The Republican journal., 1914-11-19

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William Cunningham, Archdeacon OF
Elv and fellow of Trinity College, Cam
bridge, England, has delivered a course
of lectures on "Christianity and Politics
before the Lowell Institute, Boston, ano
his closing lecture last week was on
..Positive Christian Duty" From a re-
port of this lecture in the Boston Trans
| cript we quote as follows:
Tn stressing the responsibility OF the
individual citizen DR.. Cunningham salu
that the man who sought independence
of party government was throwing MS
time away. "Only by the parties can
we accomplish any great eoo9 lor ..r me
State" the speaker remarked. ln ne
independent who sits aloot, scorhlhg an
things and sneering at all Things, ooes
nothing. He's of no use whatever. In
fact, an attitude of supercllloushess Is III
general to be condemned.
"Much of this desire for lndepenoen:ce
is based on wrong conception o. poiili,
cal parties and of the real motives ana
desires of the politicians. l am feauy W
assert that government is the hlghese
form of human activity. Nothing can
surpass the service of the government
and of the true politician for the welfare
of the State and in turn, of the Whole
world
"Altogether too much Suspicion anu
too MANY charges of misconduct nave
been brought against the men VINO take
part in politics. The simple fact IS tnae
it is the easiest thing in the world TO IN
terpret every one of your own actlohs az
matter of duty and then to turn arouho
and interpret every act that SOMEONE
else does as matter of his self-lnteres!.
81 have met great many men IN pun
lie life in England and been at dl1Ieren'
times very closely associated with tnem'
and want to say that their motives are
usually far higher and purer than the
public Is willing to give them creolt lol'
This is the more interesting as at the
recent Community Efficiency conference
in Augusta precisely opposite views were
presented. Clifford McGlauflin OF Port
land, we'll known as an attorney, ana
member of the Give Righteousness COM
mission, submitted special report on
the subject of 'Party Slavery, In Whlcn
he ouoted the classic utterance OF the
Portland lawyer who declared he would
vote for the devil if the devil was cam
didate for his party. Tnis is perhaps
true in measure, but much less SO to-
day than in the past, and present condl-
tions. in our opinion at least, will sus-
tain the position taken by DR.. Cunning
ham. Independence in voting that can
only result in aiding the party opposed to
the reforms or measures the voter pro-
fessedly has at heart cannot be Justlheo
from any point of view. 1t is not mere
ly vote thrown away; it is half vote
for what the voter believes, or processes
to believe, to be wrong. Of even greater
moment is the statement of DIR. Gun
ningham concerning the charges brought
against public men. These are for the
most part unfounded, inspired by per-
sonal animosity or bitter partlsanshlp'
and are an offence against good citizen
ship. The tendency of such attacks Is
to inculcate a popular belief that our
officials generally are corrupt or lncom-
petent, or both. OF their injustice many
examples could be given. A recent case
is that of Hon. Joseph G. Cannon, ex-
Speaker of the National House OF Rep
resentatives. While Democrats would
naturally be opposed to him on party
grounds, and others might not agree with
him on public issues, there can be noques'
ton as to his ability or his integrity, and
no one should deny his right to hold his
own opinions. Yet in the recent cam
paign he was held up by portion OF the
Democratic press as unfit to hold public
office and as guilty of manifold sins OF
omission or commission. We are not
holding brief for "Uncle Joe, but the
people of his Congressional district have
returned him to Congress by large
plurality over the Democratic and Pro-
gressive candidates, despite the personal
efforts of President Wilson to secure his
defeat. But not unfrequently men OF
ability and integrity have been driven
from public life by charges which have
~ Foundation, in foot