Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1911 — With the World's Workers [ARTICLE]

With the World's Workers

T T REVIEW - */• PROGRESS - THAT -IS • BEING MADE . ALONG - ALL > LINES • of - ENDEAVOR

MOST FATAL DEFECT

Habit of Looking for Special Favors Like Worm in Moral Fiber. f, ALL ARE EQUAL IN RIGHTS * ■ Except Where Extended by Affection All Privilege Is an Injustice to Someone Else—The Pull Pulls Both Ways Every ■Klir “T Time.

No defect is more fatal than the habit of looking for special favors. Privilege is a pitfall, like the traps in the sand we make as children. AH privilege, except that extended by affection, is an injustice to some one •tea. For we are all equal In rights. It Is not that men are intentionally leas honest than formerly. It Is that the worm of privilege has got into the moral fiber. We are looking for exceptions In our case, for permissions that are denied to others. Patents may be just, yet it Is worth noticing that physicians refuse them aa inconsistent with a blkta sense of honor. The great discoveries in medicine, the Illustrious inventions in surgery, are all freely given to the world. The quack claims a patent Just where the difference comes In between the Inventor In mechanics and the inventor in surgery is not plain. And then, too, there is the great heart and brain of the publicist like Thomas Jefferson and his syndcate of patriots.* They threw their ideas on the winds to bless all mankind. Queer that they did not bottle up those grand truths and claim special privileges for dispensing them by the pint. Strange that Abraham Lincoln never took out a copyright on the Gettysburg oration. It is when we contrast such free gifts of the oil of gladness with the special privilege stoutly maintained by other modern oils that we grow thankful to the unselfish fathers. Privilege, outside the social circle of love, is always and uniformly offensive. The fellow who flashes his pri-

▼ate entrance, 1 tala complimentary pass, pushes by us with lordly airs In the lobby. He wedges the common multitude apart while he sweeps in to take his private oat. See him where you will, the privileged person is more or less dlsllkable and surely heartily disliked. It does not pay to incur Buch disesteem. The populace evens things up by tripping the man In some other pursuit where he is no favorite. Begun in youth, the habit of seeking unequal treatment grows fast. The _ spoiled child becomes the lawless youth, and calculates that the court will favor him. The petted actor soon asks the public one favor too many. The extolled public officer goes on till ho hangs himself with the rope enough. Notice it in your bank. There Is an end, sure and short when it does come, to the clerjrThat presumes, or the check maker that overdraws because he thinks himself personally permitted above other men. Fight the idea. BurnJA out of your heart as you would a snake bite, tho hope of peculiar and exceptional rights. Reject them when offered, for there is always a string to them. The pull pulls both ways every time, and the pullback generally comes at a most Inconvenient time. There is a growth in manliness, a broad shouldered self-respect, a sunny frankness, a glorious cheerfulness, and, best of all, a freedom in expecting no favors and accepting none, except such as it seems a real favor to receive. Let us help to clear the underbrush for the next generation. Chop down the shelter which ambuscades the weakling, the cunning and the selflßh. A fair field and may the best man win. Handicap races are never just There is a confessed confidence in the personal endowment of nature. More brain, more muscle, is given to some. But for all that, we will risk the competition, since to no man is given exceptional birthright of truth and honor. —Emory J. Haynes.