Evening star., 1908-01-11
PARKER WAKES UP
CALLS ROOSEVELT "UNTUTORED
IDEALIsT," OTHER THINGS.

an assen1blage of political associates of
his home county of Ulster former Chief
Judge Alton B. Parker of the court OF
appeals, democratic candidate for the
presidency in 1904, spoke last night OF
the causes of the recent ''credit panic
and OF what he considered the dangers
of putting ''untutored idealism'' in charge
Of the nations affairs. The occasion was
dinner given by fourscore or more Ul-
ster county democrats, at which Judge
Parker was the guest of honor. Judge
Parker spoke as follows:
'It is from the aggregation of small
elf-governed. self-controlled and self-re-
liant communities that the nation itself
is formed. To take from us our individu-
ality. as some have thought 1t would be
well to do, to make us the appanage OF
some central dispenser of destiny. would
be to cap that individuality which safe
guards the liberty Of the people.
"Shail we not then hesitate to exchange
that which all history has taught US is the
backbone and the sinew Of freedon-local
in the proposition that we are best ruled
from a central spot are best governnd by
the whim, the pleasure, or. IL you will,
the skill and learning of any Individual?
Shall we not raise our voices to preserve
intact for those who are to follow US that
which has been won for us and handed
down to us by the struggles and hard
ships of our predecessors? Shall we not
be jealous of tendencies which in our
rulers trench upon the underlying prin-
ciples on which we depend? How much
more so. my friends, when we mark open
aggression. when uninformed men. raised
to power by the accident of popular en-
thusiasm, exhibit the results of untutored
guessing in those realms of government
in which the more experienced walk care
fully, and exploit theories which are in
fact but self-evolved from the vagaries Of
their inexperienced minds.
Some Ancient Fallacies.
But stay: New? Novel? Original?
Nay. not at ALL Old as the hills. Tried.
found false and rejected time out of
mind. Therefore. my friends-despair
not of the republic Strew no ashes upon
your heads. Clothe yourselves not in
sackcloth. The false gods glitter and
| shine, it is true. for a day; but plain.
old fashioned common sense comes in
sufficient time to the saving Of a long
suffering people Why should we deny
| that we are human? Why should we
claim that we are superior beings and
| cannot be led away for a time by clap
trap and tinsel: by frothy verbiage: by
old notions of universal panaceas allur-
tngly tricked out in glittering phrase?
Why. thank heaven, we still all are young
and we affirmartvely claim the right as
a tribute to our juvenescence to be led
| away, from time to time, by imprac-
ticable idealisms so long as they be
couched in alluring If non-logical phrase.
/ What matters it to us-sO we feel in the
humor-if stark staring madness be the
day OF national intellectual debauch-if
/ all the world be gone merry-mad to-
gether.
our present chief executive. He has
opened our eyes. He has bound us in
dissolubly together. He has taught us
to rely in the last analysis upon each
other and upon ourselves. against him
self and against all others like him. He
has shown US that peace, plenty and
prosperity are no guarantee if we guard
not our constitutional rights by putting
in Office constitutional rulers. At time.
fortunately. when we gould endure 1T has
| he taught us in practice. the bitter les
son that untutored idealism. that theory
untempered by experience, that callow
youthfulness of intellectual develop
ment become dangerous when let loose
upon an entire community.
| "To what cause can we attribute the
| nrofound uncertainty in the stability OF
| the attending conditions of property.
| which has resulted in the throwing over
Of the evidences of stored-up wealth by
the entire community-in the abandon
ment of those forms of property which.
being visible. can be attacked and q
grasping instead by the community.ap-
| parently, only for the purpose of useless
retention-of actual money; the one form
of wealth which becomes dead when re-
tanned. but possesses that one quality
now temporarily regarded as all-impor-
tant-the capacity of being concealed?
| The answer is to be found in the simple
fact that there has been a determined at
| tack upon property as such.
Our General Prosperity.
L
belief of the world. Our. conditions are
so prosperous that our railroads need
the expenditure of billions of dollars to
enable them promptly to distribute our
| products. Our population-true index of
| favorable conditiols-rises by great
boundsxA - Our lands are titled In ever-in-
creasing areas. Our agricultural condi-
| tions our manufacturing conditions, our
mining conditions improve and improve
almost visibly from day to day
"Yet amid all this a great unknown.
lundefined dread-a fear that we shall