Editorial February 21, 1901 Issue

The Golden Rule

Editor

In the course of an able address delivered before the Massachusetts Legislature Tuesday, February 12, 1901, on the occasion of its first celebration of Abraham Lincoln's birthday, Senator Hoar referred to the Golden Rule as the solution of some of the serious problems which are now confronting our nation. He said:—

I believe the solution of this difficulty is to be found in the Golden Rule and in the great declaration, which is but the application of the Golden Rule to the conduct of states.

If the white man will take these for his guides when he deals with the negro and the Indian, if America will take these for her rule of action in dealing with weak foreign nations, the difficulties that beset us will disappear. If we do not, as sure as God liveth, however the weaker races may suffer, the penalty will fall upon us. I have an abiding confidence that these clouds which hover over us will disappear. I am no prophet, nor son of a prophet, except as all our-fathers were prophets. But I think I know the temper of the American people, and I know that I know the temper of the people of Massachusetts. I have an abiding and absolute conviction that, with knowledge of the truth and the letting in the light, persistence in a wrong to any people or race is wholly impossible to our just and generous countrymen. I look upon the future of Massachusetts and of the country without fear. The new days and the new century are to be better than the old. This headland that our ship of state is passing on its stormy voyage, freighted with the hope of liberty and humanity, is a Cape of Good Hope. Our fathers did not penetrate a position their sons cannot hold. The people that gained the great heights of the Declaration will not abandon them. Humanity that has risen from out the beast shall not

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