Our Poorer Brother 241 



What I most grudge in all this is the fact that 

 sincere and zealous men of high character and hon- 

 est purpose, men like Mr. Watson, men and women 

 such as those he describes as attending his Populist 

 meetings, or such as are to be found in all strata 

 of our society, from the employer to the hardest- 

 worked day laborer, go astray in their methods, and 

 are thereby prevented from doing the full work for 

 good they ought to. When a man goes on the 

 wrong road himself he can do very little to guide 

 others aright, even though these others are also on 

 the wrong road. There are many wrongs to be 

 righted; there are many measures of relief to be 

 pushed ; and it is a pity that when they are fighting 

 what is bad and championing what is good, the men 

 who ought to be our most effective allies should 

 deprive themselves of usefulness by the wrong- 

 headedness of their position. Rich men and poor 

 men both do wrong on occasions, and whenever a 

 specific instance of this can be pointed out all citizens 

 alike should join in punishing the wrong-doer. 

 Honesty and right-mindedness should be the tests; 

 not wealth or poverty. 



In our municipal administration here in New 

 York we have acted with an equal hand toward 

 wrong-doers of high and low degree. The Board of 

 Health condemns the tenement-house property of 

 the rich land-owner, whether this land-owner be 

 priest or layman, banker or railroad president, law- 

 yer or manager of a real estate business; and it 

 pays no heed to the intercession of any politician, 

 J n VOL. I. 



