The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-10-10
(Munsey for October.)

its quaint "reminiscences. who can re-
call. unless he hears it, the slang that
fell SO glibly from the lips Of yester-
day?
Only, the a that was discarded q
generation ago may come back into
fashion. Slang never does. Ideas do
not. The one gets ultimately into the
dictionary Tne others become, final
ly, a rule of conduct, a formula Of
reason.
1t is not necessary to go to the
stock examples of Calico and Copper
nicus to realize the persecution, the
cIamor, and the ridicule with which
new thought is met before it con-
the principle. Religion is full Of
them. Life progresses as it comes
into shamed recognition Of that which
it las laughed to scorn. Civilization
is the product Of its own self, the con-
victicn of its own folly.
Take the popular word radical
What does it mean, other than that it
reflects some pioneer mind, some
acutely sensitive temperament, some
SpOngelike inspiration as to that with
which the future is ripe? 1t is one
OF the mysteries that humanity will
not only pay in suffering, but Will
fight to suffer, for a foolish content.
Liz 1SiS ~ oiA -
that of sloth. The most cruel, the
most assertive. the most vindictive Of
all instincts is the shut-eye quality
which refuses to see a emf be-
cause it is the possession OF the body,
Yet in every age there have been
those who not only have seen the
blemish, but "a insisted upon put
ting it to the knife. Through all
time there AVE been those who have
dared TO think against the p~recedentS.
And it is just these mental pioneers,
these spiritual insurgents, who have
raised the standards and have laid
down the principles upon which a
more or less distant future has plant
ed itself. and which it has followed
What is radical today is apt to be
"progressfve' tomorrow; and what is
progressive tomorrow may be the
fundamental conservatism Of the day
after, fighting for its head.
Just at present there is a deal Of
a about men and measures denom
mated progressive" So far have
they won in the popular phrase. Yet
q few years 6 suggestions that are
now forming into positive national
and International issues would nave
been called not only radical. but an
archistic.
For example. when William Jen-
nings Bryan returned a hero from
abroad. and threw away what slender
chance OF the Presidency he might
lave had by declaring for govern
mental control of railways, who could
foresee Judge Gary asking the gov
eminent to fix the price at which his
corporation could sell steel products ?
Yet NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. radical that
he may be-is IN this and other sub
jects already safely conservative.
George Washington was SO full Of
radicalism that he fought for it, and
Won.
Thomas Jefferson was so radical
that out of his strange and unheard-
OF theory OF government was born a
Constitution combining the individual
ism Of republican Greece with the CO.
hesiveness Of imperial Rome at its
best.
Lincoln was so radical that a world
to which slavery in it's every form
had become a commonplace at first
reviled him, only to canonize him a
few years later.
To go farther back. for even now
the full force and effect of his pro-
nouncements are just beginning to be
felt. it was John Marshafl's uniquely
radical mind that welded the theory
of the Constitution into The practise
OF government; so that we find the
United States Supreme Court today
marking out and d~elineating the &C
tivities and the uses Of the very ag-
gregations Of capital which the adj
calism Of Marshall in the first in
stance made possible.
Theodore Roosevelt was the preem-
inentiy modern radical, simply be
cause he applied to the statecraft OF
q republic the speech, the passions
the elemental sense Of justice of the
people who made it.
The Stimulus e< Free Thought,
Before a brief survey Of the serv-
ice of @radicalism and radicals te
fho ideal ut 1ih0rtJy oOras50. %AoA -
be a radical implies a state of minG
which may be either constructive OF
in tendency and effect
Consider, also. that radicalism. goo<
Or bad. shocks into reformation tn,
existing state of mind. which need
just this stimulus OF free thought t.
continue virile.
From this angle the radical. failur
or success. prophet or anarchist. Is