Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1906-04-15

what is bad is well-nigh as dangerous as
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, soothing
spirit which treats the allegation OF dis
honesty 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 high emotions have
been choked before they could grow 20
fruition.
There is any amount of good in the world,
and there never was a time when loftier
and more disinterested work for the better
ment Of mankind was being done than now,
The forces that tend for evil are great and
and courage and honesty and generosity
and sympathy are also stronger than ever
before. 1t is a foolish and timld, no less
than wicked thing, to blink the fact that
the forces OF evil are strong, but II is
even worse to fail to take into account
the strength OF the forces that tell for
good. Hysterical sensationalism is the
very poorest weapon wherewith to fight for
lasting righteousness. The men who with
stern sObriety and truth assail 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 II they give good reason for distrust
of what they say, II they chill the ardOr
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 arc nominally at war;
In his ecclesiastical polity that fine old
Elizabethan divine, Bishop Hooker, wrote:
He that goeth about to persuade
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 subject, but the
secret let's and difficulties, which In public
proceedings are inEumerable and inevitable
they have not ordinarily the judgment to
consider"
Services of the Hysterin.
This truth should be kept constantly I'm
mind by every free people desiring TO pre-
serve the sanity and poise indispensable TO
the permanent success of self-government
Yet. on the other hand, II Is vital not 70
permit this spirit of sanity and self-com-
mand to degenerate into mere mental stag
nation. Bad though a state of hysterical
excitement is and evil though the results
tons such excitement invariably produces.
yet "A sodden acqulescence in eyA is even
worse. At this moment we are passing
through a period Of great unrest-soCial
political and industrial unrest. 1t Is Of the
utmost importance for our future that this
should prove TO be not the unrest of mere
Righteousness against life. of mere dissatis-
faction with the inevitable inequality Of
conditions. but the unrest OF resolute and
eager ambition to secure the hctterment of
the individual and the nation. So far as
this movement Of agitation throughout the
country takes the form Of a fierce discon-
tent with evil. OF determination To punish
the authors OF evil whether IN industry or
politics. the feeling Is 10 be heartily well
IT, on the other hand, II turns into
mere crusade Of appetite against appetite,
Of a contest between the brutal greed of
the "haVe-nots" and the brutal greed OF the
HAYES" then Il has no significance for
good but only for evil II II seeks 10 estab-
lish a line OF cleavage, not along the line
which divides good men from bad. but
along that other line, running at right an
giles thereto. which divides those who are
well on from those who are less well on,
then IL will be fraught with Unreasonable
harm 10 the body polite
wealth No Excuse for WrOnEdOinE.
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 a failure
OF Justice I'm the effoTt 10 bring some trust
maRnate 10 account for his misdeeds Is
as bad as. and worse than. the So
called labor leader who DANGEROUSLY strives
to excite a foul class feeling on behalf OF
some other labor leader who Is implicated
in murder. One attitude Is as bad as the
other, and no worse; in each case the
accused Is entitled TO exact justice; and I'm
neither case Is there need Of action by
others which can be construed into an
expression Of sympathy for crime.
IL Is a prime necessity that il the present
unrest is 20 result in permanent good the
emotion shall be translated into action
and that the action shall be marked by
honesty, sanity, and self-restraint. There