Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1913-01-09
OLD GOSPEL IN NEW DAYS.
Woodrow Wilson talks well and sa.


Woodrow Wilson talks we'll and says
things. Here is one of them:
Many an honest man, many a man
who has been unimpeachable in his in
dividual conduct. has nevertheless en-
gagged in transactions sometimes in this
country which did not square with the
principles to which he held himself in
dividually-partly out of ignorance.
partly out Of haste, partly out of the
exigency of doing great things in a
short space of time.
Il do not feel that you can draw an
indictment against any part of our
business community. They have large
ly sinned in ignorance and in thought
less haste. But we have got to square
the biggest things with the simplest
standards of morality and obligation.
1T Is not a task for the casuist. 1t
is not task for the man who will
draw fine-spun distinctions. You have
got to lay down the great measure
ments Of morals, and square by them.
1t has got to be done slowly, because
some men need a lot of education. 1t
has got to be done tenderly, because
if you can educate man there is no
use killing him before you have ed
ucated him"
Some may say that Wilson is talking
platitudes; but perhaps those would
so consider the ten commandments
The fact is that every moral principle
has been said over and over again in
one way or another. Theodore Roose-
velt's and Woodrow Wilson's platitudes
are simply immortal truths repeated
There is only one good rule for hon
esty in business and out and that is to
be as honest as the individual knows
There is only one real measurement of
the square deal and that approximates
the golden rule. No man ought to DO
to others what he would not that
others would do unto him.
It's pretty hard in the stress of bust
ness and of bitter competition to stick
inside the limits of the golden rule
Sly as you keep it it isn't always easy
to be honest in a world where dishon-
esty often gets the best of it. But dis
honesty is dishonesty just the same
and honesty is honesty. We can't
change or adapt them to competition
or business. A square is of equal Sides
So is the square deal.
1t is true that law doesn't make
men honest but an honest law is the
expression Of honesty. It isn't made so
much to make men honest as to give
honesty a chance to stay honest and
remain in the competition. 1t is true
enough that dishonesty soon or later
exposes itself. 1t is also true that
when one goes down another bobs I'D.
The law isn't the test of honest deal
ing. Many man stays within the law
as crooked as a dogs hind leg Some
persons keep shrewd lawyers to tell
them how close to the edge of the peni-
tertiary they may skate without Slip
ping. After all the only real test of
the man is the man. The law can't
make him honest but proper laws
breed new conditions and new con-
ceptions Of honesty.
We are at high tide in an era of
money making which began with the
civil war, and has continued thru the
various phases of army contracts. bond
speculation and manipulation. land
grabs and combination often with less
consideration Of the morality than of
the possibility of putting it over"
without getting pinched. Mighty manip-
ulations Of great and shady deals have
been common. There has been the
greatest volume of legitimate bust
ness; not all who have grown rich
have done so thru privilege or ipjus-
tice. We have grown very rich in this
country. 1t is perhaps little strange
to us when our selected leaders and
wealth.
Roosevelt and Wilson are making
a new sentiment, teaching an old les
son, old as the sermon on the mount
and the golden rule. Better than that
they are striking a responsive chord
from every class of the American peo-
pie rich as poor when they condemn
privilege and claim for all equality un-
der the law, best of all when they
preach the gospel of individual re-
sponsibility In business morals.
Let those who in their blindness see
ahead only a battle between avarice
and a proletariat talk as they will.
There is a finer vision plain in the
future, the vision of a greater America
wherein the idea Of freedom which the
founders Of the republic held shall
come to Its full flower. Essentially
this is people honest as it is great,
hopeful as it is mighty, strong in the
spirit of good as it is rich in the ma
terial. And 1t shall come to its own in
the fullness of its time.