The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1906-09-15
4 sATURDAY sERMoN.

In writing on The Vice of General
ling" IN a late issue of Harper's
Weekly. writer says:
.GeneraIizing from single instances
is as foolish as it is universal The last
few months have been devoted to at
tacks on the rich and the evil infu-
ences of riches. until there is danger
Of our forgetting that poverty has also
its faults"
The searchlight." continues this
writer, has recently been Thrown on the
inner working of many great corpora
lions, and the whole world is aghast.
One would think, from some of the
congratulations, that the monopoIists
of money had also monopolized wick
edness. Yet read the criminal reports.
or look about you and you will find
that few stones viii be cast at the
magnates if only those who are with
out sin cast them. The news of the
day viii tell of preachers caught sn
plagiarism or adultery. of grocers
caught in theft or adulteration, of hon
est blacksmiths beating their children,
Of children killing one another, of
druggists selling poisoned soda water,
of bakers vending unclean bread, of
theological students cheating Each
trade has its graft; each mind its
twist; each body its tendency to disease.
1.-THE fact is that drawing indict-
ments against classes is as insane and
illogical as drawing indictments against
nations. There are burglars who are
chaste, and parsons who are sOts;
there are rich women who are nuns of
asceticism, and poor women who are
so vilely extravagant as to bankrupt
their ditch-d digging keepers; there are
poets who are domestic models, and
plumbers who are voluptuaries; there
are rich men who overwork, and poor
men lazy enough to beg; there are
millionaires' sons who are normal and
athletic and self-made men who are
degenerates; there are robust athletes
who are abnormal, and cigarette
iends who are leaders of progress;
there are Sicilians who never saw a
dagger, and Puritans who seek vendet-
to with a knife or with poison; there
are policemen who would reject
bribe, and senator's who are devoted to
their country; there are chorus girls
Of unimpeached repute, and Sunday
school teachers who commit infanti-
eide
There is undoubtedly much of truth
IN these statements. kJ1l6 cannot COLI
denim a whole class because of the sins
of individuals in that class, yet the
average of that class can be judged,
ard also its influences or tendencies in
certain directions.
For instance, the State Journal can
hardly endorse a statement attributed
to Senator LaFollette that 'aIl railroad
presidents are perjurers but Stickney."
At the same time every railroad presi-
dent desires that his road shall make
as fine a financial showing as possible.
and It would be only human nature for
him to defend discriminatory or excess
sive rates charged by his line.
It may be that there are burglars
that are chaste, and parsons who are
sots." but they are not the rule in
their respective classes.
Just because there is an occasional
Stensland or Nipple among bank presi-
dents is no reason for suspecting every
bank president of being a defaulter;
and because some senators are pos
sessed of a high ideal of statesman
ship and a lofty patriotism, It does
not follow that no senator places the
interests of the system" above those
OF the people.
All of which teaches that one must
consider individuals as we'll as classes,
and that wholesale condemnation may
be as erroneous as universal common
dation.