Los Angeles herald., 1907-10-01

virtues that build and conserve the
state, society and the home.
Berkeley, May Is. 1901.
ut would be hard to imagine an epi-
taph which good citizen would be more
anxious to deserve or one which would
more happily describe the qualities OF
that great and good citizen whose life
we here commemorate. He possessed to a
very extraordinary degree the gift of
uniting discofdant forces and securing
from them a harmonious action which
told for good government. From pur-
poses not merely diverse, but bitterly con-
hicting he was able to secure healthful
action for the good of the state.
Rose to Emergencies
"In both poise and judgment he rose
level to the several emergencies he had
to meet as leader of the nation, and like
all men with the root of true greatness
In them he grew to steadily larger stat
ure under the stress of heavy respon-
sibilitiee. He was a good citizen and a
brave soldier, chief executive whose
wisdom entitled him to the trust which
he received throughout the nation. He
was not only a leader of men but pre-
eminently helper of men; for one OF his
most marked traits was the intensely hui
mar quality of his wide and deep SYM
pathy.
FINALLY, he not merely preached. he
was, that most valuable of all citizens In
democracy like ours, man who in the
highest place served as an unconscious
example to his people of the virtues that
build and conserve alike our public life,
and the foundation of all public life, the
intimate life of the home.
Many lessons are taught us by his
career, but none more valuable than the
lesson of broad human sympathy for and
among all of our citizens of all classes
and creeds. No other president has ever
more deserved to have his life work
characterized in Lincoln's words as being
carried on with malice toward none, with
charity toward alk' AS boy he worked
hard with his hands; he entered the army
as private soldier; he knew poverty; he
earned his own livelihood; and by his
own exertions he finally rose to the posi-
tion of man Of moderate means. Not
merely was he In personal touch with
farmer and town dweller, with capitalist
and wageworker, but he felt an intimate
understanding of each, and therefore an
intimate sympthy with each; and his
consistent effort was to try to Judge all
by the same standard and to treat all
with the same justice. Arrogance toward
the weak, and enyious hatred of those
well off, were equally abhorrent to his
just and gentle soul.
A Worthy Example
Surely this attitude of his should be
the attitude of our people today. 1t
would be cruel disaster to this coun-
try to permit ourselves to adopt an atti-
tude of hatred and envy toward success
worthily won, toward wealth honestly
acquired. Let us in this respect profit by
the example of the republics of this west
ern hemisphere to the south of u.s. Some
of these republics have prospered greatly;
but there are certain ones that have
Jagged far behind, that still continue in
condition of material poverty, of social
and political unrest and confusion.
Without exception the republics of the
former class are those in which honest
industry has been assured of reward
and protection; those where cordial
welcome has been extended to the kind
Of enterprise which benefits the whole
country, while incidentally as is right
and proper, giving substantial rewards to
those who manifest it, On the other
hand, the poor and backward republics,
the republic in which the lot of the av-
erage citizen is least desirable, and the
lot of the labortng man worst of all, are
precisely those republics in which in
dustry has been killed because wealth ex-
sposed its owner to spoliation. To these
communities foreign capital now rarely
comes, because 1t has been found that
as soon as capital is employed so as to
give substantial remuneration to those
supplying 1t, 1t excites ignorant envy and
hostility, which result in such oppressive
action, within or without the law, as
sooner or later to work a virtual con-
f1scation. Every manifestation of feeling
rf fe III I'D t. a, IT,
crushed at the outset by the weight of a
sensible public opinion.
Encourage Honesty
From the standpoint of our material
prosperity there is only one other thing
as important as the encouragement of a
spirit of envy and hostility toward honest
business men, toward honest men of
means; this is the encouragement of dis
honest business men, the war upon the
chicanery and wrongdoing which are pc
culiarly repulsive, peculiarly, noxious.
when exhibited by men who have no ex-
cuse OF want, of poverty, of ignorance,
for their crimes.
Men of means, and above all men Of
great wealth, can exist in safety under
the peaceful protection of the state, only
in orderly societies. where liberty mani
tests itself through and under the law.
1t is these men who, more than any 9TH
ers, should. in the interest of the class
to which they belong, in the interests of
their children and their children's
children seek in every way, but especial
ly in the conduct of their lives, to insist
upon and to build up respect for the law.
1T may not be true from the stand
point of some particular individual of this
class, but in the long run 1t is pre-
eminently true from the standpoint of
the class as whole. no less than of the
country as whole. that it is veritable
calamity to achieve temporary triumph
by violation or evasion of the law; and
we are the best friends of the man of
property, we show ourselves the staunch-
est upholders of the rights OF property,
when we set our faces like flint against
those offenders who do wrong in order to
acquire great wealth or who use this
wealth as help to wrongdoing.
''Wrongdoing is confined to no class.
Good and evil are to be found among
both rich and poor, and in drawing the
line among our fellows we must draw 1t
on conduct and not on worldly possessions.
in the abstract most of us will admit this.
'In the concrete We can act upon such
doctrine only If we really have knowledge
of and avmnathv with one another IF