Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1906-04-26


building of the House of Representatives
in full is as follows:
Over a century ago Washington laid the
corner stone of the capitol In what was then
little more than a tract of wooded wilder
ness here beside the Potomac. We now find
IL necessary to provide by great additional
buildings for the business Of the government.
This growth in the need for the housing OF
the government is but proof and example
Of the way in which the nation has grown
and the sphere of action OF the national
government has grown. We admins
ter the affairs Of a nation in which the
extraordinary growth of population has
been outstripped by the growth of wealth
and the growth in complex interests.
The material problems that face US to-
day are not such as they were in Wash
ingtOn's time. but the underlying facts of
human nature are the same now as they
were then. Under altered. external form
we war with the same tendencies toward
evil that were evident in Washington's time
and are helped by the same tendencies for
good 1t is about some of these that / wish
to say a word to-day.
Man with Muck Rake.
In Bunyans Pilgrims Progress" you
may recall the description of the man
with tie muck rake, the man who could
look no way but downward, with the muck
rake in his hands, who was offered a celes-
tial crown for his muck rake, but who
would neither look up nor regard the crown
he was offered, but continued to rake to
himself the filth of the floor.
In Pilgrims Progress the man with
the muck rake is set forth as the example
of him whose vision is fixed carnal in
stead of on spiritual things. Yet he also
typiies the man who In this life consistent
ly refuses to see aught that is lofty and
fixes his eyes with solemn intentness only
on that which is vile and debasing. Now,
IL Is very necessary that we should not
finch from seeing what is vile and debas-
Ing.
There is filth on the floor and il must
be scraped up with the muck rake and
there are times and places where this serv-
Ice is the most needed of all the services
that can be performed. But the man who
never does anything else, who never thinks
or speaks or writes, save of his feats with
the muck rake speedily becomes not a help
to society, not an Indictment to good, but
one of the most potent forces for evil.
Many and Grave Evils.
There are in the body polite, economic
and social, manly and grave evils, and there
is urgent necessity for the sternest war
upon them There should be relentless ex-
posture of and attack upon every evil man,
whether politician or business man, every
evil practice, whether in politics, in bust
ness or in social life. I hail as a benefac-
tor every writer or speaker, every man who
on the platform or ju book, magazine or
newspaper with merciless severity makes
such attack, provided always that he in his
turn remembers that the attack is of use
only II 1t Is absolutely truthful. The liar
is no whit better than the thief, and if his
mendacity takes the form of SANDER he
may be worse than most thieves 1t puts
premium upon knayery untruthfully to at
tack an honest man or even with hysterica
exaggeration to assail bad man with I'm
truth
An epidemic of iudiscriminate assault
upon character does no good but very great
harm. The soul of every scoundrel is glad
ened whenever an honest man Is assaulted
q nFni is friIfD fiIIl
assaulted.
DO Not Jump at Conclusions.
Now, it is easy to twist out of shape what
| have said easy to affect to misunderstood
1t, and II it is slurred over in repetition
not difficult really to misunderstood it.
Outstanding that to denounce mudslinging
does not mean the Endorsement of white
washing, and both the interest individ-
ualS who need Whitewashing and those 9th
ers who practice mudsIinging like to en-
courage such confusion of ideas
One of the chief counts against those who
make indiscrirninate assault upon men in
business or men in public life is that they
invite reaction which is sure to tell pow
erfully in favor of the unscruplous scoun-
drel who really ought to be attacked, who
ought to be exposed, who ought if possible
to be put il the penitentiary. If Aristides
is praised overmuch just people get tired
of hearing it, and overcensure of the I'M
just finally and from similar reasons results
Excess Invites Reaction.
Any excess is almost sure TO invite a re-
action, and unfortunately the reaction, in
stead of taking the form Of punishment OF
those guilty of the excess is very apt TO
take the form either of punishment of the
unoifending or of giving immunity and even
strength to offenders. The effort to make
financial or political profit out of the de-
struction of character only result in
public calamity. Gross and reckless as
SaultS on character, whether on the stump
or in newspaper, magazine or book, create
morbid and vicious public sentiment and at
the same time act as profound deterrent
to able men of normal sensitiveness and
tend to prevent them from entering the
public service at any price.
As an instance in point, l may mention
that one serious difficulty encountered in
getting the right type of men to dig the
Panama canal is the certainty that they
will be exposed, both without and I am
sorry to say sometimes within, Congress to
utterly. reckless assaults on their character
and capacity.
At the risk of repetition let me say again
that my plea is not for immunity to but for
the most unsparng exposure of the politi-
ness man who makes or spends his fortune
in illegitimate or corrupt ways. There
should be a resolute effort to hunt every
such man out of the position he has dis
graced.
Expose Crime; Hunt Criminal.
Expose the crime and hunt down the
criminal, but remember that even in the
case of crime, If it is attacked in sensa-
tional, lurid and untruthful fashion the
attack may do more damage to the publ
mind than the crime itself. 1t is because
l feel that there should be rest in the
endless war against the forces of evil that
| ask that the war be conducted with son
ity well as with resolution.
The men with the muck rakes are often
indispensable to the well-being of Society,
but only If they know when to stop raking
thn mupE IN look rd IN ba oil
tial crown above them, to the crown of
worthy endeavor. There are beautiful
things above and round about them and
II they gradually grow to feel that the
whole world is nothing but muck their pow
er of usefulness Is gone
If the whole picture is painted black
there remains no hue whereby to single out
the rascals for distinction. from their fell
lows. Such painting finally induces a kind
of moral color blindness, and people affect
ed by il come to the conclusion that no
man is really black and no man really
white, hut they are all gray.
In other words. they neither believe in
the truth of the attack nor in the honesty
of the man who it attacked; they grow
offense; ii becomes wellnigh hopeless to
stir them either to wrath against wrong
doing 10 enthusiasm for what is right
and such mental attitude in the public
gives hope to every knave and is the despair
of honest mea.
Sort Good from Evil.
To assaiI the great and admitted evils of
our political and industrial life with such
crude and sweeping congratulations as to
include decent men in the general con-
demnation means the soaring of the public
conscience. There results a general atti-
tude either of cynical belief in and indiffer
ence to public corruption or else of dis
trustful inability to discriminate 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 discrim-
mate between what is good and what is
bad is welnigh as dangerous the man
; who does discriminate and yet 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 chorns under-a
pot, for it denotes not merely the vacant
mind. but the heart In which high emotions
have been choked before they could grow
to fruition.
There is any amount of good in the world
and there never was time when loftfer and
more disintereSted work for the betterment
of mankind was being done than now The