The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1894-01-10


this sermon after his personal contribu-
ton OF 5000 pounds Of meat and 1000
loaves Of bread 10 the poor who gath
cred shivering in the cold around the
bakery and meat store Of Brooklyn,
where the food was distributed without
tickets and no accommodation required
except hunger. The text was Matthew
XVI. Il, "Ye have the poor always with
you"
Who said that? The Christ who never
owned anything during his earthly stay.
His cradle and his grave were borrowed.
Every fig he ate was from some one
else's tree. Every drop of water he
drank was from some one else's we'll
To pay his personal tax, which was
very small, only 31A cents. he had to
perform a miracle and make a fish pay
it. All the nights and depths and
lengths and breadths OF poverty Christ
measured in his earthly experience. and
when He comes 10 speak of restitution
He always speaks sympathetically. and
what He said then is as true now, eye
have the poor always with you
For 5000 years the bread ques ton has
been the active and absorbing question.
Witness the people crowding up to Jo-
seph's storehouse in Egypt. Witness the
famine in Samaria and Jerusalem. Wit
ness the 1000 hungry people for whom
Christ multiplied the loves. Witness
the uncounted millions of people now
living who. I believe. have never yet
had one full meal Of he:.lthful and nu-
tritious food in all their lives. Think of
the 354 great families in England. Think
of the 5000 people under rhe h0of OF
hunger year before last in Russia.
The failure Of the Nile TO overflow for
seven years in the eleventh century
left those regions depOpulated. Plague Of
insects in England. Plague of rats in
Madras presidency. Plague Of mice in
Essex Plague Of Iocusts in China.
Plague of grasshoppers in America. De-
vastation wrought by drought by de-
LUCE, by frost, by war, by hurricane. by
earthquake. by comets flying too near
the earth. by change in the management
Of national finances, by baleful causes
innumerable I proceed to give you
three or four reasons why my text Is
markedly and graphically true in this
year 1884.
The Tariff Controversy.
The first reason we have always the
poor with US is because OF the perpetual
overhaullng OF the tariff question. or, as
I shall call IT. the tarific controversy.
There is a need for such a word and SO
I take the responsibility Of manufacture
ing il. There are millions Of people who
are expecting that the present congress
of the United States will do something
one way or another to end THIS discus
sion. But il viii never end. When I
was five years of age l remember hear
ing my father and his neighbOrS in We
hement discussion of this very question
1t was high tariff or low tariff or no
tariff at all When your gTeat-grand-
child dies at ninety years Of age il viii
probably be from overeXertiOn in dis
cussing the tariff.
On the day the world is destroyed
there viii be three men standing on the
pOstOff1ce Steps-one high tariff man.
another a low tariff man and the other
a free-trade man-each one red in the
face from excited argument on the sub
ject. Other questions may get quieted-
the mormon question, the silver ques-
ton, the pension question, the civil
service question. All questions OF an
neXation may come 10 peaceful settle
ment by the annexation Of islands two
weeks voyage away and the heat of
their volcanoes conveyed through pipes
under the sea made useful in warming
our continent, or annexation of the
moon, dethroninG the queen Of night
who is said TO be dissolute, and bring
ing the lunar populations under the in
fluence Of our free Institutions, yea, all
other questions. national and interna-
tional. may be settled-but this tariffic
question. never
It will not only never be settled. but
II can never be moderately quiet for
more than three years at a time. each
party getting into power taking one OF
the four years 10 fix 1t up, and then the
next party VIII fix il down. Our
finances cannot get well because of too
many doctors. It is with sick nations
as with sick individuals. Here is a man
terribly disOrdered as 20 his body. A
doctor is called in and he administers
febrifuge, a spoonful every hour. But
recovery is postponed and the anxious
friends call in another doctor and he
says. What this patient needs is blood
letting; now roll up your sleeve" and
the lancet flashes. But still recovery is
postponed and a homeopat hic doctor is
called in and he administers some small
pellets and says. "All the patient wants
IS rest"
Recovery is till postponed. the family
say that such small pellets cannot
amount TO much anyhow, and an allo-
psthic doctor is called in and ne says.
What this patient wants is calomel and
jalap." Recovery still postponed, a hy-
drOpathic doctor is called in and he says.
What this patient wants is hot and cold
baths. and he must have them right
away. Turn on the faucet and get
ready the shower baths" Recovery still
postponed, an eclectic doctor is called in
and he brings all the schools to bear upon
the poor sufferer, and the patient, after
a brave struggle for life, expires. What
killed him. Too many doctors. And
that IS what IS killing our national
finances.
Ny personal friends. Cleveland and
Harrison and Carlisle and Mckinley and
Sherman. talented and lovely and
splendid men walk the earth, all
good doctors. but their treatment OF our
languishfng finances IS so different that
neither treatment has a full opportunity,
and under the constant changes it is
simply wonderful that the nation still
lives. The tariff question will never be
settled. because Of the fact, which 1
have never heard any one recognize.
but nevertheless the fact. that high
tariff is best for some people and free
trade is best for others.
This tariffic controversy keeps business
struck through with uncertainty. and
that uncertainty results in poverty and
wretchedness for a vast multitude of
people. If eternal CAB on this subject
could have been fashioned into Ioaves
OF bread, there would not be a hungry
man or woman or child on all the planet.
To the end OF time the words OF the
text viii be kept true by the tarifFic
controversy-"Ye have the poor always
with you"
The Cnuse Alcoholic.
Another cause Of perpetual poverty
IS the cause alcoholic. The victim does
not last long. He soon crouches into
the drunkard's grave. But what about
his wife and Children She takes IN