New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1914-02-18
AND REFoRMERs-

man who initiated great movement
for freedom-freedom of thought,
freedom of speech, freedom of the
press, and other inaliensble 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 usual
ly arise from the ashes of greater
dreams.
Met on every hand with Kisses and
contumely, he possessed an invulner-
able indifference to popularity; inn
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 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
tificially manufactured by certain
SCHOOLS" and societies" which arbi-
trarily graduate its candidates in the
craft and craze of investigation, -
in the fine art of undertaking
If these pseudo-refo rmers can make
a. big exposure" their future is Sc
cured; if they can stir up sufficient
agitation to create demand for some
more hastily framed-up ordinances
or legislation, they have achieved
what this day and age calls great
ness. Thereafter their income is lin
tied only by their power to exagger-
ate facts, misinterpret statistics and
make sensation.
When one contemplates the money
these reformers ca receive and
spend in dress, automobiles, pullman
cars, banquets, ETC., one marvels at
the contrast between the reformer
that was and the reformer that is.
Restraint and prohibition are quite
the order of the day. There is an
abnormal tendency just now to re-
tduce the rights and privileges Of the
individual and to enlarge the func-
ton of the state. The effect is al
ready becoming apparent in the re-
duction of personality to illipution
dimensions and powers. This alb
normal legislative paternalism will
soon have us molly -coddled into I'M
becility. Men of initiative owe their
strength to the oppositions they en-
counter and the difficulties they have,
overcome. Positive character devel-
ops moral fiber 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 virtue. Abnormal
or unreasonable legislation arouses
only spirit Of disrespect and law
lessness. We are assured by such
authorities as Hume, Green, Fraude.
and Lecke that the early part of the
eighteenth century was the most cor
rupt 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" "a body of reformers whose
method and motto was legislationl
died off for lack of funds.
In its essence, legislation is only
destructive. It can never erect
constructive program. But the de-
struction of any system, involving
legitimate factors of social service.
lis justifable only by the substitution
of something better. This is what
the ordinary agitator fails to grasp.
To be continued
F. j. MILNES, Pres,
National Indoor Game Assn,
Downers Grove, III.