The Washington times., 1906-04-14
CONTINUED from First Page.)

NCOhtAA0CQ AAOAAA II 1AS~ ot7S-f
lieve in the truth of the attack nor in
the honesty OF the man who is attack
ed; they grow as suspicious of the ac-
cusation as OF the offense; It becomes
well-nigh hopeless to stir them either
10 wrath against wrongdoing or to en-
| thusiasm for what is right. and such
mental attitude In the public gives hope
TO every knave. and is the despaL. Of
honest men.
To assail the great and admitted evils
! of our political and Industrial life with
such crude and sweeping generalizations
as to include decent men in the general
condemnation means the soaring OF the
public conscience. There results a gen.
eraI attitude either of cynical belief in
and Indifference to public corruption or
else of a distrustful inability to discrim-
mate between the good and the bad.
Either attitude is fraught with untold
damage to the country as a whole
The fool who has not sense to dIscrimi-
nate between what is good and what Is
bad Is well-nigh as dangerous as the
man who does discriminate and vet
chooses the bad. There Is nothing
more distressing to every good patriot,
to every good American, than the
hard, scoffing spirit which treats, the
allegation of dishonesty in a public man
as cause for laughter. Such laughter
Is worse than the cracking of thorns
under a pot. for 1t denotes not merely
the vacant mind but the heart in which
hign emotions have been choked before
they could grow 10 fruition
Great Forces for Good.
world. and there never was time when
loftier and more aisinterested work for
the betterment of mankind was being
done than now. The forces that tend for
evil are great and terrible. but the
| forces Of truth and love and courage
and honesty and generosity and sym
pathy are also stronger than ever before.
1t is a foolish ana timid no less than a
| wicked thing TO blink the fact that the
forces of evil are strong. but it is even
worse TO fail TO take into account the
strength of the forces that tell for good
I Hysterical sensationahsm is the very
poorest weapon wherewith TO fight for
lasting righteousness
The men who with stern sobriety and
truth ASSAY the many evils Of our time.
whether in the public press. or in maya
zines. or in books. are the leaders and
allies of all engaged in the work for so
cial and political betterment- But if
| they give good reason for distrust OF
what they say, II they chill the ardor
| of those who demand truth as a pri-
mary virtue. they thereby betray the
good cause. and play into the hands OF
the very men against whom they are
nominally at war
In his ecclesiastical pOlity that fine
old Elizabethan divine. Bishop Hooker,
wrote:
He that goeth about to persuade a
multitude that they are not so well gov
erned as they ought to be, shall never
want attentive and favorable hearers
because they know the manifold defects
whereunto every kind of regimen is sub
ject. but the secret lets and difficulties.
which in public proceedings are innum-
cradle and inevitable. they have not or
dinarily the judgment to consider"
This truth should be kept constantly
IN mind by every free people desiring
10 preserve the sanity and poise indis-
pensable TO the k~-manent success of
self-Government. Yet. on the other hand.
1t Is vital not 10 permit this spirit Of
sanity and self-command TO degenerate
/ into mere mental stagnation. Bad
| though state. of hysterical excitement
is, and evil though the results are
| WHICH, COiLo lIOn flne NlOle0l OSClila-
/ uons such excitement invariably pro-
/ duces, yet a sOdden acQuiescence in
| evil Is even worse.
Present a Period of Unrest.
At this moment we are passing
through period OF great unrest-social,
political. and industrial unrest.
IL is Of the utmost Importance for our
| future that this should prove to be not
the unrest of mere rebeliiousness
against life. OF mere dissatisfaction with
the inevitable inequality of conditions,
but the unrest OF a resolute and eager
ambition to secure the betterment OF
the individual and the nation. So -er
as this movement Of agitation through
out the country takes the form of a
fierce discomfort with evil, OF a deter
mination to punish the authors of evil,
whether in industry or politics. the feel
ing is to be heartily welcomed as a
sign of healthy life.
If. on the other hand. It turns into a
mere crusade of appetite against ap-
petite, OF a contest between the brutal
greed of the "have-nots'' and the brutal
greed OF the "haves," then IL has no
siSniticance for good. but only for evil
| age. not along the line which divides
gooo men from bad, but along that
other line, running at right angles
thereto. which divides those who are
| well OF from those who are less well
! OF, then II will be fraught with i'm
I measurable harm to the body polite
| We can no more and no less AFFORD to
cOndone evil in the man of capital than
evil in the man of no capital
The wealthy man who exults because
| there is failure of justice in the ef-
fort TO bring some trust nlagnate to an
account for his misdeeds is as bad as.
and no worse than. the so-caIled labor
leader who clamorously strives to ex-
cite foul class feeling on behalf OF
some other labor leader who is impli-
| Gated In murder. One attitude Is as
bad as the other. and no worse; in each
case the accused is entitled to exact
Justice; and in neither case is there
need of action by others which can be
construed into an expression OF SYM
pathy for crime.
II is q prime necessity that II the
present unrest is to result in perma-
nent good the emotion shall be trans
lated into action, and that the action
shall be marked by honesty, sanity.
and self-restraint-
i There is mighty little good IN a mere
spasm of reform. The reform that
counts is that which comes through
steady. continuous growth; violent
emotionalism leads to exhaustion.
Tax on Grea. Fortunes.
1t is important to this people to grap-