The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1933-02-17
Howe About:
The Conservative Side
Waterloo
Idealisrn
BY ED HOWE

4
| + KNOW widow who has long been
i poor, and very bitter and unfair
In denunciations Of the wrongs OF the
| poor. At the last election farmer
candidate for little Office tbut still
| big enough to provide a dishonest
! salary and appropriation for an assist
anti promised her the deputyship.
She at once plunged into the cam
paign and did her best to rob the poor
because she expected to share In the
| robbery.
That is the trouble: even the poor,
| the women, the farmers, the working
men, are willing to engage in the spe-
cial robbery of the people against
| which we have most cause Of COM
| plant, II given chance to share In it.
| The farmer candidate was elected.
| The last time I saw the widow she
said he had promised nine other peo-
pie the deputyship, and that she would
bring suit against him If he did not
keep his word to her.
.
| John D. Rockefeller should write
and publish his own biography: no
| ghost writer can equal him in the
truth and candor task of this kind
| requires.
Jean Jacques Rousseau gave such
apology as there is for the radical; !
should like to hear, with equal candor
displayed, from the worlds greatest
hp1c iv0
The conservative side Of the argu-'
ment has never been adequately pre-
scented. It should be; we specially need
such book now, not only for our own
use, but for the use of future gener-
atoms.
The great Napoleon suffered intense
" at Waterloo; ruin was never more
humiliating or complete. But millions
of less noted suffer the anguish of a
Waterloo; rarely pick up a newspa-
per without reading of Waterloo
for some poor devil.
Waterloo is good word to remenl-
Der; perhaps 1t is fortunate we so FREE
Quently see it in print.
I beg you to remember its signifi-
cance-which is to avoid such fate
when you have lived only half your
life and have equipment to win.
Everyone who believes in Cause
supports 1t fanatically; no one is ex-
actly just in his advocacy of, or oppo-
sition to, the great controversies
which make up life. am a
fanatic, too, but on the side of con-
servatism, of safety, of caution; of
looking longer before we leap.
Writer'S are doing unusually bold
things now; I note that one makes
fun of that old sob about what a boy
learns at his mothers knee. That is
one of the sob stories have always
respected.
Most men, and all women, say Ideal
ism is the first standard by which men
may judge their action and enterprise.
This is pleasant sounding, but actually
foolish. Idealism means visionary;
the opposite of realism. The worst
mistakes of men have been due to
neglecting the good that may be ac-
complished in attempting good far be-
yond their powers. Our first stand
ard of endeavor should be intelligent
realism: selection Of the best Of two
evils, and training and Harvesting 1t
to do Gods work.
I have lately had occasion to visit
two neighboring towns. In both of
them are being built school houses pa
latial and unnecessary. Both include
theaters, restaurants, athletic fields.
music departments ETC.. that would
be an outrage on common sense In
good times, but are specially outrage
GUS in the midst Of the greatest de-
preston in history. Have you
not noted that lately indignation In
cludes extravagant and unnecessary
waste in education? England has new
err been half as wasteful in this respect
as we are, but has called halt.
People usually tell lies not because
they are mistaken. but because they
are overpraising an old watch. house.
automobile or doctrine they are trying
to trade or rattle. What we need
Is not more belief in Christ, but more
appreciation of the simple truth, at
tested by long experience. that we
should be more truthful. honorable.
polite, economical and Industrious for
our own sakes. 1t happens every day
that a man can go out and get a
thing he needs and is entitled to while
praying for it. or arguing he is entitled
to 1t.
Some say that one who would ac-
quire the art Of writing should read
Addison. think Macaulay
better teacher. Addison wrote of
trifiing things too much. whereas Ma
caulay wrote of the French revolution;
of the trial Of Lord Hastings-0f
events of first Importance. In reading
one should get education as well as