What we need in our leaders and teachers is help in suppressing such feelings, help in arousing and directing the feelings that are their extreme opposites. Woe to us as a nation if we ever follow the lead of men who seek not to smother but to inflame the wild beast qualities of the human heart! In social and industrial no less than in political reform we can do healthy work, work fit for a free republic, fit for self-governing democracy, only by treading in the footsteps of Washington and Franklin and Adams and Patrick Henry, and not in the steps of Marat and Robespierre.

So far what I have had to say has dealt mainly with our relations with one another in what may be called the service of the State. But the basis of good citizenship is in the home. A man must be a good son, husband and father

a woman a good daughter, wife and mother, first and foremost. There must be no shirking of duties in big things or in little things. The man who will not work hard for his wife and his little ones; the woman who shrinks from bearing and rearing many healthy children; these have no place among the men and women who are striving upward and onward. Of course, the family is the foundation of all the things in the State. Sins against pure and healthy family life are those which of all others are sure in the end to be visited most heavily upon the nation in which they take place. We must beware, moreover, not merely of the great sins, but of the lesser ones which when taken together cause such an appalling aggregate of misery and wrong. The drunkard, the lewd liver, the

coward, the liar, the dishonest man, the man who is brutal to or neglectful of parents, wife or children of all of these the shrift should be short when we speak of decent

citizenship. Every ounce of effort for good in your associations is part of the ceaseless war against the traits which produce such men. But in addition to condemning the grosser forms of evil we must not forget to condemn also the evils of bad temper, lack of gentleness, nagging and whining fretfulness, lack of consideration for others the evils of selfishness in all its myriad forms. Each man or woman must remember his or her duty to all around, and especially to those closest and nearest, and such remembrance is the best possible preparative to doing duty for the State as a whole.

We ask that these associations, and the men and women who take part in them, practice the Christian doctrines which are preached from every true pulpit. The Decalogue and the Golden Rule must stand as the foundation of every successful effort to better either our social or our political life. "Fear the Lord and walk in His ways," and "let each man love his neighbor as himself "— when we practice these two precepts, the reign of social and civic righteousness will be close at hand. Christianity teaches not only that each of us must so live as to save his own soul, but that each must also strive to do his whole duty by his neighbor. We cannot live up to these teachings as we should; for in the presence of infinite might and infinite wisdom, the strength of the strongest man is but weakness, and the keenest of mortal eyes see but dimly. But each of us can at least strive, as light and strength are given him, towards the ideal. Effort along any one line will not suffice. We must not only be good but strong. We must not only be high-minded but brave-hearted. We must think loftily and we must also work hard. It is not written in the Holy Book that we must merely be harm

less as doves.

It is also written that we must be wise as serpents. Craft unaccompanied by conscience makes the crafty man a social wild beast who preys on the community and must be hunted out of it. Gentleness and sweetness unbacked by strength and high resolve are almost impotent for good. The true Christian is the true citizen, lofty of purpose, resolute in endeavor, ready for a hero's deeds, but never looking down on his task because it is cast in the day of small things; scornful of baseness, awake to his own duties as well as to his rights, following the higher law with reverence, and in this world doing all that in him lies, so that when death comes he may feel that mankind is in some degree better because he has lived.

18

CORRESPONDENCE

LETTER TO MR. DE BERARD RELATIVE TO THE WATER SUPPLY OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK

STATE OF NEW YORK

Executive Chamber

Albany, April 6, 1900

FREDERICK B. DE BERARD, Esq., Merchants' Associa tion, New York City:

MY DEAR SIR: I thank you for your letter of the 29th ultimo. The veto by the mayor of the Fallows bill, and the passage over his veto of the bill against the practically solid opposition of his party representatives in the Legislature, has emphasized the wisdom of following out just the course we followed this year.

The work already done by the Merchants' Association has brought about two most valuable results: first, the Fallows bill, the principle of which was suggested by you in November last, and the passage of which your agitation made practicable; and, second, the exposure of the true character of the Ramapo scheme, whereby you have checked its present consummation and made future remedial legislation certain. You have thus achieved present protection for the city, so that the immediate urgency is

past. I very earnestly hope that you will continue your work and will co-operate through your committee on water supply with the Charter Revision Commission, so that it may profit by your wide and exhaustive study of the question of the water supply of the city of New York a study wider and more exhaustive than has ever before been made, and wholly free from any official bias or prejudice. You can supply the Charter Commission with data of the utmost value, and I hope that your special committee will continue its work with this end in view, for you would thus render an additional and important service. Your work should be continued; for at the next session of the Legislature laws must be passed which will afford not a temporary, but a permanent remedy. I also hope that your committee will push for a judicial decision both as to the precise powers under the extraordinary grants to the Ramapo company and as to the exact effect of the phraseology in the charter which brought about the belief in the necessity for the Morgan bill. Personally I trust that next year we can have legislation taking away the excessive and unhealthy powers granted to the Ramapo company, especially under the act of 1895. Even if it be necessary to award compensation for whatever has actually been done under these grants, I hope that the grants can themselves be withdrawn.

As it turned out, it was wise not to endeavor to push through the Morgan bill, especially in view of the differences between your engineers and those of the Comptroller differences which were more seeming than real, but which rendered it utterly impracticable to get the measure through at this time.