The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1910-04-23

him fight hard. The good citizen is
not a good citizen unless he is an
efficient citizen.
But if a mans efficiency is not
guided and regulated by moral
sense, then the more efficient he is
the worse he is, the more dangerous
to the body polite. Courage, intel
lect, all the masterful qualities, serve
! but to make a man more evil if they
are used merely for that mans own
advancement, with brutal indifference
| to the rights of others. 1t speaks Ill
! for the community if the community
worships these qualities and treats
their possessors as heroes regardless
of whether the qualities are used
rightly or wrongly. 1t makes no
difference as to the precise way in
which this sinister efficiency is
shown 1t makes no difference whe-
Their such a mans force and ability
betray themselves in the career of
money-maker or politician, soldier or
orator, journalist or popular leader.
If the man works for evil, then the
more successful he is the more he
should be despised and condemned
by all upright and far-seeing men. To
judge a man merely by success is
abhorrent wrong; and if the people
at large habitually so judge men, if
they grow to condone wickedness be-
cause the wicked man triumphs, they
show their inability to understand
that in the last analysis free institu-
tions rest upon the character Of citi-
zenship, and that by such admiration
of evil they prove themselves unfit
for liberty.
The homely virtues of the house
hold, the ordinary workaday virtues
which make the woman a good house
wife and householder, which make
the man a hard worker, a good hus-
band and father, a good soldier at
need, stand at the bottom of charact-
err. But of course many otehrs must
be added thereto if a State is to be
not only free but great. Good citizen
ship is not good citizenship only in
the home. There remain the duties
of the individual in relation to the
State, and these duties are none too
easy under the conditions which ex-
list where the effort is made to carry
on free government in a complex, in
dustrial civilization. Perhaps the
most important thing the ordinary
citizen and above all, the leader of
ordinary citizens. has to remember
in political life is that he must not
be a sheer doctrinaire. The closest
philosopher, the refined and cultured
individual, who from his library tells
how men ought to be governed under
ideal conditions, is of no use in actual
governmental work; and the one
sided fanatic, and still more the mob
= leader, and the insincere man who
to achieve power promises what by no
possibility can be performed, are not
merely useless but noxious.
THE VISIONARY CRANK.
The citizen must have high ideals,
and yet he must be able to achieve
them in practical fashion. No per-
manent good comes from aspirations
so lofty that they have grown fantas-
tic and have become impossible and
indeed undesirable to realize. The
impracticable visionary is far less Of
ten the guide and precursor than he
is the embittered foe of the real re-
former, of the man who, with stumb-
lings and shortcomings, yet does in
some shape, in practical fashion, give
effect to the hopes and desires of those
who strive for better things Woe to
the empty phrase-maker, to the
empty idealist who, instead of max
ing ready the ground for the man of
action, turns against him when he
appears and hampers him as he does
the work! Moreover, the preacher of
ideals must remember how sorry and
contemplate is the figure which he
Twill cut, how great the damage he
will do, If he does not himself in his
own life, strive measurably to realize
the ideals that he breaches for others.
Let him remember also that the
worth of the ideal must be largely de-
termined by the success with which
it can in practice be realized. We
should abhor the so-calied "prac-
tical" man whose practically as
sumes the shape of that peculiar base
ness which finds its expression in
disbelief in morality and decency, in
disregard of high standards of living
and conduct Such a creature is the
worst enemy of the body polite. But
only less desirable as a citizen is his
nominal opponent and real ally, the
man of fantastic vision who makes