The morning call., 1894-10-21

| pulled out of prisons and with whom he swore
he would Dot pass through Coventry, were not
| physically so ragged and naked, so out at
elbows In the sense of being out of character,
as the leaders. the bosses, of American cities.
and OF this city of San Francisco. Old sailors
used TO say that the man who went 10 sea for
pleasure would go to hades for pastime; and il
these leaders of politics here and elsewhere are
really and truly "leaders," then a man may go
| to hades for holiness find honor among thieves
ana patterns OF virtue in the lowest dives.
Now, 1 want your aid in seeing if 1 have
| IN ade a calculation correctly, and 10 know that
it is one that Will bear the test of the utmost
| severity of ariihmetical rules. If, under such
| leaders as have mentioned, we are TO look for
reform and honest and economical government.
when may we expect TO enter into the enjoy
ment Of these blessings from them? My cal
culaton is that il will lake exactly the same
length of lime as it will take snow balls 10 heat
ovens. Ii you can figure out how long that
Will take, then l Will tell you now long 1t VIII
take for such leaders 10 give us pure govern
| ment. In American city government vice,
| ignorance, venaitJ and The climax of cheek
ana imperinence are in high rule. high feather
aud high power The devil sits by them and
his rules and laws are rigidiy carried OUT,
while city and finally national government will
not even be clean enough TO spit upon.
Having said this much about pretended lead
| ers-that is, the bosses-shall / conclude this
portion of my remarks by asserting that our
duty is done in describing and den0uncng boss
| methods and assuming that those who not only
do not support them, but on the contrary utter
| ly condemn them, have discharged the full
| duties of good citizenship? No, no, a thousand
times no. Who made these bosses possible
/ answer you, the respectable voters OF San
! Francisco. The great majority of you have
neglected your political duties. indeed almost
| utterly neglected them. You talk denounce
and even use explosives Of the strongest pro-
family IN giving utterance TO your sen nlments
| about boss rule and the raseality, venality and
| high taxes of which IL is and always must be the
| prolific parent. But what sort OF work have
you done TO ward off municipal rascalliy? !?
None whatever, as the great majority of you
very we'll know. Will talk and exhibitions of
even the most righteous indignation ward off
! even the smallest OF boss rascalities aud cor
ruptiOn?
Can great public and criminal evils or house
breaking be averted by any weapons but those
OF legal penalties, and by work and war? Can
anything sacred be nrt served without eternal
vigilance and eternal fighting? And you cam
not possibly hire real watchers and fighters.
You must each of you enlist and fight your
selves. No country was ever saved by hiring
outsiders as fighters. Unless the best blood OF
the nation was in the army as leaders aud hgnl-
ers the country was never saved. You each of
you must save yourself, remembering always
that in union there is strength. Where would
your business be, what failures aud outcasts
would your children have become If you neg
lected your business and your family as you do
your country ?-for your votes in local affairs
and local government will finally indicate what
national government is to become In this great
country. l have used the word neglect. 1t is,
like many a word in our language, charged
with solemn meaning. In Ibis sense its essen
tGoI, 5y,1a
liberty are all In danger Of being lost in rush.
ing river OF corruption, and that you will
not manfully use any effort and reach
out no helping hand TO save them.
Neglect, neglect, word indicative of suicide
and final despair. And Scripture uses the. word
in that peril0us sense. was last year iQ the
Cimmerian darkness of the Mamertine prison
in Rome, where the great apostle OF the Cen
tiles closed his life. And while there | thought
of many of his inspiring appeals to bring men
TO truth. And l especially thought of how lie
used this word neglect" He says, "How
shall we escape if we neglect so great saliva
tion ?" Neglect do nothlng-let liberty and
all of the sacred symbols of the great republic
be troddeD down and spat upon, We sitting
idly, negectfully by, while il is thus wounded
TO death in the presence OF its friends. Before
God and man the educated men who neglect
and neglect with the full light of history and
facts before them, are worse than the ignorant,
The low ard The lewd many of whom think
pub blic punder and assaults on the ballot box
and free government but venial sins.
How snail we escape. asks the great apostle,
il we neglect? The value Of the work OF sal
vaIion In government. the priceless blood
spent, the tears shed, the Gethsemanes OF
darkness, loneliness, hunger, weariness and
sorrow passed through-tDeSe are The price
paid for the inestmabe inheritance of the
great republic or of any great free country
: DO you think much-dO you think ever OF The
price paid for the rights you have in The re-
; public under whose 9gs you prosper? Were
Washington's work and spirit small things
Was Valley Forge playground? Were Law
rence's dying words not 10 give up The ship
when he had fought to the death to save her
words to be je'red at or, even worse
negecied? Was LincOln's work and the mil.
lion lives which were spent with his, all spent
, for our benefit, with no solemn duties resting
D upon us heritage?
When good government, honesty and econ
omy are on trial, ana they now are all over thi:
, country, Enthusiastically so, you think yuI
D are innocent because you did not cry out ol
I, commit overt acts against them. You did not
indeed, cIy out, but you did worse, If you JUS
] held your tongue, If you simply passed by
Leylte-like, on the other side. The stabDiug vii
be done the murder of free Institutions VIII thu
go on without your positive aid. You may con
dUt
tiquated. but he and his contemporaries had ;
: correct Idea of citizenship He said: "For W,
are the only people who consider the man who
a takes no part in these things-that Is, in public
affairs-not as a quiet. peaceabe man, but as
4 useless member of the commonwealth"
De Tocqueyille, the great French writer
speaks in his history of the French revolution
= Of respectable men, but cOwardly citizens
. 1.-THE people" he says, "who value liberty onl,
' for the ease 1t gave them have never enjoyed
: either ease or liberty long" The same grea
author said that among "the men OF the olt
d | regime the place In their minds which shoulC
: have been occupied by the idea of law was va
cant" This was one of the great causes of th,
n revolution. Is history not repeating itself? Ii
the United States is it not true of our so-calet
= "best citizens" that the place in their mind
which should be occupied by patriotic fears o
where bossism is leading us Is vacant? D.
9 they care. and il they do why do they pot ia
e more generally act? Love Of ease devil NAV
a care feeling and absolute cowardice keep then
q from anything but negative working aud acting
Dscbarging necessary political duties or aC
+ cepting office and inauguraring necessary loca
: purity and economy might somewhat interfer
" with the unceasiUg grind OF money ma king
. They would, tesides, be taken from home O
r evenings. Their wives would not approve @
Il this. They would also run the risk of meetIn
d and having to oppose the ruf1ians who contro
politics, and might. therefore, run some pei
~ sonal risk. Newspapers, or the tricksters the
mi inh ahnCn tl,a..,