Daily press. [volume] (Newport News, Va.) 1896-current, 1906-04-15

lieu from entering the pubic service |
ut ANY price. AS an instance In point |
may mention that one serious. diff |
Guilty encountered In getting the
right type of men to dig the Panama
Canal Is the certainty that they will
De exposed, both without. and, AMI
sorry to say. sometimes within. Con
aross. to utterly reckless assaults ON
their character aud capacity.
No immunity Asked For
At the risk Of repetition let me say
again that my plea is not for lmmu.
nifty tn but for the most unsparIng
exposure of the politician who he.
trays his trust, of the big business
men who makes Or spends his fortune
In Legitimate or corrupt ways. There
should he a rcSolute effort to hunt
every such man out Of the position
lie has disgraced Expose the crime.
and hunt down the criminal; but re.
member that even in the case of crime.
IL II is attacked in sensational, lurid
and untruthful fashion. the attack
may do more damage to the public
mind than the crime Itself It is be-
cause feel that there should be no
rest In the endless 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.ralte arc
often Indispensable to the well.being
OF society: but only If they know
when to stop raliing the muck. ana
TO look upward to tho celestial crown
of worthy cndcavor. There are beau.
tiful things above and around them:
and II they gradually grow to 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 to sim
gle ont the rascals for distinction
from their fellows.
Moral Color Blindness.
Such painting finally induces kind
OF moral blindness. and people
affected by IL come to 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 truth of the attack. nor
in the honesty of the man who is at
tackled; they grow as suspicious OF
the accusation as Of the offense: 1t
becomes weli-nigh hopeless to stir
them either to wrath against wrong
doing or to enthusiasm for what is
right; aud such a mental attitude in
the public gives hope to every knave.
and Is the despair, of honest, men
Sears Public Conscience: ~
To assail the great aud admitted ev-
lis OF our political and Industrial life
with such crude AMI sweeping gener-
alizations as to include decent men
In the general condemnation means
the soaring of the public conscience.
There results a general attitude eth
cr Of cynical belief in and indiffer-
encc to public corruption or else of a
distrustful inability to discriminate
between the good and the bad Either
attitude Is fraught with untold dam
age To the country as whole. The
fool who has not sense to discrimi.
nate between what Is good and what
ie is bad is well-nigh dangerous As the
man who does discriminate and ye.
chooses the bad.
There is nothing more distre sing
to every good pat.io'. to every gOn'
il which treats the allegation oi Ills
honesty In publ? man as cause
for laughter Such laughter is worse
than the cracking OF thorn under i
pot. for 1t denotes EoL merely The va
tohI wv 't'tN bCu. lh "lllSl
high emotions have ban checked be-
fore they could grow to irlll!ion.
Any Amount Of Good.
There is any amount OF good in the
world, anu there never was a time
when loftier aud more dIsinterestel
work for the betterment Of MANKIND
was being done than now The fore
es that tend for. evil are great and
terrible. but the forces of truth aud
love and courage and honesty and
generosity and sympathy are also
stronger than eyer before. 1t Is fool
ish and timid, no less than a wicked
thing, to blink the fact the forces OF
evil are strong, but 1t Is even worse
to fail to take into account tile
strength Of the forces that tell FoI
good.
Hysterical sensationalism is the
very poorest weapon wherewith 10
fight for lasting Righteousness. Tee
men who with stern sobricty and truth
assai the many evils of our time>
whether ~ the public press, or in
magazines. or in books, are the lead.
ers and allies Of all engaged in the
work. for social and political better
ment. But if they give good reason
for distrust of what they say, if they
chill the ardoH of those who demand
truth as primary virtue, they there
by betray the good cause. and play
into the hands of the very men
against whom they are nominalI. at
war.
Quotes Bishop Hooker.
In his Ecclesiastical Polity that
fine old Elizabethan divine, Bishop
Hooker, Wgote:
He that goeth about to persuade
a multitude that they are not so well