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Anything

Prestige may be

Used as

a Stalk

horse leagues for "medical freedom,' medical freedom," "industrial freedom," "free Canal," "freedom of the seas," etc. "Personal liberty" is a fig leaf for the liquor traffic. Rich men unite to fight socialistic with measures under the name of " Liberty and Property Defense League." But their concern for liberty is a tittle compared with their concern for property. A movement for the defense of the ing-horse family turns out to be a mask for brewers fighting equal suffrage. Certain nationalist societies among our foreign-born are the screen from behind which liquor dealers attack “dry” measures. A "national water power conference " may be a scheme of power companies to gain the front page for the arguments of their attorneys. Under the cloak of a pure food" association the attorney of a baking powder company has sought legislation against rival baking powders. During the World War a number of nonneutral movements among hyphenated Americans wore the guise of a peace propaganda, or a "truth" movement.

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From the foregoing we may deduce:

Respecting

1. The better the reputation the more eager is the simulation. Maxims Counterfeits cast no discredit on the genuine. In the words of Simulation La Rochefoucauld, "Hypocrisy is a sort of homage that vice pays to virtue."

2. From the humbler classes proceed impostors in quest of gain; from the higher classes impostors in quest of respectability, dignity, reputation, honors, or public office.

3. Frauds known and tolerated discredit the genuine and if they are allowed to multiply will ruin whatever they have attached themselves to.

4. The unmasking and casting out of hypocrites is a temporary embarrassment to the thing simulated, but an ultimate benefit.

5. Endowments attract parasites as honey attracts flies; so that only great precautions in the way of visitation, investigation, and publicity can prevent an endowment from becoming a nest of corruption.

6. The more that honest labor is despised the more will men seek to live by means of simulation. Making work respectable lessens the resort to acquisitive mimicry.

7. Services that, being spiritual, are not subject to test should be underpaid. Clergymen, missionaries, revivalists, writers of devotional literature, poets, prophets, agitators, leaders, inspirers, and public men should receive less than their ability might com

CHAP.

LV

Fraud-detectors

Provided

mand in other lines in order that these precious ministrations be not adulterated.

THE EXPOSURE OF SIMULATORS

The showing up of the fringe of simulators that attach themShould be selves to every reputable thing is one of those necessary but distasteful and thankless services which remind us that it is not kindness so much as militant honesty that keeps the linchpins of society from falling out. Nearly everything which has a good name stands in need of protection; hence, the providing of frauddetectors is a means of accelerating social progress.

Impostors

Should be Hunted out and Exposed Without Mercy

The

Owners

of Good Repute

Should
Unite

to Pro

tect their Property

It is not enough that the state has tardily come to lay an arresting hand on the venders of impure foods, drugs, seeds, and fertilizers; to scrutinize the securities offered to the public; to fix tests for admission to certain professions; and to disbar tricky lawyers. More, much more, is needed. In every worthy calling the sheep ought to find means of isolating and branding the goats. Every profession ought to be alert to keep itself free from tares. Even now associated physicians issue an annual exposure volume about quacks and nostrums. Bureaus are forming for the interchange of the information about impostors which accumulates in the hands of charity agents. Boards of conference study to weed out the professionals from intercollegiate athletics. Although the idea of a "people's lobby" to apprise the citizens as to the voting record of their representatives was never realized, such features as the "Roll Call" and "Comment on Congress " help us to compare performance with promises. Municipal voters' " leagues and "legislative voters' " leagues hunt the hypocrite out of politics by printing a relentless analysis of his record. In one state a single fearless writer, publishing after every legislative session a faithful history of that session, has made himself a terror to the "whited sepulchres" of politics.

The campaign against the stealers of good repute ought to be far more general and vigorous. Since tainted news is destroying the confidence of the public in the press, the honest journals ought to band together to pillory the lying newspapers. Since fearless art critics and literary critics are needed to part the real from the spurious, such critics ought to stand together against advertisers' efforts to intimidate them. The scandal of the professional expert witness might be ended by having technical

testimony sought by the court-not the litigants from some member of a panel of reputable experts recommended by their profession.

THE TIMELY RECOGNITION OF ACHIEVERS

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Guidance

Public
Merit

Certified

The timely recognition of merit may be as serviceable to society For the as the prompt elimination of the fraud. A university or a scien- of the tific institution ought to function as a testing laboratory, its degrees and appointments as certificates of purity of scholarship. Should be To waive aside diplomas and degrees as "toys for the babyhood of science" is to overlook their value in protecting the public. against mountebanks possessing the phrases and trappings of learning but not its substance. A learned society with its honors and medals and programs may render a like service.

Dives

Ought not

to Com

mand the Prestige of the "Philan

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The public should be enabled to discriminate sharply between those who do, and those who by lavish and skilful expenditure simulate achievement without having in fact achieved. By a shrewd outlay of money and attention a mere rich man may capture for himself the name of "philanthropist " which ought to be thropist," reserved for those who, like Oberlin and Father Damien, give plorer," themselves. By hiring able helpers and by drawing upon ample or the resources he may with little risk or hardship to himself gain former'' the honors of the geographical explorer. By financing the good cause which is on the point of issuing from obscurity he may reap the reputation of reformer. By well-timed gifts and attentions to religion he may deodorize his past and acquire the aroma of sanctity.

Such stealing of plumes will not discourage those who love achievement for its own sake, but it damps the ardor of such as are fired to high emprise by the prospect of appreciation and recognition. If society allows Dives to capture the honors which ought scrupulously to be reserved for real achievers, just because they can hope for no material reward, it will be served less and exploited more. Consequently we ought to hail as deserving public servants the implacable critics and stern exposers who foil the schemes of the unmeriting to take the credit which belongs only to genuine achievement.

We Americans have been slow in waking up to the possibilities of formal recognition as a means of encouraging signal social service. In our eyes all honors and titles have been suspect

""Re

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Social
Recogni-

tion of
Merit
is not
undemo-
cratic

Make the Real Readily Distin

because they are associated in our minds with privilege and hereditary transmission, neither of them essential to social recognition. But a democracy like Australia or Canada sees no harm in the knighting of citizens who have nobly served their fellows. Royalty has stimulated its servants by holding out decorations. Why should not the people inspire their servants with the prospect of recognition?

Our neglect of public ante-mortem recognition has obliged the man of high desert to vociferate his claims or else remain in obguishable scurity with no other reward than the consciousness of duty perFrom the formed. If in every walk of life notable achievement were Sham promptly singled out and formally recognized, our eardrums would not ache as now with the self-recommendation of impostors. We need more responsible agencies with the right to seek out and set a hallmark on sterling merit. It is not too much for society through governor, mayor, state university, library trustees, school board, or other representative to give an early and a right direction to public esteem. Let a certificate, diploma, medal, label, portrait, or commemorative naming of street or park or public building, set the man of extraordinary merit apart, while he is still alive, from the pursuing horde of impudent pretenders.

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CHAPTER LVI

THE PRINCIPLE OF INDIVIDUALIZATION

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Spread

of Lump

S little societies coalesce into a big society; as tribal and local cultures vanish before the spread of a general culture; as men are drawn into organizations and more departments of hu- of the man life are regulated, less play is given to individuality. All of Practice the same group or class are lumped together, the differences among ing them being ignored. Industry, manners, morals, laws, policies are fitted not to the individual, but to the average. Since most men vary appreciably from the average, most men experience a certain discomfort under the social régime. It is as if all had to wear clothes of the same size and cut.

tory

Compare individual labor with collective labor. In handicraft The Facindustry the artisan works with his own tools in his own shop at Locksteps the Workhis own pace, beginning and ending the day to suit himself. ers When he feels like it, he can knock off a bit to stretch himself or smoke a pipe. To-day he may be up with the lark in order to quit early; to-morrow he may sleep late and make up for it by working into the night. Factory industry, however, subjects the workers to an impersonal régime. The speed of the machine regulates the pace of work. Length of the working day, time of beginning and ending, rests, holidays - all are accommodated to the average workman or else to the stronger. Aside from the companionship, labor under such circumstances will be more irksome than an equal amount of go-as-you-please labor. Since this is so and since machine production is here to stay, the machine tender's workday should be short in order that he may individualize along cultural lines.

The Machine

Product for the Individual

Made Not

Impersonal, too, is the product of the machine. In olden days the carpenter made a chest for the silversmith one day, the silversmith a cup for the carpenter on another and they wrought in sympathy. The knowledge of human necessities and the consciousness of human good will entered into their work and thus the men were linked together. But to-day the factory operative

but for

Public

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