The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1897-04-30

ing starvation or work of the lowest
sort. No wonder strikes, lock -outs.
etc, are 30 common. How can
any man, the product of the Public
Schools, with one spark of the Di-
vine, with single aspiration, submit
to such conditions?
A study of the IlIh census report
shows a great rush of young men
to the cities. Farm regions are be-
ing depopulated, and cities over
crowded. To be sure the cities Of
fer great inducements to young men
of'talent or thorough preparation.
He who can do something well
which the people want done, can do
better where there are great many
people; but the city has no use, ex-
cept to make criminals or paupers,
of the unprepared man who goes
there.
David Starr Jordan, president OF
Stanford University, says:
"One of the most disquietng features OF
the social condition of our times is the rush
of young men to the cities. Resulting from
this il the weakness and instability OF the
farming population as compared with the
same class half "A century ago. steadiness OF
national character goes with nrmness of
foothold on the soil. We may well look with
alarm on condition In which all men OF
wealth and power shall be gathered in the
cities, while the farms are left to the weak
and inefficient or to the peasants Of other
nations. As matters are the cities are great
destroyers of human life. We have not
learned properly to govern them nor to
make them effective. and every city Is full
of human failures, results of misdirected
effort. A tour of the principal streets, nails
and meeting places on sunday evening in
any great city will show how terribly true
this il. Certainly one fourth of the present
population of such "A city as San Francisco
for example, has no real business there
These people are doing N othing which is
effective for themselves or helpful to others
and the condition of the other three fourths
and most likely owH T. tSsss mist
sons would go back to the farms"
That does not mean that the
brains of the nation are in the ci.
ties, but that chances for success to
the average man is greater in the
country.
We all Know that the country and
small towns to-day, and always have
furnished, the brains and moral
stamina of the nation.
This rush to the cities will con
Itinue until the conditions become
so bad that a social eruption takes
place, and relieves the present con
gestion. There are those who be-
lieve that in fifty years hence there
will be a change; that the best ed
ucated people will live in the coun
try and small towns. Men of let
ters, great thinkers, men who di
rect public opinion, men whose
taste will not let them live in the
dirt and filth, the hurry and furry
OF a great city, will go to the quiet
simpler, healthierlife of the country
do not mean that city people
are all bad, but where there are
more people than work, where
crime and immortality abound, there
must be great danger.
Such a condition breeds discon.
tent and dishonesty; il destroys
family life, the basis of our social
fabric; it encourages a sort of "ge,
rich quick" method Of doing every.
thing. knew man in Chicago,
+. S. Dean 4 Co., who sold a dol
lars worth of poor reading matter,
an illustrated weekly and a novel
each fortnight, for 80 cents pei
month, So per year. He made as
much as 5000 per week. How did
he do it? "a sucker born every
minute, all you have to do is to
find him
He goes over the same street every
3 or 4 Notwithstanding, shifting
population.
"Make money honestly if you
|can-but make money!"
"Do others or they will do you.
What must be the national life OF
Ia people who long follow such mot
toes?
The notion that the "world owes
Ia man living" is false. The world
does not owe any man anything ex-
|cept he earns it. If plant ker-
mel of corn and tend the stock the
ear is mine, if | have not kept an
other man from the same privilege.
The tending constitutes labor, the
only basis of ownership.
No individual can make his great.
est effort, until every man has every
farthing that he earns, and nc
man has that which he did not earn,
There must be more thaN policy in
honesty.
The members of this class have
no doubt spent some time in reading
The Great Stone Face, Tanglewood
Tales, or other works Of Nathaniel
Hawthorne. AS young man
Hawthorne spent much time in try
ing to solve the problem Of how tc
live. One day he said to his moth.
|er, / do not want to be a doctor, tc