CHAPTER XX. 



THE DUTY OF A REFORMER. 



BY JOHN M. POTTER, SECRETARY MICHIGAN STATE ALLIANCE, AND EDITOR OF 

 THE Alliance Sentinel, LANSING, MICHIGAN. 



A REFORMER has stood in all ages past, and will doubtless stand in all 

 time to come, among his fellows misjudged and misunderstood. His 

 motives will be impugned, his sincerity questioned, and his efforts 

 unappreciated. He is one " who treads on the thorns and thistles of 

 earth, while walking amid the stars." 



The qualifications of a reformer are numerous and exacting, and with- 

 out them success is impossible. Honesty, patience, and courage are 

 the three most* essential. Add to these a continuity of action, a full 

 understanding of the proposed reform, and a willingness to labor with- 

 out even a prospect of reward, and the necessary requirements of a 

 genuine reformer are partially enumerated. The incessant, persistent 

 exercise of those qualities constitutes, in part, the duty of a reformer. 

 He who undertakes a reform must fight existing power, old conditions 

 and practices, and the almost universal dread of innovations. The 

 settled pcjicies of years are to be changed ; the prejudices of long stand- 

 ing are to be overcome ; and last, but by far the most difficult, educa- 

 tion must do its perfect work. 



To be a reformer is to be a hero, perhaps a martyr, but seldom a 

 beneficiary. It is only after the ground has been prepared, the seed 

 sown, and the plant cultivated, that the harvest can be gathered. It is 

 just so with a reform. The people must be prepared through want and 

 distress ; the cause must be discovered and pointed out ; the remedy 

 must be clearly shown ; and a concert of action toward the demand for 

 its application must be aroused ; and after all this has been brought 

 about, some eleventh-hour convert usually steps in and receives the 

 reward. But the true reformer is satisfied to perform his duty if only 

 rewarded by the consciousness of having discharged it honestly and well. 

 His efforts are all directed toward the accomplishment of his purpose, 

 without even a care as to what will become of him in the grand results 

 attending success. 



The history of reforms during the past demonstrates the fact that 

 none were failures in the end. In the fulness of time, the seeds sown 



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