no The Eighth and Ninth 



commented, with a sneer, on the fact that "of 

 course" New York would not pass a law prohibiting 

 contributions by corporations. He was right in 

 thinking that New York, while it retains rational 

 civic habits, will not pass ridiculous legislation which 

 can not be made effective, and which is merely in 

 tended to deceive during the campaign the voters 

 least capable of thought. But there will not be the 

 slightest need for such legislation if only the public 

 spirit is sufficiently healthy, sufficiently removed 

 alike from corruption and from demagogy, to see 

 that each corporation receives its exact rights and 

 nothing more ; and this is exactly what is now being 

 done in New York by men whom dishonest cor 

 porations dread a hundred times more than they 

 dread the demagogic agitators who are a terror 

 merely to honest corporations. 



It is, of course, not enough that a public official 

 should be honest. No amount of honesty will avail 

 if he is not also brave and wise. The weakling and 

 the coward can not be saved by honesty alone ; but 

 without honesty the brave and able man is merely 

 a civic wild beast who should be hunted down by 

 every lover of righteousness. No man who is cor 

 rupt, no man who condones corruption in others, 

 can possibly do his duty by the community. When 

 this truth is accepted as axiomatic in our politics, 

 then, and not till then, shall we see such a moral 



