Palatka daily news. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1919-1994, 1921-10-11
LET US ALONE"

Main Street Alone.
Upon this text or theme, lifted
from tn. enerveless pages Of Mere
dith Nicholson's "The Man in the
Street." The New Republic lets loose
salvo after salvo of its heaviest Big
Berthas straight at the vitals of
what is called "well-off, good natured,
comfortable, pseudo progressive Am
erica" 1t has little patience with
Mr.. Nicholson's complacent doctrine
of "laisser-faire" in Gopher Praries,
and his expounding of the Craving
| for emotional comfort"
Mr.. Nicholson doesn't want to be
disturbed from his morning nap, like
himself, are or like livers. Here is
the Nicholson plus the Main-Street
thesis as nailed to all the doors Of
Gopher Prairie:
"What really matters as to Main
Street is that it shall be happy. We
can't merely by taking thought, lift
its people to higher levels of aspira-
ton. Main Street is neither blind
nor deaf; it knows well enough what
is going on in the world; it is not to
be jostled or pushed by condescend-
ing outsiders eager to bestow sweet
ness and light upon it. 1t is not una
ware of the desirability of such
things; and in its own fashion and
at the proper time it will go after
them. Meanwhile if it is cheerful and
hopeful and continues to vote with
reasonable sanity the rest of the
world needn't despair of it. After all,
it is only the remnant of Israel that
can be saved Let Main Street alone!"
1t might be content to be merely
"happy" in a Observation-Disclosures
way, but it really ought to cherish
a divine discomfort, if it is ever to
| get anywhere, and to get somewhere
is the ambition of every "red-
blooded" American. So The New Re-
public throws at Mr.. Nicholson a
. solid but beautiful ingot of counsel
: from John Morley, as follows:
i, "If there are some who compro-
; mise their real opinions, or the chance
j or reaching truth, for the sake Of
gain, there are far more who shrink
/, from giving their intelligence free
disturbed certain luxurious spiritual
sensibilities. This choice of emotional
. qualification before truth and unright
dealing with ones own understand
ing, creates a character far less un.
lovely than those who sacrifice their
intellectual integrity to mere ma.
: terial convenience. The moral flaw
is less gross. Yet here, too, there is
J the stain of intellectual improbity
! and it is perhaps all the more mis-.
chievous for being partly hidden un.
; der the mien of spiritual exaltation.'
1t looks as if Morley had visions
of Gopher Prairie and of American
Normally" even before Mr.. Lewiss
revelation.
But such a virile and disquieting
philosophy is not for Mr.. Nicholson
and the other hundred million" of
him, as he characterizes them. AL
.hough the American is supposed By
other people to be the most FESTIVE
Of men, to I've the most alert and
most DESTROYS of change and prog
ress, Mr.. Nicholson seems to idealize
him as man absolutely content
with what he has done or received,
and to root himself at ease" at
some Gopher Prairie or other Lathe
an wharf"
There are he cheerfully ex-
claims, always the Jealous laborers,
the fit though few, who incur sus-
picion, awaken antagonism, and suf-
fer defeat, to pave the way for those
who will reap the harvest of their
sowing. There are a hundred mil
lion of us and it's too much to ask
hat we all chase the same rain
jow."
Therefore, chase none. "Let us
alone"
Mr.. Nicholson, like millions of
self-satisfed persons, is afraid to
face the truth about America and
Americans. These people do not de-
sire OF have the real facts of our
life portrayed or photographed. But
the facts, the truths, are there, no
matter how we mask or shun them.
And they may not, indeed, be so
fearful as Mr.. Nicholson and those
of his way of thinking seem to sup
pose them to be. These facts and
truths-if impaired" in the Hard
ing sense-can not be mended until
thoroughly known, and we shall not
set our mental and moral houses in
order until we know precisely what
rubbish cutters them up.
The New Republic doesn't want US
70 go to sleep on this job. It's a
mans job, if we look at it right. It
5 what William James would call
"a moral equivalent of war;" 1t is
war;" and a war in which there is
no discharge, and no thorough going