The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-02-24

intellectual conceit which makes a man
in democratic community like ours hold
himself aloof from his fellows and pride
himself upon the weakness which he mis-
takes for supercilious strength. Small is
the use of those educated men who in
after life meet no one but themselves,
and gather in parlors to discuss wrong
conditions which they do not understand
and to advocate remedies which have the
prime defect of being unworkable. The
Judgment on practical affairs, political 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. a
harm and not a benefit to the men whom
it serves as an excuse for refusing to
minge with their fellows and sfor stand
ing aloof from the broad sweep of our
national life in curiously impotent spirit
of fancied superiority.
Political Wrongheade dness.
1.-THE political wrongheadedness of such
men is quite as great as that of wholly
uneducated men: and no people could be
less trustworthy as critics and advisors.
The educated man who seeks to console
himself for his own lack of the robust
qualities necessary to bring success in
+AlltlltdH pOilllCS ny ONti iit
degeneracy of the times instead of trying
to better them, by railing at the men
who do the actual work of political life
instead of trying himself to do the work.
is a poor creature. and, so far as his
feeble powers avail, is a damage and not
help to the country. You may come
far short of this dlsagreeable standard
and still be a rather useless member Of
society. Your education, your cultiva-
ton. will not help you If YOU make the
mistake of thinking that 1t is a substi-
tute for instead of an addition of those
qualities which in the struggle 'of life
bring success to the ordinary man with
out your advantages. Your college train
lining confers no privilege upon you save
as tested by the use you make OF 1t. 1t
puts upon you the obligation to show
yourselves 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 eX-
cused from effort in after life that you
are to be excused from contact with the
actual world of men and events, then
If will prove a curse and not a blessing.
If on the other hand you treat your edu-
cation as a weapon the more In your
hands, a weapon to fit you to do better
in the hard struggle OF effort. ana not as
excusing you in any way from taxing
mart IN practical fashion in that struggle,
then 1t VIII be II Deficit " yON'
Working Agreement.
LET each of you college men remember
in after life that In the fundamentals ne
is very much like his fellows who nave
not been to college, and that II ne Is TO
achieve results, instead OF connilhs MN
self exclusively to dsparagement OF other
men who have achieved them, he must
manage 10 come to some kind of working
agreement with these fellows of his There
are times of course when 1t may De the
highest duty of a citizen to stand alone
or practically alone. But II this is a
mans normal atttude-if normally ne Is
unable to work in combination with q
considerable body of his fellows-it Is
safe to set him down as unfit for useful
service In a democracy. In popular gov
eminent results worth having can only
he achieved by men who COMBINE worthy
ideals with practical good sense: who
are resolute to accomplish good purposes,
brt who can accommodate themselves
10 the give and take necessary where
work has to be done, as almost all I'M
mort work must necessarily be done by
combination.
To Achieve Results.
Moreover. remember that normally the
prime object of political life should be
10 achieve results and not merely to
issle manifestoes-saye of course WheTe
the issuance of such manifestoes helps 10
achieve the results 1t Is very bad
thing TO be morally callous, for moral
callousness Is disease. But Inflammation
of the conscience may be just as I'M
healthy so far as the public is concerned;
and If a mans conscience Is always tell
ing him to do something foolish he Will
do we'll to mistrust its workings. The
religious man who is most useful Is not
he whose sole care to save his own soul,
but the man whose religion bids him
strive to advance decency and clean liv'
ing and to make the world a better place
for his fellows to live in land all this is
Just as true of the ordinary citizen III
the performance of the ordinary duties of
political life.
During the last few years much good
has been done to the people of the Phil
ippines; but this has been done, not by
those who merely INDUCED in the person
al luxury of advocating for the ISLANDS d
doctrinare liberty which would have
meant their immediate and irretrevable
ruin, but by those who have faced facts
as they actually were, remembering the
proverb that teaches us that i'll the long
run even the most uncomfortable truth
is a safer companion than the pleasantest
falsehood 1t is these men, the men who