Belington progressive. [volume] (Belington, W. Va.) 1912-1927, 1924-09-11
Democracy No Miracle Worker

Democracy NO Miracle worker
Mankind is thinking too much of
its rights, and too little of it's duties.
We are justified in seeking our
rights, but not in seeking them
blindly. There must be no beterment
of class at the expense of humanity,
there must be no change in the in
dividual attitude. We must stop
! thinking in terms of class, and begin
to think in terms of impartial justice.
There are those who would poison the
public mind against the very safe
guards of free institutions. They
appeal to those who have little, to
strike at those who have a little
more. They are planning to sovietize
the United States by driving our peo-
pie into groups and classes, arraying
group against group and class a.
gainst class. They promise if given
power that they will by some magic
make every one prosperous, and they
assert that property is robbery, and
/ that it should be taken from those
! who have it and given to those who
have it not. They tell us this coun-
try is not truly democratic, because
the condition of all the people is not
the same. But when did democracy
guarantee similarity of condition to
all the people, and grade mankind to
a dead level? No two human beings
have the same ability or the same
physical powers, and of necessity
some men progress more rapidly
than others, securing larger rewards
and gaining greater enjoyment. These
inequalities are due to difference in
aptitude and ability, and they can
be removed only by substituting ty-
ranny for liberty, holding all men to
that level of accomplishment which
is in the reach of the weakest and the
most incompetent. Such a policy in
order to gain false equality, de-
4 prives men and women of liberty and
the pursuit of happiness; such a pol
icy overlooks the fundamental truth
that the real value of man lies not in
what he has, but in what he is and
what he may become.
The Poetry of Life
We must substitute for this false,
defective sel6shness the undeniable
truth that there can be no perman-
ent prosperity for one class of our
people at the expense of another class
We must teach those who do not
know, as well as those who have for
gotten, that democracy is no miracle
worker, that it guarantees this and
nothing more: That men of unequal
ability shall be equal in their right
to develop their potentialities We
must insist that every avenue be
open and opportunity free. We must
make the world a better place in
which to live. We must improve the
morals, conserve the health and adj
vance the welfare of every man, wo-
man and child with whom we come
in contact, and whose lives touch
ours. We must soften the severity
of labor and increase the rewards
of those who do the intellectual as
well as the manual work of the world.
To fail in these things is to take the
first long step back to autocracy. To
close our eyes to these eternal and
moral voices is to approve a combin-
alton ofthe mediocre and the inferior,
to the end that character, ability and
morality will be punished and re-
strained Most men, aside from the
lazy, the weak, and criminal, and de-
fective and the tainted yearn for
something that has the mark of per-
sonal ownership, won by
struggle, something to love and de-
fend,-to use and enjoy. Mankind
wants home, and all that clusters
around it. This sentiment consti-
tutes the poetry of life, and it dwells
in humble surroundings just as cling
ingly as it does in places of wealth
and culture.