Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1913-06-02
THE PENALTY GOOD MEN PAY.

Call the roll of the men who have
tried in a big way to serve the peo-
pie and you will see that each one
paid price.
Lincoln was an APE" "baboon,"
"demagogue,' and he died a mar
tyr's death.
Altgeld was an anarchist" and
calumny shortened his life.
Implacable SANDER formed the in
cessant setting in which Tom John
son worked.
Golden Rule" Jones was tagged
as irresponsible" and the attempt
was made to discredit his public SER
vices by insinuations that he wasn't
all there" 1t is curious to recall
now that one of the evidences cited
against his sanity was the fact that
he slept out of doors.
Brand Whitlock, whose married
life is singularly charming, had to
face intangible stories of wife-beat-
ing-ludicrous to those who know
the beautiful comradeship in his
home, but poisonous among the un-
informed.
Ben Lindsey's battle with the
Beasts venom has been widely told.
SANDER was his daily portion.
Against Louis d. Brandeis' private
lifo M mud hoe WIT haan thrown hut
New England is full of false and
malicious attacks upon his profess
sional reputation.
La Toilette had wheels in his
head" Bryan was "howling dema-
gogue" and first cousin to the wild
est-eyed anarchist" Joe Folk a
ruthless egotist;" Hughes a "Bap-
tist fanatic" and even Woodrow Will
son liar" and migrate"
And lastly Barrett O'Hara, head of
the Illinois commission which re-
vealed the connection between vice
and under-payment, is under that
most insidious type of retaliation,
the form of attack most difficult to
defend, a charge of misconduct with
a woman.
Among those who think, the ques-
tiOn of O'Hara's personal character
is far secondary in public Importance
to the question: What shall he done
about the facts which the Illinois
vice commission has been uncover
ing?
Shock after shock has been i'm
parted to the conscience of the
American people by the raw truths
which O'Hara has thrust into public
view in the performance of his nee
essary, usefur and courageous service
as a social investigator
From one end of the land to the
other these disclosures have affected
public opinion and started impulses
toward the betterment of intolerable
industrial and social conditions.
For this great work in behalf of
social justice he deserves ungrudg-
ing praise.
And now we have to face the ques-
tion whether the value of his service
is to be obscured by a diversion of
public interest from the main issue
to a bypath of personal attack.
Always, when cornered, the beast
fights in this way.
We refuse to go into any discus
sion of the charges against O'Hara.
Compared with the tremendously
significant, the vitality important, ma
ture of the public issue which he and
his commission have raised, this in
lection of scandalous retaliation is
trivial and beside the mark.
Keep to the main question, is our
advice.
Remember that no great service
for humanity was ever performed
without the doer of it running this
same risk.
Crucifixion in some form is the
worlds invariable price of moral ad
vance.
But brave men and women arr
found in every age, in every place
who are willing to pay it.
Were 1t not SO, our civilization
would rot.
The suffragists are charged witt