The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1890-04-10
Personal MORALITY AND POLITICAL
MORALITY.
n No. A

MORALITY.
r. A. p. Barnard In April Forum.
When the corrupt use of the public
patronage for party ends first began
to be practiced, it was not regarded
as necessarily involving, in those who
employed it or in those who were
benefited by 1t, any personal dishon-
esty or lack Of integrity. Personal
morality and political morality were
esteemed to be two quite different
things. But the practice is intrinsic
ally and essentially dishonest, and no
man can participate in it without
shortly losing sight Of all the ordina-
ny distinctions between right and
wrong. The man who sought office
for the emolument it brought, rather
than for the honorable functions with
which it clothed him, would hardly
hesitate to use the opportunities and
the powers Of Office to increase his
gains. And history has painfully
DEMONSTRATED that the corruption in
vOlved in the original distribution of
Office Is Insignificant and trivial, con-
trasted with that infinitely larger COR
ruptiOn which has grown out OF the
prostitution Of Office itself to mer-
cenary ends.
HOW THE sTRUGGLU FOR WEALTH
CAUSES POVERTY.
Rev. DR.. William Barry In April Forum.
The struggle for wealth is turning
out barbarians by the million, on as
large q scale, in fact, as any other
products Of our expensive machinery.
Competition. governed by no higher
principle than the ''higgling OF the
market creates poverty, drunken
ness. vice, physical degradation, hos
tial indifference to every human good.
The abundance which ought to feed
civilization is choking it. The labor
market" has taken the place of the
slave market, and men, women, and
children are sold in it every day. But
the wage-earner comes cheaper than
the slave. He belongs to nobody. His
fee simple in our magnificent social
progress is but contingent remain
der in the workhouse-where no
useful work is ever done, lest it should
increase the consumption outside and
SO multiply paupers.
MoNQPaL4sTs AND THEIR VICTIMS.
Rev. Dr. William Barry IN April Forum,
The vast burden OF poverty un-
der which we are staggering is
mainly due to the appropriation Of
public services, Of social rights, by
Individuals who neither can nor do
render an equivalent for them to
their felloy citiyens. That is the
meaning Of monopoly. Monopoly,
whether created yesterday or the
heirloom Of ages, is nothing less than
q tax on all present and future pro-
auctions Of the land in which it
aourishes.
Abolish the monopoly Of resource
now enjoyed by few. and the nation
will not be the poorer by the smallest
traction OF any commodity at any
moment after. But let there be q
universal strike Of all except the mo-
nopolists, and how long would soci-
ETY. endure? There would be q famine
IN z year, IN tra years nakedness, and
in ten the lani would be p dessola-
ton. Monopoly means a present taS
as we'll - q past nsnrpatiop. The
monopolist may also hs receiving
wages of superintendence;n but they
are q tslatng proportion Of his In.
come, and no part Of his monopoly in
the proper sense. It Il not by any
mans wages that the people are I'm
poverished, but by this running sore
Of taxes handed over to private per-
sons, to be used without regard to
the social organism.
Wa have special arrangements with
tbs publishers, hy which we can club
this best Of Magazines waIa the RLA4N
DEALER,