The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1899-05-31

same work for you In a private capacity. II
not You can best serve your party by vot-
ing against him at the polls. To 90 otner-
wise is to pay premium for dishonesty or
incapacity true man sets his country
above his party and if his own nominee is
unfit either because incompetent or dis
honest, then he should vote for better
man or if he cannot find him then scratch
ANYWAY 1 know this is not popular with ALL
but even the bosses are learning that the
public is getting quite independent-and
nominations are growing better because OF
that fact Some slight Improvement Is still
possible sometimes. Remember. good
candidate will never object to this rule;
bad one has no claim on you for anything
else.
IA valuable lesson may be learned by the
study of that nation with whom we have so
recently been at war-Spain. Why was it
that her fleet and her army was so misera-
bly, impotent when pitted against us? Sim
ply because the struggle was between ma
ton still comparatively honest AID nation
whose energies have been Slapped by long
continued corruption. Because the plum
tree" had been shaken there for years: be-
cause ner IdmmdHy Hall Ids UccH "cH
organized for centuries
ut was a contest between a land where
the schoolhouse sits on every hill and
church nestles in every valley and civili-
zation of the bull fight and the midnight
vendetta But just as surely as this corrup-
ton we have been considering goes un-
checked and unpublished, so surely will this
nation perish or be hum bled by some cleaner
and more honest nation.
Some of my protestant friends, with
more zeal than learning, say that it was
Catholicism which ruined Spain and we are
exempt from any such danger. Did you
never hear of dishonest protestant? AS
a protestant. with an ancestry of genera
tions of Puritans, deny that you can prove
this charge made against the Catholic
church. What was the inqu1sition for, any :
way: Simply that the Moors and the Jews
had money and the mobiles and the king
wanted it. The machinery of the church
was set to work because they controlled it
and just as it would have been had it been
Presbyterian, Methodist or Episcopal. 1t
was not mems souls they were after but
mems money-and they got it. OF course
the methods lacked the finish of the
modern political machine, but it was effec-
tive in that ruder age. And even it's cruelty
does not differ so much from some of the
recent transactions in Georgia, where
Methodists and Baptists are as thick as flies.
Before we begin searching for notes back
in that remote age it would be well to con-
slider this be am in our own eye. The Inquisi-
ton was simply political machine which
crushed the freedom and the conscience
of the Spaniards precisely as the modern
bands of free booter will do here
if they are not stopped.
THE ELECTRIC AGE.
We are in an age of trusts About every
thing we eat or wear or use is controlled by
vast corporations which have made use of
the energies of steam power. new giant
is born which will supercede steam power as
effectually as that has retired hand and
horse power. The giant torn by Franklin
from the stormy cloud is rushing upon US.
Shall it be servant or master?
"Out of the locomotive great fortunes
have been amassed. but this new force will
soon run our errands, carry our burdens
and tighten our labors: will, if used wisely,
enrich and bless US; once surrendered to
corporate control and fortunes will be built
up beyond anything we now are accustomed
to- Power in the hands of the few will
crush out competition and enslave the people.
former governor OF South Dakota once
gave as solution that we return to the
ways and customs of our fathers. Anyone
who would make such a suggestion shows
poverty of thought. Think of it you weary
housewives. In addition to your present
duties this statesmen would have you spin
and weave your clothing and that of your
family. And the farmers of Redwood county
would be expected to return to the fail and
the cradle. We would destroy our type
writer's and our sewing machines
1.-The spirit of the age forbids it: the sacri-
fees of our brothers, who laid down their
lives that this nation might live. refuses this
monstrous. this cowardly suggestion. We
cannot and would not stay the march of in
vention which is sweeping US on to grander
achievements and nobler triumphs. Already
the way is made SO plain to US when cities
are lighting their own streets and running
their own cars. Give electricity to the
monopolies with the power of this new giant
PEssIMIsM.
Whatever else you may be. don't be a
pessimist The future, bright with promise
is just before, and demands of you
the courage of a soldier and not
the fainting spirit of the deserter
Sometimes we hear a lecture as full of de-
spair as Cassandra's song. Even in church
we hear sermons that would make US feel
that life is failure and our civilization is
mockery. If so, then is your religion, which
has come down all these years, a delusion
and fraud. For nearly nineteen hundred
years the old old story of a risen Lord has
been echoing through the ages like a sweet
song burst of divine harmony and its
effect has not been lost upon listening
world. Creeds are tumbling, old institutions
and forms are crumbling. but the world is
better and purer than ever before.
Doubling, oh believer, when the world
was never so filled with earnest men anjl
women, anxious to know the right and to do it:
Fearing.ye student of history when the skies
are clearing: when all the power of the
bosses could not elect Quay to the senate
and all the intrenched power of Tammany
could not defeat the reformer Roosevelt:
Discouraged. We patriot. when the people