Life — December 4, 1913 — page 30: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

DECEMBER 4, 1913 Published by No, VOL. 62 1623 LIFE PUBLISHING COMPANY J. A. Mircuett, Pres’t. 17 West A. Mutter, Sec’y and Treas. irty-first Street, New York English Offices, Cannon House, Breams Bldgs., London, E. C. Christmas W E need not ¢x- pect an apol- ogy from the Master of the Universe for existence. We won't get it. Christmas is based a good deal on the theory that no such apology is due; that existence is all right if we can only realize on its assets, and that when there is trouble it is due not to defects in the general running gear of human life, but to inability in people to get the hang of the apparatus provided. Current politics is considerably an effort to assist such people to a better understanding of their relation to the apparatus. It is an effort to carry forward a little farther the application of the golden rule to the transactions of government; to encourage folks who are brotherly in their behavior, and discourage others who are so powerfully and effectively sclf-inter- ested as to disarrange the working of concerns that ought to operate for the general good. There is nothing novel about this kind of politics, It has been jolting along for many centuries, accomplish- ing a great deal in the long run, though with many severe setbacks and innumerable mistakes. It has been comparatively easy for its politicians to agree about what is desirable in the abstract, but there are always dif- ferences of conviction about the ex- pediency of concrete measures. People are particularly prone to convictions adverse to measures which threaten to lessen in any degree their share of the available blessings in order to increase the-share of others. But all people are not so. A good many of those who have much are as heartily in favor of a better distribution and for the restraint of the unduly acquisi- tive as those who have less. That is encouraging. It shows capacity to keep in its place the highly important duty of looking out for Number One. Also encouraging is the readiness of those who are exceptionally successful in the discharge of that duty to give abundantly out of their abundance. The idea seems to have got around more than usual that to expend one’s surplus money in things that promise to benefit society is about as much fun as any of the other ways of using it. It is as though the standard of. ex- pectation had been raised on riches and the affluent were meeting The ideal of accumulating wealth to make a family powerful and splendid is no longer quite as popular as it was. There has been too much money under inspection that has failed to make the families that had it either splendid or respected. The ideal more in favor now is of wealth used considerably for public benefits. When acquisition ex- presses itself in hospitals, libraries, public art galleries, schools, parks, social service and all such things, it becomes important. When it merely runs to palaces and the more exclusive pleasures it is unimportant and that seems just now to be recognized more and more. Certainly we have a record lot of excellent givers among the rich people. We also have a great number of very good people working unostentatiously, but hard, at all manner of jobs to make the world better. We are prone to feel at times that most of the par- ticularly good people are dead, and that there is a lot to be done in the world and only ourselves and a few others to do it. And, of course, that is discouraging, for we are pretty lazy ourselves and don’t want to be over- worked. But in the papers all the time, and in the various magazines, one is ever coming across news of people heretofore unknown to us who seem to have a much hungrier appetite for good works than ours, and more intelligence, activity and devotion in doing them. Of course these dis- coveries make somewhat for sel abasement (which is really the most comfortable frame and unjustly dis- paraged), but very much for encour- agement about the prospects of man- kind. It is a great stay to the spirit to find other people waking up and show- ing intelligence and a disposition to in- sist on a better order, and the other qualities and insistencies that one ex- pects to find only in himself. Really it makes democracy seem a likelier gamble when other people behave so! HIS encouragement about other people is really the greatest en- couragement that we have, and among the greatest of our Christ blessings. It is something to be furthered as much as is consistent with sense and sincerity. For our part, we are not hopeless about anybody this year. So much good has worked out of bad situ- ations that we can’t be. We are encouraged about the radicals and ready to believe they have really got a move on the mossbacks, and encour- aged about the conservatives and their ability to keep the hot-heads from flying off the handle; about the suffra- gists and the antis on the same grounds; about Mr. Bryan in the Cab- inet, about the currency bill, about the prospective medication of the trusts, about all the people who are trying to raise hob and all those who are trying to stop them, It is out of all these conflicting efforts that government proceeds and human life forges ahead. The muzzles and the shackles seem wonderfully off of people. They wrangle so zealously about important matters that a good deal that is important seems bound to come of it. Merry Christmas to them all!