Morris tribune., 1886-09-01

should unhesitatingly pronounce IL 10
be in the relations between the great
cities and the country. The tendency of
population to concentrate in the cities
isadangerous one, and it is increasing.
The last census shows that % per
centum of the people of the United
States live in cities ofover 5000 people.
This occasion is too restricted to al
low me TO enter at all into the causes
of this over balance of population. lt
must suffice, here, to state the fact
With the massing ofnumbers. the ag-
gregation of money in the cities has
taken place. in Il still larger proper
ton. The political consequences are
deplorable. Two systems of govern
ment exist. That i'll the country Is
Democratic aud OF comparative purity
That in the cities, Is, too often, the
rule of Il mob, swayed and rewarded
by an obligarchy, and ductile i'll the
hands of corruption. The purity OF
| the franchise has been polluted, until,
III contest for the presidency, the
people look with fear and trembling,
for the returns from the city of New
York.
The economic results are graver still.
No free government can long survive
the ascendency of controlling cities.
The history of the world teaches this
in many impressive Instances. Juneal
deplored that Syra should have poured
the filthy waters of the Orontes into
the Tlber, and the cofruptions OF
Rome eventually liberated the great
empire to its eXtremlties. Paris de-
crees revolution, and stralghtway,
all France is shaken. \ riot in London
causes industry to flag throughout the
world. n great strike ut st. Louis
stops the intercourse and exchanges
of millions of producers and customers
The game of finance in New York has
| for its stakes, the wheat fields of Min
nesota and the railroads of the West,
which are the very nerves of our in
dustria! body.
The rebellion so recon ciled us to
| the operations of centralized power,
that in the blaze ofa great national
triumph, we have been blinded to its
consequences.
Capital is massed in cities. 1t SUBJ
sidizes the forces of trained intelli-
gence. The most alert and cultivated
self-interest and the ownership of the
great national highways are there.
Such power of attack and concert of
action re'thus produced, that the
scattered forces of>the country cannot
resist them. The possession of power
always leads to its abuse, and We can
not be deaf to the cry ror redress,
which has gone up from field and
shop, throughout the land. No one
expects to hear nothing but the high
est reason in such cry, for anguish
does not use the form of logic, and
still less to hear it in the recrimina-
tions which it provokes, but the un-
dertone of justice is plainly audible
in the clamor for redress. The result
is, that the anarch of discord stands
Indignantly between the city and
the country; it has marshalled op-
posing political forces, and unless
these throw down their arms and be-
come reconciled, our sy stem of govern
ment will be put in peril.
What, it has been asked, in the
spirit of anarchy, if years hence, the
producer and consumer, i'll a convul-
sion of frenzied resistance, rising in
insurrection, shall in a day, possess
the railroads, and the trained capacity
of the operatives shalrlend itself to
running them? Of what avail, then
against these millions, the decisions
of the courts, the proclamations OF ex.
ecutives, or the little army of the
United States, and, as fer volunteers,
where would you get them? This is
now no new question. 1t has been
asked repeatedly, within the last year.
Ten years ago, no one thought of pro-
pounding it. The necessities of life,
and of the government itself, are such
that the wheels could not be stopped
for a single week, and it is the lesson
of all time, that property, once thus
wrested from its owners, is never re-
stored upon the same terms by which
it was formerly enjoyed. I do not be-
lieve it is ever coming to this, and no
well-wisher of the people will ever ad-
wise it. An enlightened self-interest
will teach, it is teaching, and it has
taught, within the last SIX months,
the city and the country, that true
wisdom consists in identifying their
interests, and Ill reforming every
agency which tends to dissever them.
Let animosity be ended, by the ces-
session of abuses, and then a few
years of prosperity, growth and COM
petion, such as this favored people is
now enjoying, under the providence
of God, will efface all signs of conflict,
even as one summer heals battle
field with the balm Of golden harvests
Every leader of thought should
should proclaim, by day and night
the golden rule of the identity OF in
terests, and the necessity of It's en-
forcement. It should be taught in the
schools, iterated in the newspapers,
discussed whenever men meet, ex-
pounded by the courts, prescribed by
the statutes, and inculcated by every
example.-C. X. Davis.