their edge; and on the other gradually acquiring a deep-rooted belief that all public men are more or less bad. In consequence, his political instinct becomes hopelessly blurred, and he grows unable to tell the good representative from the bad.—Ibid.

The Mendacity of Certain News

papers

Potent

Evil

As for the other newspapers, those of frankly "sensational" character, such as the Forces for two which at present claim to have the largest circulation in New York, there is small need to characterize them; they form a very great promotive to public corruption and private vice, and are on the whole the most potent of all the forces for evil which are at work in the city.-Ibid.

for Vicious

Writing

All journalists, all writers, for the very No Excuse reason that they appreciate the vast possibilities of their profession, should bear testimony against those who deeply discredit it. Offences against taste and morals, which are bad enough in a private citizen, are infinitely worse if made into instruments for debauching the community through a newspaper. Mendacity, slander, sensationalism, inanity, vapid triviality, all are potent factors for the debauchery of the public mind and

for Vicious Writing

No Excuse conscience. The excuse advanced for vicious writing, that the public demands it and that the demand must be supplied, can no more be admitted than if it were advanced by the purveyors of food who sell poisonous adulterations.-Sorbonne Address.

The Evil of the

Press

Of all the forces that tend for evil in a Sensational great city like New York, probably none are so potent as the sensational papers. Until one has had experience with them it is difficult to realize the reckless indifference to truth or decency displayed by papers such as the two that have the largest circulation in New York City. Scandal forms the breath of the nostrils of such papers, and they are quite as ready to create as to describe it. To sustain law and order is humdrum and does not readily lend itself to flaunting woodcuts; but if the editor will stoop, and make his subordinates stoop, to raking the gutters of human depravity, to upholding the wrongdoer, and furiously assailing what is upright and honest, be can make money, just as other types of pander make it. The man who is to do honorable work in any form of civic politics must make up his mind (and if he is a man of properly robust character he will make it up without difficulty) to treat

of the Sensational

Press

the assaults of papers like these with absolute The Evil indifference, and to go his way unheeding. Indeed he will have to make up his mind to be criticised, sometimes justly, and more often unjustly, even by decent people; and he must not be so thin-skinned as to mind such criticism overmuch.-American Ideals.

No man ever really learned from books how to manage a governmental system. Books are admirable adjuncts, and the statesman who has carefully studied them is far more apt to do good work than if he had not; but if he has never done anything but study books he will not be a statesman at all.

Ibid.

Book

Statesmen

Not too

much

No government that cannot command the respectful support of the best thinkers is in Philosophy an entirely sound condition; but it is well to keep in mind the remark of Frederick the Great, that if he wished to punish a province, he would allow it to be governed by the philosophers.-Ibid.

The much-lauded intelligent voter-the man of cultured mind, liberal education, and excellent intentions-at times performs exceedingly queer antics.—Ibid.

Queer

Antics

The Tenderfoot in Politics

President

and

Vice

Our more intellectual men often shrink from the raw coarseness and the eager struggle of political life as if they were women. Now, however refined and virtuous a man may be, he is yet entirely out of place in the American body-politic unless he is himself of sufficiently coarse fibre and virile character to be more angered than hurt by an insult or injury; the timid good form a most useless as well as a most despicable portion of the community. Again, when a man is heard objecting to taking part in politics because it is "low," he may be set down as either a fool or a coward: it would be quite as sensible for a militiaman to advance the same statement as an excuse for refusing to assist in quelling a riot.—Ibid.

It is an unhealthy thing to have the VicePresident and President represented by prinPresident ciples so far apart that the succession of one to the place of the other means a change as radical as any possible party overturn.-Ibid.

Should Be in Accord

Thinking

It is well indeed for our land that we of Nationally this generation have at last learned to think nationally, and, no matter in what State we live, to view our whole country with the pride of personal possession.-Ibid.

Fear the
People

I do not see how bribe-taking among legis- Politicians lators can be stopped until the public conscience becomes awake to the matter. Then it will stop fast enough; for just as soon as politicians realize that the people are in earnest in wanting a thing done, they make haste to do it.-Ibid.

The one great reason for our having succeeded as no other people ever has, is to be found in that common sense which has enabled us to preserve the largest possible individual freedom on the one hand, while showing an equally remarkable capacity for combination on the other. We have committed plenty of faults, but we have seen and remedied them. Our very doctrinaires have usually acted much more practically than they have talked. Life of Gouverneur Morris.

American

Common

Sense

Thought

and

Action

The leaders of thought and of action grope Leaders of their way forward to a new life, realizing, sometimes dimly, sometimes clear-sightedly, that the life of material gain, whether for a nation or an individual, is of value only as a foundation, only as there is added to it the uplift that comes from devotion to loftier ideals.-Sorbonne Address.