New Britain herald., 1928-02-13

Chicago and wonder how sems el the things came to be there thai arc there. It makes us wonder whether our system of election. ous system of general suffrage. ts sue ceeding or not; whether we art getting a democratic government; whether the people are ruling. or whether somehow or other our ma. chinery has become 70 tangled. sc mixed with foreign clements. that we no longer get . democratic rule
 Another thing which has come up in that famous city. that mo- torious city of the middle west. ii the conflict between Mayor Thomp- son and the writers of history. You have probably followed 1t with in- terest. Possibly you have read in the last issue of Current History the long article by MT. Thompson and the other articles by Rupert Hughes and sother historians. The whole survey of the situation there: what is the gist of it! Where does real democracy come in?
 IeonocIasts About
 We have had our national he- roes This Is the day We honor Abraham Lincoln. In a week or so we shall do the same for George Washington. We have others, none so great as they. who have stood ; before us as . nation through all of our lives as great national he- roes, patriots Isn't 1t right that we should?' said Mayor Thompson. in his effort to put a stop to this ten dency on the part of the writers of history to degrade. tear down and cast out these American idols by digging up out of some old tome some bits of information about their private or personal lives that somehow or other cast reflection on them and makes it no longer pos sible to revere them as we did.
 "On the other hand. what shall we do with this cry of the historians that it is no longer right that we should present the partial truth. or should SO present history as a par tial truth. or should not present the whole fact? This honesty. this truth which Abraham Lincoln seems to have stood for. why should not we?
 Which is right? AS usual. 1t seems to be the experience whicl, We so commonly find between two extremes: Somewhere. maybe in the mist, but somewhere in the mist between there is the proper place, the proper position for us to take. We do want truth in history. We do not want to cover up the facts. We do not want to become na- tion of idol worshippers. We do not want our children growing up into a realization of some things that later they may come to find are not the real facts. We have had too much of that Our churches, our whole religious program today may be suffering because of that ten dency. ..-.,
 ' Neither do we think it is neces- sary today to spread upon the printed page all of the small. in- significant details of lives that have risen above such things in their eventuation. We do not believe in that. Sometimes 1t seems today as if our press believed in it. But the trouble with these people whom William Hale Thompson is opposing is that they believe in emphasizing and pushing out to the foreground those small and insignificant things which catch the eye, maybe. of the muck-raker. someone who il look ing for any dirt or questionable thing he can find in the lives of these men.
 "But, after all. the judgment that our people passed upon them is certain proof that tho greatest things in tho lives of these men arc not these less significant things. There isn't one of us but lives in glass house. Humanity is not per feet. But when we find these souls who are able to lift themselves and others above the calls of everyday problems and difficulties. why shouldn't we point our children's thoughts and minds to them; and why should we broadcast as if il were the significant thing in theit lives some small incident, the re- suit. maybe. of a moment of weak ness,. not peculiar to these men but common to all hupanity? If it is the tendency in our time to shat ter our idols, let us be careful that the movement does not so too far for the nation that has not some great leaders to which it can look both in the past and in the present
 is poor indeed. and the ideals Q, democracy would fail If there were none such"
 Lieutenant Frank Luke, Jr.. pns hn ovin ,.ts