Ellsworth American. [volume] (Ellsworth, Me.) 1855-current, 1906-04-18

I NsNfh VI ttsN HtAhtk. nor IN the honesty
OF the man who is attacked: they grow "a
| suspicious Of the accusation as of the
oiiensei u becomes weli-nigh hopeless to
stir them either TO wrath against wrong
doing or TO enthusiasm for what is right;
and such mental attitude in the public
gives nope 10 every knave, and Is the
despair of honest men.
SOME FAULTS OF CRITICISM,
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-
uemnattou means the soaring OF the pub-
lie conscience. There results a general
attitude either of cynical belief In and
| indifference to public corruption or else OF
distrustful 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 discriminate between what is
l good and what Is bad is well-nigh as dan
I gcrous as the man who does discriminate
and yet chooses the bad. There is nothing
I more distressing to every good patriot. to
/ every American, than the hard, scofiing
I spirit which treats the allegation OF dis
honesty IN public man as a cause for
/ laughter. such laughter Is worse than
I the cracking Of thorns under pot, for it.
7 denotes not merely the vacant mind, but
/ the heart In which high emotions have
been checked before they grow to fruition.
| lhere ~ any amount Of good in the
world, and there never was n time when
loftier and more disinterested 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 hon
I esty and generosity and sympathy are also
stronger than ever before. II is foolish
and timid, no less than a 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
l that tell for good. Hysterical sensation
altsm is the very poorest weapon where
with TO light for lasting righteousness.
( The men who with storm sobriety and
truth assail 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
social and political bctterment. But il
/ they give good ruason for distrust OF
what they say, II they chill the ardor of
those who demand truth as primary
virtue, they thereby betray the good
cause, and play into the hands OF the very
men against whom they are nominaily at
war.
In his Ecclesiastical Polity that fine old
Elizabethan divine, Bishop Hooker, wrote:
! "He that g9eth about to persuade a
multitude that they are not so well gov
erned as they ought to be, shall never
want attentive aud favorable hearers; be-
cause they know the manifold defects
whereunto every kind OF regimen is sub-
ieet, but the secret lets and difficulties,
which in public proceedings are innumer
able and Inevitable, they have not ordi-
narily the judgment to consider"
This truth should be kept constantly in
mind By every free people desiring to pre-
serve the sanity and poise indispensable
to the permanent success Of sclf-govern-
ment. Yet, on thc other hand, it is vital
not to permit this spirit of sanity and
sclf-command TO degenerate into mere
mental stagnation. Bad though state
! Of hysterical excitement Is, and evil
though the results are which come from
the violent oscillations such excitement
invariably produces, yet a sOdden aeqnl-
esccnce in evil is even worse.
GREAT SOCIAL UNREST.
At this moment We are passing through
a period OF great unrest p social, political
and industrial unrest. II is OF the utmost
Importance for our future that this should
prove 10 be not the unrest of mere rebel
liousness against life, OF mere dissatisiac-
ton with the inevitable inequality of con-
ditiGns, bat the unrest OF resolute and
, eager ambition to secure the betterment
OF the individual and the nation. So far
as this movement OF agitation throughout
the country takes the form OF fierce dis
. content Win fNllt OF u DENOMINATION ~
punish the authors of evil, whether in
industry or politics, the feeling is to be
heartily welcomed as a sign OF healthy life.
II ON the other hand, il turns into
mere crusade OF appetite against appetite,
OF a contest between the brutal greed OF
the ''have~ notsn and the brutal greed Of
the shAves", then il has no significance
for good, but only for evil. If il seeks TO
stablish a line of cleavage, not along the
line which divides good 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 on,
then IL " i'll be fraught with immeasurable
harmto the body polite.
We can no more and no less afford 10
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 effort to bring some
trust magnate to account for his mis-
deeds Is as bad as, and no worse than, the
so-cailed labor leader who DANGEROUSLY
strives 10 excite a foul class feeling ON be-
half OF some other labor leader who is inn
plieated in murder. One attitude IS as
bad as the other, and no worse; in each
case the accused is entitled to exact JUS
tice; and in neither case is there need OF
action by others which can be construed
( into an expression OF sympathy for crime.
I Ii is a prime necessity that II the
present unrest is to result in permanent
/ good the emotion shall be translated into
action, and that the action shall De
| marked by honesty, sanity and seif-re-
straint. There is mighty little good IN a
/ mere spasm OF reform. The reform that
| counts is that which comes through
I steady, continuous growth; violent emo
/ tionalsm leads 10 exhaustion.
PROBLEM OF BIG FORTUNES.
| It is important TO this people to grspple
with the problems connected with the
amassing OF enormous fortunes, and the
| use OF those fortunes, both corporate and
| individual, in business. We should dis
criminate in the sharpest way between
/ fortunes well-won and fortunes ill-won;
between those gained as an incident to
! performing great services to the commu,
| nifty as a whole, and those gained in evil
| fashion by keeping just within the limits
| of mere law honesty. OF course no
amount of charity in spending such for
tunes in any way compensates Tor ms
conduct in making them. As matter OF
personal conviction, and without pretend
! ing to discuss the details or formulate the