The herald., 1893-12-31
A PAUSE IN A DOWNWARD CAREER.

The people OF the united STATES must
positively pause in their wild quest for
money and take measures to reconstruct
the morale of the country. 1t does not
follow either in the case fan individual
final and irremediable. That would be
to rob history OF its most brilliant ex-
emplars, from King David down to
Henry ", and later. But we have
reached stage in the career of this
country in which we must down brakes
and reverse engines.
1t is positively frightful the rapid
pace at which the United States is
illustrating the old adage, Fdcils est
descensus Acerni. With every great rail-
way in the United States in the hands
OF receivers, with two exceptions, the
rate at which extravaganza has run
riot may be easily gauged. The receiv-
ers themselves are, in many cases, turn
ing out to be consummate scoundfels
and are converting their role from that
of receivers into that of wreckers.
Other nations for time have lost their
sense OF right, but it is the marvellous
celebrity of the descent that shocks us.
For about a century England was per-
haps the most God forsaken country
that ever existed from the standpoint of
high morality. The profligste tribe who
surrounded the Stuarts after the restor-
stion were probably never surpassed on
earth for downright villainy. They
would sell out anything, from their
country to woman's honor or their
God. Admirably personifed in Marl-
borough, they led up to the ever mem
orable reqime of Sir Robert Walpole, the
author OF the famous and unprincipled
epigram, Every man has his price"
Even later, with Csstlereagh as prime
". as regent and heir apparent, there
was scarcely much amendment up to the
beginning OF the present century and
for more than decade after it had
opened, But the English people deter
mined that there must be an amend
ment in public morals, and from having
been the most Indifferent nation in Eu-
rope as to the department of her public
men that country is now holding up her
Statesmen and rulers to the most exact
ing standard of morality.
We by no means wish to be under
stood as claiming that the United States
enjoys a monopoly of public immortality
and of the violation of fiducisry trusts.
We are perfectly aware that the great
English railway promoter, Sir Morton
Peto, cut his throat to escape the
clamor arising from his shady transac-
tiona. We have by no means forgotten
Pereire, either, and the Panama canal
enormities are of too recent occasion to
have escaped any ones memory. George
Law and his South Sea bubble also
have not passed out of our recollection.
The thing that frightens us in the
United States is the universally of the
corruption and the rapidity with which
the old-time integrity of the people has
succumbed to the insane desire to be-
come suddenly enriched. lagos advice,
pat money in thy purse" is the only
monition that seems to enter the soul of
multitudes Of Americans. The old New
Englander's injunction to his young
hopeful, "Get money, young man-get
it honestly ii you can, but get money" =
is about the only paternal counsel
that has any chance of being regarded
The average American soul is prost-
tuted and vulgarized by the wild raven
ing after wealth. The immense mass of
the American people seem to be imbued
with the idea that sordid gain is
the only thing at which a smart"
man ought to aim. Art, science. the
eelettres, the young man's dream
OF glory and the maiden's vision of love,
are all subordinated to filthy lucre, and
a language OF brutal frankness has
sprung up as an accompaniment of this
wild lust for gold. The tendency is a
fatal one and must be checked
And why not? There has surely
never been a better time rhan now to
take stock OF our public morality, and
TO set high standards ior those entrusted
with the affairs OF their fellows In the
Chicago exposition the people of the
United States showed that they could
reach superlatively high ideals, and that
there are various lines of merit and
effort in this country that could be
rightly made the basis Of the only no.
oiity that will long outlast the present
century. The distinctions based on
ieudalsm have had their day. Itwould
De a ~raat nistakn m fha mart of IN.
grand republic to replace them by a
monocrscy. A country which s at lib
erty to choose the noblest exemplars and