Norwich bulletin., 1911-08-19

a recent baccalaureate of President
Schurman of Cornell. He was plead
ing for the individual as against the
crowd. would you abolish poverty,
would you advance civilization" he
asked. Then educate individuals one
by one to be more virtuous. more in
telligent, more skilIful, more indus
trious.'' The comment of the news
paper upon this appeal follows:
Upon the soundness of the plea
there will be general agreement. But
it is creed that has been taught
much more successfully on lonely
farms and pastures than in universe
ties. Still, the creed is a good one to
teach. 1t can never be taught too
often. Better than all laws against
toward self-reform. And perhaps sucn
an impulse was never more needed
than now, for never was the voice or
the crowd more clamorOus, nor the in
f1uence of the crowd more potent. He
who can make sure of his own thought
amid it's noises is philosopher. He
who can stand against its power is a
hero
1t is depIorabIe, it is pitifuI, the way
in which men and women of today are
losing their individual backbones ana
becoming invertebrate supernumaries
in the mob. They have organization
insistently that many have come to
make it a sort of fetch. They have
forgotten that organization is merely
a means to an end, and have come 10
accept it as the end itself. OF course
We must have organiZation-just as
we must have dung-forks to get out
manure with. But who ever heard of
a sensible farmer spending all his life
collecting and preserving and worship
ping dung-forks? He uses them be-
cause he has to for the sake of the
corn and potatoes by and by. When
he's through with them he sticks them
up in some corner and forgets them,
till they're needed again. Organization
is simply a tool to work with-not a
life to live. Yet things have come 20
such pass that millions of people
think they can't work or live unless in
a crowd where they can forever be
tumbling up against someone else when
their own spinelessness makes them
incapable of standing alone
Hall the people in the cities today
are suffering from lack of the very es-
sentials of real life. Their condition
is pitiable and we pity them in fact.
But, when we try to get them out into
thu open country where a chance for
renewing manhood awaits them, the
attempt is almost invariably a failure.
country . so lonesome" You remem-
Der Casca's description of the "foolery''
at Roma when they offered Caesar a
crown which he put by, whereupon the
rabblement shouted "and threw up
their sweaty nightcaps, and uttered
such a deal of sinking breath that it
had almost choked Caesar: for he
sWooned and fell down at it'' 1t
doesn't affect everybody that way, any
more. Millions and millions of people
have got so they must live in the press
and smell of the crowd. or they think
they cannot live at all. They have
ceased to be outstanding individuals,
and have become mere atoms in a
sweltering mass, hardly responsible for
their own souls-except as they, later,
may sadly learn that they have no5
been able to scurf off that RESPONSE
bility.
We are told that when we are at
Rome we must do as the Romans do"
we are urged to sanetify the social
Instincts" we are desired to worship
humanity in the mass as something
vastly higher and better than hunani-
ty in the individual. Oh, bosh! The
river can never rise higher than it's
source, no matter how many clear,
trickling mountain springs unite to
swell it's muddied volume. The aggre-
gate worth of humanity is just the
average worth of the individuals who
it. The only earthly way to
raise the average of that aggregate is
to raise the standard of the individuals
who make it up, one by one, as Pres-
dent Schurman said. You can't pull
up the Atlantic ocean by the roots
It's too big-and too sloppy. But you
can pull up bucket full at a time.
You can't elevate humanity" with
any sort of social jack-screws. But
you can lift yourself and help to lift
some other fellow-a little. if he's will
ing and his boot-straps hold.
Right along that line is where we
have the most fortunate posi-
ton assigned US of any in the whole
battle array. TT is creed that has
been taught much more successfully on
lonely farms and pastures than in uni
versities," says the newspaper. Verify
so. There is something in the life CT
the open lands which tends. not only
to individuality. but to a sturdier and
more effective individuality than any
other which can be named Dilettante
essayists may object to it that it tends
also to roughneSs and angularity and
Possibly this is so. But
even stubborness is better than plant
weakness; even angularity better than
impotent Shapelessn aSs: even rough
ness better than Shiny lubricity The
tree that cannot stand alone will never
make timber-nor even decent cord
wood. The bipad who cannot stand
alone-and walk alone-and grow alone
will never be a real man, or woma 4.
despite seeming and outward re-
SemblanceS.