The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-04-05
OUR NATIONS DANGERS
PROF. 4. M. WHEELER ON THE KIND OF PATRIOTISM WE NEED.

Corruption-Political Indinerentism-- Non-Intervention as National Safe- guard.
 At College street hall last night Prof Arthur M. Wheeler delivered an inter esting lecture on the timely topic "The Kind of Patriotism We Need" The lecture was the second in the series un- der the auspices of the Phi Beta Kappa society of Yale university. The profess sor said that patriotism Is manifested for the most part when war is talked of and is the kind by which we die, but the kind which we need Is also mani fested in time of peace and which we live by. He further spoke as follows:
 All our dangers are from within. They are such as have come naturally with the advent of democracy. The most formidable one is the money power in our politics. do not believe that money is more unscrupulously ac-
 
 times, but one change has come which is of the utmost significance. With the advent of universal suffrage the field of corruption has been enormously eX- tended. In England, in Walpole's time nearly everything political was for sale, yet if every voter had been cor rupted, only small percentage of the people would have been affected. Now the free use of money in elections means the demoralization of an entire nation.
 are far more varied and more subtle. In contrast with the course and brutal methods of other times, the bribe to- day may be conveyed so delicately that it does not seem to soil either the hands or the consciences of those who receive it. Hence the temptation to give and take bribes has been greatly increased. Another danger of modern democra- cies is political indifferentism. This is a direct result of one of the best inn pulses In human nature. In demo- cratic society every individual is thrown upon his own resources, and in country like ours where there are so many chances. of doing so, every man will strive to improve his position; he l will seek to raise himself anG his fam fly in the social scale, to obtain com fort, leisure, luxuries; in 8 word, he will strive to get rich. And he will be- come wholly absorbed in the process, to the neglect of his public duties. Along this line the people in a democracy may be divided into those who get into politics to make money, a comparative ly small number, and the great mass who stay out of politics for the same purpose.
 These and other like dangers must be met, and the patriotism which will en- able us to meet them successfully is l the kind that we most need. It is the { kind of patriotism which is good to live by and if the occasion should arise, il would prove to be the best to die by.
 Some think the best way to meet these dangers is by a policy of unlim- | tied territorial extension, and theil patriotism consists in urging such 2 | policy. To me such course would in crease the danger a hundred fold, and therefore I deplore the decision which has apparently been made to intervene i in Cuba. I do not care to discuss the I grounds of that decision, except to say that we have no legal right to inter vene; we have only a moral right, ant as we decide upon the morality our selves. it amounts to saying that we in tervene simply because we choose to dc | so.
 The significant thing to me is the fac of the decision, not the grounds for it for it seems to me a complete reversa of the traditional foreign policy of ou government, which has been one o strict non-intervention. For three quarters of a century there have beer two distinctly antagonistic tendencies among us struggling for the mastery Hitherto a majority of our statesmen and of our people have been in favo of working out the great problem o self government within our presen limits, which are ample for all our pur poses, and of trusting to our success il that work and to the influence of ou example for the spread of our civiliza tion in foreign lands. But there ha been all along a large and often nois. minority who have sedulously pushe' their schemes of conquest and perpet ual extension. That minority seem now to have gotten the upper hand; i has become the majority. Triumphan democracy now aspires to universa empire. It enters upon a road whicl has been traversed by all powers whic have become intoxicated with them selves and at the end of which the have, one and all,found defeat and ruir This is what gives to the Cuban de cision its tremendous significance.
 Many statistics and data were give by the lecturer in support of the vari ous things of which he spoke. The au dience was large and very enthusiastic | TO-NTGHT'S POLO