Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1906-04-14
MAN WITH MuCK-RAKE.
CONTINUED from Page One)

| be no rest in the endless war against
| ne forces OF evil that | ask that the
var be conducted with sanity as well
as with resolution. The men with the
muck -rakes are often indispensable to
he wellbeilg of society, but only If
hey know when to stop raking the
muck, and to look upward to the celes
iaI crown above them. to the crown
If worthy endeavor. There are beauti
sul things above and round abou;
hem: and if they gradually grow to
eel that the whole world is nothing
out muck. their power of usefulness liz
one. II the whole picture is painted
lack there remains no hue whereby
, single out the rascals for distinc-
on from their fellows. Such paint
nG finally induces a kind OF moral
oloT blindness; and people affected by
t come TO the conclusion that no man
really black, and no man really
hte, but they are all gray.
In other words, they neither believe
n the truth of the attack. nor in the
onesty of the man who is attacked;
they grow as suspicious of the accusa-
nigh hopeless TO stir them either to-
wrath against wrong doing or to en-
-hus 'asm for what is right; and such a
mental attitude in the public gives
hope to every knave and is the despair
If honest men.
May Scar Conscience.
ITO assail the great and admitted
evils OF our political and industrial
life with such crude and sweeping gen
eral 2ations as to include decent men
II the general condemnation means the
soaring of the public conscience There
results a general attitude of cynical
belief in and Indifference to public cor
rupt.on or else OF distrustful inabfli-
~ 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 good
and what i. bad is well night as dan
gerous as the man who does discrimi-
nate and yet chooses the bad There
is nothing more distressing 10 every
good patriot. to every good American,
Than the hard, scoffing spirit which
public man as cause for laughter
Such laughter is worse I'm the crack
ling of thOrns under a pot, for it de-
notes not merely the vacant mind. but
the heart in which high emotions have
been chOked before they cosld grow to
Plenty of Good In World
iS ~f
world. there never was a time when
loftier and moro disinterested work
for the betterment of mankind was be-
ing 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 sympathy are also stronger than
yer before. 1t is a foolish and timid
no leSs than a wicked thing to blink
he fact that the forces OF evil are
strong, but it is even worse TO fail to
axe into account the strength of the
,orces that tell for good HystericaI
sensatienalism 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 po-
litical betterment. But if they give |
good reason for distrust OF what they
say. if 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 are Hominally |
II var
I'm his Ecclesiastical Policy that fine |
DID Elizabethan divine. Bishop Hooker.
wrote:
He that gosth about to persuade
4 multitude that they are not go we'll |
governed as they ought to be, shall |
never want attentive and favorable |