The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-01-07
CURRENT PRESS COMMENT.

THE unexpected discovery of a shortage in wheat in
Europe came upon the markets Of this country last
week like the first shower after a long drought. This
week we have the glad tidings that England is putting
on a warlike front, and that it's channel squadron is
getting ready for an unknown expedition. We should
be sorry if there were any trouble in foreign lands,
but we would have the consolation of thinking that
the misfortunes of the wicked would assist the pros
perity of the just.-Pittsburg Dispatch.
WHENEVER an attempt has been made to reduce the
costliness of the machinery for paving the army by
merging the pay corps in the quartermaster's depart
mert, or requiring line officers to do many of its du-
ties, an outcry has been raised against this project, on
the ground that it would part with the special ability
and worth of the ~paymasters. and thus expose the
p suah r, lun = : W W g,ua and ism SMITH are Pb 1a;i hIows al ~
this theory than any that are dealt against it from
other sources.-New York Sun.
MEN will treat their employees with kindly consider
alton, yet utterly fail of winning confidence in return.
The workman wants more than simple kindness,
unused as he is to even that; he wants confidence;
he believes that the muscular work he does is a part
and complement of the brain work which the en-
ployer contributes, and he wants to know that this
fact is recognized; he wants, in short. to be treated,
not az a hireiing, but as a man and fellow laborer for
a common purpose. So much. at least, ought TO be
possible.-St. Louis Globe Democrat.
THERE are everywhere signs that the relations of
the English and American stage are being reversed.
Our managers have ceased to rely on London plays.
Messrs. Harrigan and Hart, who, having been burned
out of their theater on Broadway, make their reap
pearance tonight, have risen from humble beginnings
to the highest prosperity by pursuing a policy of illus
trating the streets of New York and depicting the life
with which their audiences are most familiar. Theat-
rical history in every country proves that this is the
orly sound rolicy &c follow. and that any other policy
must inevitably terminate in disaster.--New York
Herald.
EVERY explosion adds to the fright in London, and
brings nearer the moment when a mob. driven mad by
the dread of dynamite, will fall upon the Irishmen in
London and serve them as the panic-stricken Prot
estants of Lord George Gordon's day served the Ro-
man Catholics. Such an act would be brutal. unjust
and cowardly, but it would be the natural result of
the dynamite policy. To wave a red rag in the face
of q bull is not half as dangerous as it is to. explode
dynamite among the people of London. Cannot sober
Irishmen make the ODonovan Rosa patriots under.
stand that their threats are liable to put honest and
peaceable Irishmen in peril Of o London mobi-New
York Times.
THE United States government has no money to
give away to the Spanish government. and none TO
distribute among it's own people by the repeal of the
whisky tax, or tobacco tax, as Sam Randall suggests,
or in any other senseless ~gratuity. lie the good faith
of the government be maintained by keeping up the
sinking fund il is the most that the utmost economy
can accomplish. and even that will be out of the ques.
ton if the proposed immense enlargement of the pen.
sion system be adopted. 1t is folly under these con.
ditions to talk about onesided reciprocity treaties
e~ntailing a sacrifice of revenue. or about the distribu-
ton of a surplus which will have no future existence.
Chicago Tribune,
II those Republican clubs are rightly conducted they
will come to be permanent centers of interest and
sources of elevating social enjoyment in the towns in
which they exist; they will bring together the wives
and mothers as well as the husbands and fathers, the
young women as well as the young men; they will cul-
tiyate the faculty of intelligent discussion, and enlist
the efforts of the most thoughtful and eloquent; they
will organize bands of singers to lift political music
above the level of old-time campaign songs, and TO
kindle feelings of true patriotism. Such clubs will
have a power which cannot be measured. With them
well planted all over tke North the Republican cause
will be irresistible.-New York Tribune.
METHoDIsM seems to stand at the breadth of half a
continent apart from the forces that are controlling
our Intellectual and spiritual life. It's activity is great,
but seems to be exerted to bring people to a certain re
ligious position rather than to build them up into the
higher reaches of the spiritual life. It is here that,
paralcxical as it may seem, leading Unitarians, I'M
trammeled by an excess of theological baggage, have
grasped the truths of unity. of central purpose, of
the assimilation of religion with life. which to-day
characterize the ripest spiritual thought in the land.
Not that Unitarians are the only leaders here, but
| they were pioneers where others have gladly followed
in the diffusion of great ethical and spiritual truths.
Boston Herald.
THERE is certainly room for the opinion that a iu-
dicious and general policy of reduction in the cost of
railway fares would stimulate railway travel. A re-
duction of freight in the past twenty years of from so
to rs per cent. has more than compensated for itself
by the wonderful increase OF business IL has pro-