Atlanta Daily World

From My Study Window
By REV. JOHN C. WRIGHT

In Quietness And In Confidence Shall Be
Your Strength"

THAT ASSURANCE from Isaiah's inspired prophecy should be our guide and stay in the midst of events and issues that try men's souls in these perilous times. As Kipling so well puts it
The shouting and the tumult dies,
The captains and the kings depart
Still stands an ancient sacrifice
A broken and a contrite heart.
This is no time for oratory as rare and as precious a gift as it is admitted to be. Still less is it a time when bewildered people are seeking a way out of the chaos of our contemporary scene, for leaders to make a vociferous display of their grasp of parliamentary law and procedure.
It must be terribly discouraging to the rank and file of our people, to respond to a call for a meeting for advice and guidance in an emergency that vitally concerns them as men and as citizens, only to be compelled to sit through precious moments, sometimes hours, of tumultuous wrangling over inconsequential details of procedure and organization. When the city is on fire, it makes little difference whether the engines use the right, left or center of the road, the important thing is to get to the fire.

WASTED TIME

Another fruitful source of confusion in our "deliberative" gatherings, is the discussion, always, heated, noisy and venomous of the relative merits and strength of the leaders of yesterday as compared with those of today. Again, men and women, busy and baffled, seeking plans and programs of action, must have their valuable time squandered by the embattled leaders of yesterday and today. As bad as they are the leaders of today are as good as those of any other day.
Whether they are or not, those that are dead cannot command the forces which must fight the battles of this era. The praisers of the past have every right to cherish hallowed memories of "the good old days". They can make them no brighter, however, by obstructing the onward march of progress with a studied and persistent discrediting of our present leaders. They may not preach like Peter nor pray like Paul but in the light of their privilege, courage and consecration they can, if backed up by all the forces in the community, make their contribution in their day and generation.
The loyalty of the veterans in the grand army of yesterday is most commendable and beautiful. But when it is used to further divide the followers and hamper and discredit the leaders in our current struggle for justice and manhood rights, it becomes pernicious and subversive. "In quietness and confidence", let the men now alive trained in the strategy and campaigns of the reverend leaders of yesterday, come forward with programs and counsel, born of the experience gained in many a hard fought struggle and assist, with the poise of elder statesmen, the men and women who must now be in command.
But in God's name, let us stop our noise, our wrangling and our forensic fireworks and get down to the immediate and challenging task of building a program of community action that will be adequate to the present emergency, and adaptable to any crisis yet to come. THIS is a time for sober, calm, constructive thinking. If the generals can't agree on a plan of campaign, there is nothing but slaughter and defeat in store for the divisions they command.
I submit that more vital than our reaction to the recent events at the State Capitol; the Equalization of Teachers Salaries; or even the securing of the full rights of the franchise, is the effective organization of our forces under men and women who can and will lead and whom we can and will follow.
Do this soberly, without rancor or personal ambition to insure the selection of those who will be short on mouth and long on brains and action. Let the shouting and the tumult die, for in quietness and in confidence shall be our