The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 07 (of 12): Dresden Edition—DiscussionsIngersoll, Robert Green
Religion
The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol. 07 (of 12): Dresden Edition—Discussions
Ingersoll, Robert Green
Free thought
Of course there were some men who did not do their duty--some men false
to themselves and to their country. No one expects to find sixty-five
millions of saints in America. A few years ago a lady complained to the
president of a Western railroad that a brakeman had spoken to her with
great rudeness. The president expressed his regret at the incident, and
said among other things: "Madam, you have no idea how difficult it is
for us to get gentlemen to fill all those places."
It is hardly to be expected that the American people should excel all
others in the arts, in poetry, and in fiction. We have been very busy
taking possession of the Republic. It is hard to overestimate the
courage, the industry, the self-denial it has required to fell the
forests, to subdue the fields, to construct the roads, and to build the
countless homes. What has been done is a certificate of the honesty and
industry of our people.
It is not true that "one of the unwritten mottoes of our business morals
seem to say in the plainest phraseology possible: 'Successful wrong is
right.'" Men in this country are not esteemed simply because they are
rich; inquiries are made as to how they made their money, as to how
they use it. The American people do not fall upon their knees before the
golden calf; the worst that can be said is that they think too much
of the gold of the calf--and this distinction is seen by the calves
themselves.
Nowhere in the world is honesty in business esteemed more highly than
here. There are millions of business men--merchants, bankers, and men
engaged in all trades and professions--to whom reputation is as dear as
life.
There is one thing in the article "Brutality and Avarice Triumphant"
that seems even more objectionable than the rest, and that is the
statement, or, rather, the insinuation, that all the crimes and the
shortcomings of the American people can be accounted for by the fact
that our Government is a Republic. We are told that not long ago a
French official complained to a friend that he was compelled to employ
twenty clerks to do the work done by four under the empire, and on being
asked the reason answered: "It is the Republic." He was told that, as
he was the head of the bureau, he could prevent the abuse, to which he
replied: "I know I have the power; but I have been in this position for
more than thirty years, and am now too old to learn another occupation,
and I _must_ make places for the friends of the deputies." And then it
is added by General Hawkins: "_And so it is here_."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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