Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1906-09-29
(John II. Howland.)

yet most meaningful things in the
world are overlooked. We meet a
man in public and instinctively are
distrustful of him. Or in studied
summing up of his personality we
decide that we will have as little as
possible to do with him. Or. on
the other hand. we meet this man
and at once there is established a
feeling of mutual understanding and
good fellowship.
But whatever these first impress
sions the great majority of all men
look no further for the reasons for
these impressions. Here is man;
we like him or I'VE dislike him; he
is an individual entity in a world of
individuals; we deal with him as our
impulses prompt us, accepting him
or rejecting him, and we have done
with it. The great who, what, and
why of the man are overlooked.
Jones is judged as we Judged Smith.
and Brown is measured with Black
for what they are when we meet
them.
Perhaps a busy world has no time
for more than this. If so. this is a
condition against which theories can
avail little. But out of the condi-
tion 1t comes home first to the par
ent and second to the man to deter
mine the personality with which the
adventurer into life finally must
stake his whole claim to success.
The old idea that man is especial
ly God made, springing full fedged
into life in the image of his maker,
cannot hold in fact. That a man
sis the sum total of all his ances-
tors" is a worse fallacy. Sooner or
later the whole world must come to
the inevitable philosophy that man
is man made, no matter how credit
or discredit is reflected by this crea-
ture of environment Birth is much,
but environment and training are
more.
Nature endows every living crea-
ture with that first impulse of self
preservation. This impulse is the
personificatlon of selfishness. Were
a man to live alone according to this
law and ripen in his loneliness to
maturity, his coming into modern
community life would stamp him as
the worst citizen in civilization. His
short sighted egotism would put him
at war with the best interests of
modern life. He would be a liar,
thief, robber-murderer! In the
experience of the psychologist and
alienist, it is doubtful II in his ma
turity the best efforts of society in
the best practical manner ever might
train this man to point allowing
him an unrestricted liberty. Out
of these facts we have the inevitable
conclusion that
Given the finest type of man who
ever has lived community life among
his fellows. we have the most per-
fectly artificial of all men.
"Live and let live" never was the
philosophy of nature in the sense
that the quotation generally is ac-
cepted This is the voice of COM
munity life, uttered long after IL had
become plain that mans community
life stood for the best protection of
the individual. Perhaps in its last
analysis 1t was selfish voice. 1t is
beyond the finite mind to say just
where all selfishness ends. Religion,
which should have given the highest
Interpretation of the unselfish, has
fallen short when 1t has accepted the
salvation of a father alone of all his
family, leaving him TO look forward
to an eternity of life in separation
from his loved ones condemned to an
eternity OF death.
But 1t is not the intention of the
writer TO suggest the elimination of
selfishness in modern life. AT the
most, he would advance the idea
that civilization is nursing In the indi-
vidual a greater degree OF selhshness
than the present status OF man seems
to require. Selfishness is ignorance
per Sc. To the degree that 1t Is
possessed in undue measure even by
the ignorant It is inimical to modern
life. II is something more selfish
and less regardful OF others in Smith
which makes him fall short OF the
virtues which we see in Jones. pre-
suming always that our readings OF
the two men are true readings of
character.