The men with
the muck-rakes are often indispensable to the well-being of society; but
only if they know when to stop raking the muck, and to look upward to
the celestial crown above them, to the crown of worthy endeavor. There
are beautiful things above and round about them; and if they gradually
grow to feel that the whole world is nothing but muck, their power of
usefulness is gone. If the whole picture is painted black, there remains
no hue whereby to single out the rascals for distinction from their
fellows. Such painting finally induces a kind of moral color-blindness;
and people affected by it come to the conclusion that no man is really
black, and no man really white, but they are all gray. In other words,
they neither believe in the truth of the attack, nor in the honesty of
the man who is attacked; they grow as suspicious of the accusation as of
the offense; it becomes well-nigh hopeless to stir them either to wrath
against wrong-doing or to enthusiasm for what is right; and such a
mental attitude in the public gives hope to every knave, and is the
despair of honest men.
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