The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-12-04
FOREIGN CENsORs OF AMERICAN
MORALS.

Some recent events in Europe seem to in
dictate that old states and aristocratic gov
ernments are quite as apt to develop per-
sonal and political scandals as newer COM
munities under republican government For
a great many years it has been the habit
of foreigners to write and speak with a SUI
perior and contemptuous air of the political
corruption that prevails in the United States,
of the scandals that characterize our pub
lice life, of the bad manners of our Con-
gress and of the demoralizing influence in
general of republican institutions. The i'm
plication of these foreign censors is that
such things do not exist in European coun-
tries. OF course. they are wrong. History
furnishes abundant proof that cases of civil
corruption, military incompetence and per-
sonal and political scandals Of all kinds
have been far more frequent in European
countries during the last hundred years than
necessary to draw on history, or even to go
so far back as the Panama canal swindle
in France, which developed more official and
political corruption than anything that has
ever occurred in the United States-far more
than our Credit Mobilier, which was the
worst political scandal we ever had. But
let us glance at current history and recall
events Of very recent occurrence. First,
there is the Dreyfus case. Nothing at all
comparable to that has ever happened in
the United States army. Dreyfus, a captain
Of the artillery detailed to service in the
War Department, was charged with selling
important documents TO agents of the Ger
man government, tried by court-martial,
convicted and sentenced to Imprisonment
for life in an iron cage, on desolate ISL
and. He and his friends deny the charge
and declare that he is the victim of con-
spiracy in which prominent men and women
of Paris were engaged. If he is guilty. it
argues an extraordinary degree of baseness
and treachery on the part of French Off
cer while if he is innocent it argues an
extraordinary degree of baseness on the
part of his prosecutors. In either case the
scandal is equally great, and current dis
patches show that it is involving many
prominent persons Next, there are the re-
cent proceedings in the Austro-Hungarian
Reichsrath. There have been some noisy
and almost turbulent scenes in Congress.
but the worst of these was not remote APP
proach to those which occurred last week
and the week before in the Reichsrath Con-
gress has never become a bowling, yelling
mob, with members dragging one another
around by their whiskers, drawing knives,
hurting inkstands, screaming opprobrious
epithets at the top of their voices and driv
ing the speaker out of the chair and off the
platform. All this has occurred recently in
the Reichsrath, and much. of it day after
day. While these scenes are transpiring in
the capital and the government is threaten
ing to dissolve the Reichsrath, news comes
of race outbreak at Prague, in which
Jew-baiting is principal feature. while the
destruction of churches and dwelling houses
gives patriotic thieves a chance to load
themselves with plumber. The wires are still
hot with this news when 1t Is announced
that Signor Crispi. ex-premier of italy and
long regarded as her foremost statesman.
is to be investigated on charge Of wreck