Show AMERICAN TOADYISM Some of the eastern papers are giving vent to just indignation at what they call cringing American toadyism By this they mean the toadyism which prompts Americans to demean themselves by a senseless worship of inherited rank which they very accurately describe as a species of insanity In the east it is claimed the disease has developed to an alarming degree and the number of pseudoAmer icans who tumble over each other in cringing cring-ing attempts to worship at the shrine of some impecunious or profligate lordling is assuming disgusting proportions Again it is said When we consider that there is not a royal family in all Europe which is not polluted by vice when we remember that the vast majority of the socalled nobility no-bility are dissolute and lazy and that those who are entitled to respect have won that right because they are men of ability and not because they were born to greatness we may well ask why Americans get down and grovel in the slime of humiliating servility ser-vility to unearned k This conduct on the part of Americans is indeed deplorable and totally unworthy of those whoprofess any attachment to our republican institutions in fact such conduct con-duct is a confession that they a re not converted con-verted to American ideas to American principles on which both our government and society arc based But lamentable as this species of toadyism is it is not the only species which flourishes in our land Nor indeed Is it the most dangerous however disgusting may be The toadyjsm which hunts for titles to wed its daughters to will necessarily be very limited confined for the most part to silly motherswomen who still as of yore are ever caught by glare and their softheaded daughters who forget to look for a man in their anxiety to find a title They forget that an honest man is the noblest work of God and that princes ahd lords are but the breath of kings that such breath is but wind and of no more account than that which cools the sweatstained face of honest toil They may forget a lordlings pomp is but a cumbrous cum-brous load Disguising oft the wretch human kind Studied in arts of hell in wickedness refined I They may forget all this but the number who do this will be very limited for common com-mon sense still lives in the great republic and will for some centuries to come at least But there is a toadyism in America which is a just cause for alarm for it endangers the very existence American institutions institu-tions It is that species of toadyism which leads men to smother up their honest convictions con-victions in order that they may float pleasantly pleas-antly on with the stream ofnot popular reason but popular clamor It is this toadyism which leads politicians to cater to the wild demands of an unthinking rabble on the one hand or to the domination of financial combinations on the other that is the most dangerous It is this toadyism which leads political parties to refuse to take sides honestly on a question which is of critical urgency and immediately related re-lated to the perpetuation of free institutions institu-tions that threaten the progress of our nation This is the species of toadyism that should call down the thunderbolts of the press The folly of insipid maidens J who are laying their snares by spreading abroad their charms to catch some fifth rate nobleman need only provoke a smile I and for a moment call forth our contempt but the other species of toady I ism to which reference is made is a positive danger a growing evil that needs to be arrested ar-rested Already the Senators and Representatives Repre-sentatives of our national Congress forget that they are members of Congress by remembering re-membering that they arc representatives of this or that section of the republic Congress Con-gress is rapidly becoming a congregation of ambassadors from different and hostile interests which interests each must maintain main-tain as an agent and advocate against other agents and advocates instead of being be-ing what it snould be a deliberative assembly as-sembly of one nation with one interest that of the whole where not local purposes pur-poses notlocal interests nor local prejudices ought to guide but the general good resulting result-ing from the general reason of the whole To illustrate the position here taken wo have but to look at tho attitudes of Congressmen Con-gressmen on the tariff question As soon as any measure effecting that issue is called into existence it is not considered under the broad view of enlightened statesmanship states-manship which would consider thejnterest of the whole country but each member immediately im-mediately flies to the consideration of how his action will affect his standing with his own constituents and arranges his convictions and times his utterances ut-terances accordingly If he comes from a section of the union where manufacturing manu-facturing interests preponderate and if those immediate interests are enhanced in value by means of a high tariff rest assured as-sured the interests of the whole nation will he sacrificed in order that the particular member may keep on proper terms with his constituents that reelection may be assured as-sured This is tho kind of toadyism that America needs to fear It is not only to be found in Congressmen but it is to bo found everywhere and among all classes it is in the city councils as well as the national Congress it influences political conventions as well as state legislatures It is sapping the vital force of American manhood and honesty It is ono of the evils one of the vices against which republics need be es specially guarded If human experience during the progress of our race towards the goal of perfect liberty political and religious teaches one truth moro emphatically than another it is that those in the van of that progress have been the unpopular minority the few fighting against the many the weak contending con-tending against the strong the strong being be-ing rendered doubly strong by reason of entrenchment behind existing institutions and present interests If the toadyism herein censured is not destroyed be assured as-sured it will continue to increase until it affects the national character if indeed it has not done so already Its tendency is beget a nation of cringing sycophants to popular clamor often miscalled sentiment a nation of people whose leaders if such you can call them dare not speak up in defense de-fense of an oppressed minority if unpopular unpopu-lar however just their cause Pardon I gentles all we know whereof we speak Here in Utah we have I had many and practical demonstrations demon-strations of a woeful lack of American manhood both in individuals and political parties However firmly convinced in their judgments of the justice of our cause we have seen our politicians startle like skittish jades at a windmill when even tho popular breeze threatened to rise in relation to the Utah question But aside from all consideration con-sideration of our local affairs and the effect that this toadying to a prejudiced popular sentiment may have upon Utahs best interests we would cry woe to the great American republic when her sons no longer dare speak or act in behalf of oppressed innocence or outraged communities because be-cause forsooth they are condemned by an uninformed and unreasoning populace When that characteristic becomes fixed farewell to American progressthis grand republic will have then touched the high water mark of her greatness and her decline de-cline will have begun |