My position as regards the moneyed interests can be put in a few
words. In every civilized society property rights must be carefully
safeguarded; ordinarily, and in the great majority of cases, human
rights and property rights are fundamentally and in the long run
identical; but when it clearly appears that there is a real conflict
between them, human rights must have the upper hand, for property
belongs to man and not man to property.
In fact, it is essential to good citizenship clearly to understand
that there are certain qualities which we in a democracy are prone to
admire in and of themselves, which ought by rights to be judged
admirable or the reverse solely from the standpoint of the use made of
them. Foremost among these I should include two very distinct
gifts--the gift of money-making and the gift of oratory. Money-making,
the money touch, I have spoken of above. It is a quality which in a
moderate degree is essential. It may be useful when developed to a
very great degree, but only if accompanied and controlled by other
qualities; and without such control the possessor tends to develop
into one of the least attractive types produced by a modern industrial
democracy. So it is with the orator. It is highly desirable that a
leader of opinion in a democracy should be able to state his views
clearly and convincingly. But all that the oratory can do of value to
the community is to enable the man thus to explain himself; if it
enables the orator to persuade his hearers to put false values on
things, it merely makes him a power for mischief. Some excellent
public servants have not the gift at all, and must rely upon their
deeds to speak for them; and unless the oratory does represent genuine
conviction, based on good common-sense and able to be translated into
efficient performance, then the better the oratory the greater the
damage to the public it deceives. Indeed, it is a sign of marked
political weakness in any commonwealth if the people tend to be
carried away by mere oratory, if they tend to value words in and for
themselves, as divorced from the deeds for which they are supposed to
stand. The phrase-maker, the phrase-monger, the ready talker, however
great his power, whose speech does not make for courage, sobriety, and
right understanding, is simply a noxious element in the body politic,
and it speaks ill for the public if he has influence over them. To
admire the gift of oratory without regard to the moral quality behind
the gift is to do wrong to the republic.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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