| Show A WORD ABOUT CRANKS nobody enjoys being advertised as a crank josh billings showed his deep knowledge of human nature when he said if a marl man comes tome to me for advice I 1 first find out what kind of advice he be wants and then give him that and he goes away thinking that we are two of the smartest men in the world it is natural to select the line of least resistance to follow the path of peace and good feeling with ones neighbors even at the cost coat of principle or the silencing of cf conscience the words of the humorist sage apply in in a peculiar way to those who have dealings with the public demos is a sort of inu musical instrument that is capable of giving forth certain tunes whoever las has gleamed the fingering of these tunes and can touch the instrument skillfully is your popular man he is not a crank but a leader of the people there are other men whose training has gone beyond the melodies that touch the vulgar vular 9 ar ear car who have chords of their 0 own to strike keener Lili ties a larger soul a vi tilder ider outlook enable them to see ana and feel things hidden from the multitude when such men sit at the keyboard and insist on oil striking chords that are true to the music music that is ringing in their own souls it sometimes happens that the other instrument the popular will responds only with furious discords it is then that interviewers abound and the aid is full of epithets of which crank is the least objectionable shall such men inen speak or for sweet harmonis har monys sake for peace shall they keep si silence lencel shall the tha man mail who knows better see eee his fellow citizens all bent upon going wrong and not raise his big voice to point out their error theoretically there is but one answer a thousand times yes let him speak though the heavens fall theoretically we have accepted the right of tree free speech as a political cuti axiom orn it lies at the very foundation of our free government it is ia the corner comer stene of our institutions and yet there have been grave symptoms of late which indicate that this principle has been accepted in some such way abour as our forefathers adopted that noble maxi maxim of equality and freedom to which they gave expression in the declaration ration of independence not many weeks ago the whole nation apparently was bent ben t upon rushing to war with a people who are bound to us by the closest ties of a common civilization A pro fes sorin the university of chicago dared to raise his voice and question not the POI policy icy of such war but bat tho the justice of the so BO called american position at once the press of the country burst forth in a blast of denunciation stinging epithets worthy of the days of agitation were freely used A leadin leading 9 chicago journal demanded that the offender be excluded from the f faculty acuity au and d that his views be repudiated by the university ver sity have we come all these weary years to finds find that after all our people in whose intelligence and good sense we are only too apt to boasts boast are jut like any other people as macaulay long ago put it more easily interested for the most unmeaning badge or the mast insignificant name than for the most important principle was do toque ville right when lie he put his finger upon this weak spot in our system and said that no man dared to be ruled by the mobile elements and that in any great crisis public opinion would be molded not dot by the wisdom of a few qualified to judge but by the blind i instinct of the masses surely we have not left lef t flip last mile stone of our national history very far bal behind hind us if we can thus again believe all tho the accepted causes of free speech and free thought demos demoa is surely a terrible fellow when awakened he be is more terrible when bent upon going wrong he be is halt half way suspicious that tho the minority after all has the ight side of the argument then their he is always unreasoning intractable aud and furious and yet demos is a most inconsistent feblow he sever never thinks alike on two successive days but with alt alf MR his heart is right if his bis head bead dors does 0 ofin go wrong phocion ts in unious 1 aply to dino denos thenes wilen when the great orator bad said to him Phoc icid the athenians will vill kill hill you yon some lay clay when once thoy they aro are in a rage and you yon replied rho pho cion v 12 1 once they are arc in their it 11 Is ib this confidence in the alti ulti mate inato rectitude of public opinion that hwi his nonoi cary try fuller soul elected III some gret amt pmt S in history to lead the forlorn larf fur humanity the minority is always made up anki 0 of cranks and it is bere that the cr crank has III iiii duty to perform civilized nations today tend toward ti a gove government raiment by discussion the only safeguard of a free people against that worst of all tyrannies tyrannizes tyr annies ill the tyranny of the majority is ia the persistence on tho the part of the ho minority in its right toi tob peak critical the issue and tho the smaller the minority the more necessity is there for speech the greatest religious religions and social revolution that history las has recorded was led by a minority of one our danger is ia not in the blind rule of the masses but in the increase of material prosperity our culture shall become selfish and then men who can speak and ought to speak will lose the nerve of the prophets of old and prefer silence with peace what we most need is 13 men who are not afraid to differ from tho the majority or who will not fear that most terrible tenable of epithets to the man of culture crank and when such meu do appear instead of hunting them to death as tho the jerusalem rabble or destroying str ying oyang them with fire and rack as tho the inquisitors inqui of the sixteenth century or silencing them by the surn miary violence of a mob crash as in the forties or the fifties one should defend their rights as the safeguard of our free institutions S TERRY chicago university |
