The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-15
THE MAN WITH THE MUCK RAKE, THEME OF PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT |

may be worse than most thieves. Slt puts premium upon knavery untrsn- fully to attack an honest man, or ssemi 1T a bad man with untrlth An epi Amic of sindiscriminate assault upon z arac : ter does not good, but very grea naIW' fsn Tne ed soul @ of every so0nndsen nns man IS as sailed, or even when scoundrel Is nn- truthfully assailed.
 Now. It is easy to twist out of shape misunderstood 1t. and. if t Is sIurred over in repetition. not dificult really ,o misunderstand ,t some person. a, are 2
 S mud Ss asns not mean the Endorsement of white washing. and both the interested in, dIviduais who need wnitewasniHng,, ,,a ana ing, like to encourage such confusion of ideas One of the chief counts against those who make indiscriminate public life.s is that they Invite reac ton which Is sure to tell powerfully in favor of the interruptions scoundrel who really ought tc be be attaeked; attack who sibIc, to be put In the penltentiary. If Aristides Is praised cvermuch as just, people get tired of hearing 1t; and ovcrcensure Of the unjust finally and from. similar reasons results in their favor.
 Any excess is almost sure to invite a reaction. and. unfortunately the reac- tion, instead of taking the form or punishment of those guilty of the ex- cess, is very apt to take the form either of punish1ent of the unofrending or oe to offenders. The effort to make finan- cial or political profit out of the de- struction of character can only result in anl public % calamity; uad,.,. ...,,,. .n .,,r. acter. whether on the stump or in newspaper, magazine, or book. create a morbid and vicious public sentiment, deterrent to able men of normal sen sitiveness and tend to prevent them from entering the public service at any price; As an instance in point l may mention that one serious difIfculty en- countered in getting the right sype Of men to dig the Panama Canal fs the certainty that they will be exposed. sometimes Doaa within consress m ssr to Utterly i reckless assaults on their character
 At the risk of repetition let me say again that my plea Is, not for immuni- ty to but for the most unsparing ex- posture of the politician who betrays his trust. of the big business men who gitimate or corrupt ways There should be a resolute effort to hunt every such man out of the position he has dis graced. Expose the crime. and hunt
 
 even in the case of crime. if 1t is att tackled in sensational, lurid, and un- truthful fashion, the attack may do
 he ore se f. tnt RuPSs med l that there should be no rest in the endless war against the forces of evil that ask that the war. be conducted with sanity as we'll as with resolution. The men with the undertakes are often indispensable to the well-befng of society. but only if they know when upward to the celestial crown above them. to the crown of worthy epdeavof. There are beautiful things above and round about them; and if they gradual, Is nothing but muck. their power of usefulness is gone. If the whole piv- ture IS painted blsck there remains ns for distinction from their fellows. Such painting finally induces a kind of mot al color blindness; and people affectec man is realty black. and no man really l white. but they are all gray. In other { words. they neither believe in the truth of the attack nor in the honesty of | as suspicious of the accusation as of l the offense; 1t becomes well-nigh hope less to stir them either to wrath for what. is right; and such a mental attitude in the public gives hope to every. knave. and Is the despair of honest men. Searing of Public Conscience. | To assail the great and admitted evils of our political and industrial life with such crude and sweeping generaiiza- tions as to include decent men in the general condemnation means the scar | ing of the public conscience. There | results general attitude either of cy- rinical belief in and indifference to pub | lie corruption or else of distrustful ina biiity to discriminate between the good and the bad. Either attitude is franght with untold damage to the country as a whole. The fool who has not sense to discriminate between what is good and what Is bad is we'll nigh as dan gerous as the man who does discriini- nate and yet chooses the bad. There Is nothing more distressing to every good the hard. .scoffing spirit which treats the allegation of dishonesty in a pub lie man as cause for laughter. Such laughter shter Is nTor worse than the crsckling not merely the vacant mind. but the heart in which high emotions have been choked before they could grow to
 There is any amount of good in the world, and there never was time when loftier and more disinterested work for done than now. The forces that tend for evil are great and terrible. but the forces of truth and love and cour- age and honesty and generosity and
 
 before. It is a foolish and timid, no less than wicked thing to blink the fact that the forces of evil are strong, but 1t Is even worse to fail to take into account the strength of the forces that tell for good. Hysterical sensational ism Is the very poorest weapon where with to fight for lasting righteousness. The men who with stern sobriety and truth assai1 the many evils of our time, whether in the public press, or in magazines. or in books, are the leaders and allies of all engaged in the work for social and political betterment. But If they. give good reason for distrust dor of those who demand truth as a primary virtue they thereby betray the good cause. and play into the hands of the very men against whom they are nominally at war.
 Tn his Ecclesiastical Politty that fine old Elizabethan divine. Bishop Hooker. wrote:
 Bishop Rockers View.
 He that !goeth about to persuade a governed as they ought to be. shall never want attentive and favorable hearers. because they know the mani fold defects whereunto every kind of and difficulties. which in public pro ceedings are innumerable and inevita ble, they have not ordinarily the judg- ment to consider"
 in mind by every free people desiring to preserve the sanity and boise indispen- sable to the permanent success of self government Yet, on the other hand, it sanity and self-command to deg enerate into mere mental stagnation. Bad though d state of hysterical excitement Is. and evil though the results are which come from the violent Oscilla- tlons such excitement invariably pro duceS vet a Sodden aCaujescenca in