The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-09-03
NATIONS HOUR OF PERIL.
4 TRUMPET BLAsT Rr REF. J. LEE
 MITCHELL OF fAIR HAVEN.

Shall Great Mouied Interests Control the
 Country and Lesisiationf-C Corruption
 and Brbery ia High Places.
 Rev. J. Lee Mitchell. who has just re-
 turned from his annual vacation trip.
 occupied his pulpit again yesterday.
 Last evening his sermon was upon the topic. "who Can Be Bought the .;a- tionai shame of 1894" It was a very
 striking and punsent discourse. and Is given in full as follows:
 The text was l. Samuel S: 3. And
 turned aside after lucre and took
 bribes." He read also from l Samuel, sth. He said:
 The sermon was prefaced ny few kindly remarks. saying that nothing partisan was intended. that it was in- evitable that the dominant party should get more than its share of the blame.
 but that the corruption bursting out of our national and municipal life should
 be noted by the pulpit.
 We have just closed the hitherto most disgraceful period of United States history. The honest members of the dominant party declare that they
 have been betrayed. The members of the opposing party have not the grim satisfaction of feeling that they have
 been beaten by men who sincerely be- lieved In what they did. Honest friend and honest foe have not been permitted | tA nnta vuifh apph nthar Inn hux been baffled and throttled in the dark by a mysterious arrogant power con- fessedly in nobody's interest but its own. and yet with ability to thwart the will of the whole people. Armed knights grown old in wars have been obliged to stand idly by while the stuffed pup pets of a narrow private interest de- ciared what should be the law for a nation of 65,000,000. The privilege of taxing this great free people has been sold as simply and slavishly as ever a Caesar sold Palestine or Louis a province of France. Everybody knows that this could not have been done un- less some men had sold themselves, ,un- less some man elected and sworn to represent the people had ended by rep resenting just himself and leaving his honor out of that representation of even himself. We face an evil by which kings and kings favorites have ever been wont to maintain themselves, an evil which has frequently broken out fearfully in our city governments, which has in spots shown itself in the nation al government, but never so bold, so un- harmed, so gigantic, so blighting. We are no crackers, but every man knows 1t means simply the ruin of the republic and if the American people have not got men and the spirit to find them who can represent them and resist the temptations of a great monied inter- est then they had better be ruined.
 As for the growth of the trust, the syndieate, believe it to be inevitable and in the path of progress. It must be obvious to everybody that competi- ton cannot forever be a wholesome stimulous; ultimately 1t Is self destruc- tive; not four cortrers in this land that has got four grocers on 1t trying to get ahead of each other but ultimately Is going to see those four grocers oom- pine into one. Not only that, but it is obvious that one could just as we'll do the whole business as four, and the other three be free to do something else. The trust the imrliense selfish conn binatien. is a rough Stepping stone, sort of a birch rod lesson to teach the people the value of combination, mu- tual help. instead of mutual war. That monopoly Is dangerous Is ob- vious too, the citizen of a town with but one railroad is as helpless if that road injure him, as is Russian if the czar treads on his foot. No monopoly of that which Is necessary to all must ever be owned by few.
 But to fight the combination as a combination is to fly in the face of an inevitable necessity, g. righteous neces- Sity, toe. But the sole hope of the lands coming through formative period when the trust controlled by private interests will gobble every thing, if 1t can, is in the integrity, the patriotism, the faithfulness of those chosen to guard the public interest, the 8otCl AlhCtlI qhu tAC Sout t5s llC SuC- cess of the whole commonwealth, and when things do not go smoothly, we be- come aware then how dependent we all are on the commonwealth, depends on the production and the discovery by the people of unpurchasable men. If men whom a nation trusts turn out to be traitors not all the blame belongs on the men, the nation deserves the larg- est share for producing and trusting such. If bribery rule city year after year be assured it is not because that city has fallen into the hands of its few corrupt citizens, but because a spirit of time-serving and money getting characterizes the whole city life. Study the illustrations, if you do not believe what I say. MT. Carlysle is nearly right when he says that Prussia's glory was that she produced Frederick and knew him when she had produced him. Will anyone deny that this, our nation, which now stands blightsd and dis gracaa by the men 1t trusted Is g ma tion which since the war has devoted itself ta but one thing, the accumula- ton of money? It has been the one thing all were not caring much how things went, if only they were not in- tertsrRd with in gaining 1t for them- selves. You cannot gather grapes for legislators out of a thistle national life Would 1t be any wonder that g con- gressman, or 8 president even, should line his nest with money if he can when he heho1ds that the one aim If hia constituents? We cannot expect to