Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-14

genuine and self-respecting are cowed
or run down by the loud and vainglorious.
The decisions of our highest courts are
criticised by men who never studied law
and by lawyers who never tried case
Policies consist now of series of antics.
Integrity seems almost handicap. Public
officials are excused from performance II
they are gifted in explanation.
Crime, always active and persistent,
seems even more aggressive now because
the new method of punishment is by de-
nunc;ation instead of by conviction.
Nearly everybody is accused. but few are
tried. If no crime has been committed 1t
is immoral to charge it. If crime has
those accused are innocent the oft re-
peated accusation is a wicked SANDER. Ii
they are guilty their immunity Is ma
uonal disgrace. Whichever way the truth
may be the present attitude of the national
government is without defense.
THE credit of our people has been as
sailed in accents carried round the
world Their violence and repetition have
achieved their only natural results Con-
fidence the basis on which all friendly in
tercourse depends has been finally de-
stroyed. The laborer deprived Of work is
now demanding government aid as the
next and legitimate step In this new and
frenzied dispensatton. Prosperity. but yes
terday at the food. has leaked away. and
there along the banks are furnaces with
their fires out and idle railroad trains
with workmen sleeping in the cars. And
yet. Vesuvius still continues active The
torrent of vituperation is still tearing on.
and the cry Of the stricken is filing the
land viii men build again while these
eruptions last? Where is the end, and
what?
The Contest Of Today.
1.-THE two great political parties. once
SO proud and militant. are playthings in
the hands of two men whom the intelli-
gence Of the country rejects The con-
test is not of craftsmanship or Of policies;
1t is rivalry to see who can say the
most and worst. No matter which man
wins the country loses. for 1t is at best
only case of competitive unfitness.
1--WE are drifting away from our an
cient mornings and losing sight of the
qualities that have made us powerful and
respected. We are carried by excitement
beyond bounds which ten years ago would
have filled US. with dismay. We have
seemingly entered upon, national de-
bauch. and. whirling the big stick. are
running amuck through the institutions
of the land. A deadly weapon should
never be trusted in the hands of those
too prone to use it. The thoughtful and
breath. and have lost the power to be
They are not convinced. they
are only numb. Speaking is the order of
the day. yet those whom the people
would most gladly hear have lost the
power of speech.
Government is a system which must
be carefully thought out. and the results
even of that elaboration must be eau
tiously applied. That is the plan which
has produced upon this continent a gov
ernment which we believe is better than
any other in the world. We should not
change it now except after long and care
full consideration. Foundations securely
laid should not be uprooted in excite
ment. Plans conceived in the study
should not be overruled in the stable
The best is none too good for us. and the
best never was and never will be devised
by those who do not think. Sane
methods should never be abandoned. no
matter how quaint they are. They have
the enduring things of the world have
been accomplished.
"A most conspicuous example of intel
ligent direction is now in the public mind.
My own state has the honor to present
him for popular examination. Few are
so blind they do not see that his example
floods the country with new confidence
and hope. The best will follow those who
lead the best.
"A leader is not one who excites the
premacy will last only while the bloud
is up. When the fever subsidies the man
who caused 1t is the first man rent. He
is as one who pulls the dam away. He
must run with the nOOd ana can only
last while he keeps ahead. If he stops
he must be swallowed in the gulf and
join the havoc and destruction he turned
loose. 1t matters little what you call the
food. It's destructiveness will not be
measured by it's name. The torrents of
the mountain stream are no more wicked
than the torrents of human passion. 1t
is a race for life with either. rabid
state of mind no more resembles an opin-
ion than floods resemble the beneficance
of rain. We go astray too often on dis
tinctions that are plain. and the outcome
of those mistakes is among the costliest
in our lives.
I'VE sometimes take a passing fancy
for conviction. We forget that public
opinion Is not always what the ajority
may at any given moment cry or de-
mand or denounce. Whoever judges an
utterance without knowing the temper
that produced 1t has only the chance of
being right that goes with any guess.
The excited man says one thing; cast
down. another; morOse or angry. moved
by discomfort or hope. starved or fed. his
varying moods produce varying
speech"
STANTON, Va, February 14.-John A
Stuart. a native of this section and a
nephew of the late Alexander II. I'll.