Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1881-07-21

ping to drunkenness. When everr-
body has money with which to buy
what he wants, money goes begging,
and the rate OF interest is low: but
when large numbers of people of linn
tied means buy, with the money of
Others, what they want but do not
need, because their neighbors indulge
like Injuries, the rate Of interest to
them will be high, and it is simply a
question Of time when the lender will
absorb the property of the borrower.
The prairie-hen lowering over your
wheat fields, or the squirrel in your
woods, falls prey to your shot, and Ell
riches your table. Will the Shylock
neglect his opportunity, or require less
than the pound of flesh?
But worse, possibly, than the ills at
tributable to thrift'essness or extrava-
gance, because of lis demoralizing in
huences, is the false notion that obtains
respecting wealth. IF only our neigh
Dor be possessed of countless bonds
and mortgages, or lands and chattels,
what matters it how he came by them
Learning, wisdom, industry, integrity,
virtue, charity, sobriety, are all as moth
ing before the Cr1sus and we, the peo-
pie, intelligent, high-minded, conscien-
tious people, as we claim to be, not only
assent to this pre-eminence for Honey,
but
CONTRIBUTE TO ITS POWER
by voluntarily yielding it homage and
forgiving its sins. Does not the teacher
in our public schools, the press, the
pulp t, the rostrum, and do not fathers
and mothers, turn away from the true
God to worship this mammon, and
thereby
FAsTEN THIS FALSE DOCTRINE
upon us? Who will say that the shib-
boleth to worldly homage is not gold?
And who that is human will voluntarily
surrender the sword that commands
respect, obedience and homage? Can a
nation continue strong and healthful,
can it defend and preserve itself, with
such poisonous cancers at its vitals?
Pressure at home and inducements
abroad" says distinguished political
writer, "perpetually incite men to leave
their native country and settle in for
eign lands" 1t is estimated that more
than fifteen millions of people born in
other climes have made homes under
our flag since the surrender of Corn
wallis, at Yorktown. OF these, few
were rich, and, we may hope, less
number lazy. The rich rarely feel the
pressure of government, and meyer suf-
fer from the competition incident to
manual or mental labor, while the lazy
and thriftless are not apt to become so
charmed by inducements abroad that
they will risk the perils of the deep to
better their condition. To these people,
and among them, the American citizen
who does not boast of revolutionary
sires, proudly traces his ancestry, or
CLAIMS HIS KINDRED;
and to-day we cordially unite in well
coming the stout hearts and brawny
hands that are now coming to us by
thousands from the ill-favored coun-
tries of Europe. They bring to us new
blood and bone and sinew, and assures
us Of honest industry, plentiful harvests.
and business prosperity. But, have
we no cause to fear that this popular
asylum for the oppressed of all nations
may become the castle of despots "a
country from whence the people may
be driven to other lands, because Of
pressure? Have we no hint to fear de-
as a consequence of the
influx of the vast multitudes of people
whose
HABITS OF LIFE AND THOUGHT
unwittingly reject the teachings of re-
publicanism Very remote these
startling possibilities may be, and doubt
less are, yet when we remember that
proud Rome fell, and favored Egypt is
favored no more, are We not diuoa
hidden to eliminate the bad and uer-
petuate the good, to teach those princi-
Piles of human government established
by experience rs best calculated to pro-
mote the homogeneousness of a people,
and thereby extend to the remotest pos
sible period of time the blessings born
of, and vouchsafed by, this republic?
Themes for our contemplation, per-
tinent TO national existence, and the
privileges, rights and duties of citizens,
may be indefinitely multiplied; but the
time and occasion forbid further ampli-
fication, For all the ills If this repub-
lie, present or possible, the more per-
feet
DEVELOPMENT OF THE MASSES OF THE
PEOPLE
by means Of universal education, and
by untrammelled social, commercial
and political intercourse, will be found
both preventive and remedial. By I'M
trammelled intercourse ofthe people,
| mean all that free and frequent inter
change of thought and sentiment, all
that unlimited activity and co-opera-