Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-05-27

them have an opinion to express,
TNHERE is superstition that obsti-
i nately survives to the effect that the
average man has and can have no ap-
preciable effect on the course Of events
save when his vote is counted He writes
something on a slip Of paper, in his club,
In his association or In the civic balloting
place, drops It into a box and says:
"There! 1 have had my say. Today, for
once in my year of insignificant toll 1
register my opinion" AS matter Of
fact. if he only knew It, he could vote
every day.
There is another superstition, that the
world is full of people clamoring to eX-
press concrete ideas on every question Of
Importance and that kings, presidents
and employers have to wear ear-tabs If
they would listen for a moment to their
own thoughts. But the very men Who
foster the superstition rarely express
their own convictions to any more re-
sponsible potentate than the nearest bar.
tender
II boiis down to this, that "the man of
ideas" tells you what he will do when he
is boss, but as it will be some time be.
fore he becomes boss, he sees no reason
why he should make his, ideas adapt
themselves to and clearly determine some
important and immediate issue. No, no
his scheme is too good for that. He can
do nothing definite until full power has
been reposed in his hands
Nearly every motion that is made in
the Parliament of Man is carried by de-
fault. 1t is carried by the few determined
men with strong opinions The rest fol-
low. 1t was not Desmoulins. Danton or
Robespierre who made the French Revo-
luton, but Rousseau, with his little pam
phlet, which stated an opinion very
clearly. The pamphlet reads rather
trtely now All the great things, re-
marks George Meredith, are trite. The
Colonel never quailed before the charge
that he had discovered the Ten Com
mandments. He felt complimented. But
1t is that which makes so many of us
hate to express an opinion-because 1t
sounds stale because some great man mas
already expressed it, We prefer to see
what queer notions we are capable of con-
ceiving about business or politics to show
our "originality" ty"-"Don't take me too
seriously" we add; Il may be wrong"
And then along come two sturdy, COM
nonsense and clearly thought-out
though trite. opposing programs, and we
meeky subscribe to one of them. For
the big men never say they may be
wrong. Before we are capable of dis.
agreeing with great man we must learn
to be original enough to agree with a
great man. 1t is positively refreshing
sometimes to hear man with the cour-
age to state plain, old-fashioned aNioms
among men whose opinions are formed
by the same motion with which they open
their mouths.
A case in point occurred during sui.
eide epidemic" of students several years
ago. A professor told the student body
that it was wrong to commit suicide.
Many thought he had uttered a futile
commonplace. They had Nlked of over
work." difficult courses" insanity" etc.
But the professor hit the nail on the
head. Suicide was not crazy or ugly but
just plain wrong. And it is true that
there are thousands of men worrying
about complicated routes to success in
life without ever having decided the basic
question whether they were firmly re-
solved to hold on to that life even if it
should face disaster.
Opinions are life-savers. Right opin-
ions, even in a wild world, are keeping
that wild world fairly tame, most of the
time, They can only be built upon def
mite faith and they and not cannon are
the only things that can send wrong
opinions to oblivion. Two oligarchies, one
composed of a few good men with opin-
ions and the other of few bad men with
opinions, fight TO run the scheme of
things. One does not wait TO be boss to
have opinions. When one has real opin-
ions he is boss.