Article February 21, 1925 Issue

Signs of the Times

with contributions from Georgia Harkness, Louis G. Hoeck, A. L. Murray, Trevor Davies, Howard A. Kelly, Harrison

[From the Tribune, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Nov. 29, 1924]

Toleration,—what a simple-sounding word,—yet in it is the spirit of democracy, the very essence of freedom. Fortunately we live in a better age than Voltaire's. Intolerance was then most brutal. Because of his opinions he had to leave his homeland in order to preserve his life. But individually most of us are somewhat intolerant yet. We do not like to hear expressions of opinion with which we cannot agree. We close our ears and minds to the other side, and fairly wallow in expressions of our own ideas because they tickle our vanity. We read the newspapers that advance opinions favorable to our side. We attend lectures and public speeches that are given to advance the interests of our own party or to tell of the best side of our own hobbies. Rarely do we show even the mildest interest in the other side.

But this human fault is something that we should seek to overcome. For as we close our ears to the other side, so we close our minds to information and thought. If you cannot discuss problems or issues with another who does not hold to your opinions, then your own ideas are not well founded. Secretly . . . you are afraid you are wrong, or you realize that you are badly informed. You do not like to subject those prejudices to an open, intelligent airing. You harbor them in the dark cellar of your mind, and there they develop and grow to hideous or ridiculous proportions. They eventually dominate your life, and then you are known as hidebound, narrow-minded, behind the times. And the world will move along, taking up new things in spite of you, and the advancing years will find you a hopeless outcast from the busy and prosperous life around you. Above all things develop toleration. It will give you much information and knowledge; it will keep you abreast of the times; it will make you known as a broad-minded, good fellow.

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