Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1891-12-31
Does progress Of more than time and wealth

Does progress Of more than time and wealth
and numbers mark the recurring first DAYS Of
the year! II not there is no progress. The
people OF the United States are to be judged by
what they nave become, like any other people.
and the question just asked is one Of momen-
tous concern. 1t is certain that some things
have been accomplished besides increase in
population and riches. II is a favorite express
sion of Americans that the decades from the
first censJ:s to the last one taken have shown
very steady advancement socially. intellectually.
materially and morally. If there has been
national gain in the essential sense what arc the
induces? Of first things, first. Once the from
tiers throughout the country and the entire
mountainous region for q considerable time
were churchIess and dark deeds were done an
rebuked Not only in those quarters, butin others
claiming some measure Of civilization. where
there was spiritual enlightenment ard where
schools more or less abOunded. many things that
the morality and temperance of tits age could
Iot endure vere not only tolerated. bat formed
a conspicuous part of current manners and
customs. In those days while parsons drank
ardent spirits TO excess and bet freely on horse
races in one portion Of the country deacons in
another section we're accused of sanding the
sugar nad certainly engaged without comment
in the manufacture of ''Jamaica" rum Going
back to ftiIl earlier days Of the republic
10 the days when the colonies as yet did not
dream OF a formal. while they separately ex-
ercised mos. of the vital rights of real de-
nIocracy the inquirer finds slavery every
where and even slave-brecdirg establishments
in godly Massachusetts. The Indian was taken
captive and ensLived or deported to 4 worse
st,te Of slavery in the West Indies. Dis
tenters were punished north and south and
witches were hanged, although none were
burned as some historians persist in saying
But tie theory III that time, as we'll in Virginia
Massachusetts,, was that the Quaker was a
foe Of society and the evil must be whipped out
st the cart wheel In those days Harvard aud
Yale dispensed rigid theology in New England,
while William and Mary spread the rays OF the
lamp Of classic culture along the lower James.
TIE preachers held the birch az well the
Bible Two and half centuries have wrought
the changes we see in the older parts Of tie
Country and the settlement of the central and
western portions. The purchased and con-
qucred regions have been made more popu-
lous and powerful communities than many
of the older states. The red man is still there
in spots and corners. but his occasional ghost
dances no longer strike terror all thu ough the
country. The dense forests have been too
sweepingly felled and great cities stand where
the wi-wam WAS. Where De Soto and La Sale
explored is the densest. most fervid life of the
republic. Perhaps in this retrospect too much
ground Is covered Confiains the vision, then.
t. the past thirty wears, the downfall of human
slavery, the mighty movement which has peo-
Iled the FAR northwest with fruitful common
wealtls. the liberalization of culture and the
upSrowth Of vast universities. the profound
literary and religious progress which has char
aeterizc1 the period. all warrant the assump-
ton that there has been a national progress
WORTH Of The people and deserving all the con-
g:atglati. n tLey may receive today