Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
they graduate.
Be it remembered, furthermore, that the individuals who, whether from
folly, from evil temper, from greed for office, or in a spirit of mere
base demagogy, indulge in the inflammatory and incendiary speeches and
writings which tend to arouse mobs and to bring about lynching, not
only thus excite the mob, but also tend by what criminologists call
"suggestion," greatly to increase the likelihood of a repetition of the
very crime against which they are inveighing. When the mob is composed
of the people of one race and the man lynched is of another race, the
men who in their speeches and writings either excite or justify the
action tend, of course, to excite a bitter race feeling and to cause
the people of the opposite race to lose sight of the abominable act of
the criminal himself; and in addition, by the prominence they give to
the hideous deed they undoubtedly tend to excite in other brutal and
depraved natures thoughts of committing it. Swift, relentless, and
orderly punishment under the law is the only way by which criminality
of this type can permanently be supprest.
In dealing with both labor and capital, with the questions affecting
both corporations and trades unions, there is one matter more important
to remember than aught else, and that is the infinite harm done by
preachers of mere discontent. These are the men who seek to excite a
violent class hatred against all men of wealth. They seek to turn wise
and proper movements for the better control of corporations and for
doing away with the abuses connected with wealth, into a campaign of
hysterical excitement and falsehood in which the aim is to inflame to
madness the brutal passions of mankind. The sinister demagogs and
foolish visionaries who are always eager to undertake such a campaign
of destruction sometimes seek to associate themselves with those
working for a genuine reform in governmental and social methods, and
sometimes masquerade as such reformers. In reality they are the worst
enemies of the cause they profess to advocate, just as the purveyors of
sensational slander in newspaper or magazine are the worst enemies of
all men who are engaged in an honest effort to better what is bad in
our social and governmental conditions. To preach hatred of the rich
man as such, to carry on a campaign of slander and invective against
him, to seek to mislead and inflame to madness honest men whose lives
are hard and who have not the kind of mental training which will permit
them to appreciate the danger in the doctrines preached--all this is to
commit a crime against the body politic and to be false to every worthy
principle and tradition of American national life. Moreover, while such
preaching and such agitation may give a livelihood and a certain
notoriety to some of those who take part in it, and may result in the
temporary political success of others, in the long run every such
movement will either fail or else will provoke a violent reaction,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account