Albuquerque evening citizen. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1905-1907, 1907-02-23

1aStldlOuS, 100 SENSITIVE 10 tdhe part
in the rough hurlyburly of the actual
work of the world, IL you become so |
overcultivated, so overrefined that you |
can not do the work of practical |
politics, then you had better never |
have been educated at all The weak |
ling and the coward are out of place |
in a strong and free community. In
a republic like ours the governing
class is composed of the strong men
who take the trouble to do the work
of government; and IL you are too
timid or too fastidious or too careless
to do your part in this work, then
you forfeit your right to be consider
ed one of the governing and you be-
come one of the governed instead
one of the driven cattle of the politi-
cal arena. I want you to feel that
It Is not merely your right to take
part in politics, not merely your duty
to the state, but that 1t is demand
ed by your own self-respect, unless
you are content to acknowledge that
you are unfit to govern yourself and
have to submit to the rule of some
body else as master-and this Is
what it means If you do not do your
own part In government.
education Is good only in so far as
| II is used Alright, and II 1t is mis-
used or IL 1t causes the owner to be
so puffed up with pride as to make
him misestimate the relative values
of things it becomes a harm and not
| a benefit. There are few things loss
desirable than the arid cultivation,
the learning and refinement which
lead merely to that intellectual con-
ceit which makes a man m a demo-
cratic community like ours hold him
self aloof from his fellows and pride
himself upon the weakness which he
mistakes for supsfcilious strength.
Small is the use Of those educated
men who in after life meet no one
but themselves, fand gather in par
lors to discuss wrong conditions which
| they do not understand and to advo-
| cate remedies which have the prime
defect of Fbeing unworkable The
Judgment on practical affairs, politi-
cal and social, of educated men who
keep aloof from the conditions OF
practical life, is apt to be valueless
to those other men who do really
wage effective war against the forces
of baseness and of evil. From the
political standpoint education is
harm and not a benefit to the men
whom it serves as an excuse for re-
fusing to mingle with their fellows
land for standing aloof from the broad
sweep of our national life in curl
ously impotent spirit of fancied SUI
periority. The political wronghead-
edness of such men Is quite as great
as that of wholly uneducated men;
and no people could be less trust
worthy as critics and advisors. The
educated man who seeks to console
himself for his own lack of the ro-
bust qualities necessary to bring sue
cess in American politics by moaning
over the degeneracy of the times in
stead of trying to better them, by
railing at the men who do the actual
work of political life instead of try
ing himself to do the work, is poor
creature, and, so far as his feeble
powers avail, is a damage and not a
help to the country. You can come
far short of this disagreeable standard
and still be a rather useless memDer
of society. Your education, your cul-
tivation, will not help you If you
make the mistake of thinking that II
is a substitute for instead of an ad-
dition to those qualities which in the
ordinary man without your advan-
tages. Your college training confers
lno privilege upon you save as tested
by the use you make of it, 1t puts
upon you the obligation to show your
selves better able to do certain things
than your fellows who have not had
your advantages. If it has served
merely to make you believe that you
are to be excused from effort in after
, life, that you are to be excused from
contact with the actual world of mer
and events, then it will prove a curse
,, and not a blessing. If on the other
hand you treat your education as q
! weapon the more in your hands, g
, weapon to fit you to do better in the
, hard struggle of effort, and not az
, excusing you in any way from TAX
, ling part in practical fashion in tha
, struggle, then it will be a benefit tC
: you.
J Let each of you college men re-
member in after life that in th,
Z fundamentals he is very much like
{ his fellows who have not been to col
q llege, and that if he is to achieve re
{ suits instead of confining himself ex
) clusively to disparagement of othel
men who have achieved them, h,
, lmust manage to come to some kline
of working agreement with these fel
, lows of his. There are times o.
, course when it may be the highes
, duty of a citizen to stand alone ol
practically alone. But II this is {
mans normal attitude-if normally
he is unable to work in combination
, with a considerable body of his fel
, llows-it is safe to set him down al
, unfit for useful service in a democ
, racy. In popular government results
worth having can only be achieved
by men who combine worthy ideali
with practical good sense; who arr
, resolute to accomplish good purposes
/, but who can accommodate themselve!
to the give and take necessary where
, work has to be done, as almost al
important work must necessarily b'
. done, by combination. Moreover, re
, member that normally the prime OBJ
, ject of political life should be L
! achieve results and not merely to is
sue manifestoes-save of course wher,
the issuance of such manifestoe
/, helps to achieve the results. 1t Il
a very bad thing to be morally callous
for moral callousness is disease. Blu
, Inflammation of the conscience ma!
: be just as unhealthy so far as th'
: public is concerned: and II a MANI
, conscience is always telling him to d.
something foolish he will do well 4