The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1914-01-06
TUESDAY, JAN. 6, 1914.
VTRILlTY.

Time was when it was the accepted
opinion that a man, to be masculine,
must be something of a s~washbuckler.
Even today there are those who con
tend that a certain ~looseness of morals
is necessary if a man is to live out to
the full the possibilities of life.
But is this a sign of intense virility?
Is it not q fact that he who keeps
himself under subsection is the real
master of men?"
And how about a nation? Is it a
sign Of real greatness to have a
grouchy national temper and to slap
the face Of some smaller nation, when
the little fellow shows his smallness
by sticking out his tongue?
Harper's Weekly has the following
answer to these questions in an ex-
cellent editorial:
One of the most energetic thinkers
OF our acquaintance has written us a
protest about the Mexican policy Of
the administration. He says:
Il like your kind Of feminism which
says women may do more, but l lOathe
the Bryanistic middle-class feminism
NlilStl says IIlGll 6IdIl 10 ItSSI L nat
stops fighting, swearing and wars for
conquest. In faith, the only e~Xcusable
war Is a sure thing war Of %nqu
when the superior brushes the inferior
race. That's progress. Vars between
equals are much less likely to make
for progress. The other chautauqua
feminism that is abolishing capital
punishment and all other masculine
spOrts-niX. l think your old pal Will
Snn iS tTnfJhlaH with fhDf No taolr q
piece of Mexico, before, for the basest
of reasons. Aren't o glad We did it?
If not, would you give it back? The
old hymn says, dare to do right Any
body dareS to do right. What a ma
ton needs now and her is q man who
dares to do wrong-to other nations
like various Romans. Peter the Great,
Bismarck and most English except
Gladstone. I was for Wilson until he
got sentimental in international poll
tics. In this zeal for the higher, softer
civilization, he is keeping civilization
from spreading naturally . He's q
damned vegetarian, l believe"
There is, in the first place, a vast
difference between doing what you
think to be wrong at the time, and
what you later decide was wrong. The
general conscience Of the country was
not against the Mexican a although
the conscience OF certain enlightened
individuals like Abraham Lincoln was.
The conscience Of the white man was
not against the general treatment Of
the Indian, although it would have
admitted the faults Of individuals.
Moreover, any one who reads the his
tory of Pennsylvania and William
Penn viii realize that the Indian could
have been put into a subordinate place
without crime. 1t is something Of a
CIin IN Inoin t@ oh $500
part of the worlds history, and OBJ
serve that it included progress, and
therefore to Justify all that was done.
Is it not probable that progress would
have come without the particular
faults, and that it would have been
a higher progress? The world is not
perfect, and it might have been bet
.er If man had been guided by kinder
motives. Mr.. Wilson's policy in
Mexico Is exactly the opposite of timid
)r soft. 1t takes a great deal Of bold
less to state to the world that the
United States will take the spoons
>ility Of avoiding war, and at the
Iame time of skillfully steering the
Mexican revolution toward an out
'ome which may have some zeal ad-
7antage to the Mexican people. 1t
axes much more courage for Wilson
o pass a genuinely lower tariff. and
hen to proceed to a currency bill, and
hen to pass right on to graphing
With the essentials Of the trust prob
EN-, h it would to send some
oldlers down to Mexico, to get a few
4 them killed, and a few Mexicans.
( we are to use masculine as a word
I praise, is 1t not more masculine to
rapple with the profound economic,
Industrial, and ethical questions of
oday, than to initiate the violence of
he past?
A country becomes great by carry
1g out greatly the ideals of it's own
me.