The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1894-03-10

stantially: We are to-day in the midst Of
a great Industrial crisis. Each hour seems
darker than the one before. Day after day
thousands of men walk the streets in search
of work. Day after day these men go home
with empty hands. Everyone is aroused TO
the wants of the distressed. The ragged
are clothed, the hungry are fed. AS never
before the problem of poverty Is engaging
the attention of men Nineteen CENTURIES Ir..s
always with YOU. Throughout all these
ages benign charity has devoted herself to
the alienation Of misery. But the relief mas
been largely temporary. The mere giving or
bT cad does nothing TO eradicate poverty.
Must civilization forever bear along in her
train an army of miserables. Cannot the
work for the day be supplemented by pre-
vention, work for all the days? Poverty is
no part of the Creators plan. Disease, vice
and want do not happen. They are caused,
and man, not God. IS TO blame. We must
remove these causes. The most potent cause
OF social degeneracy is the neglect of the
children.
MIR. Kahn then pictured the tenements of
the larger cities and the jewellers taerein.
He pathetically portrayed the homes that
there is not an idea of the sacredness OF
the family relations, which are foundations
OF society, no warmth of feeling, no nap
pineSS or childhood and nothing the re-
membrance of which would stimulate one
TO lead a good and useful life. Poverty and
child labor are inseparable. Parents in
dren into slavery. Continuing Mr.. Kahn
said: From time immemorial efforts have
been made TO exterminate crime, pauper-
ism and fntemperance. Why do not our
efforts produce more encouraging results!
Because the very classes which society
seeks in vain to eliminate, through apathy
and ignorance, ii is constantly producing
The abOdes OF the most degraded parents
swarm with children: Their baby eyes
inhaled by their baby lungs is poisoned by
the fumes of whisky. The first words
borne to its baby ears are oaths and curses
The child can but initiate what ii sees and
hears. The little thief becomes the incorri-
gible burglar. the child sent out to beg be-
comes the chronic pauper." The orator then
dren are hereditary criminals or paupers
and referred TO the work of boards OF emil
dren's guardians as a positive disproof OF
not the property of the parent, but that 1t
was presumed by society that the love and
affection of a parent would prove the most
up a criminal or pauper. If this presump-
ton failed in any case the State had the
troll from the parent and transfer it 10 the
agent of the State. He said the problem
OF the children is the problem of pauperism
former is solved all are solved.
The next orator was G. L. Overstreet, of
Franklin, on the Power of Personality"
He said: THE most potent factor in men
as well as in nations is personality. A peo-
pie or nation are affected by the personal
ity of great man. He may, perhaps, &C
complish no reforms yet when he dies mil
lions of minds cleave to his ideas and are
imbued with his personality" Mr.. Over
street chose Phillips Brooks as a man pos
seSsing a wonderful personality and de-
voted the greater portion of his grafton TO
a eulogy OF this great divine. He alluded
TO the impeachment In speech which failed TO
daunt the Bishop in his determination TO
enter the ministry, and said his personality
will always suggest the value of personal
ity. No one ever preached like him before
nd listened
expectancy with which his auditors
heard him. He did not need to preach
down to the uneducated, and, though he
did not use slang, he was the delight of
the illiterate The burden and refrain of
his whole life was that all men are equal
ly the children of God by revelation and
redemption He was an orator as we'll as
a preacher. his eloquence Of matter rather
than manner. The eloquence was the man
himself. He painted to humanity the long
ing of the mortal after Immortality. When
we have said all that We can say of Phil
lips Brooks we have failed to show the mag
nettsm of the man. He opened his soul 10
the divine spirit and the divine spirit
entered therein.
Roy White, of Earlham, next spoke of
tice'' had no place in nature. With her
might was right and weakness "a crime and
Illustrated by comparison with the beasts.
he said the world drama was a tragedy
in which every one must Stay or be slain
according 10 the DEGREES of nature. In bar
barism the DEGREES of the goddess of fate
bound the gods well as the mortas and
her decree was irrevocable In the middle
ages the convent prayed the castle sang
and the cabin hungere1 and died. To-day
black man is shot by white and the lat
ter goes free. Man, like Prometheus, eyer
| gIlawing at his vitals. Men build society as
| the coral pOlyp builds coral REEFS, pecJJss
| he must. 1t is the duty of man 10 build in
] the ruins made by nature temple TO Jus
| tice.
The next orator was Claude
| Travis, of Wabash. who spoke OF
1.-The Hero of the Reformation" As the
| title of the Grafton would indicate his wa:
| a eulogy of Martin Luther. He spoke OF
| the childhood and early education of the
! reformer lie. said Luther had become op
| pressed by the tyranny of the Pope anC
| broke away froHl the tyranny Of The
church. He alluded to the persecution.
| which he endured for the sake Of his re
| form. He said the church, like an octopus
| was reaching out and grasplnS for all O
| Europe. 1t was sucking the life blood O.
| Europe. When the cry of Luther was RAISED
| against 1t 1t tried to silence him by in
| trigue. bribery and the dagger He quoted
| the saying from Luther, "IInless | be con
| WINGED by the Scriptures and reason
| neither can nor dare retract anything, TO
my conscience Is captive 10 Gods Wor,
and 1T is not safe Cor me to go agains
| Gods Will lie said when the Church o.
| Rome ministers to the suffering and. lift
| men TO higher plane she iuldlls her Ndes
tiny as q church, and is entitled TO our re
| reaches out to get control OF our m.bli
i schools she deserves our condemnation.
MISS GALVIN'S GRAFTON.
| The last orator of the evening was Mis-!
! Georgia Calvin, of Butler University. He1
| subject was Louis XIV" Her dlscours,
! was an expose of the faults and vciou.
| traits of character in this monarch o.
| France She said he was abomnably selisi
and vain, frivolous. cruel, extravagant an,
| almost everything else that was worthy Of
| condemnation. She said il was marka bl
that during all of his long reign he should
retain the love and respect of his people
| His ambition for war was unboundeG, anC
| under him the country acquired territory
| but IL was reign of blOodshed for his PEG
| pie. During the years of his reign Franc,
| was considered the mightiest of European
| powers but ii was transient. and died witt
| Louis XIV. She said the monarch was veal
| and superstitiOus. He was said 10 be
| piled to him. The highest of h
| the Huguenots He had conquered
| foreign kings and then sought TO cGnotIel
| foreign gods but failed. she concluded b.
| drawing from the reign OF Louis XIV a les
| son to be applied by the American people
| She said their ideas of themselves were ex
| allied and they saw themselves the center
| of the universe. In the eyes of coming sen
| erations it might be that they would b
| viewed as Louis XIV was viewed by In,
| people of to-day.
| This closed the contest. and while the de
| cision of the judges was awaited the audi
| ence was treated to songs by college gle
| clubs, which were encOred time and again
| When the songs ran out, then the colleg
| partiSans in the audience set up with lust
4I,rf,.