Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-08-16
THE MAN IN THE STREET
USUALLY HAS HIS WAY
His viii Was Expressed in the Fair
mount Park Sunday Recreation oeci'
sion Yesterday and Is Always the
Real Power In America

T EADERS in the Sabbath association
Lwil be wise if they admit defeat and
rest their case peaceably where the court
left it by the adverse decision Of yester-
day.
Judge Stakes refusal of an injunc-
tion to prevent Sunday games in Fair
mount Park leaves radical sabbatarians
| still free to make prosecutions under the
| blue laws. But the arrest of an occasional
! tennis player or raids on baseball games
would be worse than futile. Such
procedure would do irreparable damage
| to the larger cause, which is most un-
! fortunately involved with propaganda
| like Doctor Mutchler's.
The people want the open air and they
have every right to it. They are sick of
uplift by force. They are utterly weary
of the restraints imposed upon them by
egotistical groups which have been
bringing more of energy than wisdom to
agtations in Congress and elsewhere.
Dictation and edicts and orders were
well enough during the war. Any one
who looks about the country now can
see that the people are again in mood
to run their own affairs and direct their
own lives.
It was not theory of law that inter-
vened between the Sabbath association
and a closed park. 1t was the collective
will of an intelligent majority which
Judge Stake clearly interpreted in his
opinion.
An educated public opinion is better
defense of any nation than armies with
| banners 1t is the one sure prop of
democracy For the great menace Of any
free government does not come from the
outside but from within. 1t recurs at in
tervals in cliques or groups which, exist
ing without any of the responsibilities of
government, still persist in the belief
that they arc superior to the state.
Militarists have been the peril of other
countries Here at various times big
business or political party assumes
ominous aspects. Labor more recently
has been manifesting signs Of the peril
GUS deluson which, in minor way, al
ficts the animating genius of the Phlla-
delphia Sabbath Association.
The collective mind of the country is
tolerant and sober and it has the dlstln-
gushing characteristic Of patient humor.
1t will endure anything up to given
point Then it withers and destroys
whatever opposes it.
Occasionally you will hear people talk
of a control of public opinion. One might
as well talk of controlling the four winds
The average man in America is never
misled. His mind cannot be controlled
because it is always progressing. His
opinions are formulated out of his own
living experience. He has been reading
the world and he is able to read men and
events. 1t is because he is patient that
the mass opinion which he represents is,
in the end, cruel and relentless. 1t is
even guilty of atrocities.
But in the end it keeps the country
pretty clean.
Henry Ford tried to control public
opinion. So did the Chicago Tribune
when it called him an anarchist A jury
the vehicle of public opinion-has just
decided that they were both foolish and
futile.
Policemen have tried to control public
opinion by energetic suppression of the
rules of free speech. They show only
that innocence still persists in the world.
The mind of the country abSorbs all it
hears and fortunately is able to digest it,
Mr.. Ford, even in his worst moments
adds something to human knowledge. So
does the Tribune and so do the Bolshe-
visits and so does Doctor Mutchler. They
provide the pepper and salt of conVen-
tonal discussions. The people know
when they have too much seasoning in
! their mental food. In Detroit bolshe-
vism ragged for time. wise police
administration didn't try to suppress it
by force. 1t let the Bolshevsts talk
themselves out and toward the end the
reddest red couldn't even draw crowd.
Among the astonishing phenomena Of
the time is the alacrity which lazy
minded Congress displayed when after
a good many months of absolute silence,
! the voice of the people actually made
itself heard with a chill query relative
to living costs in the United States. 1t
was the country that spoke then and
Congress knew that the affairs of its
long-suffering boss had to be attended to.
It was the collective mind of the United
States that understood Mr.. Wilson when
the politicians didn't. 1t understood the
politicians when the President didn't
understand them. 1t is even now formu-
latng the judgments which will be final
in history. 1t is forcing the President
and the Senate alike into reasonable at
titudes-because the mass judgments of
free people are always wiser than the
judgments of any one man.
Even so able a man as Mr.. Wilson
believed that he could control public
opinion. In the end it is public opinion
that is controlling him and forcing him
to realize that this is a constitutional
government The country at large was
the first to sense the Presidents earliest