The Hawaiian star., 1910-04-23

that he does his work ill. But the
reward must go to the man who does
his work we'll, for any other course
is to create a new kind of privilege
the privilege of folly and weakness;
and special privilege is injustice,
whatever form it takes.
To say that the thriftless, the lazy,
the vicious, the incapable, ought to
have the reward given to those who
are far.sighted, capable and upright,
is to say what is not true and cannot
be true. Let us try to level up, but
| let us beware of the evil of leveling
down. If a man stumbles, it is
good thing to help him to his feet. Ev-
cry one of us needs a helping hand
now and then. But if man lies
down, it is a waste of time to try to
carry him; and it is a very bad thing
for every one if we make men feel
that the same reward will come to
those who shirl1 their work and to
those who do it.
Let us, then, take into account the
actual facts of life. and not be misled
into following any proposal for achiev-
| ing the millennium, for recreating the
! golden age, until we have subjected
it to hard-headed examination. On
! the other hand, it is foolish to reject
proposal merely because it is ad-
vanced by visionaries. If a given
scheme is proposed, look at it on it's
merits, and in considering it disre-
gard formulas. 1t does not matter
in the least who proposes it, or
why. If it seems good, try it. If it
proves good, accept it; otherwise re,
ject it. There are plenty of men call
ing themselves Socialists with
whom, up to a certain point. it is
quite possible to work. If the next
step is one which both we and they
wish to take, why of course take 1t,
without any regard to the fact that
our views as to the tenth step may
differ. But, on the other hand, keep
clearly in mind that, though it has
been worth while to take one step,
this does not in the least mean that
it may not be highly disadvantageous
to take the next 1t is just as fool
ish to refuse all progress because
people demanding it desire at some
points to go to absurd extremes, as
it would be to go to these absurd eX-
tremes simply because some of the
measures advocated by the extrem
lists were wise.
LOVE OF LIBERTY.
The good citizen will demand lib
erty for himself and as a matter of
pride he will see to it that others re-
ceive the liberty which he thus
claims as his own. Probably the best
test of true love of liberty in any
country is the way in which minori-
ties are treated in that country. Not
only should there be complete liberty
in matters of religion and opinion,
but complete liberty for each man
to lead his life as he desires, provid-
ed only that in so doing he does not
wrong his neighbor. Persecution is
bad because it is persecution, and |
without reference to which side hap |
pens at the moment to be the perse-
cutor and which the prosecuted. Glass
hatred is bad in just the same way, |
and without any regard to the indi-
1yiH NI-hn OF OiU CIR hGti
tutes loyalty to a class for loyalty to
the nation, or substitutes hatred of |
men because hey happen to come in
certain social category, for judg- |
ment awarded them according to
their conduct. Remember always that |
the same measure of condemnation |
should be extended to the arrogance |
which would look down on or crush |
any man because he is poor, and to |
the envy and hatred which would |
destroy man because he is wealthy. |
The overbearing brutality of the man
of wealth or power, and the envious |
and hateful malice directed against |
wealth or power, are really at root |
merely different manifestations of the
same quality, merely the two sides of
the same shield. The man who, il |
born to wealth and power, exploits
and ruins his less fortunate breth-
ren, is at heart the same as the
greedy and violent demagogue who
excites those who have not property
to plunder those who have. The
gravest wrong upon his country is in
flicted by that man whatever his sta.
tion, who seeks to make his country
men divide primarily on the line that
separates class from class, occupa-
tion from occupation, men of more
wealth from men of less wealth, in
stead of remembering that the only
safe standard is that which Judges .