; for a race
that practised such doctrine--that is, a race that practised race
suicide--would thereby conclusively show that it was unfit to exist, and
that it had better give place to people who had not forgotten the
primary laws of their being.

To sum up, then, the whole matter is simple enough. If either a race or
an individual prefers the pleasure of more effortless ease, of
self-indulgence, to the infinitely deeper, the infinitely higher
pleasures that come to those who know the toil and the weariness, but
also the joy, of hard duty well done, why, that race or that individual
must inevitably in the end pay the penalty of leading a life both vapid
and ignoble. No man and no woman really worthy of the name can care for
the life spent solely or chiefly in the avoidance of risk and trouble
and labor. Save in exceptional cases the prizes worth having in life
must be paid for, and the life worth living must be a life of work for a
worthy end, and ordinarily of work more for others than for one's self.

The woman's task is not easy--no task worth doing is easy--but in doing
it, and when she has done it, there shall come to her the highest and
holiest joy known to mankind; and having done it, she shall have the
reward prophesied in Scripture; for her husband and her children, yes,
and all people who realize that her work lies at the foundation of all
national happiness and greatness, shall rise up and call her blessed.

_ALTON B. PARKER_

THE CALL TO DEMOCRATS

From a speech opening the National Democratic Convention at Baltimore,
Md., June, 1912.

It is not the wild and cruel methods of revolution and violence that are
needed to correct the abuses incident to our Government as to all things
human. Neither material nor moral progress lies that way. We have made
our Government and our complicated institutions by appeals to reason,
seeking to educate all our people that, day after day, year after year,
century after century, they may see more clearly, act more justly,
become more and more attached to the fundamental ideas that underlie our
society. If we are to preserve undiminished the heritage bequeathed us,
and add to it those accretions without which society would perish, we
shall need all the powers that the school, the church, the court, the
deliberative assembly, and the quiet thought of our people can bring to
bear.

We are called upon to do battle against the unfaithful guardians of our
Constitution and