Bisbee daily review., 1911-07-05

, rames. therefore, should mean as much to us as that of the others Returning to my theme, any one who will famillarize himself with , the history of the proceeding which ! lead 10 the Declaration will note i that the patriotism of the signers ! was Of the deliberate thoughtful ! sort. These men were not carried
 away by impulse They were stu dents of the situation. They | weighed their act time and again. | They sought light from any and ! every source and gave careful heed
 to every argument for and against i the proposition. They were also : tolerant of adverse views. There ] IS 10 evidence to believe that any of them at any time ascribed wrong motives to any of their number ! who may have expressed a view | opposed to his own. In this re- | gard they set us of today an in ' spring example We have had re
 gently and are still having a great | deal Of controversy in this coen | try. Matters concerning the funda | mentals of religion, of social rela- tions. and of government. have been | discussed as never before. This is true in the nation at large and | it is true here at home to some ez- ! tent When conducted in the righ. 1 epirit and ts the sole end that the | truth may be sought and found, con troversv is desirable and in a re- | ,mblic even essential No good however. ever comes from contro- ! versv conducted ip the spirit or ! partisan rancor which rescends to the low plane of personal strife ana ' hate To charge dishonesty ana i bad faith to your opponent is a poor | way of getting at the truth, and ' Is us1fallv the resort of the man ! who .s not sure that the truth IS | with him. and who fears that ne
 may be beaten If he should at- | tempt 10 meet his opponent Tn [ the field of fair and free discussion ! In this land of boasted freedom a man should be permitted 10 take any view whatever whether it be conserF
 alive or radical and advocate 1t on its merits. without behind mobbed by
 rabble. villifed by a newspaper or
 held unto scorn by some cheap pollu
 cal skate who has not the brains 10 | meet him in an intelligent discussion of the matter. Calling names, aspers- iine motives. questioning sincerity or | outrageous lying. may sometimes ne ! effecticve in getting rid of your oppon- ent hut from the standpoint of decent citizenship it is mighty poor business.
 Why cannot public matters be discus sad in this country on the high plane of argument and discusslonF mere is no reason against it that l know i of, unless we must confess mat We are not vet sufficiently civilized 10 carry into public affairs the courtesy | and consideration decent people SlNe | in their private affairs to those with i whom they have to deal. For after all
 when you analyze this personal meth
 cd of attacking your political oppon ] ent you will find that it Is but
 return to the spirit of the time when ! ir was thought right and proper 'hat | differences of opinion should be set tied bv a resort to a club and when i the biggest brute should prevail. We ought to be getting over that period, at least those of us who feel that we have acquired the rudiments of Chris 1 tian civilization should deprecate the ancient Chinese method of political or social warfare which consisted as you 1 know largely in the use of malodorous weapons.
 Fiaht For Principle.
 I I am not arguing against the com bative spirit We should all more or | lees be fighting men If We are not. l am afraid. we don't amount to much ! But we ought to be sufficiently ad- ! vanced in this age and country to | fight for principles and ideas and not wage war on men who have every right, human and divine, to have their own opinions and to express then I freely. Let us not at the same time 1 forget that tolerance of view that
 decent respect to the opinions of others which the declaration men
 tions, is the essential of a truly demo- cratic society.
 ] We are all apt in judging of the nast to ascribe to the actors in any drama of history knowltdge of what afterwards happened. This, of course. | is wrong. and we should in order to { get a real understanding of the qual- ! ity of the men, get it out of our | heads that the signers had any sure vision of what should happen to them l as a consequence. The truth is, these
 men took chances, desperate chances and fully realize that they were do- . ing so It was no mere joke of Frank lins when he suggested that the mem bers of the Continental Congress
 should all hang together or they
 would probably all hang separately" These men were regarded by tie Eng
 lish government as rebels and treason
 was then an offense punishable by
 death. Then. too, any one who reads closely the history of the period will
 see that the sieners were not sure tat
 their act would be sustained by 'hsi
 people of their respective colonies They were taking chances both ways The colonies might fail in establish
 ing freedom and this would result in
 the prescription as a traitor of every
 member of the congress whose nsIDcl
 was affixed to the declaration, or their
 work might be repudiated 4 hom9l
 and their acts discredited. Tee thing
 which, in my judgment, most z g.
 tinguished those men was. the 'tto!e
 moral courage, the determination iel
 do what after mature consideration