New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1916-05-17

as understood In administrative circles
which never heard of until read the
newspapers. ! am constantly taken by
surprise in regard TO decisions which
are said to be my own, and this gives
me an uncomfortable feeling that some
Providence is at work with which /
have had no communication at all.
Now, that is pretty dangerous, gen.
tlemen, because it happens that re-
marks start fires. There is finder lying
everywhere, not only on the other side
of the water, but on this side of the
water. and a man that spreads sparks
may be responsible for something a
great deal worse than burning a town
on the Mexican border.
Thoughts may be bandits. Thoughts
may be raiders. Thoughts may be in
vaders. Thoughts may be disturbers Of
international peace; and when you re-
feet upon the Importance of this coun-
try keeping out of the present war you
will know what tremendous clements
we are all dealing with.
1--WE are all in the same boat. II
somebody does not keep the processes
Of peace going. if somebody does not
keep their passions disengaged, by what
impartial judgment and suggestion is
the world to be aided to a solution
when the whole thing is over? If you
are in conference in which you know
nobody is disinterested, how are you
going to make 4 plan?
Disinterested Save World.
81 tell you this, gentlemen: The only
thing that saves the world is the little
handful of disinterested men that are
in il.
Now, have found a few disinter-
ested men. | wish ! had found more.
J can name two or three men with
whom have conferred again and again,
and / have never caught them by an
inadvertance thinking about themselves
for their own interests, and I tie to
those men as you would tie to an
anchor.
IL tie 10 them as you would tie to
the voices Of conscience il you could
be sure that you have always heard
them. Men who have had no axes TO
grind; men who love America so that
they would give their lives for it and
never care whether anybody heard that
they had given their lives for twill
ing TO die in obscurity if only they
might serve.
Those are the men. and nations like
those men. are the nations that are
going to serve the world and save it.
There never was a time in the his
tory of the world when character. Just
sheer character, all by itself, told more
than il does now.
"A friend Of mine says that every
man who takes Office in Washington
either grows or swells, and when
give a man an Office ! watch him care
fully 10 see whether he is swelling or
growing. The mischief Of 1t is that
when they swell they do not swell
enough 10 burst. II they would only
swell 70 the point where you might in
sert pin and let the gases out IL would
pastime that would be more diverting,
except that the gases are probably
poisonous, so that We would have 10
stand from under.
but the men who grow, the men who
think better year after they are put
in Office than they thought when they
were put in Office, are the balance
wheel of the whole thing. They are
the ballast that enables the craft 10
carry sail and 10 make port in the
long run, no matter what the wealth
er is.
$50 have come, willing to make this
narrative Of experience 10 you. have
come through the fire since talked 70
you last Whether the metal is purer
than it was God only knows. But the
fire has been there; the fire has pene-
trated every part of IL; and IL | may
believe my own thoughts | have less
partisan feeling, more impotence Of
party man9uvre, more enthusiasm for
the right thing, no matter whom il
hurts, than ! ever had before in my
life.
And ! have something that it is no
doubt dangerous TO have, but that
cannot help having: / have a profound
intellectual contempt for men who can
not see the signs of the times. | have
TO deal with some men who know no
more OF the modern processes OF poll
ties than if they were living in the
eighteenth century. and for them |
have a profound and comprehensive in
tellectual contempt They are blind.
They are hopelessly blind, and the
worst OF it is have TO spend hours Of
my time talking 10 them when | know
before | start as much as after | have