 1t.
-
But there are not only the prides
of the great; there are also the prides
Of the small ones. that low morgue
which Is the worthy pendant OF the
higher one. The root of these two
prides is Identical The man who
says, "the law is me-" is not only that
arrogant and imperious being who
provokes insurrection by his attitude
alone 1t is still the subaltern, whose
wooden head will not admit that there
is anything above him
There are positively quantity of
pe ople whom all superiority irritates.
For them all advice is an offence; all
criticism an imposture all orders an
attempt on their liberty They will
not accept any rules; to respect any
thing or any one seems to them like