The Commoner
SEPTEMBER, 1922
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Priver came first, followed by vigilance.
made onr pw -- -- .y,;.
t h against tnem uu uu -...
NO LOAFING ON THE JOB
r hrivfi no reason to believe that God will
ul ns i from the doing of that which is with-
L nur power. A Christian cannot loaf on the
. and expect God to save him from the consc-
J nt inaction or carelessness. Nehemiah
Queu , i. inwi hs naso before God and then
wer.
nity.
The adversaries " i""; y& " bi
' rt" ho laid his case before God and theji
?r!Sed to act to the limit of his owh power.
7 oxtremity is said to ue uocrs opportunity.
he adversaries laid plans, relying upon their
. ml Hm.v boasted that thev would takp.
SL Children of Israel by surprise, but they did
lot know Nehemiah. Ho was not the kind of
man to be surprised. He did. not overlook pre
Itions and then send in an "I regret to re
port " as generals sometimes do. He armed his
Jennie "after their families with their swords,
Seir sPears and tllQir D0WS" an(1 Placel them
in the open places behind the walls, and then he
aroused the nobles and rulers and the rest of the
people by his exhortation:
"Be not ye afraid of them : remember the
Lord, which is great and terrible, and fight for
your brethren, your sons and your daughters,
your wives and your houses."
"I AM DOING A GREAT WORK"
Later Sanballat and Geshem, the former's
Arabian ally, tried to draw Nehemiah away from
the city on the pretext of a conference with
them. Nehemiah's reply gives us a notable pass
age which is often quoted and which might well
be used even more frequently thali it is.
Nehemiah sent messengers unto the conspira
tors, saying: "I am doing a great work, so that
I cannot come down."
A great deal of time is lost because men en
trusted with important work spend their time in
fruitless controversy with adversaries. Time is
precious to those who are entrusted with a. high
commission and they have 'no leisure for fruit
less dispute. They haveli work to do and can
not excuse themselves if they .allow an enemy to
use time required for work. "Why should the
work cease, whilst I leave it, and come down to
you?" is the best reply that the earnest can
make to the frivolous or the cunning.
ANCIENT PROFITEERS
When the conspiracy failed the people re
turned to the wall half . . . wrought in
the work, and the other half of them held both
the spears, the shields, the-bows, and the haber
geons." The walls were restored and that, too,
in the short space -of 52 days a remarkable
achievement.
And now for a sidelight on this great Bible
character.
They had profiteers in those days as we have
them today, but the people were fortunate in
having a powerful representative . to speak for
them and the profiteers themselves seemed to
have' been less calloused than ours. Although
the time required for the rebuilding of the wall
was not long, this profiteering interrupted the
work of production. The price of food went up
and the rates of interest rose. Even five cen
turies before Christ prices seemed to be ex
empt from the law of gravitation, ttie tendency
jo rise being much stronger than the tendency
to fall.
,, "Tuere was a great cry of the people and of
weir wives against their brethren the Jews."
borne complained that they' had to mortgage
X2r i s and vineyards to pay for corn, and
B . ?y, had had t0 borrow money for the
Jil.88,, Ibut0 and tnoir taxes- Some had been
compelled to sell their sons and daughters into
uonuago and it was not in their power to redeem
wuer their children or their lands.
M . CURBING THE PROFITEERS
nniin ah was very anery and rebuked the
Zr,;8 and tho rulers, saying, "Ye exact usury,
w2iSneof his brother." He called "a great
nS? y; hG appealed to the consciences of the
fI: y? ?.ot t0 walk in tho fear of our God be-
miaSi. E tT reProach of the iieathen our eno
Ho touchorl fhnlr Tionrfa fhnnn who hflf
een rrmv n, Ar '., .77"iii -
stnrn 1. ' " UiAruon answereu, we wm iu-
Bl0r0 them, nr.,1 m i.i j.hm.
80m.ri " iuiiuiru uotmuB ui. mum,
M L? e do as thou sayest."
Dor ? lpoint Nehemiah exhibits another im
?erv autharactertisic tig was cautious. He was
BromXpy. when the Profiteers relented and
wnffiL10 tho peple ustly and wIth
exuHnS on but he was no.t so carried away by
lapse 5 a8 t0 overlook the possibility of a re
mit! n?l ovidently feared that some, at least
excitL;Sa;u yleld to sreod and avarice when the
tho tmnt.Sbatod thy might bo "bending to
tompost" of his oratory. So he "caljed the
tr
'THE IT K Ati nw mTTn T ..
meech Tltlf m ? 8P?0.Cl' tUan th01 was h "
speech Itself. NeUomlah had a right to caatleiio
HePheld30a ITT !'e Um '
we held a commission as governor of Torn
jalom for 12 years, during S Ze lie ro-
K of atCTPt a Salary;, he would not t tho
rrier;d. y governor, although former gover
nors had done so and their salaries had beon
charged up to tho people. Ho did not do as they
had done bceause "of the fear of God "
He also refused to take advantage 'of the op
portunities that came to buy land when the peo
ple were compelled to mortgage and sell It. His
hands were clean; his record was clear. He
could condemn and none could chargo him with
inconsistency.
Who will calculate the far-reaching effect of
a life like this? A great executive, a great ora
tor, a great, soJdier, a leader trusted and worthy
to be trusted, an honest, upright man. And why?
Because he feared God. He had that sense of
responsibility to God that means more to so
ciety than all the laws that man can make. "The
fear of tho Lord is tho beginning of wisdom."
TWO MR. HUGHESES
Against Secretary Hughes's defense of Sena
tor Newberry of Michigan may be set the state
ment made Dec. 22, 1921, on tho floor of the
Senate by Senator Kenyon of Iowa, since then
appointed to the bench of the United States Cir
cuit Court by President Harding, Secretary
Hughes's superior. Discussing the evidence pre
sented in the Newberry case, Senator Kenyon
said:
"I assert that under the record the following
conclusions can reasonably, safely and legiti
mately be drawn:
"That the committee expended approximately
$263,000.
"That the committee violated the Federal
statute and the statutes of Michigan, and that
such action entered into the election through the
primary.
"That the committee was not a voluntary com
mitteo. It was picked by Mr. Newberry.
"That Mr. Newberry was responsible for the
acts of the committee, and that tho agency of
Cody and King (Newberry campaign managers)
is established beyond question, and ho would be
responsible in a civil action for debts contracted
by them in the campaign.
"That Mr. Newberry knew about the cam
'paign, financially and otherwise, and knew of
most of the expenditures of the campaign.
"That a part of the money spent in the cam
paign was actually the money of Mr. Newberry."
Senator Kenyon, like Secretary Hughes and
Mr Newberry, is a Republican. Partisanship did
not enter into the Newberry case with him. But
Senator Kenyon may have been at the disadvan
tage of never having been Truman Newberry 9
counsel in any court, of never having received a .
retainer from Mr. Newberry, and also of looking
at some of the larger moral aspects of the case,
not dwelling merely on legalistic technicalities.
Against the defense of Senator Newberry pre
sented bv Secretary Hughes may also be set tho
sueecli delivered at the Merchants' Exchange
banquet at New Rochelle, March 20 1910 by
Gov Hughes of New York, in which he said:
"Political corruption is not partisan. It is the
common enemy. Tho essential operations of gov
ernment inevitably furnish opportunities for
coTndrelism! and against this curse an parties
and the peoplo as a whole must continually
wrn"gMrHugheses, the Governor
who In 1910 urged unrelenting war on corrup
?J in nolidcs and the Secretary of State who
FREEDOM OF UTTERANCE
ml. -Krrr Vwk World believes that William
Jh while JSitoriS to the Emporia Gazette,
Allen Whites oo1" Friend," is deserving
addressed To aJ Anxius it cnmentg. .Tt
says the World. M white, "tha.t taw is
"You tell me, J WAnd I reply that
above eodom of ntteranc e. fl
you can have n tej MtoJ peaplnd,
expression of the Jjjwg B t ff there is free
SSS! fXwnK own Pdson ad tho ,.
(lorn will survive . . . You say that frcodom
or utterance is not for time of stress, and I reply
with tho sad truth that only in timo of atrcua in
freedom of uttcranco in danger. No one atten
tions it in calm dayfl, because it Is not needed.
And the reverse is true also; only when free ut
terauce ia suppressed is ft needed, and when it
is needed It is most vital to justice. . . . Sup
pression leads to violence. Violence, indeed, is
the child of suppression. Whoever pleads for
justice helps to keep tho peace"
Mr. White liao expressed some true American
principles. He presents the caao for free speech
against a law forbidding it with irrefutable .
logic. It tho above quotation is "devastating
criticism," this age needs more of such. In or
der to obtain deliverance from oppression there
must bo no suppression of utterance. Destruc
tive criticism is most constructive If we know
how to meet it.
The .ondency is common to look with dismay
upon language that rips Into the established or
der of things. Men sometimes forgot that in
creating a better world wo must tear down many
ugly and outworn systems that others havo
wished upon them. And oven that which they
gave their own hands in building might some
times bettor bo destroyed to make way for morre
just and practicable machinery.
It is disturbing to complacency to have somc
ono thrust divorgent opinions within our hear
ing. But much as most of us enjoy a certain
contentment, wo hate suppression of speech
more. And wo brand those persons who refuse
to believe there is any other wisdom than that
which coincides with theirs as being oppressive
as the law which would attempt to deny frofl
speech. Omaha World-Herald.
There is a possibility that Democratic succcs
in Nebraska In November will damage tho hotol
business. The Republicans have drug inspect'
ors, oil inspectors, cream inspectors, food inspect
ors, potato inspectors, bank examiners, insur
ance examiners, school inspectors, crop inspect
tors, county treasury oxamincrs, railway com
mission telephono company accountants, and a
variety of other employes running back and
forth over tho state, on good salaries and good
sized expense accounts, many of them following
closely on one another's heels and many of whom
are doing work that others might do on the
same trips who will bo absent from tho hotels
evenings after the next Democratic administra
tion takes hold.
Big business is beginning to lick its chops
again, and there is much talk in trade circles
that the cost of living, which has been slowly
rising since April, is to keep on ascending tho
scale. Big business does not learn by experi
ence, oven though it has beon recent In char
acter. The descent in prices was due to tho buy
ers' strike. It cost many merchants and whole
salers very large sums of money through the de
crease in the selling values of their stocks on
hand. The next-buyers' strike will come just as
suddenly and it will continue until a lower level
than before. The people have learned how po
tent a weapon this is, and they are rapidly reach
ing the point of concluding to use It.
Voters should understand that the one and
only purpose of the advocates of light wines
and beer is to reopen the saloon. When the
government permits the sale of liquor it carries
with it permission to use the usual and ordinary
methods of disposing of it. In order to sell
liquor there must bo some place in which to dis
pose of it and some place where men desiring to
get it may go and purchase It. Any place where
light wines and beer may be gold, if this move
ment should win, would be a saloon, no matter
under what name it masqueraded, and that
would bring back with it all of the evils of that
institution.
NO HIGHER BRANCHES
Should I believe my Darwin friends and swal
low all their dope, I'd love to travel jongle trails
and in the darkness grope. Instead of loving my
forbeara a memory sweet to share I'd dream
of my dear grandpapa, all dressed up nice in
hair. Associate with 'boons, 'Ah boy," eat pea
nuts up a tree! But in God's image we 'are
made, and monkey ne'er was he. Some evolu
tion, ha, ha, ha! when Gabriel sounds the gang;
to gather up our treasures rare and join tho
monkey throng. I'd rather be a human plain
and know my A, B. C's, than in the "higher
branches" climb, accompanied by fleas. EstcUa
W. Poston, in Ohio State Journal, August 7th,
1922.
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