Page:Upbuilders by Lincoln Steffens.djvu/15

 somehow, the people perceived that this Spreckels was "all right."

The people are pretty wise. They are ignorant, and they can be and often are, corrupted, but not many educated individuals are as wise as the mass of men when individuals haven't tampered with them.

"Give me a jury of thieves," said a well-known district attorney, "and, if I can keep them apart from any influence excepting that of the law and the evidence in court, they will convict a guilty thief of theft."

The world's wise doubt the world's wisdom, and they have reason to; they differ very, very often; and, of course, the wise individual decides, and he tells the mute masses, that he is right. But, Euripides observed long ago in wise old Greece, that

"The world's wise are not wise."

And history and observation bear out the poet and the district attorney. Juries are juster than judges; they feel through the facts for the human story and through the letter of the law for the spirit thereof. The public is fairer than the press; the readers allow for the bias of the newspaper. An audience is more open-minded than the critics. "Have I had a good time?" the playgoer asks and the