MORAL UMBRELLAS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 3294, 12 August 1911, Page 4

MORAL UMBRELLAS.

AS STRONG TO-DAY AS EVER. “The first uso to which primitive man put his imagination was the invention of the moral umbrella, to protect him against the too blinding blaze of moral light he found in the heavens, says the “Irish Homestead.” ‘He found lie could creep under the shade of trees from the sun but the- light of conscience which was much more uncomfortable, he had no natural protection from, and he set his wits to work and invented the moral umbrella. “When Adam said ‘The woman tempted mo, and.l did eat,’ he hoisted up the first moral umbrella to protect his self-respect. He hoisted Eve up as a sunshade, and then intimated that on account of her darkness and opacity he could .not see his way. This first invention of man is in use to-day in spite of its miserable failure in the hands of the first inventor and its proved incapacity for the work it was intended to do. We go on. hoisting moral umbrellas all the time. We blame everybody except ourselves, and if we cannot blame another human being w r e thnow the blame on inanimate objects, on nature or destiny, and having done so, we relapse into a complacent reverie on cur blameless lives and the wings that would have sprouted if some external cause had not- hindered and the halo which would have brightened our brews if some interfering person had not cut off the light. “Within, the last few years the light of conscience has been piercing its way through the moral umbrella which Ireland had erected as one splendid national shelter to cover all its people. For centuries everything whoch went wrong in Ireland was attributed to outside causes. Ireland was as pure as the unborn babe of wrong. But huge gaps and rents have been torn in the national umbrella in the course of time, and the light of conscience has poured in here and there and nccesitated the erection of smaller umbrellas. “ ‘lreland,’ said Conscience, ‘you do not feed your children properly.’ ‘lt is the creameries, my lord,’ answered Ireland, promptly hoisting up a new moral umbrella. ‘lt is the creameries which swallow up all the milk and leave none for us and our children.’ And this moral umbrella has been held up for years to save our national selfrespect/ It has been hoisted at. every public meting where national health has been considered, and it was hoisted at the annual meeting of the Women’s National Health Association. We were assured that fanners, laborers, and poor people generally had the greatest difficulty in getting milk because of the creameries. Nobody blamed the Irish people. We are all children of Adam and the desire to maintain our selfrespect is as strong to-day in ns as in our first ancestor.”