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
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