Ashland tidings. [volume] (Ashland, Or.) 1876-1919, 1914-02-16
Reformers and RefOrmers.

Time was when reformer was a
man who initiated a great movement
for freedom-freedom of thought,
freedom of speech, freedom of the
press, and other inalienable rights.
He broke the shackles of tyranny
and liberated the people from the
manticles of suppression, knowing
that even though as a remuneration
for his work he would probably be
burned alive; yet great works usu-
ally arise from the ashes of greater
dreams.
Met on every hand with Kisses and
contumely, he possessed an invulner-
able indifference to popularity; i'm
PEELED only by heroic convictions, he
counted not his own life dear. Such
men were genuine-"men whom the
lust of office could not buy" nor
fame nor applause nor gold.
But, alas, reformation today has
obviously descended into a mere pro.
fession, impelled in some cases by a
gluttony for notoriety, and in others
by pecuniary considerations.
The latest type of reformer Is ar
tifically manufactured by certain
schools" and societies" which ar
bitrarily graduate its candidates in
the craft and craze of 'investiga-
ton" in the fine art of "muckrak-
ing" If these pseudo reformers can
make big exposure" their future
is secured; If they can stir up suffi-
cient agitation to create a demand
for some more hastily framed-up or
dinances or legislation they have
achieved what this day and age calls
greatness. Thereafter their income
is limited only by their power to ex-
aggerate facts, misinterpret statis-
tics and make a sensation.
When one contemplates the money
these reformers CD receive and
spend in dress, automobiles, Pullman
cars, banquets, etca, one marvels at
the contrast between the reformer
that was and the reformer that is.
Restraint, prohibition and social
ism is quite the order of the day.
There is an abnormal tendency just
now to reduce the rights and privi-
leges of the individual and to en-
large the function of the state. The
effect Is already becoming apparent
in the reduction of personality to
lilliputian dimensions and powers.
This abnormal Legislative paternalism
will soon have us mollycoddled into
imbecility. Men of initiative owe
their strength to the oppisitions they
encounter and the difficulties they
have overcome. Positive character
develops moral fibre and sinew only
when it has something to resist.
OF the making of laws there is no
end, but there is limit beyond
which they cease to be a virtue. Abb
normal or unreasonable legislation
arouses only a spirit of dsrespect
and lawlessness. We are assured by
such authorities as Hume, Green,
Fraude and Lecke that the only part
OF the eighteenth century was the
most corrupt period in all English
history. Strangely enough this was
the same period when more laws
were placed on the statute books than
at any other equal time. But SO
barren of results were these laws
that the Society for the promotion
OF Public Morals" Ca body of reform
ers whose method and motto was leg
islation) died off for lack of funds.
In its essence legislation is only
destructive. 1t can never erect a
constructive program. But the de-
struction OF any system involving le-
gitimate factors OF social service is
Justifiable only by the substitution OF
something better. This is what the
ordinary agitator fails to grasp.
f. J. MILNES, Pres.
National Indoor Game Assn,
Downers Grove, Ill.
4.