New Britain herald., 1916-02-15
Value of Reputation.
Rochester Post-Express. )

(ltocheSter POSt-EXpreSS.)
 The skipper of a British trawler who refused to take on board the crew of Zeppelin which had been winged and was floating helpless on the sea, decided for himself, as he had a per- feet right to- the line of duty he held to be eXpedient for him. The crew of nine men on his unarmed fsherboat had no weapons of any kind and did not find at all alluring
 the prospect of taking twenty-two lusty Tcutons on their craft, each of whom may have had a pistol in his pocket. Their airship had started or was returning from a raid on Eng land, and they would have felt a natural reluctance to go there for in ternmcnt during the rest of the war The skipper. unsl<illed 1ogician though
 he was. possessed a noetic faculty somewhat highly developed for an untutored man, and considered it's more than likely that his passengers would throw him and his fisher crew German port.
 Naturally the TeutonS protested that they would not do such an un- kind thing as that. and represented themselves as men of rare and re- markable scrupuosity in matters of this sort But the skipper was a eau tious man. Experience had taught him that everything that glittered was not gold and that everything that sounded like veracity was not truth, or gold and truth would both be commoner and cheaper than they were, He bethought him of the pean of joy that would go up in Ger many when the Zeppelin sailed into Wjlhelmshaven with their captured ships and lined up on the wharf to receive the iron crosses their clever strategy had earned them. He re- f1ected that people for whom treaty was a scrap of paper would not be likely to consider of binding obli- gation a mouthful of hot air, and having his life. his craft and his reputation for sagacity at stake, he considered it unWise to risk them on such security It might be a safe investment, but it was the only life and craft and reputation he possess ed, and he thought it imprudent under the circumstances to make the NeD- k ture.
 The fact of the matter is that repr- tation for honor is flower that can be raised only by aSSiduous culture from pcdigreed seed. When once per- feCted it is a rare and beautiful bloom of priceless value, worth all ;hn trouble it cost to grow it: but il can not be developed hastily to meet Q sudden need. There must he a life of earnest endeaVOr behind it. We need not argue that the instantaneous generation of a fine sense of honor 1* not among the possibilities. It might occur and in the most unprOmisinr soil; but the reputation which makes a spoken word pass current as read. iy as a coin With an eagle and olive branch on it is of painfully slow growth. As the bishop of London sadly but impressively put it: "Tho Germans have killed chivalry in War fare" The ideals on which their gov ernment acts are supposed to be their own; and while this supposition does great injustice to hosts of indi- Vidual Germans. it is the only hy- pothesis on which their enemies cor- sider it safe to act. Frightfulness be- ing 8 national policy: the burden Of proving that it is not an individual policy rests upon the man who says it is not. and satisfactory evidence on this point is not always easy to advance.