The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1906-04-20

man out of the position he has dis
! graced. Expose the crime and hunt
down the criminal, but remember that
even in the case of crime, ii ii is at
tackled in sensational, lurid and un-
truthful fashion, the attack may do
more damage TO the public mind than
the crime itself. 1t is because | feel
that there should be no rest in the end
less war against the forces OF evil that
/ ask that the war be conducted with
sanity as well as with resolution. The
men with the muck rakes are often in
dispensable TO the well being Of soci-
ETY., but only IL they know when to
stop raking the muck and TO look up
ward TO the celestial crown above
them, to the crown Of worthy endeav-
or. There are beautiful things above
! and round about them, and IL they
/ gradually grow 10 feel that the whole
world is nothing but muck their power
! Of usefulness Is gone. If the whole
picture is painted black there remains
no hue whereby 10 single out the ras-
! Gals for distinction from their fellows.
/ moral color blindness, and people af
fected by il come 10 the conclusion
that no man is really black and no man
really white, but they are all gray. In
other words, they neither believe in the
i truth of the attack nor in the honesty of
the man who is attacked. They grow as
suspicious of the accusation as OF the
offense. 1t becomes well nigh hopeless
/ to stir them either to wrath against
wrongdoing or TO enthusiasm for what
is right, and such mental attitude in
the public gives hope TO every knave
and is the despair of honest men.
Forces For Truth Stronger Than Ever.
There is any amount of good in the
world, and there never was time
/ when loftier and more DISTINGUISHED
work for the betterment of mankind
was being done than now. The forces
that tend for evil are great and terri
BILE, but the forces of truth and love
and courage and honesty and gener-
osity and sympathy are also stronger
than ever before. Ii is foolish and
timid. no less than wicked thing. TO
blink the fact that the forces of evil
are strong, but ii is even worse 10 fail
10 take into account the strength of the
forces that tell for good
Ia his ecclesiastical polity that fine
old EliZabethan divine, Bishop Hooker.
wrote:
He that goeth about TO persuade a
multitude that they are not SO well
governed as they ought TO be shall
never want attentive and favorable
hearers. Because they know the man
fold defects whereunto every kind OF
regimen is subject, but the secret lets
and difficulties, which in public pro-
ceedings are innumerable and inevita-
BILE. they have not ordinarily the judg-
meDt to consider"
This truth should be kept constantly
in mind by every free people desiring
TO preserve the sanity and poise indis-
pensahle to the permanent success OF
self government. Yet. on the other
hand, il is vital not TO permit this
| spirit of sanity and self command TO
! degenerate into mere mental stagua-
ton. Bad though a state of hysterical
excitement is. and evil though the re-
| suits are which come from the violent
] oscillations such excitement invariably
! produces, yet sodden acquiescence
in evil is even worse. At this moment
we are passing through a period of
| great unrest-sOcial political and in
/ dustrial unrest IL Is of the utmost
Importance for our future that this
should prove 10 be not the unrest of
mere Righteousness against life. OF
mere dissatisfaction with the inevita-
ble inequality of conditions but the
unrest of resolute and eager ambi-
individual and the nation. So far rs
this movement of agitation through
ont the country takes the form Of a
fierce discomfort with evil. Of deter
mination 10 punish the authors OF evil
whether in industry or politics. the
feeling is 10 he heartily welcomed as
sign of healthy life
IT, on the other hand. IL turns into
mere crusade OF appetite against appe-
tite. of a contest between the brutal
greed Of the have nots" and the bru-
tai greed OF the "haves." then il has
no significance for good, but only for
evil. If it seeks 10 establish 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 off from those who are less
well off, then il will be fraught with
Unreasonable Harm to the body poll
tic.
We can no more and no less afford
TO condone evil i'm 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 ef-
fort to bring some trust magnate to an
account for his misdeeds is as bad ~
and no worse than the so called labor
leader who DANGEROUSLY strives to ex-
cite foul class feeling on behalf or
some other labor leader who Is ipipli-
Gated in murder. One attitude Is as
bad as the other and no worse
IL Is a prime necessity that IL the
present unrest Is to result I'm perma-
nent good the emotion shall be trans