The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1917-08-23
T TAKES courage to tell
the truth when you know
/, that it may place you in
nfOr<,,nofo Erbt ho-

~
USNN that it may place you in
g&-A an unfortunate light be-
fore the world, and that little
prevarication may save you pain.
1t takes courage and character to
tell the truth when to do so will
be a temporary loss to you. 1t
takes courage to stand up squarely,
with an unfinching eye to look a
man in the face and tell the unvar-
nished truth, regardless of conse-
quences. But the reputation of
being beyond price, of being un-
shaken by any selfish motive, and
under all circumstances telling the
truth, the exact truth, is worth a
thousand times more to one than
any temporary gain from deceit.
A very unfortunate phase of
modern journalism is the tempta-
ton to tamper with truth, to color,
distort, misrepresent it, so as to
make great thing out of a little
thing. The reputation of news.
paper is like that of an individual.
The newspaper which constantly
and knowingly deceives, very soon
gets the same kind of a reputation
for unreliability.
One of the most unfortunate
characters is the man who has no
vigor of integrity, who is indiffer-
emily honest, who prefers to lean
toward the side of right but who
will quibble. will tamper with the
truth, will not tell quite the whole
truth if his own interests are
jeopardized. He may not tell an
outright falsehood but he may
leave untold a truth which he
should tell, but in the end what
such man gains can not be COM
pared with what he loses. He does
not realize that he is taking some
thing away from his manhood.
How often do we find that
crooked methods do not pay, and
that even as working principle,
honesty is the best policy.
Look at the history of business
concerns in this country and see
how very few of those which were
doing business fifty years ago are
even in existence to-day. Many of
them sprang up like mushrooms,
made a good deal of noise in the
business world, did lots of taking,
advertising, and fourished for a
a while, but they did not last long,
because there was no character
standing back of their enterprise.
Still, great many people believe
in the expediency of an untruth as
"a policy. They believe that it pays
to deceive. y
I believe there is a great deal of
Indian in all of. US. We do not
forget favors, kindnesses, or in
juries. On the ground of the
weakness of all human nature, we
may often forgive things which
still sting, but when we have once
been deceived by a business house,
travelling salesman, solicitor, a
clerk, or a neighbor, we do not
forget it, and that house or clerk
loses our confidence forever. Mis-
representation in any form is the
shortest-sighted policy in the
world. No man ever built up a
permanent position or an institu-
tion upon it, or ever will. For the
man who gets temporary advan-
tage by Misrepresentation makes
everybody who finds it out his en-
emy forever after. 1t is human
nature never fully to trust a per-
son again who has once deceived
US.
Is their any power in cunning,
in shrewd, long. headed, deceptive
methods that can for a moment
compare with the truth, with alb.
solute integrity9 There is no ad.
vertisement in the world, in the
long run, that can compare with