The Mena weekly star., 1910-01-06
A NATIONAL FAULT
AMERICAN SUBMISSION TO OF.
 FlcIAL lNSoLENCE.
Citizen Is Too Prone to Stand with Hat in Hand Befcre His Hired Man-Some Plain Talk
 Necessary.


 The Scot who boarded a British warship and sent word to it's captain that "one of the owners" wished to see him asserted fact which few of us have the backbone to stand up to-; that the humble masses own the earth by right of having paid for 1t with their more or less hardearned mon ey. It would seem as if we, the pro prietors of the everglorious republic, are especially meek in regarding our hired men," from the president down, as our masters rather than our paid servants, Frank M Bicknell says in Lippincott's. We allow ourselves to be browbeaten by public and quasi public officials to an extent that amazcs the foreigner A titled Eng lishman recently wasted much temper in learning that an American rail- way conductor is allowed to be almost as autocratic as the captain of an ocean liner Among the few "strang CTS in our midst" who have really sue ceeded in silencing a toplofty parlor car conductor is Max O'Rell, and the did 1t. by bursting out with a threat to pitch him through the window about the opening of which they dis agreed.
 It is not the highly placed officials. however. but the petty jacks-in-oillee who are the most bumptious; their belief in their own importance appears to be in direct proportion to their spe- citic levity. A smart young clerk in certain suburban city hall once tried to snub and make needless trouble for a quiet. shabby. elderly man who had requested an item of information at his counter, To the young fellows discontinue. the old gentleman revolt ed so far as to free his mind as fol lows:
 My friend, let me ask if 1 am in your service or you in mine. I'd all ways supposed my tax money helped you and these other chaps here to work for the city to the best of your ability. And as I'm a citizen of the city I'm one of your bosses. and ob- ject to being treated as if 1 was no better than dirt; besides which, on your own account. yon want to be a little mite civil. or some day you'll be bunting another job. It never struck you in just that light before, maybe. but it's so all the same
 A little plain talk of this sort, con veying a wholesome lesson. is needed much oftener than it is given. Most of us submit to domineering rather than make fuss. being surprised, in- deed, If we don't get it. If the police man on the corner, when we ask him a direction. responds with anything better than patronizing condescension. we are absnrdly grateful We ap- proach the box office of theater, or even the desk of hotel. as suppli- eants. ready to cringe at the expected rudeness or rebuff In the trolley cars, of the large cities at least. we avoid personal intercourse with the men in charge. and look for only the curtest replies if need forces us to lnterrogate them.
 However, there is something to be said on the other side. and if we do feel moved on occasion to put one of these high-and-haughty officials in his proper place. let us do 1t good-tem. peredly. not forgetting the hint given by certain street car company in it's printed notice to the effect that while courtesy is to be desired from the conductor, its practice is not unbe- coming in the passenger.