The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-12-15
THE STATE OF THE UNION.

AT times the House resolves itself
into Committee of the Whole on the
State of the Union. If it is a good thing
4 for Congress to do this occasionally it
is also q. good thing for each citizen.
who has the welfare of his country
at heart to do the same thing. So
homogeneous are we, so thoroughly in.
lterna.ngled and so we'll acquainted
have the different parts of the country
become with each other that that
which affects or Interests one part in
terests the other
A citizen sitting down and quietly
contemplating the state of the Union
would not find it such as he could wish
by any means. Times are not yet back
to where they were and there is more
or less distress in the land. These are
what the outcome will be. But the re-
sources of the country and the energy
of the people are such as to warrant
that optimistic feeling as to the flu
ture that is SO characteristic of the
American people, This has to do with
the material welfare of the people.
What of the moral state of the coun-
try, Of those conditions that mark the
advance of nation in civilization?
There are some things that should give
US pause.
Three things tell of a country's NOR
al condition with more or less gertrude.
They are: The estimation in which the
marital relations are held; the gov
eminent and control of cities; and safe
ty to the travelling public.
Were stranger, Macaulay's New
izealander, for instance, to visit the
town of Fargo, in North Dakota, and
there see the number Of people who
are doing time as their technical
but scarcely legal, residence there is
called, and waiting to have the bonds
CT matrimQny dissolved, he would say
that American ideas of the sacredness
of the marriage contract were not very
high, and that most scandalous con-
d:tton of society prevailed. Judging by
Fargo and its divorce-seeiS.ng society
he would be justified in his opinions.
His facts would be of too limited
nature to warrant a sweeping conclu-
sion, but they would warrant a more
or less broad conclusion, and one
against our civilization.
In our administration of city govern
nents the revelations of fraud and
corruption in New York made by the
Lexow committee, would warrant the
assertion that American cities are but
s:nkholes of iniquity that are exploited
by those elected or appointed to ad-
minister their affairs for the pubic wei
fare for the purpose of plumber and
gain. The application of our second
test would put us low down in the
scale of civilization.
And now as to safety in travelling.
1t is no exaggeration to say that
brigandage is rifer in the United States
today than in any other civilized coun-
try. Scarcely a day passes but that
a train on some railroad is held up
and the treasure of the express car
looted. Not only this but in some in
stances it is known beforehand ihat
those train robberies are to oceur and
the railroad officials have warnings of
them. Railroads are evidences &c civil
cation; train hold-ups are eyid of
barbarisnn.
We do not despair of the country nor
of our civilization; on the contrary, We
have the greatest faith in them. But
it cannot be denied that he divorce
mills at Fargo: the corruption and
fraud that exist among the officials
of the metropolis Of America. ana the
frequency of train hold-ups in Tari-
Gus parts OF the country are a dis
grace to the United States Ind A.rer-
lean civilization. Every citizen With a
sense of civic pride must feel q per-
sonal humiliation when ne thinks of
these things. The state of the Union in
some matters is not all that could be
wished.