The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-11-26
WANTS WOMEN TO Vote
Rev. Dr.. Seudder and Mr..
butcher Preach to the Junior
American Mechanics.

members of the Junior Order of Amer
lean Mechanics last evening. They
marched to the church in a body, and
occupied all the seats on one side of
the main aisle. The Rev. job L.. Scud-
der addressed them, taking as his sub
| ject, America and Its Problems" He
/ said
eve are all proud of our country,
with it's magnificent coast lines on the
east, south and west, its gigantic lakes
and majestic rivers which carry the
seaboard into the interior. What bound-
less territory is ours? We occupy the
north temperate zone, which is the most
delightful belt ON this planet. The rain
is plentiful, the climate salubrious and
the soil productive. We are the fore
most agricultural nation of the earth.
We have the most wealth.
WE ARE GROWING RICH.
eve are growing rich at the rate
of several million dollars a day, but
there are several knotty problems for
us to solve, and one is that this wealth
is so unevenly distributed as to cause
alarm among far-seeing men. During
the past fifty years there has been an
increasing tendency towards the concen-
tration of wealth in the hands of a few,
and the people at large are in the power
and under the heel of vast monopolies
and trusts. If this evil is not checked
we shall drift fast into Socialism. When
ever a monopoly becomes imperious and
oppressive the voters will combine and
compel the State to do for them at a
proper price what the monopoly did at
an unjust price.
'If rapid transit companies neglect
their customers the people, through their
representatives, will build rapid transit
railroads of their own. If coal barons
put up the price of coal unduly high
and ignore the cries of the people they
will wake up some day to find that the
Government will condemn the coal-beds
of America and dig our coal for us at
a reasonable price. This Industrial prob
lem, growing out of the concentration of
wealth, is worth the study of every pa
triotic American.
IMMIGRATION PROBLEM.
Another problem crying for instant
solution is that of immigration. If the
working classes OF America are to enjoy
their present standar of compensation
and maintain the self-respect they have
attained through high aspiration and
general enlightenment, they must not be
compelled to compete with the pauper
labor of Europe and Asia through the
wholesale introduction of foreigners into
this country. There are no more 160-
acre farms to give away to every man
who knocks at our doors. We are be-
ginning to feel the strain of unemployed
labor in our large cities. We nave all
we can do to look after our own poor,
without welcoming the poor of every
other country on the earth. We have
enough discomfort here without import
ing Anarchists and criminals. This idea
that America is the asylum for the off
scourings of the earth Is worn out. Let
them go to Africa for the next half cen
fury. They need them over there.
Another problem is how to overcome
the illiteracy existing among so many
of the people, and make them fit to vote
and play the part Of Intelligent citizen
ship. Our system of education is wholly
inadequate to the public need. We claim
to be an enlightened nation and yet
5000, 600 people in these United States
cannot write their names. Many chill
dren are in the factories and stores who
ought to be in the schools, and many
children are knocking at the schoolhouse
door and cannot gain admittance. The
greatest danger to our Republic is the
illiterate voter, who is a most incon-
gruous product in a land of light and
liberty.
"My firm conviction is that no man
should cast his ballot who cannot read
the Constitution of the United States
and understand what he is reading. And
this denying the vote to intelligent wom-
en-, while we grant it to SO many illit-
crate, stupid men, fit only to throw dirt,
writes us down as a berbaric nation
continuing in one of the most contempt
ible masculine monopo1ies this world has
sever seen. May the Lord deliver us from
the continuance of this disgrace and in
spire us to grant the elective franchise
to every human being possessing the
intellectual qualifications, irrespective OF
sex, as well as of creed and color.
81 would restrict suffrage to those who
can read and write, n extend it to
all who can qualify, be they male or
female. Citizenship should be based on
education, and education in a Republic
should be compulsory.
Now the last place for us as a ma
ton to scrimp is in our educational ap-
preparations. We spend annually about
s13 a head to educate the youth of this
land, whereas we ought to spend $50.
Again, I believe it the function of the
public school to educate the heart as
well as the brain. We can inculcate
good morals without teaching any par
ticular form of religion. Instruction in
virtue should not be left to the inclination
or caprice of the Individual teacher, bur
textbooks should be provided in which
morality in all it's branches should be
studied and pressed home upon the heart.
A Republic should develop character as
well as intelligence.
"For the public schools of America,
with all their imperfections, [ have q
most profound respect, and I am glad
to see that in the recent election the
State of New York has declared en-
phaticaily, through its revised constitu-
ton, in favor of an eternal separation
between Church and State"
.El.