The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-01-15
CONSEQUENCES
INCORPORATED.

Editorial in Omaha World-Herald:
In the course of an excellent editorial
discussion of the, demand for national
prohibition, The Duluth Herald says:
Men will not be good because they
have to. They are getting better very
rapidly because they want to. Edu-
cation that will teach the danger and
the folly and the hurt and the waste
of drink is solving the drink problem,
and it is the only way to solve it.
Il II , Giving the prohibitionistS all
possible credit for good faith and good
Intentions, they are tackling the prob
lem wrong enc to when they seek to
compel men to be good instead of
teaching them to want to be good.
Teach men to want to be sober, and
prohibition will come as fast as 1t
should. Try to compel men t ODE sober,
whether they want to or not, and in
purely human ~perVersity they will de-
lay the day of universal sobriety a
very long time"
The philosophy Of this will apply
not to the liquor problem alone, but
to most of the other problems of NOR
arilty and betterment with which So
ciety is contending. We are attempt
ing too much to reform ourselves by
law; too. little attention is given by
each one of us, individually, to the re-
form of himself, individually-not his
neighbor, nor the state, but himself.
The editor of The Christian Advocate,
the Rev. George p. Eckman, stated the
case succintly recently when he said:
There is no denying that our gem
Grafton has an excellent social con-
science. While the sense of individual
sin has been dulled, the realization of
corporate sin is very distinct. There
-~-1o ~
society's obligation to individuals, or
a more intense purpose to make indi-
viduals realize their duty to the social
organism. Wealth joins with proper
ty in protest against every species Of
injustice. Political corruption, is I'M
der the ban of public sentiment. RE:
forms are being advocated everywhere,
and society has a most acute appre-
hension of it's responsibility to make
the world a better place of abode. Yet
the deadly poison from which all the
social iniquities spring, the sin of the
selfish human heart, is regarded as
having no objective reality, but as be-
ing a shrewd invention of theologians
to account for a. disturbed state of So
ciety."
The physician has little desire for
! healing himself, but. with ulcerous
hands, he sets about busily and nois-
lily healing ulcers in Others 1t is so
much easier to point out the sins Of
others, to point out the sins of society,
and to advance methods of curing
those sins, preferable by law, than it
Is frankly to recognize and confess
ones own personal sins and set about
curing them. Hence, as DR.. Eckman
remarks, the social conscience is
keenly alive. and reform by law satur-
ates the air, but 1.-The deadly poison
the sin Of the selfish human hearts,
regarded as having no objective real
itv."
Never mind the morality of individ-
uals; never mind the beam in your
own eye. What does one man mat
ter? Why should the physician both
er abou his own sores when there is
before him the noble duty of making
the world honest, moral and righteous
by statute? To cure an evil by a rig
orous course of Self-discipline, of self
deniaI-to dig out Iby it's roots deep in
ones own person "the sin of the self
ish human hearts, a long and pain
full process. Easier and simpler far to
remove evils instantly by meal of the
Legislature, OF through the initiative
and referendum. Says The Philadel-
phia Public Ledger:
Serious persons have actually come
to believe that without changing in
the slightest degree the character of
the people themselves the nation may
metamorphose it's mortality by chang
ing a few laws. The mania increases
with the practice. Everyone has a new
bill, but none thinks of reforming
himself. Laws multiply, and we are
in a worse state than we were before
because they are not enforced. Thus
Is mortality not aided while disre-
spect for law n authority grows.
= Is The experimenters who. wish
tO nut ZIG in S~Ua d7Iino cIofhoS
should take their theories where they
got their inspiration-back to some
medieval German city or to the France
of the old regime, where every man
was marked, ticketed; where his
clothes, his drink and food were
prescribed for him; where he. was
obliged to go to bed at the hour fixed
and to stand in the gutter, when a
government official passed down the
road; where his windows were taxed
with his salt, and his occupation set
tied for him by a system born of
ignorance and tyranny; where the
spirit and principles of a great, broad
Anglo-Saxon liberty, designed for real
men with the power to take care Of
themselves and a determination to do
1t, was not ven dreamed Of"
IL is coming to be a serious ques-
ton whether a majority Of us longer
Lcany cHeiiSH dIlQ QeSlre, as q, nation
al Magma Charta. the spirit and prin-
ciples of such a liberty-"designed for
real men, with the power to take a
Of themselves and a determination to
do it."
1t is such a burden to take care
Of ones w morals. 1t is such a
heavy responsibility to feel keenly a
sense Of personal accountability for
them. It is such q fearsome task to
seek to cure them by meeting the
devil personally, face to face and
lighting him hand to hand.
Transfer, rather, all the evils, all
the sins. to the shoulders of society:
hold society. rather than each indi-
vidual, responsible; and then. with
each individual free from the neces-
sity of bothering himself about him
self. turn in everybody, shoulder to
shoulder, and reform society BY pass
ing laws!
An adjustable attachment for d
baby''s chair to hold d nursing bottle
has been invented