The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1915-07-11


difference between an oak tree and a
cactus is that the oak. responding 10
various positive and negative condi-
tfons of light and heat, has developed
a wonderful internal road system for
/ the distribution of the vital proto-
plasm of the earth. So the oak lords
l IL in the forest mills, buildings and
furnishings of the world. while the
cactus boards it's seanty drops. with
barely life enough to protest with Its
ithorns.
Now let us move up abruptly to the
summit of the subieet-rhe ethics OF
1.-THE road, where happily the whole
nation is beginning TO arrive. have
INDUCED myself. perhaps at too great
length in these material and histori-
cal reflections. in order To lay in the
hroades and deepest foundation for
the particular argument to which the
f circumstances of my own stormy life
have committed me. and which is the
life blood of this convention.
The highway of American life, in
stead of being the universal inspirer
and helper of the people, debases,
misleads. mires. mains and murders
multitudes. Ihe pathway TO pros
perity and independence has too many
/ blind alleys, that turn out to the
/ scrapheap. the prison, the mad
house and the grave. And just
as along with every muscle Of
/ the body. runs an attendant
nerve of clean, gray brains
to give it. power, purpose and moral
direction so there is a broadening
white line of public sentiment that is
I the soul of the road, and IN these
Fetf fffffnatfTIg. Fascinating days, lights
up rle highway philosophy with the
81 IT,. rirfa
shops ships and railway stations
Safety First"
Read Must Be Made safe.
The road. where men must walk In
weakness, WEAKNESS and ignorance.
must be made safe 1t must be made
! free from preventab bic sinkholes. where
life. fortune and character stick and
smother. We, of orderly lives and
steady habits, familiar with every rut
and rotten plank in the brief ways we
travel. are apt TO forget the stream
iof men behind, who do not know
who cannot know. who travel in the
dark and in emergency--tsae reckless
{ the defective, and, to our shame, to
Know bloody. rayenous, gray wolves
of human kind. that make loot and
Blechery the purpose and business OF
1.-THE road. But if prompter delivery OF
mail and merchandise. and to diminish
/ the tally of crushed bodies of men,
broken legs of horses and shattered
wheels of wagons. are important, as
certainly they are, the blighted pros
I poets, dissipated Ideals, broken homes
land stranded souls of men are more
important, and these are equally perils
of the road For while only the strong
| and gifted few break new roads, all
men follow roads. They are created
ts no. trg rs
man movement is Hanged. so to
speak like car wheels, and tends to
keep to the way. And 1T is by no
means an extrayaeant generalization
| to say that as the road is, so are the
| people, in any country. And a Chris
titan road is indispensable to Christian
civilization.
! BY "a Christian road" I mean simp-
| ~ a road that tends to save the lost
land the confused. Any railway man
ager will tell yen flat even necessary
switches are a peril to the line and so
are sparingly put in. But the high
way of American life fairly bristltes
/ with open sidings, falsely showing
4 safety lights, that run, point blank,
4 into the ditch. without one atom OF
counterhalancing utility. | have crawl
ed out of the wreck to devote my
/ broken life against one OF them--the
worst of them-but your clear minds
4 will make the analogy TO them AT.
The CHASTITY tragedy of organized.
/ standardized. commercialized vice on
1.-THE one hand, with the pitiful farce of
empirical charity on the other. Is,
at the last analysis. but a story of the
degradation OF the road, where char
acter. as well as feet and hoofs and
wheels. must travel
/ 4 Road 20 Ruin.
The saloon is the supreme example.
because it Is the only licensed turn
stile into the criminal dumps and pitt
! falls. that make up the hell OF human
damnation while alive. 1t Is peculiar
NV road problem Where the most
men and the weakest men and boys
must pass, the painted door is set
swinging. to catch the poor, the ig-s
/ norant the reckless the homesick
1.-The discouraged and silently shut them
into the reek OF a leprosy that eats
I Off the fingers of opportunity eats
laway the lips of truth. eats out the
I eyes of ambition, and the heart OF
hope Just at the point where Chris
I tian civilization ought to brace and
cheer q faltering man. 1t shunts him
downward, byt the iegalization OF the
saloon. ~
The; liquor trade. with a brazeu.
lArntNi ma gnifsrence Of effrcntery nf-
tiers to submit to police surveillance
lstx organized hoy-haitlr !. wi fe- heating