The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-05-03
CONTINUED from page ~
A NATIONS DECADENCE.

\NVouuUSO HUN p0&S e
A NATIONS DECADENCE.
This rotten, robber-age, having stolen
all it could lay its hand upon, is now
trying to drag God Almighty from his
throne in heaven. They would cast lots
for his garments, as they did once before
Read this:
Concord. N. H., April 12.-The fast
day proclamation of Gov Frank w. Rol-
Inns, which has just been issued, is attract
ng much attention on account of its un-
usual language. The governor says:
l hereby appoint Thursday, the 18th
day of April, as fast day.
This custom was inaugurated at time
when all the people of our state placed
their trust in the hands of supreme be-
ing, and believed firmly in the efficacy OF
prayer. A goodly number of our people
still hold this belief, l am happy to say
and will assemble. as their ancestors have
for generations. to invoke the deity The
decline OF the Christian religion, partcu-
larly in our rural communities, is a
marked feature Of the times, and steps
should be taken to remedy it.
No matter what Our belief may be in
religious matters, every good citizen
knows that when the restraining infu-
ences OF religion are withdrawn from a
community, its decay moral, mental and
financial, is swift and sure. To me this
is one of the strongest evidences of the
fundamental truth OF Christianity.
| suggest that. as far as possible, on
fast day. union meetings be held. made
up of all shades Of belief including all
| who are interested in the welfare of our
state, and that in your prayers and other
| devotlons, and in your mutual counsels,
of the condition of religion in the rural
communities
There are towns where no church bell
| sends forth its solemn call from January
to January there are villages where chill
| dren grow to manhood unchrstened:
there are communities where the dead
are laid away without the benson Of the
name Of Christ and where marriages are
solemnized only by justices Of the peace.
| This is matter worthy OF your
thoughtful consideration. citizens OF New
Hampshire. 1t does not augur we'll for
| the future. You can afford to devote one
day in the year to your fellow men-to
work and thought and prayer for your
children and your children's children.
Think OF this: A governors proclama-
ton in Puritan New England in as
thetic New England-in the land OF
Sweetness and light and ''culchaw;"-
where they look upon the inhabitants OF
the West as half-savage barbarans.
We are glad to know that the Peoples
Party is held in contempt by these crit
ters' Those who think there is no relation
between man and the spiritual world OF
They have neither reverence for Divini-
ty nor love for humanity.
nor love for humanity. ~
Read the following:
The fierce attack upon trusts made by
Prof Albion W. Small. OF University OF
Chicago, has created sensation, says
the New York Journal
He is a professor OF sociology at the
university OF which John D. Rockefeller
is the manstay, yet he delivered all adj
dress on The Value of Sociological
Study to the Minister before the Meth
odst preachers In the course OF his
remarks he said:
In this age of so-called democracy we
are getting into the thrall of the most
relentless system OF economic oligarchy
that history thus tar records.
That capital from which most Of us,
directly or indirectly, get our bread and
butter is becoming the most undemocrat-
ic, inhuman and atheistic of all the
heather divinities. It breeds children.
only to devour the bodies OF some and
the souls OF others. and to put out the
spiritual eyesight OF the rest
In spite of the historic campaigns for
liberty. in spite Of the achievements Of
Christianity. there has never been time
since Adam was born when the individ-
ual counted for so little or availed so lit
tie as today.
Compared with any worthy conception
of what society must become If life is to
be tolerable. the socialistic indictments
against our civilization are essentially
sound. AS abstract propositions, these
diagnoses expose with approximate truth
the gahstly inequalities and injustces
which our present social order sacrifices.
1t is literal and cardinal fact that our
present economic system cries to heaven
for rectication. It stuliles human ma
ture 1t nulihes the purposes Of God.
The men who denounce present society
have profound reason for their COM
plants. We are in the midst of the most
bewidering labyrinth Of social entangle
ments in which the human race has wan
dered up to date.
If you will heed the symptoms from
bank and office and factory and railroad
headquarters and daily press, you have
discovered that the very men who are
making these combinations are beginning
to be afraid of their own shadows. These
very business men, who claim to have a
monopoly OF practical common sense,
have involved themselves and all the rest
of us in grim tragedy OF errors.
They are already beginning to ask on
the quiet how it is all to end. Whether
they realize it or not. our vision OF free
dom is passing into eclipse Of universal
corporate compulsion in the interest Of
capital. The march Of human progress
is getting reducible to marking time in
the lockstep of capitals chain gang.
l have no doubt whatever that the vast
majority of capitalists are good capital
lists. They operate strictly within the
rules of the game. Nevertheless. capital
ism is not good game. and it is our
business to see the reason why. The
whole program of Our present civilization
! turns at last on the calculation Of effects
upon the accumulation OF capital.
| We have turned moral values upside
down. We are making men the means of