The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1911-10-10
THE R DEBT TO THE
RADICAL
NEW IDEAS. AT FIRST PILLORIED AS REVOLU-
T1ONARY. ARE JOHANNESBURG OF
HUMAN PROGRESS
BY ROBERT L. GRAY.

blessing. The world would stagnate
without him. Whether it raise him
up or put him down, it profits by his
activities. Whether he do good or
evil in his immediate works, the rad
ical points development. 1t may be
the development of progress. it may be
the sanity Of revulsion that he incites;
but it is to the discontented man, to
the man Of egotiSm. even to the man
of Authorization. that all the forces of
order and system owe their original
inspiration.
The earliest radical is lost beyond
recall. Perhaps he was the first Of
those mythical apes, p~rogenitors of
the human race, who stood on two
legs instead Of four. Maybe he was
the first weakling child, born to the
age of the cave-dwellers, who refused
~cornplacently to die.
1t was but q step from the radical
ism Of the individ ual brain to the rad
icalism that exerted it's power on the
brain and understanding Of the col
~lective community. No doubt, in the
beginning, these pioneers were isolated
stoned, killed; but they set up a con-
tagion which worked like fire in the
blood Of their oppressors. Where
they differed from the mass, the mass
followed. The radical bui,ded on the
radical he destroyed, as the coral
builds on the innumerable Of
it's predecessors. All learning. all
advancement. are the result Of mental
shocck. They mean the reconcilia-
ton to strange conceptions; the vision
adjusting itself to a flash Of light.
Moses. Democrat and Radical.
Moses, The ~lawgiver. was Of the
greatest of all radicals. He was the
original apostle of revolt, the first au-
thentic tribune Of the people. The
miracle Of Moses is not the dividing
and closing in Of the Red Sea. not the
pillar of cloud by day and Of fire by
night. nor yet the mama and the
quail, 1t is the miracl Of his virgin
mind.
Moses had to lea with a people
whom long oppression had brought to
the condition Of cattle. Their lives
were spared only hat they might la
Dor. He had to deal with the most
powerful Of the worlds a~utocracies.
In a subject race he had first to plant
and then TO nourish the desire of a
forgotten initiative. He had not only
to inspire action. but to reate a ems
Of wrong. But, most wonderful Of
all, lie had himself to educate, out of
his own habit of ease. into popular
sympathy with the people of his race.
He had also to win the confidence Of
the poor and humble away from their
national and instructive suspicion Of
the rich and fortunate.
Tile exodus from Egypt, the classic
wanderings Of the twelve tribes in
the Wilderness, is perhaps the most
dramatic and f~arreaching radical
movement in history. 1t sounded the
first note Of that fundamental democ-
racy Of man which, through Greece
and Rome. in England and in France
III politics and religion and life, has
become the imperishable heritage Of
the @ges.
But. as all things are the products
of beginnings, the democracy Of Mo
Ses-if his daring may be SO called
lived in his idea and not in his deed.
What he gave the children of Israel
was chiefly hope, but a hope bound up
in fear. Moses knew the hypnotic
power of tyranny. He was no senti-
mentaiist, no Weakiing possessed Of
an ideal. He had smashed the divine
right of the Pharaohs: he substituted
himself as the true inheritor Of the
divine commission.
Moses knew his people-their
strength. their f~ickleness. their weak-
nesses. He made no mistake Of trust
ing them too far. Sinai Numbered
with a purpose. The statesman in
those days, no less than in these. was
careful to exhibit the warrant for his
commands. The great lawgiver, hav-
ing created a. Sentient force out Of an
inert mass. must nave realized the
dread responsibility Of having given
life to a Frankenstein.
Moses was a democrat and a rad
cal. He gave birth to a tremendous
principle: but he was a practical
imam 1t should shock no thoughtful
mind into the se~If-accusation Of ir-
reverence to say that the leader of the
IsraeliteS counted among the by-prod-
ucts of his genius the faculties Of a
politician. He vas conscious Of his
strength. n he knew the weakness
or his cause. He realized The clay Of
ignorance with which he had to work,
and he put the fear Of the Lord into
its heart.
1t must have been true that The
man who had such q tremendous vi
sion. such a revolutionary passion for
the liberty Of his people,. despised
them almost as much as he iayad
them. with all the fervor of a Jes-
uit. moses made practical application