FELLOW-FEELING AS A POLITICAL 

 FACTOR 



PUBLISHED IN THE "CENTURY," JANUARY, 1900 



FELLOW-FEELING, sympathy in the broadest 

 sense, is the most important factor in producing 

 a healthy political and social life. Neither our na 

 tional nor our local civil life can be what it should 

 be unless it is marked by the fellow-feeling, the 

 mutual kindness, the mutual respect, the sense of 

 common duties and common interests, which arise 

 when men take the trouble to understand one an 

 other, and to associate together for a common object. 

 A very large share of the rancor of political and 

 social strife arises either from sheer misunderstand 

 ing by one section, or by one class, of another, or 

 else from the fact that the two sections, or two 

 classes, are so cut off from each other that neither 

 appreciates the other's passions, prejudices, and, in 

 deed, point of view, while they are both entirely ig 

 norant of their community of feeling as regards the 

 essentials of manhood and humanity. 



This is one reason why the public school is so 

 admirable an institution. To it more than to any 



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