The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-30
Human Nature
DOOR human. nature seems to be the goat.
 If anythnig is the matter with yo
By DIR. FRANK CRANE

nOOR human. nature seems to be the goat.
 If anything is the matter with yo scheme, blame it on human nature. Your ideas, plans, institutions, theories and conspiracies are of course all right they break down because they have only faulty human nature to deal with.
 For thousand years or so theologians in- sisted that human nature is as full Of mean ness as drug store ice cream is full of bacilli. It is still considered a self-evident platitude ing to plunge into crime. All that holds him back seems to be Mrs. Grundy, policemen, fear and hell fire.
 All of which do not in the least believe. On the contrary, human nature is a deal better than any institution or theory it has ever produced.
 Human nature is better than any laws made to govern it. It is better than all gov ernments that undertake to regulate it. It has more inborn goodness than all the re- formers who are trying to improve it.
 It was human nature that made life toler- able under the tyranny of ancient Rome, and livable during the filth and darkness of lmediaevalism.
 It isshuman nature that antidotes the crazy narrowness of the fanatic, alleviates the merci- less processes of business, and tempePs the cold arrogance of science.
 Human nature sprouts up eternally, as the wild flowers in the woods, and not all the barren excellences of civilization can kill it. It is not law nor gospel, it is human nature, that makes mothers love their little babies husbands and wives cling together for better or for worse, strong people care for the weak and aged that makes children happy, grown folks industrious, and old persons content; that keeps rich people charitable and poor people brave.
 Your milennial schemes are good enough" it is said, If it were not for human nature. It is that which prevents your, having t!..e ideal school, ideal state, ideal church, and ideal society" This is not true. For it is precisely human nature which, if we would but believe in it and give it free course, would speedily make the ideal real.
 It is conventions, customs, institutions and all such fearsome ghOst-powers of the past which thwart the wholesome impulses of living men and women.
 All systems built upon a contempt of hu- man nature go down. That is why criminal laws that are inhuman are futile and that is why prisons increase crime. That is why bloodthirsty creeds have been driven away. That is why tyrannies perish in revolution
 Whoever despises common human nature becomes cynical, and often vicious and per verted. Whoever believes in human nature is on the way to become normal, kind and wise.
 -Monarchies, aristocracies, and all things built upon the belief that men are essentially bad and ignorant by and by perish
 Democrq / is eternal, ever green, and per- petually young, because it is based upon con- fidence in human nature.5
 That the people are not to be trusted and need guides of strong hand and leaders and superior folk to prevent them from folly IS the delusion of the short-sighted. What the people need is to be let alone, to be loved and to be trusted.
 God does not live in throne rooms. uni versailles and pulpits He lives among the throng.
 Abraham Lincoln is the greatest American because he most utterly believed in the people.
 Jesus Christ's spiritual leadership holds, because he trusted human nature and ap- pealed to ''the common people," who "heard him gladly"