St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1896-01-20
WATSON b. WILLARD AT
PLYMOUTH CHURCH.
SCHOOLS SHOULD BE KEPT
ABOVE POLITIEAEI QUARRELs AND
FREELY SUPPLIED WITH THE
PUBLIC MONEY.
PRESENT EVILS IN GODS PLAN
But an Ever Recurrent Lesson OF
the Eternity of the Soul of
Man.

Preaching on sCity Politics. at Ply
mouth church yesterday morning, Rev.
Watson B. Millard said, among other
things:
This is certainly a live subject,
which ought to be carefully considered
by thoughtful citizens. 1t is vital to
the welfare of all classes and so dis
tinctively moral that it should be dis
cusSed by the pulpit
Prof. Benis mas we'll said that I'M
less the churches go into these mu-
nicipal questions, 1 seriously question
the perpetuity of democratic inStitu-
lions.
DIR. Parkhurst says there is not a
live question in society or in the state
today that is not nine-tenths of it
question of morals.
1T is because I believe the state
ments to be true that 1 ask you to
consider carefully the theme of City
Politics. Some other time l hope to
take up the subject of the city more
specifically. My object now is to clear
the ground for better view OF our
duty as citizens in the coming cam
paign. No word has been banded
about and so degraded as politics
Yet the latest dictionary declares it
" liICc~h liiO oS1CllCt dIlu Oil I VI 6ON u IL
merit. In the early time Aristotle
took the true view of politics in his
work of that title-founded upon the
idea that man is a political creature,
and that virtue, happiness and the
social welfare are the ends Of politics.
Since his day, more particularly with
the rise of parties, the word has come
to have a degraded and dangerous
meaning. Practical politics has come
tn tha My 10 Of a1nNtiOnS
and control of affairs for purely
selfish end. The politician in the bad
sense, as we we'll know, is a man with
out moral stamina or patriotic mo-
tive. To be politically wise he must
meet all great questions in so skillful
a way as not to lose his grip or in
fiuence. The politicians have been
sadly troubled by such questions as
slavery, temperance, the Chinese, wo-
man suffrage, the admission Of Utah.
and Venezuela. He who believes in
practical politics in the low sense does
not primarily ask concerning these
great moral and national issues. What
is right?' but What is the surest course
for the party to take? Now, 1t is i'm
portant to have'a right definition to
start with, and the true definition rec
ognizes the noble art of politics as
dealing with the rights and welfare
of all the people.
''The three great divisions in our
national life determine the three kinds
of politics. The national deals with
revenue, commerce, finance, foreign re-
lations and whatsoever is of purely in
er-state or national interest. State
politics include all questions not purely
local on the one hand, or Interstate or
national on the other
But when we, come to the city we
find a radical DISTINCTION - Citizens are
brothers, TheN,eIneetf each other in
various intimate relations They have
interests, social, moral. and. religious
in common. A citizen 3of Duluth or
of Milwaukee is not to ne like cit
izen Of ST, Paul We, dwelling together
in our citN, sustain. a sort of family
relation. 1t is CT Importance to me
and my family what sort of a life a
mayor or an alderman lives.
This momentouS fact Largely deter
mines our city politics. The affairs
of our city must be conducted on a
business basis. The methods should
be not unlike those OF a great mercan-
ing of the young should be
among the first concerns of our polit-
ical life. Let us beware lest in our
zeal for economy we do irreparable
injury to our public school system.
Morals is very general term which
would include the protection Of family
life, the suppression of influences con-
fessedly bad such as. saloons, gambling,
prostitution in all forms. Just as garb-
age crematories, glue factories, powder
and dynamite magazines are relegated
to the fields, SO these immoral prac-
tees should be. If men and women
wish to live beastly and corrupt lives,
they should be banished from the pre-
cincts of the city. All this is good
politics.
Bad politics would surely include
the following:
ITO have an alliance with national
politics. This has always been Sa-
tans device to entrap honest men
ITO elect mayor without moral
clearnesS and convictions, or one in
league with gamblers, or one who will
not agree to try to enforce the law
or who subordinates his dut-- ) to the
dictates of party.
81 care not how honorable in bust
ness a man may be-; or how pleasant
in the home or socially delightful II
anv of the above conditions can be ap-
piled to him he should forever de-
barred from Office. 1t is bed politics to
trade with saloon men or gamblers
or to adopt a 'wide-open policy
'In conclusionElet1 me say it is evil
dent that if this view is in the main
correct, politics and religion are twin
brothers and should go hand in hand.
The practical politician may not like
the theory and scott at our conclusions,
but let us faithfully press them, never
theless.
"The indifference and inaction of cit
liens of the grossest neglect of duty,
not to say practical treason. We have
decided and stipringf views about the
defense of our country, but no danger
is so great and. no call to patriotism
so urgent as those Suggested by this
view of City Politics.