Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1909-07-22
Says Men Are Not
Created Equal

is II unconscious class loyalty, or
conscious individual perversity, that
makes some moralists of intelligence
and honest repute play fast and loose
with the plain principles of human
equality? OF course that question
is for such moralists themselves to
answer--and TO themselves. II Is
none of our business. We only Won
der, And II sometimes we wonder
urgently; let 1t be remembered that
legalized robbery of workingmen,
and the physical and moral lives of
hosts of little children, are involved
in the issue. who can help wonder
ing, and possibly with some un-Chris-
ton feeling, when Dr. Parkhurst, for
instance, joins the band of confu-
sionists? He says that men are not
created equal" and mo amount OF
trying to be equal, and no amount of
leveling legislation will make them
so" Not at his saying this thing is
there reason for critical wonder, for
il is true; but at his saying this true
thing with false implications in be-
half of great industrial parasites.
DR. Parkhurst distinctly implies, in
a signed editorial in the Hearst pa
pers, that the inequalities of financial
condition in our day are because
Some people have a talent for maxi
ing money! which sis a gift, as much
30 as painting or sculpture or ora
tory" and "a thing that cannot be
put into man II he hasn't 1t nor
legislated out of him If he possesses
it, This is false and misleading
suggestion to account for colossal for
tunes.
The ''doctrinaire" Indictment to
which Dr. Parkhurst enters those
special pleas has no reference to per-
sonal qualifications. Some men may
indeed, as he says, be born TO be,
six feet tall" while Others are born
to be Eve feet ten" But what of 1t?
The brain of some men may be of
finer quality than that of others
But what of that? A few may be
"constitutionally gifted and the
great mass be plain and ordinary
But where is the relevancy? Some
may "have talent for making
money" But the real issue is wheth-
er legislation shall be maintained
which enables them legally to exer-
else that talent at the expense of
the plain and ordinary" No amount
of "leveling legislation may make
men equal in money-making." But
has not un-leveling legislation made,
and does it not continue to make,
gross Inequalities in money-gettipg?
and is not this the grayamen OF the
Indictment which Dr. Parkhurst
moves to quash? When men born
to be tall tower high up into the sky.
instead of rising six feet from the
ground, 1t behooves moralists to lift
the immaculate drapery and see If
these magical 'six-foot men may not
ne standing on the heads of five-foot-
tens, and eights, and fives, and four
and-a-halfs. Likewise when some
men without working have larger
incomes every hour, many of them
enormously larger, than competent
and Industrious workers get IN a
week for hard and useful work. In
stead of slurring over the social reg
ulations which MAKE this possible,
men of moral light and leading
would approve themselves better to
the plain ordinaries" If they asked
themselves penetrating question
and squarely answered It,. They
should learn whether the incomes
which DR.. Parkhurst relates to tai
ent for money making that cannot
be legislated out, may not in fact be
largely due to talent for taking
advantage of un-leveling social regu-
lations tnat ought to be legislated
out. How legislated out? Is that
the interrogative retort we hear? 1t
is futile question until the other is
answered. The how must follow the
wish, and not precede it. Are our.
social regulations un-leveling? If
they are, do we wish to abolish their
un-leveling factors and influences2
Let these questions be answered afr
firmatively, not with perfunctory ac-
quiescence but from the heart, and
the effective how may not be difficult