The Evening dispatch. [volume] (Provo, City, Utah) 1891-1895, 1894-03-27
ARE WE NEARING THE END?


Is the nation entering upon its de-
cadence? Has plutocracy so weakened
the moral fibre of the people that none
are honest, none pure, none patriotic,
none unselfsh? Is this eternal greed
for gold hurrYing US on the rocks, where
perished imperial Rome? 1t certainly
seems so. Once the best brain of the
nation was devoted to the public ser.
vice, now it is engaged in the work Of
piling up millions upon millions, while
second and even third rate men are
playing at mock craftsmanship, and
calling it governing the nation. The
time was once when little empiricism
could do but little injury. In the days
of Martin Van Buren,, John Tyler and
even Millard Fillmore a second rate
man could manage pretty well. We
were in those days but small nation,
and weak or trifing national policy
would do, or could do but a meagre
injury. 1t is different now. We have
fully sixty-fve millions of people, G
vast commerce. wonderfully impor-
tant manufacturing business. We
have railroads spanning the continent
and penetrating to every nook and
corner, to every city, town and village IN
the land. We have ships crossing the
world of water daily in every direction
and to every point, where there is hope
of profit in commerce. The head of
such government is no place for a
mere commonplace man. He must be
big one; not that only, but he must
be good and an honest man. 1t is no
place for shyster, trickster,a charla-
tan or rogue. The president must
be above prejudice and as nearly i'm
partial as mortal man may be.
All this is true of the head of the
government, and should also be of con-
gressmen and senators. The old sena
tors of the past, such as Clay, Webster
and Calhoun were above the mere
trickery OF partisanship. They were
not the faWning senators of the cor
porations and the trusts. They were
patriotic statesmen and sages. The
country had full confidence in them.
In those days armies of hungry men
were not vagabondizing over the coun-
try. The people we're not starving
with the land full of oYerfowing gran
aries. With money piled mountains
high in our banks and national treas
uries there were no panics. Plenty
meant good times, not famine, panics
and hushed and silent mills for specu-
latiYe purposes. There is something
wrong and that wrong must be sought
for and corrected.
Our senators are nearly all million
aires, our congressman nearly all hair
splitting lawyers, with only here and
there a head showing above the mass
of mediocrity scrambling for a few of
the loaVes and fishes while the nation
is fast going to the dogs. While the
Carnegies rob the government and
jeopordize the nation as well as the
men Of our navy by palming off on the
government defective arm3r plates, the
trusts and wicked combinations are
jeopardizing the peace of the land by
erecting conditions which must newt
ably result in riots, bloodshed and re
beliion. Those industrial armies now
on Washington may be
laughed at today, but the time is surely
coming when they will get there and
an overturned government and anarchy
and confusion prevail, instead of Sc
curity, peace and contentment.
We need vast deal of statesman
ship, and need it right now. We need
and need it badly. We
need business men and not dreamers
in the senate and in congress, and in
every department of the government,
or else we will soon be called upon to
speak of what the rich, prosperous and
peaceful late republic of the United
States was,