who think themselves respectable, and are in fact highly influential, are willing to contribute to the support of a corrupt or semi-corrupt party, and ask no questions except questions as to the treatment to be accorded to the enterprises in which they are interested. They do not think themselves responsible for open gambling dens and scandalous police courts, but they are. I have known more than one promising movement for municipal reform to be wrecked on such hidden rocks as these. When the criminal indicts the community because of corruption in some branch of local government he is usually right. If we try the case on its merits, the indictment stands. The only way that you or I can clear ourselves of complicity is by showing that we have done the utmost humanly possible to bring about a better state of things. But if, unhappily, we are compelled on the basis of the facts of yesterday to plead "Guilty as charged," then the only way in which we can do "works meet for repentance" is to see to it that the facts of today and of the swift coming tomorrows give no grounds for our further indictment.
Stanford University.
