20xx西奧多羅斯福themanwiththemuckrake(編輯修改稿)
2025-01-17 02:14 本頁(yè)面
【文章內(nèi)容簡(jiǎn)介】 denounce mud slinging does not mean the endorsement of whitewashing。 and both the interested individuals who need whitewashing and those others who practice mud slinging like to encourage such confusion of ideas.
one of the chief counts against those who make indiscriminate assault upon men in business or men in public life is that they invite a reaction which is sure to tell powerfully in favor of the unscrupulous scoundrel who really ought to be attacked, who ought to be exposed, who ought, if possible, to be put in the penitentiary. if aristides is praised overmuch as just, people get tired of hearing it。 and overcensure of the unjust finally and from similar reasons results in their favor.
any excess is almost sure to invite a reaction。 and, unfortunately, the reactions instead of taking the form of punishment of those guilty of the excess, is apt to take the form either of punishment of the unoffending or of giving immunity, and even strength, to offenders. the effort to make financial or political profit out of the destruction of character can only result in public calamity. gross and reckless assaults on character, whether on the stump or in newspaper, magazine, or book, create a morbid and vicious public sentiment, and at the same time act as a profound deterrent to able men of normal sensitiveness and tend to prevent them from entering the public service at any price.
as an instance in point, i may mention that one serious difficulty encountered in getting the right type of men to dig the panama canal is the certainty that they will be exposed, both without, and, i am sorry to say, sometimes within, congress, to utterly reckless assaults on their character and capacity.
at the risk of repetition let me say again that my plea is not for immunity to, but for the most unsparing exposure of, the politician who betrays his trust, of the big business man who makes or spends his fortune in illegitimate or corrupt ways. there should be a resolute effort to hunt every such man out of the position he has disgrac
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