The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-11-30
NEW HAVEN MORNING

mism, imagined that the two could
dwell together in peace, We forget
that a plutocracy always breeds a sui
len, resentful proletariat. If we pur-
pose to foster an arrogant, unintelH-
gent, luxurious plutocracy, We shall
have an enraged proletariat with hate
in its heart. a knife at it's belt and a.
torch in its hand; that is one of the
muttered undertones which the voice
Of the reformer is making articulate
for us.
But, having admitted this much, it is
we'll to remind ourselves that, While
the feet of reform are tireless and sure
they are also silent and slow and pa
tient. No millennium comes by a single
effort, neither do millennial conditions
prevail everywhere at the same time
Oliver Wendell Holmes advised us to
get back to the original sources and
begin regenerative processes in the.
characters and habits of our ances-
tors. But it is the Yankee habit to
wait passively until conditions become
intolerable, then to rush in and at
tempt to cleanse all our stables by
single swish of the broom. We have
entered upon a zone Of reform. The
reform microbe is boring in all our vi
tails. "Betterment" is the popular
catchword, The critic lis abroad in the
land Meek orthodoxy invites osleriza-
ton, and verify the strenuous hereto
hath inherited the American earth.
Encouraged by the tireless crusader in
the White House, we have started in
to reform every thing, from garbage to
government, from milk to millionaires,
from the size of our families to the
sources Of our immortal hope. There
is danger that we engage in debaueh
and sacrifice some things worth pre-
serving. In their frantic impotence
men have often secured reforms that
soon had themselves to be reformed.
One of our backwoods philosophers has
quantity counselled us, Never get in
a hurry, because you can walk a good
deal farther than you can run",It is
not advice to be despised, 1t is not
safe to advocate all reforms, nor to
ldhG dI Llltll ONll NdludllOtl all I6lOTiIl-
ers who have the courage of their
in his convictions, but weak in his
head, You cannot read his mind corr
convictions" Many a man is strong
rectly because you must spend so
much time searching for it; and you
are never sure how soon his weak head
mag be taken advantage of by new
set of strong convictions.
We must be patient and persistent,
sane and wise withal. The peril is
that we attempt too much and, after
the spasm has passed and the meager
results are seen, we become discour-
aged, and WEAKNESS and Indifference
may set in. Laissez-fairs does not
yield to a single assault. Mere inertia
is hard to overcome; mere bulk has
great resisting power And when
these are rooted in tradition and pre-
JUDGE, entrenched in habit, and guard
ed by graft nothing but the evolution
airy purpose and the patient power of
God can overcome them.
And of this we are assured.
behind the dim unknown.
Standeth God, amid the shadows,
keeping watch above his own"
No great fights have yet been who'll
ly won. We have broken many pitch
ers and blown many brave blast
upon our transforms, but no Jerichos
have fallen down But obstructive
has been shaken the
people have begun to think, and some
thing has been established! What has
been established seems very simple
now that we come to see it in proper
and we wonder that we
hesitated and dubbed so long about
it. It is this, that czars and graft and ,
corrupt deals must go, that no man,
private individual, or official or politi- |
cal boss, or corporation manager, can
longer exploit the public and go I'M
Of justice, that the ethical |