The Salt Lake herald-Republican. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1909-1918, 1909-09-23
is THERE NOTHING GOOD?


his sandal around there in the sand and
looked off down the valley through his
frown, and spat his melancholy at d
thistle weed-and it was good long
spit, at that. And the Lord asked him
what allied him, and Elijah said. "All
the people are wrong. They can't be
good, and they don't try. I am through
with the lot of them. They aren't
worth while" And he spat again
though it was a good ways to the thorn
bush
Go on says the Lord
We'll. they have all gone to the bad.
and 1 am the only right one that is
left. That's the fact about it. And I'm
through"
But the good Lord, who knew the
people-and even knew Elijah (Which
was more than Elijah did)-smiIed
big, generous, charitable smile. and he
told Elijah that there were thousands
who were good; thousands who had not
bowed down the knee to BaaI: thou
sands who were true to the God of all
the earth, and were honestly trying.
morning, noon and night. to do his will
And that was the fact, of course.
Here is Hampton's Magazine. and
tEverybody's Magazine, and Golfers
Nagazine-and maybe there are more
all telling i'm every issue what a SON
iCf-a-gun the American nation has come
10 be. one of them Huds that the
United States senate is simply a hot
bed of thieves and traitors. Another
Convicts all the insurance companies
not represented by the writer's of the
convictins staff. Others make every
man that lights a kerosene lamp par
ticePs crimnis in the colossal steal of.
all the ages Ard another makes a man
feel as if he had stripped his grand
mother of her Inheritance every time he
gets on a railroad train.
The general tone of these seIf-ap-
pointed correctionists is that the nation
Is wrong; that the people as "a body are
corrupt, and their elected representa-
tives i'm legislative and executive office
are polluted with crime. that the Amer
lean characteristic is wickcduess. and
the tendency to set worse is defeated
only because the bad bottom has al
ready been reached.
What the blank good does it do
Hunt down every one of their muck
rake stories and you find lit is report
ed or 1T is generally believed" or 1T
f. declared by man absolutely i'm DOS
session of all the facts" is the best final
evidence any of them brings as the ker-
mel of their exposures which so dole
fully thunder in the index.
And in the face of their stories. even
If they were true-Which God knows
they are uot-iust as he knew EIiiah's
story was a mistake where it wasn't
apprehension; i'm the face of the
stories, the world goes right along get
ting better, more kindly. more thought
fuI each man of his brother; each .vo-
man Of her sister. The world goes right
along, and the men who work have
more food-aUd better i'm the house
than they ever had before. They have
better clothes, and better entertain
ments, and better schools for their chill
dren, and the door of opportunity is
open TO every one of them-and the ONLY
way to close it is to sit down and spit
at a distant or imaginary thornbush.
or get busy trying to make a success of
crime.
What is the good of the dolefu. the
dirty, the ne-tenths-imagiued? Whom
does it help? Where does it add light
for the toiIer in shadows2 Where does
1t sing to the tired woman, or call good
cheer TO the nottingham? By what
possible chance can it better anybody
excepting the muckraker, who can't get
more than his muck for his ralina9
The stuff has lost the fuzz Of novelty. |
1t once had the single redeoming quail
ity of being new, and that has van
ished forever. Coal oil is cheaper than
il ever was before. Railroad riding is |
easier and swifter and fuller Of COM
fort than ever before. and for less
money. Public officials are working
harder and getting less net money re- /
ward than ever before.
Cut out the crouch. and forget the
Hiu4iIsIuDS' Eet out III tLe sun and the |
wind, and the clear air. And listen to /
the still, small voice of a Providence /
that never lied to man. He viii declare /
the everlasting trUth-that the world is /
getting better every day. And the only /
drag on the feet Of the earnest men and /
women VINO are proving their truth 20 /
him and to every good thing i'm the
world, is the grumbler who doesn't /