The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-06-07

city. He is caught by the promise OF
some cleakship, or perhaps a professional
bee In his bonnet, and many a good
farmer has been spoiled TO make a poor
doctor or an incompetent lawyer. The
CITY may be the better for his being there,
but the country is weaker. 1t is less able
to rule, it has weakened its force and its
power as an element in our civilization.
such things ought not to be. The
cities are not able to mould and direct the
growth of civilization-they are ruled not
by statesmen, but by ward politicians. In
them wealth often increases at TIE ex-
pense of business and moral integrity.
OF them il may be said:
oil fares the state to Fastening ills OF prey,
When wealth accumulates and men decay.
The fact of the matter is that in
our great cities men do decay.
Extreme wealth and extreme
poverty are alike productive of vice and
crime. They are both alike dangerous
elements in our civilization. The son OF
the monopolist is rocked In the cradle of
luxury and Incidence while the son Of the
farmer is rocked IN the cradle of labor and
industry. 1t is too often the case that
the one spends his young manhood smok-
ing cigarettes and playing pool, while
the other follows his fathers
pillow. OF the two. who is
worthy to mould and shape
civilization? The first may be developed
into ward politician. but never into a
statesman, the second has been developed
into a statesman.
New Blood Needed.
ut is fortunate for the city when it
secures him, for whatever else may be
said. one thing is sure. Just as the pam
persd civilization of old had to be invigor-
ated from time to time with fresh infusions
of barbGric blood, so our great cities.
where great wealth on the one
hand is inclined to make men
less robust. self-indugept and less moral
and extreme poverty on the other is in
clined to make men give way to every de-
gree of immortality and vice. must be in
fused with the purer and stronger blood
OF the young man from the farm. We
must 90 back there TO draw the fresh
blood of strong manhood. We must 20
back there TO draw purer supply OF busl-
ness integrity. We have said that our
cities rule, but who rules the city2 Not
the men who have the interest OF
the city, county or state at heart
but by men who have the interest
OF their own pocket-books at stake. The
statesman has too near become like the
mOund-builder, race that has persisted
from the face of the earth. Whatever
may be the situation of today. if the past
is TO be taken as an index of the future,
the time will come when some better
factions will be cast into the problem OF
our civilization. The time will come
when no such scene shall be
enacted as that Of the last
Legislature in Indiana. When the peo-
pie of this state demanded that railroad
corporations should be made responsible
TO their employees for the negligence of CO.
employees, and then that legislature per
mltted the leading counsel in this city OF
one of the grestest railroad systems OF In
diana to write the bill, and he wrote q
farce. The time will come when the old
blood of the Indiana and Ohio pioneer
will assert itself 1t will find expression,
though every political party that is organ
lied today be swept from existence In the
effort.
The time will come when it will be
said To the dealers In stock In Wall-st. and
To- the men OF the stock exchange of Chi
cRgO that you are none the less gamblers
than those who piav for the drinks in the
lowest dives in the slums in our city. You
are both alike cancers upon the face OF
our civilization. and We will take the
old weep-hook OF our grandiathers
and cut you from IT, Fanat-
icism upon the temperance question Is to
he avoided. II accom- plishes nothing but
up from the farm, hamlet and village a
moral iOrce wilLcome that viii! say to the
man who habitually drinks his wine from
a golden goblet that you are none the less
drunkard than he who habitually
drinks book beer from a schooner. You
must both leave your hand off the helm
of the ship OF state or else become sober
men"