Among Reformers 51 



charitableness. These men thus do inestimable dam 

 age ; for the reform spirit, the spirit of striving after 

 high ideals, is the breath of life in our political in 

 stitutions; and whatever weakens it by just so much 

 lessens the chance of ultimate success under demo 

 cratic government. 



Discarding the two extremes, the men who delib 

 erately work for evil, and the men who are unwilling 

 or incapable of working for good, there remains 

 the great mass of men who do desire to be efficient, 

 who do desire to make this world a better place to 

 live in, and to do what they can toward achieving 

 cleaner minds and more wholesome bodies. To these, 

 after all, we can only say : Strive manfully for right 

 eousness, and strive so as to make your efforts for 

 good count. You are not to be excused if you fail 

 to try to make things better; and the very phrase 

 "trying to make things better" implies trying in 

 practical fashion. One man's capacity is for one 

 kind of work and another man's capacity for another 

 kind of work. One affects certain methods and an 

 other affects entirely different methods. All this 

 is of little concern. What is of really vital impor 

 tance is that something should be accomplished, 

 and that this something should be worthy of accom 

 plishment. The field is of vast size, and the laborers 

 are always too few. There is not the slightest ex 

 cuse for one sincere worker looking down upon an- 



