The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1888-11-29

The assembly roomat the Normal was
jammed full of people last night who
came to hear Joseph Cook in his cele
brated lecture Ultimate America"
The speaker who was in good spirits
was introduced by President Taylor,
and without preliminaries, plunged at
once into the res gestAe of his subject.
The first part of it dealt with 1.-THE
promises" of our country, in which the
speaker calculated the vastness OF
Americas growth and the immense
size to which its population would at
tain in few generations.
Since the revolution. population
doubled itself every % or 80 years.
There is no good reason why the rate
of increase which is still in operation
may not continue for many years, I'M
til America contains as many people
as Europe, Asia and Africa, in other
words until its population reaches say
800 600 900 people.
The speaker compared the physical
proportions of the United States with
those of the Roman Empire in its pal
miest days to illustrate the vastness of
our territory and its immense capabil-
tiles.
To the English speaking people of
America there belongs a wonderful
destiny, greater far than that in store
for the British empire, vast though it
may be. The speaker quoted Mr.. Glad
stone to the effect that America was
destined to outstrip Great Britain in
future greatness. Even her CONNER
cial supremacy wonld pass into the
hands of westerners.
To show that he was not unmindful
of the magnitude of the British empire,
| the speaker circumnavigated the globe
and touched at every important British
port and dependency from Liverpool to
Gibraltar, Malta, Cypress, Alexandria,
the Suez Canal, Alden, Bombay, Cal
cutta, Singapore, Melbourne, Austria
liza and other islands in the watery
waste between Auckland and the
Golden Gate. The martial airs of Eng
land that followed the sun and kept
company with the hours had charm
for the speaker, but the future great
ness of his native country claimed the
dearest place in his heart.
He dwelt at considerable length on
''the perils'' that beset our future,
first from municipal misrule," and
secondly from "illiteracy." In the mat
ter of municipal misrule the speaker
drew a rather discouraging picture OF
the present and the future, and argued
that under manhood suffrage il would
be difficult to rule the great cities OF
the future.
The tendency of population is to col
lect in the cities. In 1920 only one
twentieth of our population was found
in cities of more than 5000 people
Now one fifth is found there. The
difficulty of managing the vast popu
lation of London with the aid of the
military, and under limited suffrage
was adverted to. When there shall be
at least three Londons in the United
States, with the accumulated vices &C
companying great municipalities, how
are they to be governed. How are
eataelysms and social revulsions to bt
prevented?
There are in the country, &C
cording to the last cen
sus two million Of illiterate voters
There are as many more semi-illiter
ates. With universal suffrage how easy
would it be for these voters to de
eide the fate of the country. The
narrowness of the majority in the lat
election showed that.
at present the rule in great cities il
dominated by the saloon. Whisky anC
illiteracy are the twin evils that con
stitutes the great peril threa tening thu
future. They furnish for coming
generations problems in sociology ant
self government as great as any thai
have been solved in the past.
Macaulay, Disraeli and others wer'
quoted us predicting direful result
for the future of the country when i
shall have grown so populous as to b
unmanRgeable under republican
form of government and universal sui
frage.
The speaker endorsed civil servic
reform and cited the fact that it was il
? force from Washington to Jackson
who introduced the spoils system.
The lecture was concluded by Wis
, ion in which the orator foresaw TIT
3 country's salvation wrought out by
) diffusion of liberty, intelligence, pre-
; pertv, conscientiousness and the II
' ligious principle.
Children Cry for Pitchers CastorIa.