Presidents -- United States -- Messages; United States -- Politics and government -- Sources
which will itself result not merely in undoing the mischief wrought by
the demagog and the agitator, but also in undoing the good that the
honest reformer, the true upholder of popular rights, has painfully and
laboriously achieved. Corruption is never so rife as in communities
where the demagog and the agitator bear full sway, because in such
communities all moral bands become loosened, and hysteria and
sensationalism replace the spirit of sound judgment and fair dealing as
between man and man. In sheer revolt against the squalid anarchy thus
produced men are sure in the end to turn toward any leader who can
restore order, and then their relief at being free from the intolerable
burdens of class hatred, violence, and demagogy is such that they can
not for some time be aroused to indignation against misdeeds by men of
wealth; so that they permit a new growth of the very abuses which were
in part responsible for the original outbreak. The one hope for success
for our people lies in a resolute and fearless, but sane and
cool-headed, advance along the path marked out last year by this very
Congress. There must be a stern refusal to be misled into following
either that base creature who appeals and panders to the lowest
instincts and passions in order to arouse one set of Americans against
their fellows, or that other creature, equally base but no baser, who
in a spirit of greed, or to accumulate or add to an already huge
fortune, seeks to exploit his fellow Americans with callous disregard
to their welfare of soul and body. The man who debauches others in
order to obtain a high office stands on an evil equality of corruption
with the man who debauches others for financial profit; and when hatred
is sown the crop which springs up can only be evil.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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