Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1891-05-08

not parties; measures, not men.
Principles come Of God, aud are as
eternal as the throne Of justice
iteelf. Men are Of the dust of the
earth, and are as transitory
az the dewdrop on the morning
flower.
Doubtless there are those present
who will live to be numbered among
two hundred millions of American
people. They may live TO see this
magnificent country, stretching from
ocean to ocean, IN all the glory of
higher and happier civiliz ,t;on than
has ever yet adorned or blessed
people, or they may live TO see it the
bleak aud desolate abode of the
genius of ruin. They may live to
see this the happiest, most prosper
GUS and most powerful people that
ever figured in tue annals of The
world, or they may live to see oui
God-favured land transformed into
one vast mausoleum, ia which shall
be buried forever the splendid wrecs
of our past and prospective glory
and with II the worlds last hope fti
civil and religious liberty. AND
these possible conditions of power
or impotence, Of happiness or mis-
cry, of glory or shame, in the provi.
dence of God, as UelieYe, are to I've
determined In these closing years OF
the nineteenth century. Mighty
forces are being marshaled which
must test our virtue, our manhood,
our patriotism, our appreciation Of
self-government and our love OF
liberty.
History is ever repeating itself
The march of human progress IL
strewn with wrecks of empires,
kingdoms, systems, thrones and
governments. Many of Il EN- went
down 10 violence and blood. We
stand today in the midst of a great
revolution-peaceful and bloodless,
] pray God 1t may be--but the
mightiest social, industrial and
economic revolution the world has
ever witnessed. 1t has not been
heralded by the flare of fambeaux,
the beating Of drums, or the thun
der of cannon. The millions who
are eDlisting in its ranks are mar
shaling under no ensign of hate, OF
blood or of carnage, but they align
themselves under banner on whose
snow white folds are emblazoned in
characters Of heavenly light, the
words: "Justice, equity and TRUTH
and from one end of the land to the
other the battle cry of this mighty
host IS: Equal rights to all and
special favors to none"
In the rapid development of our
advancing civilization that equi-
poise between the great economic
interests of the country-between
the prominent elements of our civil
ization which are absolutely essen.
tial to national happiness and pros.
perlty and to the life of the republic
lis seriously threatened with de-
struction. No one of these elements
can dominate another with safety
Even the authority and power of
civil government cannot do it,
Rome had this under republic for
hundreds of years. Commerce can
not do it. Carthage and Tyre had
this. Intellectual culture and de
velopment cannot do 1t. Greece
stood proudly pre.eminent In all
this. The elective franchise cannot
do II. All the republics which have
flourished and perished have had
this. Concentrated wealth with all
its po'wer cannot do II. When the
splendor of the Roman republic
faded into night, eighteen hundred
of her citizens owned the then
known world. When Egyptian
civilization perished from the earth,
three per cent of her people owned
nlHety-six per cent of her wealth,
and today the once fruitful fields of
the orient are given over to the wild
wanderer of the PLAIN, and the
splendors Of its civilization lie buried
beneath the drifting sands of the
desert.
VIII we, as II people, profit by the
lesson of the past? How stand we
today? TO the student of industrial
progress and economic development,
an anomalous condition of affairs is
presented. The rapid expansion of
our railway system, stretching 1861
600 miles all over our land aud fur.
nishlng transportation equal to the
demands OF our productive power
the successful development of our
manufacturing enterprise in all It's
varied departments - the magical
growth Of villages, towns and cities,
the grand rumbling of trains, the
inspiring scream of whistles, the
ringing clatter of hammer and
trowel, the musical hum and swell
ing din of workshops aud factories,
the mighty rushing tramp Of our
busy millions, the unkling ring o'
hammer and anvil-all join TO swell
the grand chorus of the worlds
happy song Of industrial progress;
and yet, agriculture, "the art of all
arts, the science Of all sciences, the
life OF all life," is langulshlng,