The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1941-03-19
In OTHER
WORDS
BY JOHN STAHLBERG

QduY UIt6S oil CQltOi lol dCPiCi III E
"the nations tendency toward secur
/ ity" (meaning personal economic Sc
curity) on the ground that it is dan
gerous, that the attainment of secur.
| ity will remove the incentive to effort
make individual initiative as obsolete
as political decency, and accelerate
the decay of such. moral fiber as men
possess Recently | read second
editorial which carried this odd rea-
soning onward and upward to the
point of Identifying the desire for
security with things as different as
the desire to be entertained and the
desire to retire. "The issue is
between passiveness and struggle" it
cried out bravely "a people is strong
and virile only as its individuals are
strong and virile." An insecurity
complex, it said in effect, is a neces-
sary constituent of manliness; if you
once allow yourself to feel safe, you
are to that extent in the unfortunate
fix of the sheepish-looking fellow who
used to grace the Lost Manhood" adj
vertisements back in 1910.
don't know what genius wrote
these masterpieces, but it might very
well have ben Snobson, whose editor
ials | read every evening, painting
with admiration the while. Certainly
they exhibit a degree of boneheaded-
ness regnant that is advanced be-
yond anything else | recall having
encountered even here in Missoula,
the cultural capital of Montana, where
a single enlightened opinion is enough
to convict a man of moral turpitude
and any disagreement with current
obsessions is regarded as disloyalty to
King George and a sin against the
Holy Ghost.
Let me tell you about Snobson.
obviously that isn't his name but
what the heck difference does a name
make in an age when Schicklgruber
can attempt to conquer the world p
This 1,000-watt hicktown social light
and intellectual stumblebum became
an authority on the more abject forms
of human misery by witnessing, from
some safe Olympian distance, their
superficial effects ON someone else;
and he has been ready ever since to
instruct the victims of injustice, star
walton, and despair in the wonderful
efficacy of airily dismissing their
troubles. Although he breaks into
tears at the thought that thirty-dol-
lar monthly pension may rob some
grandfather of the incentive to eff
fort" he gets his foundest pleasure
out of leading the sneering section
of the local elite whenever some poor
stiff who has had the misfortune to
be born on the other side of one of
societys Great Chinese Walls makes
a visible effort lift himself out of
the muck To him you are either a
Snobson-when is to say, a natural
associate of the hosts of heaven-or
you are, and of right ought to be, a
If you have never heard the godlike
Snobson pronounce the word ditch
digger" you have missed one of the
most majestic and awesome sounds
TO which mortal ear may safely listen.
To Snobson a ditchdigger is not a
man, with human attributes-arms,
EGGS, hands, perhaps even heart and |
orain-but a creature, in the worst
sense of that flexible term. He is
not one who performs function
which it would become bit
difficult for Snobson to live comfort
ably He is an organism which one
if one must mention it at
Ill, in a tone that drips corrosive sub
innate Depend upon it, if you have
aver actually dug ditch, to avoid |
a public charge or for any |
,ther reason, any attempt you make |
hereafter to scramble out of the ditch |
will to him and his like represent, |
lot aspiration, not even hunger, but |
Indiluted bolshevik arrogance; and |
Brother Snobson will be there, radiant |
With sound Presbyterian morality, to
ave the Constitution and the Proph- |
It's by showing you back in.
But even Snobson does himself no |
redit in sponsoring the notion that
he search for security is the only
Incentive to effort; that once security
las been attained, aspiration must
cease. Actually this is tantamount
O saving that he is unable to imagine
my higher aim than the filling of his
,wn belly 1t means that Snobson,
Who claims to be human soul made
n the image Of God, conceives an
Of ha oh tn 40
Ultimate aim of mans endless labor
md pain and reaching. 1t is an
of intellectual and
piritual bankruptcy, confession of
moral imbecility. Even the humblest
itchdigger knows that this is not all
ife means, even though he may not
e able to say what it does mean.
This brings up point | have made
nee before, privately, to man who
Understands how true all this is: that [
t is not among people self-assessed
s the elect that one finds under
landing and sympathy for aspirations
yhich transcend the feed trough. 1t
yould be pleasant to believe that the /
eople who have most of the advan-
ages in life go about radiating friend
ness or at least decent tolerance for
heir less fortunate fellowmen. In +
sality the exact reverse is true. 1t I
the beaten, broken man at the bot ,
,m of the heap who must struggle !
, learn tolerance and understanding, !
o matter how ironic and bitter the :
ecessity may seem. 1t is the fellow !
holly without advantages who must q
arm to make allowances for the .
nugness, the gross and measureless s