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About The commoner. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-1923 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 9, 1904)
IB 2 4 m.VCML. jMk The Commoner. they attempted, but they brought into Togue the auttund proccsess of subliraatloB, filtration, dis tiliation, and crystallisation; tlrey Invented tie 'alembic, the retort, th sand-batli, the water-bat& and other valuable instruments. To them is due the discovery of antimony, sulphuric ether and phosphorus, the cupellation of gold and silver, the 'determining of the properties of saltpetre and its ww in gunpowder, and the discovery of the dis tillation of essential ifo .This VaaMbe success of failure, a wondrous process of nature for the high est growth a mighty lesson of cbmfort, slrengtth, and encouragement if man would only rcaliie and accept it. "Maty of our failures sweep lis to greater heights of success, than we ever hoped for in our wildest dreams. Life is a successive unfolding of success Jrom failure. In discovering America, Cciu mbus failed absolutely. His ingenious rea soning and experiment led him to believe that by sailing westward he would reach India. Every redman in America carries in his name 'Indian,' the perpetuation of the memory cf the failure of Columbus. The Geneose navigator did not reach India; the cargo of "souvenirs" he took back to Spain to show to Ferdinand and Isabella as proofs of. his success, really attested his failure. But the discovery of America was a greater suc cess than was any finding of a 'back-door to India. "When David Livingstone had supplemented his theological education by a medical course, he was ready to enter the missionary field. For over three years he had studied tirelessly, with all energies concentrated on one aim to spread the gospel in China. The hour came when be was ready to start out with noble enthusiasm for his chosen work, to concentrate himself and his life to his unselfish ambition. 'Then word came from China that the 'opium war' would make It folly to attempt to enter the country. Disappointment and failure did not long daunt him; he offered himself as a missionary to Africa and he was accepted.'' His glorious failure to reach China opened a whole continent to light and truth. His study proved an ideal preparation for his labors as physician, explorer, teacher and evangel In the wilds of Africa. "Business reverses and the failure of his partner threw upon the broad shoulders and the still broader honor and honesty of Sir Walter Scott a burdeu of responsibility that torced him to write.. The failure spurre'd him to almost superhuman effort. The masterpieces . of Scotch historic fiction that have thrilled, entertained and uplifted millions of his fellow-men are a glorious monument 'on the field of a seeming failure. "When Millet, the painter of the 'Angelus worked on his almost divine canvas, in which the very air seems pulsing with the regenerating essence of spiritual reverence, he was antidoting , sorrow, he was racing against death. His brush strokes, put on in the early morning hours before going to his menial duties as a railway porter, in the dusk like that perpetuated on his canvas meant strength, food and medlcine-for the dying wife he adored. The art failure that cast him into the depths of poverty unified with marvellous intensity all the finer elements of his. nature. This rare spiritual unity, this purging of all the dross of triviality as he passed through, the furnace of poverty, trial, and sorrow gave eloquence to his brush and enabled him to paint as never before as no prosperity would have made possible."" "Failure is often the turning point, the pivot of circumstance that swings us to higher levels. It may not be financial success, it may not be fame; it may be new draughts of spiritual, moral or mental inspiration that will change us for all the "later years of our life. Life Is ot really what comes to us, but what we get from it. u "Whether man has had wealth or poverty. failure or success, counts for little when it is past. There is but vme pietfoa for him to answer, to face boliiy and hoaestly as an individual alone with his conscience and his destiny: "How wtll I let that poverty or wealth affect me? If that trial or deprivation has left me bet ter, truer, noViIer, thenpoverty has been riches, failure has beea a success. If wealth has come to me and has made me vain, arrogant, contemptu ous, uncharitable, cynical, closing from me all the tenderness of life, all the channels of higher development, of possible good to my fellow-men, making me the mere custodian of a money-bag, then wealth has lied to me, it has been failure, not success; it has hot been riches, it has been dark, treacherous poverty that stole from me even myself.' All things become for us then what we take from them. ' "Failure is one of God's educators. It is ex perience leading man to higher things; it is the revelation, of away, a path hitherto unknown to us. The best men in the world, those who have made the greatest real successes, look back with serene happiness on their failures. The turning of the facepf Time shows all things in a won drously illuminated and satisfying perspective. "Many a man is thankful today that some petty success for which he once struggled, melted into thin air' as his hand sought to clutch it Failure is often, the rock-bottom foundation of real success. If man, in a few instances of his . life can say, "Those failures were the best things in the world that could have happened to me," should he not face new failures with undaunted courage and trust that the miraculous ministry of Nature may transform these new stumbling-blocks into new stepping-stones? "Our highest hopes, are often destroyed to prepare us for better things. The failure of the caterpillar is the birth of the butterfly; the passing of the bud is the becoming of the rose; the death or destruction of the seed is the prelude to Its resurrection as wheat It is at night, in the dark est hours, those preceding dawn, that plants grow best, that they most increase In size. May this not be one of Nature's gentle showings to man of the times when he grows best, of the darkness of failure that Is evolving into the sun light of success. Let us fear only .the failure of not living the right as we see it, leaving the re sults to the guardianship of the Infinite. "If we think of any supreme moment of our lives, any great success, anyone who Is dear to us, and then consider how we reached that mo ment, that success, that friend, we wall be sur prised and strengthened by the revelation. As we trace each one back, step by step, through, the genealogy of circumstances, we will see how logi cal has been the course of our joy and success, from sorrow and failure, and that what gives us most happiness today Is inextricably connected with what once caused us sorrow. Many of the rivers of our greatest prosperity and growth have had their source and their trickling increase into volume among the dark, gloomy recesses of our failure. "There is no honest and true ,work, carried along with constant and sincere purpose that ever really fails. If it sometimes seems, to be wasted effort, it will prove to us a new lesson of 'how' to walk; the secret of our failure's will prove to us 'the inspiration of possible successes. Man living with the highest aims,- ever as best he can in continuous harmony ith them, is a success' no matter' what statistics of failure a nearsighted and half-blind world of .critics and commentators may lay at his door. "High ideals, noble efforts will -make seeminz failures but trifles, they need not dishearten us they should prove sources of new strength The rocky way may prove safer than theslippery Dath of smoothness. Birds can not fly best with the wind but against it; ships do not progress in .VOLUME 4, NUMBER u calm, when the sails flap idly against the tm, strained masts. "The alckemy of Nature, superior to that of the ParacelsiaHS, eonstamily traasmntes the baser metals of failure into the later pure-gold of high' success, if the mind of the worker be kept trs coastant and untiring in the service, and he hare that sublime courage that defies fate to do its worst while he does his best" '- JJS Aping England Secretary Taf t in a speech at Montpelier, vt gave the best intimation of republican purposes respecting the Filipinos, when, fn concluding his speech, he said: . , , The great object we now have in the Phil ippines is to build np the government there so as to make it more and more useful to thp Filipinos, so that they may ultimately become an educated, intelligemt and self-governing people. Then if they desire independence, let them have it But if we bring them in behind the tariff wall, if they see that association with the United States is beneficial to them, as I Terily believe it will be, it is quite unlikely that they will desire full independence. It is quite likely they will prefer that association which exists between England and Australia or between England and Canada. It is the expectation of Secretary Taft that the Filipinos shall sustain toward us the relation that Canada and Australia sustain toward Eng land, that is colonies. Here is a confession that the republican leaders do not expect to give inde pendence to the Filipinos but expect to imitate England in the establishment of a colonial policy. England appoints a governor general in both Canada and Australia, and he has an absolute veto over legislation. The. fact that the veto is seldom exercised does not alter the theory of gov ernment That theory is directly antagonistic to ours and we must abandon our, .theory of govern ment in order to adopt the English theory. Judge Parker stands for independence as against colon ialism and would make the promise at once as it was made to Cuba. When Secretary Taft speaks of bringing the Filipinos in "behind the tariff wall," he gives away the secret of imperialism. It is a scheme to give the tariff barons new fields for exploitation, and they are willing to repeal the Declaration of Inde pendence and resort to a carpetbag government and to a large army to enforce the collection of a tariff tribute. The way to. abolish colonialism is to elect Parker and Davis and to elect a congress opposed to imperialism. JJJ - ' : "Plain Humbug." The Wall Street Journal says "humbug" to Judge Parker's letter defining his position on the Philippine question. In that letter Judge Parker said: "But to take away all possible opportunity for. conjecture, it shall be made clear in the letter of acceptance "that I am in hearty accord with that plank in the democratic platformwhich advocates treating the Filipinos precisely as we did the Cubans; and I also favor making the promise to them now to take such action as soon as it can prudently be done." ; Commenting upon this the. Wall Street Journal says: "We gather that Judge Parker favors grant ing . independence to-the Filipinos as soon as it is 'prudent' to do so. This can- mean but one thing, and that is that their freedom is to depend upon the judgment of the United States as to their fitness for self-government In other words, their freedom has a string to it, the other end of which is securely held by the United States government 'As- jthe English government .did with Egypt, so Judge Parker would apparently have the American government do with the. Philippines that is, stay there keeping order and educating the Inhabitants 'up to a point where -theyi-could' 'prudently' be left 11 L ' fw i) -
