The herald., 1897-07-04


our boasted intellectual progress has not
rather lessened than increased our claims
20 the respect of men. Is 1t not true tina t
while more Difference is perhaps paid
by US to the amenities of life than
was shown by the average member
of society a century ago, we have in real
moral worth, nothing to boast of over
our colonial forefathers? l do not speak
of material progress In the magnifi-
cent development of the arts and, sci
ence the nineteenth century is the
noblest offspring of time. But has our
moral stature kept pace with our ma
terial progress? Are there not signs of
a marked decadence in our sense of
moral responsibility? Do we cherish the
virtues that clustered around the fire.
sides of our ancestors with the zeal and
fidelity Of "Auld Lang Syne?" Are not
the marital relations lighter and looser
now than then? Has not filial duty be-
come almost obsolete with or a dead
letter in the moral code of our sons and
daughters? Who observes the rights of
| hospitality now with the large-heared
ness characteristic of the days of Daniel
Boone and Davy Crockett, of John Ran
dolph and Light Horse Harry" Lee?
And that chivalric respect for woman,
once so essential part of an American
gentleman's education, Is it not in the
rapid process of elimination from our
principles of politeness?" And as for
Difference Of youth for age and venera-
ton for religion, and for places of divine
worship-so interviewer with the walk
and conversation" of our fathers-are
they not now optional rather than man
datory precepts? Mr.. Herbert Spencer,
in his eFsay From Freedom to Bond
age" says:
"Unquestionably the existing type of
social organization is one which none
who cares for his kind can contemplate
with satisfaction; and unquestionably
mems activities accompanying this type
are far from being admira BILE. The
strong divisions of rank and the i'm
mense inequalities Of means are at vari-
ance with that ideal of human relations
on which the sympathetic imagina ton
likes to dwell; and the average conduct.
under the pressure and excitement of So
cial life as at present carried on. is in
sundry respects repulsive. The
system under which we at present live
fosters dishonesty and lying. 1t prompts
|
answerable for the cheap limitations
which eventually in many cases thrust
the genuine articles out of the market:
it leads to the use of short weights and
false measures; 1t introduces bribery.
vitiatee most trading relations, from
those of the manufacturer and buyer
down to those of the shopkeeper and SER
want; it encourages deception to such
an extent that an assistant who cannot
tell falsehood with a good face is
blamed; and often it gives the conscien-
tious trader the choice between adopt
ing the malpractices of his competitors
or greatly injuring his creditors by
bankruptcy"
Mr.. Spencer is speaking, of course, of
the existing type of social organization
in England. While we can duplicate
the ills he enumerates, we of the United
States can, unfortunately, point to 9TH
ers more potential for evil that are the
product of a deliberate abuse of our
| American political system. These may
be summed UP in the phrase acquiring
wealth by acts of congress. Our COR
| poration monopolies, trusts, syndicates
| and combines are all the creatures of
| Congressional laws. If the reader will
recall any trouble that has disturbed
the business interests of the country
since our civil war, he can easily To-
cate it's roots in some act of Congress
1t was not go before 1861. With our civil
war began the money-making mania.
That was the entering wedge. With the
return of peace the talent and energy
employed in speculations during the
struggle were diverted into new chan
nels for the same money making pur-
pose, but with greater success. Then be-
i gan legislative corruption, legal spola-
| tion of the peoples estate, the incorpora-
! tion of railroad ewindles, credit mo-
1 bilier associations, chartered special
privileges and monopolies, out of which
as the serpent from the egg Of the cock
atrice, was Matched the modern million
aire. In this, as in all such cases, in
crease of appetite grew with what it fed
upon, until a powerful congressional
lobby" was organized and national leg
| islation became, as it is today, so ruled
and controlled by intrinsic influences
that not the representatives. elected by
| the people, but the Congressional
lobby is virtually the maker of
our congressional laws! In this
way the country is in the grip of the
great corpora tons, and that grip will
| never be loosened until the people re-
| turn to the performance Of their whole
political duty. The curse of money-get-
ting, the thirst for wealth, speedily ac-
cumulated, so general among the masses,
cannot be reached or remeded by legis-
! lation. 1t in time will cure itself, If in
no other way, by the moral sense of the
people begotten. of the exposure of the
| faLacy that wealth and happiness are
! cognate. But the chains riveted on the
country by corporate wealth and the con-
scienceless greed of trusts and monopo-
| lies must be broken, and that only by the
people themselves. Surely under the
| forms of our admirable system of gov
ernment. the means to this end are
| abundantly adequate. If they are not
adequate, let the people make them so!
| If the constitution of the United States
bars the way, amend the constitution.
| If the political machinery be inefficient
make 1t available. 1t would argue folly
and weakness to despair of the republic
| because the founder of our government
omitted to provide means of redress of
abuses which did not exist or could not
have been anticipated in their day and
generation. Those expedien< political
procedures, the initiative and referen-
| dunn, so satisfactorily tested by the Swift
republic, should be grated on the tenet