Evening journal., 1891-08-01
NEWSPAPER OPINION
rhe Tennessee ExAmple

Louisville Ccurier-Journal.
II we are to have repeated in Tennes-
see the iliad of human wrong and woe
which has made Pennsylvania rich, than
Tennessee were better blotted out Of the
memory of men. That fruitful and
famous state has no blot upon its escut-
cheon. It's history is one long prose
poem of heroic effort and splendid
achievement. Through the veins of its
people flows an unbroken stream lof
Scotch Irish blood. Valor and integrity,
good sense and good will, spring, like a
tropic fora, In spontaneous growth from
that pure source of so much that is great
and noble In our national life. Tennes-
see is twin sister TO Kentucky. The
two, like the ladies Rosalind aud Celia,
have gone hand in hand, ore and INSOFAR
able. through a century Of sunshine and
shadow, Of glory and daring, until from
the blockhonse in the wilderness has
been blezed sshome for men unequalsd in
the world; aud blessed by every abund-
ance out OF the very hands of God. Ii
the lust for money is to make a craze
among the people; II 1t is to put poi
son in their blood; ifit is to divert the
currents Of healthy life and thought
away from their natural channels ints
dark and turBid river of unfsthomsble
depth, bearing upon its surface the Baby
lonian splendors OF a shameful prosperity,
whilst carrying beneath the degra-
daton and suffering of thousands
OF men, women and children, condemned
like galley slaves to hopeless penury; IT,
In word, the outcome Of the csmptres
OF Robertson, Sewer and Jackion, and
their contemporaries, and the end of the
civilization Of the pioneer church, whose
simple music must still echo In strains Of
Heaven-sent melody and piety, and love
and pity, through hearts that have not
forgotten the teaching Of the fathers
II all this is to come TO naught but greed
aud gain, CHASTITY wealth and grimy
hqualor, and the dread contrasts that
make lie at the centra one horrible pa
geant OF 'debauchery, rapine. and want
then, indeed, we're It better that Tennes
see had never been, for, as surely as time
lasts shall 1t be written of her, as of an
older sinner
"she has scourged the weak and the lowly
And the just with an iron rod;
She is drunk with the blood OF the holy,
She shall drink Of the wrath of God"
The people OF Tennessee, of Kentucky,
Of the United States, may as well under
stand now, as later, that, no less than
the less favored peoples Of the Old
World, we have to meet the Social Ques
tlon 10 most OF its forms In Europe,
girt round by feudal bonds and tenures,
pressing men and women closer to the
wall by the ever-incressiDg swell and
! force of numbers, the conditions are
sharper and more urgent than in young
country, with its great area of territory
not yet occupied, and its vast resources
still accessible to the humblest toiler
/ But. In republican America, the same
agencies are at work which, originally.
prevailed in the ancient monarchies,
and TO which may be traced
many Of the evils that shadow these
closing years Of the nineteenth century.
In dealing with them, and in order that
we may employ a wisdom that is at once
\ practical and humane, we must tak'
them, seriatim, as they come before US.
/ This whole Coal Creek business is the
off-sprlng Of an abomlnation, to which
the law has given its sanction. Ia the
olden time, when might had mind tC
lord II over right, ii took its good clay
more in hand and went out In search oil
adventures. It slew its weaker sdver
sary, appropriated to itself his lands, anc
cattle aud kline, and came home IL
triumph, bringing stores Of spoil and at
tended by knights in Armol
and slaves In chains. Their
lit gave itself title anC
founded dynasty, and got poets to sins
its praises, and fools to make IL merry
and historians to write down genius ant
prowess for mere brute force aud cum
ming, thieving craft and cruel pillsge
Modern rspacity Is more ingenious an,
less manly. The older rufisnism at leas
took its life In it's hand and gave III
enemy q chance. It's degenerate scioI
finds safer and surer means Of achieving
its desires. It organizes q corporation
IL gets charter. II hires a lobby
leases an organ. IL buys q Legislature
And, there you are Millions TO a few
misery to all others; with the law {,
! sustain the proceeding, and, il need be
J just as in the days Of yore, troops t
| enforce IL