Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-07-09
4 BISHOPS VIEW.

Z BISHOPS VIEW.
Bishop J. L. Spaulding, writing in The
Forum, does not believe we are in danger
of revolution. We have not heard any
intimate that we are, nor has any writer
we have read forecast such danger All
that has been contended is that certain
loud-mouthed, vicious, and altogether de
spicable fellows, have talked revolution,
lied about the Government, denounced So
cial organization and rated the republic as
4 thing Of infamy There is danger that
such utterances viii contaminate the
young, inhame the vicious and mislead the
ignorant, so that, in the course of some
years, we may be something more than an
noyed at the strength, virulence and
wicked mischieYousness of a class of peo-
pie educated to the belief that universal
overthrow of all things orderly is right
procedure. Therefore it is held that or
binary prudence dictates the suppression
of the ver:nin now seeking to gnaw into
the vitais of the American system. The
Bishop calls attention to the fact that bat
ties, conflicts and dangers of all kinds have
a mysterious charm for men, because all
life, animal or intellectual, is developed
and attains strength only through struggle.
Bloody warfare no longer has a charm for
the civilized the individual is more and
more important as civilization advances.
and each is enabled more and more readily
to choose his own mode Of life and break
any bonds that hinder the use of his facul-
ties. So it is that civilization advances
the reign of the people and depreciates
that Of the strongest man. Thus social
questions are brought uppermost, since all
other and merely physical questions have
been fought out and decided by wager of
the sword. Out of the debate of social
questions has arisen the philosophy of de-
spair among Christian nations, under the
influence of which are developed the
doubters, who prophesy the fall of all
social and governmental structures under
the influences of variety of
activities, intemperance, infdelity, social
ism, etc. But the essayist shows that
countless millions of Mohammedans and
Buddhists, strictly sober. are unspeakably
wretehed, Christianity remains mistaken.
society is not rocked and governments do
not decay. The complainants, therefore,
do not, he holds, represent the sentiments
Of any considerable body of Americans.
" We are not theorists and dreamers, but
workers" fhis country is blessed land,
nowhere else have men such opportunity
nowhere else do such multitudes find it
possible to escape from Ignorance poverty
and the impotence Of blind endeavor into
the pure light Of free, orderly and growing
life; nowhere else is there more general
good will and sympathy in spite of the
mingling Of heterogeneous nationalit,es
and conflicting creeds.8 After al, he finds
that there is marvellous exaggeration
about our rich men they are but sprink-
ling; capital is the army of a commercial
age, and capitalists are necessary to under
take and carry on great enterprises our
wealthy men are the children of the poor,
and their children or grandchildren will
either perish utterly or go to work again
with the laboring classes No hatred
can flourish long here, and finally that the
poor do not hate the rich, and the rich as
a body are not Indifferent to the wants of
the poor. The people are neither paupers
nor millionaires, but workers, whose energy
and thrift secure them a competence
100000 of them are farmers; only half
that number are engaged in manufacture
ing, and three-fourths of the farmers own
the land they cultivate, and the tendency
is TO diminish rather than increase the
size of the farms Our laborers receive
higher wages and live in greater plenty
than those of any other country In this
strain the Bishop proceeds at considerable
length to show that we are strong people
safe from assaults within and not proyok-
ing attacks from without; that
capital does not exercise the tyrannic
power the grumblers charge, else why
do the poor flock to US? That no other
Government rests so completely on the
assent and approval of the governed, and
that this is the strongest of all founda-
tons. Anarchical doctrines, he claims,
must die here from lack of a suitable en-
vironment. They are importations, and
will not flourish in our soil, for here social
conditions are wholly dissimilar to those
of the place of expectation. He holds
that the preaching of Anarchical doctrines
is criminal, and ought to be punished by
law. but believes that our society must
undergo radical changes before this fanati-
cism can become menace TO our institu-
lions. The labor troubles are more seri-
Gus by far, and be thereupon enters
another branch of the subject not neces-
AIRY to now review. Wehaye presented so
much to give clearly the view of patri-
etc optimist 1t is not open to objection,
md invites no sharp criticism. All the