Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-01-05
DR.. HOWARD
ON ANARCHY
OF APATHY
FLAYS MEN Indifferent TO
CIVIC Duties
asoME CITIZENS GIVE NOTHING,
NOT EVEN VOTES"
Low Political Ideals Put Crafty Men in
office, but Education Will Neu-
tralize Effects Of
SIoth

Rev. Burt Estes Howard talked on
Democracy and Education" to the City
club Yesterday and he used plain speech.
There are and have been men enough
who will speak for the people and of the
people, wisely and unwisely, he said. The
need Just now is for one who will speak
q sane word, an honest word, to the
people--and he did.
Toere seems to be an impression
abroad. he said, that democratic gov
eminent moves by its own inertia; that
in democracy the government will,
somehow or other, get itself done; that
in the last extremity the stupidity and
s negligence of the people will be neutral
ized by manifest destiny" that lean
and overworked scape goat upon whose
innocent back is saddled too many OF
our political sins and too much of our
political shiftlessness.
II believe in the destiny of nations,
said the speaker II believe that the
power behind evolution is slowly shaping
things after a divine pattern. But God
himself cannot make a good government
out of a bad people, or strong gov
eminent out of a slothful people.
~ believe IN my native land.
with all my heart and with all my
soul 1 believe in the principles for which
she has stood and in her divine posi-
bilities.
3 but a manifest destiny to be of
worth must pass on from possibility 10
fact and become a manifested destiny.
"Destiny is manifest for any nation
that strives to actualize in its life those
civic virtues that make a people intelli-
gent and pure.
"Must Earn Destiny"
"Destiny is manifest for America, not,
however. as a gift of the gods, tossed
lightly into her lap, but as something to
be earned and something to be deserved.
.sWhatever destiny CLEANS before us
Z this day as a shining possibility VIII De
ours only as we, in whose hands are the
civic forces of the nation, are faithful
to the holy trust of citizenship, and,
putting far from us the notion that the
end and aim of government is the eX-
plotting of feverish lust for CONNER
cial spells, shall give ourselves with
fine fidelity to the organization of our
national life in social justice ana poHt-
ical Righteousness.
..rThere is another fallacy that is lodged
in many minds It is the notion that
democracy is the best form of govern
rnent. This is not true as AN unqualified
and abstract proposition. In certain
conditions democracy may be the worst
possible form of government.
Democracy is the best form of govern
ment only for the best and most upright
peoples. Democracy without intelligence
is dangerous. Democracy without intel
Iigence is destructive. Liberty without
self-control is anarchy. Liberty without
conscience is hell.
Far More Than a Machine"
Democracy is far more than a kind
of political machine 1t is a cooperative
commonwealth. 1t is manhood sharing
the burden of state.
''It is | take it, fair criticism upon
the educational institutions of this coun-.
try that their training seems to be more
directed to the development of commercial
capacity than to the training for citizen
ship.
1.-THE development of a commercial
standard of life and a commercial view
point in the approach to vital problems,
10 the atrophying of a broader and finer
political culture, is a danger against
which we cannot too loudly cry warning.
perhaps it is not strange that, in a
country whose material prosperity has
grown with such rapidity that the story
of our Industrial evolution is almost in
credible, the economic side of life should
be unduly emp ASKED.
1.-THE rise of a commercial spirit is as
natural as its dominance of our thoughts
and ideals is deplorabe.
On, Honor, Honest
Some one has said, with as much
truth as wit, that the ambition of Amer
scan youth can be stated in the degrees
of comparison: First, to get on; second,
TO get honor; third to get honest II
this is the fault of our American life.
growing out of the fact that economic
conditions have thrust themselves 50
sharply upon our attention during these
past decades, it is a fault none the less
grievous because it might have been ex-
pected, and It is a fault which it is the
task of our educational institutions to
correct.
1T is quite the custom, and no task Is
easier for the material lies always at
hand, to devote considerable time in every
discussion of political principle to pro-
testing against political corruption in both
high and low places l have neither the
desire nor the intention to enter this
field.
II realize keenly enough the sickening
condition of things throughout the length