320 ROBERT H. THURSTON 



or of the state or nation, should be legally placed in the same 

 category and subject to the same judgment. 



Social remedies for the economic and social errors of the 

 time are to be found in the cultivation of a well defined and 

 well established private and public sentiment in favor of good 

 morals, good manners, and high culture, such that not only 

 the individual, but the body politic shall constantly gain in 

 these directions. When a nation, a state, a municipality, 

 as a whole as well as individually, becomes accustomed to sus- 

 tain good morals, to exhibit good manners and real courtesy, 

 and illustrates a steady advance in true culture, its future and 

 the safety, prosperity, and happiness of its people are assured 

 so long as its neighbors do not forcibly interfere. Its chances 

 of insuring its future despite the interference of others are also 

 improved; for patriotism, intelligence, wisdom and courage 

 are likely to be stimulated amongst such people as nowhere 

 else. These social remedies will be administered most suc- 

 cessfully through the educational system, which takes the 

 child at a tender age, and, when its mind is most impressible, 

 gives it a knowledge of the higher law and learning, and stimu- 

 lates its moral and its aesthetic senses. The foul seeds which 

 furnish the poisons of the body politic are cultivated by a few 

 within their own families and in the secret club rooms of 

 anarchist and of the Mafia. Their antidotes cannot be there 

 applied, as a rule ; they must be furnished to the whole nation 

 through the education of its children. These antidotes are 

 those which stimulate the growth and maintenance and re- 

 finement of those most beautiful products of civilization — 

 good manners, good morals, and high culture. Compulsory 

 application of remedies for social disorders is always a most 

 undesirable though sometimes a necessary course of action. 

 It should be applied, however, instantly and without hesita- 

 tion, by the constituted authorities when it becomes evident 

 that peaceable and kindly measures will not insure to indi- 

 vidual citizens, or groups of citizens, their legal and political 

 and moral rights. Every infraction of law and every breach 

 of the peace should bring its prompt and appropriate check 

 and punishment. Every forcible attempt to infringe upon 

 the rights of a single citizen or a class should be instantly met 



