The Daily Alaska empire., 1932-07-07
THE THINGS THAT ARE CAESARS.

THE THINGS THAT AXE CAESAh .. In a significant copyrighted article appearing le New York Herald Tribune, Walter Lippman, as the last editor of the New York World a that capacity was often called the voice ot | alism" in the country, sounds the note of recall lch things as duty and responsibility to natior aders and to the rank and file of American cl ms Too far, he thinks, have we drifted trt e shelter of civic righteousness, and not o1 we we paid tribute to the things that are Caesar It we have sought them for ourselves to the C usion of the homey virtues of good citizenship MT. Iippmann's article is well worth the readi everyone It is reprinted herewith by spec emission from the Herald Tribune IL is as follow
 THE FALSE GODS
 From what source comes these unmanly fears that prevail among us? These dark forebodings? This desparing impotence? What is it that has shaken the nerves ot so many? It is the doubt whether there exists among the people that trust in each other which is the first condition of intelligent leadership The particular projects which we debate so angrily are not so important. The fate of the nation does not hang upon any of them But upon the power of the people to remain united for purposes which they respect, upon their capacity to have faith in themselves and in their obectives, much de- pends It is not the facts of the crisis which we have to fear They can be endured and dealt with. It is demoralzation alone that is dangerous
 A demorazed people is one in which the individual has become isolated and is the prey of his own suspicious. He trusts nobody and nothing not even himself He believes nothing, except the worst of everybody and everything. He sees only confusion in him. self and conspiracies in other men. That is panic. That is disintegration. That is what comes when in some sudden emergency of their lives men find themselves unsupported by clear convictions that transcend their im mediate and personal desires.
 The last ten years have been time of exceptionally drastic change in the undery ing convictions of western men. For reasons which it is not easy to state briefly or even clearly to discern it seems as if in this de- cade the change in life brought about by science and machinery and the modern city. by democracy and by popular education, had struck with full impact and with cumu- lative force against the traditional morality, the social conventions and the ideals of the mass of men.
 That period of profound spiritual be- wilderment had to ensue inevitable. But this bewilderment has been greatly aggra- vated in the United States by what believe may truthfully be called the moral apathy of those in high places. At the beginning of the decade the national Government was at tackled by brutal and conspicuous corruption. No clear word about it was spoken by those in high places. On the contrary, they sat silent hoping that the people would forget, 1o1ilat inc hat he 70 Is it surprising that public spirit weakened when it was demonstrated from the highest places that the corruption of Government was not something any one ought to care deeply about?
 During this decade the country has been making the experiment of outlawing an an- cient and general human appetite. Those in high places have known quite well how badly the experiment was working, what stu pendous lawlessness and corruption the Pro- hibition law was producing. Yet in all this time no candid word no straightforward ut terance no honest inquiry about this matter has come from any high place. The prob lem has been muffed in hypocrisy, in miser- able antiquities and in equivocation, to a point where any open, public debate of the matter has become impossible.
 OuIlis lilS saiie ueSaoc eiiooe AAA Ni-e- places have steadfastly preached to the peo- pie that it was their destiny to have two- car garages and eight-tube radio sets. That was the ideal they held out before the people to be acquisitive to seek feverishly to become richer and richer, to prostrate them 5 selves before the Golden Calf To read today the rhapsodies which issues from the high est places during the last decade is to find the main reason why now, when the nation must call upon all it's resources in integrity and magnanimity and public spirit, clear devotion to the national interest is not surely available.
 For if you teach a people for ten years that the character of it's government is not greatly important, that political success is for those who equivocate and evade, and if VOL tell them that acquisitiyeness is the ideal. that things are what matter, that