The Redwood gazette., 1920-10-06
WHAT WE NEED.

IN GOLFERS WEEKLY of recent issue, is
comprehensive article by Bruce Barton. The
Il article is entitled "What We Need in Busi-
ness" and in it Mr. Barton shows case by case,
how everyone is crying down the other fellow; the
farmer is damning the railroads, the railroad men
are condemning the men higher up in their pro-
fession, the employer is finding fault with the
employed and the employed is fault-finding in his
attitude toward the "capitalist." Everywhere
there is lack, deporable lack, of good COM
mon old-fashioned faith; faith in each other, in
our principles of government, faith in the good
old U. S. A. and all that stands for. Near the
close of his article Mr.. Barton makes this defn-
ite plea for little less of destructive criticism
and little more of confidence in the leaders of
the nation.
among the newspapers of a certain city are
two of the highly respectable" sort; both indig
nant enemies of Bolshevsm according to their
lights. Yet by their grumbling pessimsm they
are really pro- Boshevist. For the readers of one
of them told every day that Cox is a charatan;
and in the other Harding is pictured stuffed
shirt and nothing more Either Cox or Harding
is going to be the next President of the United
States. And what want to know is this: How
in the world can you expect the in the street
to respect the Government when the leading pa
pers of the country assure him day by day that
the men who the Government nothing but
charlatans and fools?
''Its time for note, it seems to me: time
to quit this grumbling gloom about our institu-
tions and the picked out to run them. The
institutions are all right; they have made us a
mighty nation in little over hundred years.
The chosen for office are honest like the rest
of US, fallible like the rest of u.s. and ADLER than
1f 4l~ 81. l.
Mr.. Harding and Mr.. Cox; but whichever one of
them is elected 1 am for the government of the
United States. To sneer at the Government has
come to be regarded sign of superior intelli-
gence. But what does that sort of superiority get
us In the shape of progress, anyway? There is
a certain very old and intellectual newspaper in
this country and this is it's record of grumbling
futility: 1t criticized Lincoln until Lincoln was
dead criticized Grant until Grant was dead; crti-
cized Mckinley until Mckinley was dead; criti-
cized Roosevelt until Roosevelt was dead. 1t is
now having its daily fling at Harding, and when
he is dead it will write condescending editorial
about him, and Immediately begin to lament the
incapacity of his successor, who will persist in do
ing everything wrong. l would thousand times
rather believe in the greatness of the average
man, and be occasionally disappointed, than spend
my life in faultfinding because no man is perfect
And l sometimes wonder what sort of country
this would be if every business man in it would
start the day by saying to himself: Il am citi-
zen of great nation; it is being administered by
a pretty fine crowd of men, on the whole, and 1
going to do everything in my power to help
them to make good.'
would we have better administrations, or
worse, if that were the atmosphere in which they
administered?
Such an attitude toward the nation and it's
officials would reflect itself inevitably on our
relations with each other. The problems of capital
and labor are essentially spiritual problems Men
who have faith in one another do not quarrel We