The record-union., 1894-07-09

Character is formed in the home, and
character after all is what must rule the
Nation.
Government is simply the reflection of
the average character of the people in all
free countries. III our Government is cor
rupt it is our own fault. If the railroads
control the elections it is because the peo-
pie who are largely in the majority can be
bought. Whom the people of State have
sold themselves TO a railroad corporation
they have no right TO complain of the
uses IL makes of the privileges it has pur-
chased and paid for.
Let honor begin at home. Let the home
be made the heart of the Nation. Let
family affection, parental authority and
domestic honor be preserved, and
much that is evil will disappear. We
will have better government when we
deserve it, and not before, though reyolu-
ton after revolution were to follow in
quick succession.
Intemperance is largely the result of
the failure of the home training of our
youth. Preying upon mans depraved
nature the most heartless of all monopo-
lies has grown up, namely, the liquor
monopoly.
The United States manufactures every
year over one billion two hundred and
ten million gallons of alcoholic liquor,
worth on the average 81 a gallon. The
working men OF America drink most Of
it, yet whoever heard of a strike against
this monopoly? II is because men can
be controlled through their appetities that
the saloons have become the centers OF
power III the Government, the headquar-
ters of corruption and machine politics,
but not one complaint has gone up from
labor against this power in the land. In
New York City the houses containing
criminals and recipients OF charity, II
placed in a row, would make a street
twenty-five miles long. Nine-tenths OF
all this is the result of rum, if we can be-
lieve the criminal reports.
Eradicate This great evil and the match
! behind the inder in all great social up
! heayals like that which we are now pass
/ ing through would not be lighted, and
men would listen to reason where passion
now alone controls them.
Gambling in business is the natural re-
suit Of a low standard of personal honor.
! Its result on the one hand is the creation
of the monopoly and the trust, which,
/ like heartless monster, crushes all who
are so unfortunate as to come in its way;
on the other hand is the strike, which is
the reaction against monopoly caused by
the irritation its methods produce.
The strike is an evil in itself. It is
wholly evil. stubborn. lawless, re-
vengeful; and yet il is, in the
/ <
disease deep-rooted in the life of the
nation. The temporary victory OF the
strikers would not permanently cure the
evil. 1t would only throw distrust upon
our American institutions and lay the
| foundations of still greater uprisings OF
laWless mobs in the future. Two wrongs
have never yet made one right and never
will.
The disease that must be cured is in the
people. Law and order must be main
tanned, let it cost what it will. Then lei
reason come to the front with charity for
all. and let every man exercise his power
as an American citizen and in due time
all existing wrongs will be righted by
Que process of law. Government of the
people, for the people, by the people,
shall not perish from the earth. One thing
| is certain. Regardless of our personal
sympathy for the Pullman employees. fthe
| strike and the boycott are to prevail in
America then the old doctrine of mans
total depravity" is true, and the Uni
tartan doctrine of mans innate goodness
is false, and Jesus was mistaken il
mans endowment when he said: why
even of yourselves judge ye not what is
right" Either man is capable of self
government or he is not, and if not the
sooner we return to monarchy the better.
But believe that he is capable of self
government, and if he will cool down
and listen to reason his faith in law and
order, as already established by the peo-
pie, will be restored, and harmony will
work its way out of chaos, and in the end
justice will be done. Let reason, charity
and loyalty guide US into peace, brother
hood and prosperity.