DEVELOPING WILL-POWER

Nothing could be worse. Resignation means
passivity. It means a total absence of will-
power.
For centuries, resignation has been praised
as a virtue. The fact is that it is nothing of the
kind. Usually it is nothing but weakness and
fear. It is a servile thing—resignation. It
means putting up with troubles and wrongs
instead of facing them and putting an end
to them.
There 1s a certain amount of fighting that
must be done by every self-respecting man, if
he does not want to have footprints on his
back. People who are passive and full of resigna-
tion, like the Russians, invite Czars and Soviets
to oppress them. No one oppresses a hardy,
free-spirited people, like the Swiss. Resigna-
tion creates tyrants and bullies. It is not a
virtue. It 1s a weakness.
There is a vast difference between hardihood
and resignation. A man of hardihood faces the
storm and keeps on, but a man of resignation
says, ‘‘ What's the use ? ”’ and sits down.
There must be resistance to unjust legislation
and national evils. Every nation of tame cats
hasa hard time of it. Thefreedom that we possess
was not won by resignation. It was won by
resistance. Have we forgotten that ?

129