Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1899-06-02
this republic is nihilism.
The Menace of SihiIism.

heaven and no hell except what he can
make on earth He slew the czar of
Russia, keeps many king practically
imprisoned, killed Abraham Lincoln,
would put to death every king and
president ON earth, and if he had the
power would climb up until he could
drive the God of heaven from his throne
and take it himself, the universal
butcher. In France it is called COM
munism; in the United States it is
called anarchism; in Russia it is called
nihilism, hut that last is the most
graphic and descriptive term. 1t means
complete and eternal smash up. 1t
wodld make the holding of property
crime. and it would drive a dagger
through your heart and put a torch 10
to your dwelling and turn over this
whole land into the possession of theft
and lust and rapine and murder.
Where does this moster live? In all
the towns and cities of this land. 1t
offers its hand to this fair republic. 1t
proposes to tear to pieces the ballot
box, the legislative hall, the congress
sional assembly. 1t would take this
land and divide it up, or rather divide
it down. 1t would give as much to the
idler as to the worker, TO the bad as to
the good. Nihilism! This panther, hav-
ing prowled across other lands, has set
its paw on our soil, and it is only wait
ing for the time in which to spring
upon its prey. 1t was nihilism that
burned the railroad property at Pitts
burg during the great riots; it was nj
hilism that slew black people in our
northern cities during the war; it was
nihilism that mauled to death the Chi
nese immigrants years ago; it is nihil-
ism that glares ont of the windows of
the drl nkeries upon sober people as
they go by Ali Its power has never
yet been tested. pray God its power
may never be fully tested. 1t would, if
it had the power, leave every church,
chapel, cathedral. schoolhouse and col
lege in ashes.
Let me say it is the wolst enemy of
the laboring classes in any country.
The honest cry for reform lifted by op-
pressed laboring men is drowned out by
the vociferation for anarchy. The
criminals and the va2ahonds who range
through our cities talking about their
rights, when their first right is the
penitentiary-if they could BE hushed
up and the downtrodden laboring men
of this country could be heard there
would be more bread for hungry chill
dren In this land riot and bloodshed
never gained any wages for the people
or gathered up any prosperity. In this
land the best weapon is not the club,
not the shillalah, not firearms, but the
ballot. Let not our oppressed laboring
men be beguiled to coming under the
bloody banner of nihilism. 1t will make
your taxes heavier, your wages smaller,
your table scantier, your children hun
grier, your suffering greater. Yet this
nihilism, with feet red of slaughter,
comes forth and offers its hand for this
republic. Shall the banns be proclaimed
If so, where shall the marriage altar
be? And who will be the officiating
priest? And what will be the musicf
That altar will have to be white with
bleached skulls, the officiating priest
must be dripping assassin, the music
must be the smothered groan of multi
tudinous victims, the garlands must be
twisted of nightshade, the fruits must
be apples cf Sodom, the wine must be
the blood cf st. Bartholomew massacre.
Mol 1t is not to nihilism, the sanguin
ary monster. that this land is to be
married.
Danger From InfideIity.
Another suitor for the hand of this
nation is infidelity When the midnight
ruffians despoiled the grave of A. 7.
in ST Marks churchyard,
everybody was shocked, bat infidelity
something worse than that
the robbing of all the graves of Chris
tendon of the hope of resurrection.
1t proposes to chisel out from the tomb
stones of your Christian dead the
words, -''Asleep In Jesus and substi-
tute the words, annihi
lation." Infdelity proposes to take the
letter from the worlds Father, inviting
the nations to virtue and happiness and
tear it up into fragments 50 small that |
you cannot read word of it. 1t pro-
poses to take the consolation from the |
broken hearted and the soothing pillow
from the dying. Infdelity proposes to
swear in the president of the United
States and the supreme court and the
governors of states and the witnesses in |
the courtroom with their right hand on
Paine's ''Age of Reason or Voltaire's |
PHILOSOPHY of History" 1t proposes
10 take away from this country the book
that makes the difference between the
United States and the kingdom of Da
honey, between American civilization
and Bornesian cannibalism. If infideli- |
ty could destroy the Scriptures, i,
would in 200 years turn the civilized
nations back to semibarbarism, and
then from semibarbarism into midnight
savagery until the morals of menag
erie of tigers, rattlesnakes and CHM
panzees would be better than the morals
Of the shipwecked human race.
The only impulse in the right direc-
tion that this world has ever had has
come from the Bible. 1t was the mother
of Roman law and of healthful juris-
prudence. That book has been the
mother of all reforms and all charities
mother of English magma charta and
American Declaration of Independence
Benjamin Franklin, holding that Holy
Book in his hand, stood before an in
idel club in Paris and read to them out
IF the prophecies of Habakkuk, and
jhe infdels, not knowing what book it
was, declared it was the best poetry
hey had ever heard. That book brought
George Washington down ON his knees
L. Y. L.. i, j