The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-08-05
Daily Business
 Editorial
Reward Of Meanness
By RICHARD F. JOHNSTON

By klCaAND r. JOf1NS lON
 Dick Wilmington walked to Lon don barefoot boy having heard and believing that the streets of the metropolis were paved with gold. He found only mud and cobble- stones. Had he been low-spirited and mean of heart he would have drifted into the slums and become a pariah there.
 But he tackled the cobblestones and the mud, seeing the gold that comes of endeavor despite diff culty, and he became lord mayor of London. The mean, the envi- GUS and the little-m minded fail be- cause instead of graphing the cart where success of others shows the right lead, they whimper by the wayside and declaim against their fate.
 Samuel Johnson, another poor boy, went to London with an empty stomach and an emptier pocket book. He starved for many a year until recognition came. Come it did in the long run and, despite the privations of early youth, he lived to an advanced age, the lion of literary England.
 Oliver Goldsmith, an Irish boy, had no money and no influence. He, too, came to London and he likewise sr ent many days and nights without food and sometimes with out raiment. He also earned the fame that came of effort. No poet stands above him in pure beauty and charm of verse or warmness of poetic coloring.
 Abraham Lincoln was as poor as any of them. So was Andrew Johnson. They bore poverty with smile and they buffeted obstacles with serene courage. They did not try to pull others down. They were too busy pulling themselves up. With clear vision they regarded the path ahead, not the pace of those struggling beside them.
 The mean man has. never at tained. Meanness denies achieve ment. Meanness causes other men to distrust and hold aloof. Success depends on how others view us. Others must be used or the ladder will not be climbed. Men will not hold the ladder for him who ob- structs and tries to tear down. They sense danger
 They slew Caesar and hastened the empire. When Caesar fell the republic crumpled. They killed him because he was big. Many small bore men and fanatics like Brutus crowded about him like wolves on Q stag's trail and bore him down. A herd had lost a leader. It was easily stampeded into the very thing which Brutus senselessly thought he was stopping.
 Many an organization of human beings formed for purposes of up- lift has failed because it allowed small and mean men to take the helm. Many have failed because chosen or self-appointed leaders have fed them on hate and envy and led their minds to mean and destructive thought and method.
 One of the most pitiable features of civic backwardness in this in- clination to hearken to house-top orators who scream malice and ex- coriate their fellow man. It is pitt full because it is denial of progress. It is doubly pitiful where such men are official leaders of the sincere and honest whom they mislead and misguide.
 Enlightenment comes albetit with slow pace. One by one the fiery eyed and the hate-breathing spokes- men of good men are thrust aside and one by one men of discrimina- tion come to the front. By piece meal men learn that the men whom they condemn are the same as themselves and that there is com. mon ground where reasonableness of attitude will bring much more than mere denunciation and excori ation.
 The world is much less violent o1 speech and thought than it was The rash, mean and envious fine leadership of short duration. It i
 mere matter of being more sensi
 ble and that is what the world i
 getting to be.
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