Show PLAN mr B 0 flower Plo iver in lus his article on practical measures to maintain self respecting inspecting Man manhood bood which appears elsewhere in this issue issue refers to the fact that mayor rindee 0 met with strong opposition when he essayed to help the poor of detroit in a practical way the opposition showed itself not dot in in argument but in ridicule if this were a solitary instance the matter would not be so serious but wherever a serious attempt is made in behalf of the poor the same bame kind of opposition manifested in the same way is always met this is quite unfortunate rt the spirit that ridicules any serious effort to do good is not the spirit that solves difficulties but is the one that hinders their solution history is full of lessons of rebuke to such a spirit all of our cherished institutions were once hypotheses and existed only in the brains of a few deop people e who had bad insight and the courage of their convictions freedom democracy mo cracy republicanism were once hat hated edwords words and are even now in many countries all government is experimental and we ought to treat all efforts to improve any phase of our society w m ith at least decent respect the foundation of all liberty and the condition of all rr progress ogress is in tho the right of every man to think for himself and to express his thoughts without intimidation tim timi dation ridicule is antl liberal and un american earnest discussion and experiment are the lh only methods of ridding us of unprofitable hypotheses another important suggestion from mr flowers very suggestive article is IB that our financial difficulties may be in a large measure solved without legislation each community independent in a measure of lei legislation can do much more inore than is now bein being done to solve the problem of poverty mr flowers article is in line mith suggestions that have time an and 1 I again appeared in this paper in in relation to procuring and maintaining tai ninia a farni farm for the poor in this county and is well worth a careful perusal by our county and city fathers |