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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 8, 1901)
The Commoner. , - court each man Is counsel and each man is judge. That court may not stay the movement, but will "control it. It can make the movement with all the wonderful things attending it subserve the higher thought, ennobling the individual." Of what value is "an appeal to the great court of public opinion," unless the decrees of that court can be enforced; and if those decrees are "irre sistible," why may they not stay this movement? Why may they not crush out the trust system? Justice Brewer says that this tendency is antag onistic to the republic, inconsistent with popular government, wholly against the republican thought of equality of right. If this is true, and "the great court of public opinion" cannot enforce decrees sufficiently to crush the system, then we must admit that we are powerless to protect the re public against evil tendencies; that we are help less in the presence of institutions that are incon sistent with popular government; that we are im potent when confronted with devices that as ' sail the thought of equality of right, that seek to transform a republic of free men into a nation of financial monarchs. If it is possible for this "great court of public opinion" to make "the wonderful things" attend ing the trust movement "subserve the higher thought in ennobling the individual,'; if it is pos sible for "the great court of public opinion" to check the greed and rapacity of the trust mag nates,, then it is possible for that great court to render decrees so solemn and so strong that they may dissolve any institution or any system that is antagonistic to the republic and to the republican notion of government. JJJ floral Courage. : Speech delivered by Mr. Bryan at banquet .tendered ex-Senator Charles A. Towne on the eve of his removal from Duluth to New York: Buckley says that civilization is measured by the mastery of the human mind over the forces of nature. In elaborating this proposition he de clares that the moral element in civilization is insignificant as compared with the intellectual element. The reason which ho gives is that the same moral principles have been generally ac cepted throughout the ages, and he argues from this that the difference between races, nations and civilization must be accounted for by differences in mental development. His error, for I believe that he errs, is duo to the fact that he confuses the ac ceptance of a moral principle with living up to a moral principle,' whereas nations are to be meas ured, not according to the moral principles ad mitted to be true, but according to the moral prin ciples which govern the lives of the people. If you will take the worst thief that can be found in the penitentiary and place him beside the best man you know, and then question the two, you will find that both admit the binding force of the Ten Commandments. What is the difference, then, between them? It is this, that one puts his moral principles into every-day practice and is known ao an honest and upright man, while the other suspends his moral principles in moments of temptation and becomes a criminal. A careful study of the causes that have led to the decline of nations and to the decay of races will, I think, convince an impartial student that the moral element is not only important, but para mount in a nation's life. Take, for instance, the fall of the Roman empire it was not due to lack of intellect or to lack of the physical qualities. ' It was the Roman heart, not the Roman head, that went astray; and it Is as true today as it ever has been in the past that there can be no real or per manent national growth unless that national growth is accompanied by the development of na tional conscience and national character. The nation is but a collection of individuals and reflects the character of the people. As the moral element is essential to a nation so it is to an individual. There is no danger of our becoming indifferent to physical 'excellence, nor is it likely that wo shall place a low estimate upon the de velopment of the mind, but in our rush for wealth and material advantage there is danger that we shall ignore the most important part of man the heart. Plutarch said that men entertained three sen timents concerning the gods; that they feared them because of their strength, admired them for their wisdom, and loved thom for their justice. Men entertain towards their fellows the same sen timents which, according to Plutarch, the ancients entertained towards their deities. Force may ex cite fear and genius may arouse admiration, but wo only love the heart that loves. Justice the fruit of love, is the element which gives strength and permanence to organized government. So im portant is the moral element in the individual that no man has ever won a lasting place in the affec tions of the people who has not in his life given evidence of a broad and deep affection for his fel lows. It may be truthfully written upon every monument reared by grateful hands to the mem ory of a great man: "We loved him because he first loved us." Of the qualities of the heart, moral courage is one of tho most essential; it is the shield that protects the othor virtues; it is the fortress that guards integrity. The imago of tho Creator is never seen more clearly stamped upon tho brow of man than when God's creature stands erect, pro claiming the conviction of an honest heart, and ready either to live for them or to die for them. There is strength and inspiration in the presence of such an one. It is sometimes difficult to select a subject for an after-dinner speech, but when I received an in vitation to participate in the farewell banquet tendered by the people of Duluth to their distin guished townsman and my friend, tho sentiment, "Moral Courage," at once occurred to me, for he has given signal evidence of the possession of that manly quality which makes him welcomo defeat rather than surrender that which to him seems right. We admire the physical vigor and the at tractive graces of our guest; we admire the clear ness of his intellect, the force of his logic and that fund of information which enables him to fortify his arguments by illustrations drawn from history and from nature's book; we listen with lin gering delight to the magic of his voice and are led captive by his porsuasive oratory: but far above our admiration for his other qualities we place our admiration for the moral courage which has made him conspicuous among the members of his gen eration. We need this moral courage for the protection and preservation of our government today. We need it among public officials, that they may prize above pecuniary rewards and above the flattering whisperings of ambition, the honor that comes from faithful service and a clean record. Whether a man is serving his fellows as an official In the city, in the county, in the state, or In the nation, he needs moral courage to enable him to with stand the pressure that is brought upon him by the great corporations that are clamoring for favors and are able to richly compensate those who will consent to turn public office to private advantage. Moral courage is needed among our private citizens, that they may be as bold to punish un faithful officials as they are ready to commend the faithful. In times of war the individual is ready to-give his life, if need be, in the service of his country; the demands of peace are equally Impera tive. The nation Is entitled to the brain and heart as well as to the body; It claims the best thought aiif'. the best conscience of its citizens. Great Issues are at stake; great Interests are involved aye even our civilization itself, and through us the civilization of the world. This nation is a world power; it has not acquired its influence by recent wars, but for a century its ideas have been permeating the world. Every citizen is a factor in our civilization, and by his conduct raises or lowers the level of that civiliza tion. He cannot. expect his neighbor to be more conscientious than himself; he cannot rely upon some one performing the duty that he ought him self to discharge. He owes it to his country, as well as to his generation and to posterity, to throw the weight of his influence upon the right side of every public question. For the proper dis charge of his duties he will require the highest form of moral courage. Some may be disposed to stamp the word "failure" upon the political career of Charles A. Towne. I hope that the future may have in store for him a reward that will be worthy of his high merit, but, even if he were to die tonight, he would not have lived In vain. He has set an ex ample that must weigh heavily on the side of civic virtue. He has faced without flinching a fire as hot and hellish as ever came from cannon's mouth and he has won a victory greater and more glor ious than ever crowned the life of one who fawned nt the feet of power or bartered away his man hood to secure an office. Because ho forgot himself In his devotion to duty he will bo remembered by tho people when time-servers and self-seekers havo disappeared. JJJ ' Liberty of the Press. The following is an extract from an argument made by John Milton to tho parliament of Eng land in defense of tho llborty of tho press (pub lished in tho World's Best Essays): "First, when a city shall be, as it were, be sieged and blocked about, hor navigablo rivers in fested, inroads and incursions round, defiance and battlo oft rumored to bo marching up oven to her walls and suburb tronches, that then tho peoplo, or the greater part, more than at othor times, wholly taken up with tho study of highest and most im portant matters to bo reformed, should bo dis puting, reasoning, reading, inventing, discoursing, even to a rarity and admiration, things not before discoursed or written of, argues first a singular good-will, contentedness, and confidence in your prudent foresight, and safe government, lords and commons; and from thence derives itself to a gal lant bravery and well-grounded contempt of their enemies, as if there were no small number of as great spirits among us, as his was, who, whon Rome was night besieged by Hannibal, being in the city, bought that piece of ground at no cheap rate, whereon Hannibal himself encamped his own regiment. Next it is a lively and cheerful pro sage of our happy success and victory. For as in a body, when tho blood is fresh, the spirits pure and vigorous, not only to vital, but to rational faculties, and those in the acutcst, and tho portest operations of wit and subtlety, it argues in what good plight and constitution tho body is, so when tho cheerfulness of tho people is so sprightly up, as that it has, not only wherewith to guard well its own freedom and safety, but to spare and to be stow upon the solides't and sublimest points of controversy and new invention, it betokens us not degenerated, nor drooping to a fatal decay, but casting off the old and wrinkled skin of corruption to outlive these pangs and wax young again, en tering the glorious ways of truth and prosperous virtuo destined to become great and honorable in these latter ages. Me thinks I see in my mind a noble and puissant nation rousing herself like a strong man after sleep, and shaking hor invincible locks; methinks I see her as an eaglo mewing her mighty youth, and kindling her undazzled eye at the full mid-day beam; purging and unsealing her long-abused sight at the fountain itself of heavenly radiance; while tho whole noise of tim orous and flocking birds, with those also that love tho twilight, flutter about, amazed at what she means, and in their envious gabble would prognosticate a year of sects and schisms. What would ye do then, should yo suppress all this flowery crop of knowledge and new light" springing daily in this city, should yo set an oligarchy of twenty engrossers over it, to bring a famine upon our minds again, when wo shall know nothing but what is measured to us by their bushel? Believe it, lords and commons, they who counsel ye to such a suppressing do as good as bid ye suppress yourselves; and I will soon show how. If it be desired to know the Immediate cause of all this free writing and free speaking, there cannot this free writing and free speaking, there cannot be assigned a truer than your own mind, and free, and humane government; it is the liberty, lords and commons, which your own val orous and happy counsels have purchased us liberty which is the nuraoof all great wits; this is that which hath rarefleld and enlightened, our spir its like the influence of heaven; that Is that which hath enfranchised, enlarged, and lifted up our ap prehensions degrees above themselves. Yo cannot make us now less capable, less knowing, less eag erly pursuing of the truth, unless ye first make yourselves, that made us so, less the lovers, less the founders of our true liberty. We can grow ignorant again, brutish, formal, and slavish, as ye found us; but you then must first become that "which ye cannot be, oppressive, arbitrary, and tyrannous, as they were from whom ye havo freed us. That our hearts are now more capacious, our thoughts more erected to the search and ex pectation of greatest and exactest things, is the iesua of your own virtue propagated in us; ye can not suppress that unless ye reinforce an abrogated and merciless law that fathers may dispatch at will their own children. And who shall then stick closest to ye, and excite others? Not he who takes up arms for coat and conduct, and his four nobles to Danegelt. Although I dispraise not tho defense of just immunities, yet I love my peace better if that were all. Give me the liberty to know, to ut ter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties." K-" (J .