The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1906-04-26

itself to blackmail; which foams with
rage if a corporation secures favors
by improper methods, and merely
leers with hideuus mirth if the corpor-
alton is itself wronged. The only
public servant who can be trusted
honestly to protect the rights of the
public against the misdeed of COR
poration is that public man who will
just as surely protect the corporation
itself from wrongful aggression. If
a public man is willing to yield to
popular clamor and do wrong to the
men of wealth or to rich corporations,
it may be set down as certain that
if the opportunity comes he will
secretly and furtively do wrong to the
public in the interest of corporation.
Reform Will Come.
s'But, in addition to honesty, we
need sanity. No honesty will make
a public man useful if that man is
timid or foolish, if he is hot headed
zealot or an impracticable visionary.
AS we strive for reform we find that
it is not at all merely the case of
long uphill pull. On the contrary,
there is almost as much of breeching
work as of collar work; to depend
only on traces means that there will
soon be runaway and an upset. The
men of wealth who today are trying
to prevent the regulation and control
of their business in the interest of
the public by the proper government
authorities will not succeed, in my
judgment, in checking the progress
of the movement. But if they did
succeed they would find that they had
sown the wind and would surely reap
the whirlwind, for they would ulti-
mately provoke the violent excuses
which accompany reform coming by
steady and natural growth.
Socialism A Myth
con the other, the wild preachers
of unrest and discomfort, the wild
agitators against the entire existing
order, the men who act crookedly,
whether because of sinister design or
from mere puzzleheadedness, the men
who preach destruction without pro-
posing any substitute for what they
intend to destroy, or who propose
substitute which would be far worse
than the existing evils all these
men are the most dangerous oppo-
nents of real reform. If they get
their way they will lead the people
into deeper pit than any into which
they could fall under the present sys-
TEN. If they fail to get their way
they will still do incalculable harm by
provoking the kind of reaction, which
in its revolt against the senseless
evil of their teaching, would enthrone
more securely than ever the very evils
which their misguided followers be-
lieye they are attacking.
Human Development Important.
More important than aught else
is the development of the broadcast
sympathy of man for man. The well
fare of the wage worker, the welfare
of the tiller of the soil upon these de-
pend the welfare of the entire coun-
try; their good is not to be sought
in pulling down others; but their
good must be the prime object of all
our craftsmanship.
| Materially we must strive to Sc
cure broader economic opportunity
for all men so that each shall have a
better chance to show the stuff of
which he is made. Spiritually and
ethically we must srtive to bring
about clean living and right thinking.
We appreciate that the things Of the
body are important; but we appreciate
also that the things of the soul are
immeasurably more important. The
foundation stone of national life is,
and ever must be, the high individual
character of the average citizen. :"
Former Corner Stone Laying
l A century and thirteen years ago
George Washington, then president
of the United States, assisting the
acting grand master of Masons of
Virginia and Maryland, laid the cor
nerstone of the nations capitol.
Then the nation had 1900, 900 pop
ulation, and the city of Washington
but 1900 inhabitants.
Fifty-eight years later Willard
Fillmore, then president of the United
States, laid the cornerstone of the ex-
tension to the capitol under as impress
sive circumstances as characterized