Reserve Your Judgment

Reserve Your Judgment By Harold Shepherd, J. D., Acting Dean of Law School, University of Wyoming I once heard a statement made by a man, well seasoned in the experiences of life, which impressed me at the time and which since has continued to impress me, as new experiences proved its truth. He who said it was one, who had learned to appreciate the beauties of life because he had known its pains; he was happy because he had known unhappiness, and written in the lines of his face were those unmistakable characters typi- cal of the calmness and serenity which now ruled his life. He said, "Reserve your judgment. There will come many times in your life when the impulse of the moment will urge you to make sudden, hasty decisions — reserve your judgment." Let me finish the thought as it has appealed to me since; in all the affairs of life, think long and carefully before making de- cisions, for often a decision, made in ignorance, or the result of passion or prejudice, may be the turning point to the road the end of which is failure. We meet situations in life where, perhaps just a word or action done, in the heat of sudden anger, turns from us a person who longs to be our friend, and in our later lives the habit once formed may be the cause of more un- happiness than we now imagine. The words of the poem, "School thy feelings, oh, my brother, train thy warm impulsive soul," etc., express this phase of the thought beautifully. Indeed, it is true that he is to be envied, who, amidst the conflicting storms of life, can maintain self poise, self-confidence (not over- estimated), and the ability to think clearly through a problem before giving himself up to the execution of it. We all admire the man of firm determination and action, the man who can make decisions, but our admiration for him grows just in proportion as those decisions are the result of cool, careful, preparation and clear thinking — thinking based upon knowledge rather than passion, fear or prejudice. Our great- est statesmen and our most violent anarchists have at least one thing in common: both are men of action. But the action of one is ill considered and based upon a distorted knowledge of society, the action of the other is the fruit of careful thought, openly arrived at, and well considered. Both the anarchist and the statesman make decisions ; both express them forcefully, and both translate them into action, only the anarchist acts from

RESERVE YOUR JUDGMENT 281 prejudice — he acts immediately — the statesman bases his acts upon knowledge and experience, and reserves his judgment until the proper time for speech and action has arrived. Both John Brown and the immortal Lincoln desired a common end, the liberation and the slave. Their methods of securing it differed. John Brown was executed for treason. Abraham Lincoln was immortalized. The Emancipation Proclamation was not the work of a moment, nor a decision based upon emotion, nor per- haps was it as spectacular as John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry. Through the many years before the Civil War, Lincoln had decided to strike at slavery but he reserved his judgment as to how to accomplish it; and then through those agonizing days of war and those historic cabinet meetings, ruled by pas- sions, prejudice and jealousy, Lincoln still reserved his judgment but when the Emancipation Proclamation was born it had the strength that could come only from such parentage. The great demand of the world today is for men and women, who, not blinded by passion or deceived by flattery and praise, can calmly and logically think out a situation and then give themselves whole heartedly to its complete execution. Preju- dices should be shunned, for they are founded not in reason, but rather are the offspring of passion, ignorance and an unwilling- ness to enlarge our experiences. Toleration is the opposite of prejudice and egotism, an index to a liberal education, and an indispensable prerequisite to the reservation of judg- ment. Toleration means a willingness to listen to the views of our associates with an open mind, and is as much a mark of fair play and good sportsmanship as is ever exhibited on the atheletic field. Toleration for the views, ideals and am- bitions of others is a frank admission that all the experiences and wisdom of the world are not locked up in our own little self; it admits that there is much good in our fellow man, if we are only big enough to see and recognize it. When men become intolerant they become selfish, their lives become dwarfed and they not only shut out of their lives the bright sunshine that others radiate, but they eliminate any possibility of that mature deliberation which is the surest indication that judgment is being reserved. Thus does an intolerant man build around himself prison walls as dark and unyielding to the gentler influences of life as the walls of stone and iron that con- fine our most hardened criminals. An institution, or nation, too, may become intolerant and fail to reserve its judgment, by imagining that all good is for all time contained in it. This is a sure sign of retrogression, for "intolerance and prejudice never bred anything but ignorance and superstition, and ignorance and superstition are not ground upon which men and women can

282 IMPROVEMENT ERA thrive." Witness medieval Europe under the bonds of an intol- erant church, China and Japan for centuries in the chains of their own aloofness and isolation. The world has, perhaps, never known such great problems of reconstruction as it faces today, nor perhaps, have there ever been such extreme remedies advocated by such extreme indi- viduals for their solution. The struggle between capital and labor is made more serious because of a class of extreme capital- ists, who would so completely exploit labor; and labor leaders who are so violent and radical that, in securing their ends, they would destroy the very fabric of our industrial system. The struggle between conservative democratic government and an- archy is made serious by the fact that on the one side there are those so reactionary that, if given full power, they would again reduce the world to a condition of serfmen and free ; while there are others so extreme that they would pervert freedom, by mak- ing it an /excuse for license, even to the extent of destroying our social and moral fabric. Problems like these can be solved only by men and women who can appreciate the viewpoint of both sides. Their decisions when made must be based upon knowledge of facts and expe- riences or, in a word, upon a sound education. They must be men and women who can reserve their judgment until the proper time for speaking and action has come. Our Prophet Dear Oh, thou, the chosen one of God, To guide his people here, May joy be thine for service done, Our Prophet and our Seer. As day by day thy duties call Thee far away from home, May peace and safety e'er attend Thy steps where'er they roam. May health be thine from year to year; The Saints have need of thee, Thy noble life, a beacon light, Their guide shall ever be. And even after thou art gone Their love shall follow thee, And thou shalt be their guiding star Through all eternity. Mrs. Ida R. Alldredge.