San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-08-09
THE GREAT ARE KIND

In the aftermath of an event that has
caused poignant sorrow, men are wont
to express greatest appreciation OF human
qualities which they had considered only
lightly or hardly at all; qualities which
they had not particularly strivcn to de-
velop in themselves. This disparity OF
appraisements describes one OF the
|strangest of human traits
When the nation had sustained the
first shock of the news that President
Harding was no more, men paused to
consider wherein he had been great.
Newspaper correspondents in Washing
ton and San Francisco, and in various
places between, dwelt most largely, as
though by Encouragement, upon one
characteristic of the late chief executive.
OF course it had not been pre-arranged7-
except by human nature. 1t was not of
politics or government that they wrote.
With one accord they devoted their
talents to exposition of quality that
is rot usually associated with the politi-
cal or tie governmental quality that
sometimes seems the very antithesis OF
these which commonly distinguish &C
tivities in such fields.
Warren G.. Harding had been kind.
Not that there was no other quality
to distinguish him. Not that his other
Qualities had been forgotten. But the
world, which is prone to underestimate,
and sometimes fails even to consider,
the considerable, compassionate nature of
men at the time when their Kindness
is an actual force in human affairs,
awakened to the value OF that quality
too late to encourage it in one who had
displayed it in such great measure.
Politically there could be little war
rant for comparing Warren c.. Harding
with Abraham Lincoln. Politically each
of them had severe critics, and for
time the memory of Lincoln was not
revered in some parts of the country.
But in the personal trait mentioned, the
parallel between two men is easily rec
ognized. What was i in the emancipa-
ton President that the world thinks
of and dwells longest upon when his
name is mentioned? Not his politics" !;
not this or that official act; not even
his outstanding political tendencies or
his governmental policies. In the worlds
picture of him his character, his worth.
is delineated by his kindness.
All truly great men are kind. They
are considerate. They are tolerant. They
are patient They are forbearing. These
qualities are the basic elements of true
greatness. The opportunity to build
upon them great superstructure OF
fame, to express them in the form of
deeds that have a perceptibly material
effect upon human affairs, may come
to man in high position, as it came
to Lincoln. Or circumstances may with
hold the dramatic moment, and confine
one to comparatively prosaic, routine
affairs, affording now and then an oc-
casion for relatively inconsequential ex
preston of ones inherent virtues.
But whether the occasion is the poi
soning of faithful dog by the vicious
hand of so-called human, or an intense
moment in the annals of nation when
hatred is rife and the future depends
upon words as well as upon deeds, true
greatness manifests itself in the same
tway. 1t condemns the ruthless. 1t lays
sympathetic hand upon the suffering.
1t ondeavors to alay fierce passions.
1t speaks in the voice of compassionate
understanding.
After all, the basis of true greatness
is true understanding.