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The Golden Age for June 23, 1910.
WAKING THE PUBLIC CONSCIENCE
By Ex-Gobernor Joseph W. Eolk.
LETIER HUMBER TOUR,
I
AM not an alarmist, and I do not believe
that the United States of America will
cease to exist as a republic today nor
tomorrow. We have lasted for one hun
dred and thirty-two years—a long time
when compared with the average period
of one man’s public activity, but short
in the history of nations. Venice had a
republican form of government for one
thousand years; Carthage endured as a republic
for seven hundred years, and Athens lasted nine
hundred years—though there were intermissions
during that time. Florence was a republic for three
hundred years, and Rome for five hundred. These
governments were once great factors in civilization,
and their citizens probably thought they would last
forever, that nothing could overthrow them. We
are likely to harbor similar ideas and it is possible
that they will prove to be wrong.
The conditions that caused the downfall of those
old republics, now almost forgotten, were the same
conditions that will cause the downfall of the Ameri
can Republic, if it is not to endure. The dangers
lie in the hearts of the people. We are likely to
believe too strongly in the efficacy of laws. But
laws are not the only essentials. Rome had the
Justinian code —said to be the most powerful system
of laws ever devised by inan—so good that they are
models to this day, and yet Rome rotted and went
to ruin, even while the Justinian code was in full
force. No fault can be found with the old Roman
laws, but the hearts of the people were wrong.
Contempt of Law Caused Republic's Downfall.
The laws were there but they were not obeyed, and
a contempt of the laws sprang up that ended the
Roman Republic. When the laws are not obeyed
the government, resting on the law as a foundation,
commences to topple over. If the laws are bad the
people are to blame. If the laws are not enforced
the people are responsible—for a majority of the
people make the laws. The will of the people
crystalizes in the form of statutes, and the laws
represent the sentiment of the majority. And when
the laws are ignored—when officers sworn to enforce
the laws, permit certain statutes to remain inef
fective, it is done under the plea that this is what
the people want. If the people want good govern
ment they can have it. But they must want it with
an active, aggressive desire, and they must insist
on having it. If they really want it, want it bad
enough to work for it, as they would work for any
thing else they wanted, they will get it. But too
many are indifferent, and this indifference of voters
is the greatest menace to a republican form of
government. Arouse the voters to an understanding
of the danger, convince them that they are personally
and directly concerned, get them moving once, and
they are invincible. But while most people are
honest they are inactively so, while the vicious min-
A BEAUTIFUL EXPRESSION OF
REAL SYMPATHY.
One of the most touching incidents
connected with the death of Edward,
the late king of England, was the
tribute of sympathy and respect paid
his widow by the Salvation Army.
During the period of mourning for the
king, General Booth, the commander
of the Salvation Army forces, sent a
message to the queen asking that his
musicians be permitted to enter the
palace garden and play for her. Alex
andria gladly consented, and, at 4
o’clock, the band arrived, with the
corps colors draped in black and
white, and followed by a long double
column of “gojdierg.” The band in-
7 HINGS THAT AKE HAPPENING
ority are perniciously active. It is not enough to be
merely honest, the good citizen should be aggressive
in his opposition to graft and corruption. Law
breakers have nothing to fear from passive opposi
tion, but they must yield to active and aggressive
fighters. We need more fighters in the army of peace.
We must fight for everything that is worth having,
we must fight against everything bad. The farmer
must not only be personally opposed to weeds, but
he must cut them down and make an active war
fare against them, or his crops will be ruined. In
governmental affairs the same relations exist between
the good and evil as between the grain that must
be sown and cared for, and thistles and weeds that
will grow anywhere unless destroyed. Grain and
weeds cannot be grown simultaneously in the same
place.
There Are No “Necessary Evils.”
There are no “necessary evils” in government. It
is the abuses of government about which all good
citizens have a right to complain. Those who have
profited by the abuses are usually the loudest in
the denunciation of those who point out abuses in
public affairs.
In the best governed city the good people are tre
mendously active and the vicious are notably quiet.
In what is perhaps the worst governed city in the
union, the good citizens are deplorably passive in their
gaodness and the vicious are extraordinarily active.
And yet, 1 suppose the proportion of good citizens
in each of these cities is about the same. If the
honest voters in the badly governed city would as
sert themselves they could have a local government
of which they would be justly proud.
While the people are to blame where public
abuses exist, officials who wink at the violation of
law are, nevertheless, culpable. Good government
depends more upon the man behind the law than
upon the law itself. The law is merely the weapon
for officials to use, and without officials laws would
be as useless as cannon in war without men. When
an official takes an oath to enforce a law he has
no right to violate the oath and excuse the non
enforcement of certain laws simply because they
are, or seem to be, unpopular. Sentiment may be
against tne enforcement of some law, but an official
does not take an oath to support public senti
ment. He does take an oath to support the law,
and public sentiment is a difficult thing to ascer
tain. Law-abiding people are quiet, while the law
less are so vociferous as to deceive by their clamor
the facts as to their number. The only correct way
to determine public sentiment is to be guided by
the expression of the people’s will through the law
making body. When a law is passed it must be
assumed it is what the people want, and it should
be enforced until the people demand and secure
its repeal. What may seem to be public senti
ment is often the clamor of the lawless who have
a selfish interest in violating the law.
eluded four taxicab drivers, two Co
vent Garden porters, a chimney
sweep, several draymen, three clerks,
five mechanics, one foreman of a
street-cleaning gang and other work
ingmen.
The band played for half an hour,
during which time the queen stood
at a window behind heavy draperies,
in one of the upper rooms of the pal
ace, listening intently. When the
musicians touched the first notes of
the grand old hymn, “Nearer, My God,
to Thee,” the king’s favorite sacred
song, a flood of tears covered the face
of the good queen mother.
Major Barrett offered a short, touch
ing prayer, and then, with a silent
salute in the direction of the closed
window, marched away with his band.
UNCLE SAM PAYS BIG DEBT.
The descendants of the Cherokee
Indians recently received a full cash
settlement from the United States for
lands appropriated by our government
in the early settlement of America.
The sum total of the enormous debt
approximated nearly five million dol
lars, and is being disbursed at various
points most convenient to the claim
ants.
The case for the recovery of these
funds has been in litigation for nine
years, but full settlement has now
been made to every man, woman or
Civic evils cannot exist when the public con
science is aroused. Nearly all public wrongs grow
out of the indifference of the people. The revolu
tion recently wrought in Pittsburg would have
come years ago if the people had been aroused to
a true understanding of the situation. Had the
people been alert, and had they taken as much
interest in municipal affairs as they would have
taken in a corporation in which they were stock
holders, the disgraceful conditions would never have
existed. Business men forget that they are stock
holders in the cities in which they live, that each
citizen has a share in the corporation which con
ducts municipal affairs. The best citizen seldom
goes to primaries and often fails to vote, two
duties that the bad citizen never neglects. And,
remember, alas! where bad men elect a bad man
to office they support him loyally in all the evil that
he does. The good men who aid in electing a
good man to office are often the first to find fault
with the way he performs his duty. Let good men
awake and stay awake!
Much has been done for good government in vari
ous cities and states during the past year or two.
But we should not be content with what has been
accomplished in the fight against public evils. There
is plenty of work yet to be done. States, like men,
should never be satisfied, but should ever strive for
a higher development. The man who is so self-satis
fied as to pronounce himself undesiruus of further
improvement is likely to be most in need of advance
ment. And cities are often “satisfied” when in
the control of a corrupt and merciless “gang”.
The future of our government rests upon the
integrity of the citizen, and upon his activity in
public affairs. Good government must begin at
home, in cities and towns, and proceed from there
to state and nation. This government rests not
upon the wealth of a few men, but upon the char
acter and integrity of the average individual.
There is a constant conflict between law and
lawlessness, right and wrong, the true and the false,
public rights and special interests, the evil and
the good in every sphere of life. Lawlessness—the
false, “special interests,” the Wrong must always be
fought against. The ideal and the public interests
must be fought for. The bad thrives off of its
own greed and feeds on its own wickedness. The
useful grain must be sown and cared for, else the
weeks will choke it out, while the thistles, scat
tered by chance and cared for by accident, will
flourish anywhere.
So the good in government does not exist by acci
dent, but must be nurtured by good citizens.
We must likewise contend actively against the
evils that creep into government. It is one thing
to be against wrong, it is quite another thing to
fight wrong. ONE IS A NONCOMBATANT THAT
NEVER WON A CAUSE, AND THE OTHER A
SOLDIER IN THE FIGHT.
child who proved direct lineage from
the eastern branch of the Cherokee
tribes.
THE MAN AND THE PLACE.
The Golden Age is in no sense a
political organ. But we are at perfect
liberty to express an opinion. And
our opinion now is that if ex-Governor
Joseph W. Folk, of Missouri, responds
to the urgent demands of his friends
to run for the presidency of the
United States, we are going to vote
for him “early and often.”
Folk is a. statesman in whom indeed
there is no guile. He has the brains
to administer the affairs of the nation
(Continued on Page 16.)
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