The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1894-12-12
AS TO THINGS PRoBLEMATIcAL

gress, AID Of a large proportion of the
citizens, bring out with startling clear
ness the experimental characterof what
ever monetary system we have,
and the experimental character
of every proposal for new
system. There is no agreement
among fnanciers respecting what lis
neediul or what is practicable. Each
locality feels the stress of different
need. and is unable to recognize the
utility of general measures or principles
that would effect all evenly aud estab-
hsh a scientific basis. Not only do To-
calities hold differing theories, but finan-
cial business is as unable to agree,
Bankers want one thing, merchants
another, and farmers yet another.
This reference is, by way of excuse, for
alusion to the experimental condition
of things in almost all spheres of activity
In this country. We are not agreed as
to basic principles. We have adopted
no formulas. We are chaotic, unsettled,
yeasty.
Take the question OF municipal gov
ernment, as the conduct of the business
affairs of cities is wrongly de nominated.
While it seems easy TO declare that
to conduct the simple business of
city requires only the strict
application of principles that have
been found indispensable to the sue
cessfdl operation of private busi-
ness, yet there is a show Of great
stuGy and continued investigation and
experiment. There is a great body of
socio-politico literature accommodating
upon the subject of how to govern cities.
Learned men make it the study of their
lives. College professors write learned
treatises about 1t. There are clubs and
boards and variously -named bodies of
citizens in every city struggling to grasp
the heart of the problem and elucidate it
for the benefit Of the other owners OF
cities.
There is the Indian problem, which
really involves only the disposition of
tie whites and their government to do
simple justice, but which has yet en-
crossed the attention of hundreds of the
wisest and best citizens of every genera
tion since the nation began. 1t has not
only interested philanthropists and built
up distinct cult among the lovers of
their kind, but it has demanded con-
slant attention from the Government
and the maintenance of complex and
expensive bureau. beside requiring the
expenditure of vast sums Of money.
There are the great social and religious
problems that press upon us in America
very much heavier than they bear upon
people in other lands. They keep us in
a continual mental and sentimental
ferment. We do not know what we are
at, any more than we know where we
are at.
Everything is problem in this
country. Even our system of govern
ment is not a system at all, only a series
of experiments, running through which
there is the constant factor of the con-
stitution, which is, after all, only an
agreement regarding rather the form
than the substance of government.
Almost every merchant runs his store
as big or little experiment in selling
goods, rarely conforming wholly to that
which may be regarded as proven, but
sallying out into untried paths to lure
tickle trade.
About every new household established
by marriage is considered in the light
Of an experiment by the contracting
parties" and all their friends. So many
of them break up after while that the
notion that permanency is a blessed
dispensation of Providence instead Of
the ordinary or the inevitable obtains a
secure footing with us. We hope our
friends will be happy after they marry,
and the conscious acknowledgment of
the hopo proves that in our inmost we
differentiate.
So great is our national prediction to
-fook upon every condition OF life as
problem that we are very apt to regard
success and happy termination of things
in the light of special beneficence we
may not altogether merit, but which we
accept as we accept other free and well
come gifts.
This country is the great interrogation
,,xlr nff ho ~. Ii
sturdily TO learn. What of it? All the
rest of the world is looking at us to find
out. What of it? We delight in expert
mentation. II is in our blood, and has
been there since long before the Pilgrims
landed at Plymouth.