When there are two sides to a thing,
it is not difficult to get at the right of it in an argument, and
to carry public opinion for the right. But when there is absolutely
nothing to be said against a proposed reform, it seems to be human
nature--American human nature, at all events--to expect it to carry
itself through with the general good wishes but no particular lift
from any one. It is a very charming expression of our faith in the
power of the right to make its way, only it is all wrong: it will
not make its way in the generation that sits by to see it move. It
has got to be moved along, like everything else in this world, by
men. That is how we take title to the name. That is what is the
matter with half our dead-letter laws. The other half were just
still-born. It is so, at this moment, with the children's playgrounds
in New York. Probably all thinking people subscribe to-day to the
statement that it is the business of the municipality to give its
children a chance to play, just as much as to give them schools
to go to. Everybody applauds it.
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