Word: evils
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Dates: during 1900-1909
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...duty of men to discharge those responsibilities as best they may; to give, if not the "silver and gold" of high attainment and capacity, at least the best service in their power. Individualism, carried to excess, is a danger of the Harvard elective system, and becomes an evil when men so far lose themselves in the struggle for personal advancement as to neglect the duties of help and influence they owe the men around them...
...freedom of thought and action. The restrictions and guiding influences which have surrounded the boy are gone, and the man is at liberty to think and do as he chooses. It is not unnatural that he is tempted to eat of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, and to dabble in sin in the sudden reaction from enforced virtue. The absence of responsibility seems the essence of freedom. Yet freedom is in truth quite different--it is complete responsibility for self-government. The boy acted under orders; the free man acts for himself, and is completely...
...recent elections may be easily seen. By it, nominations are left solely to those who have a purely commercial interest in politics; by it, therefore, members are sent to our legislatures who are the creatures of a few "wire pullers," and act only according to their orders. Another evil is always present in the larger cities. This is bribery for protection against adverse legislation. The claim is made that such vote-buying has become indispensable to the safety of large corporate interests. Of course, honest primaries would do away with this evil; yet for every man bought there must...
...securing faithful public servants. This is brought about by incessant criticism and fault-finding, that to the American mind is very distasteful. That it is so is our misfortune; for only by opting English methods can we reach the desired results. Perfect fearlessness in casting a searching light on evil-doers helps wonderfully to create a sense of responsibility for the equitable management of public affairs. The individual in the community must become a factor in politics--an intelligent factor. Intelligence is what most of us lack, as far as the knowledge of laws and the duty of officials goes...
Students in modern universities, he said, may be divided from a moral point of view into four classes: The first, those who are unaffected by temptation and whose lives are under the control of a superior being; the second, those who recognize evil, but fight with all that is in them to overcome it; the third those who drift about and do not contend with evil, either through thoughtlessness or because they have been defeated; and the last class, those who, overcome by temptation, are going to places in their moral and perhaps their physical nature. The question...