The commonwealth. (Scotland Neck, N.C.) 1896-1929, 1899-05-25
An ELOQUENT APPEAL.
New York's Great Fight.
APPLIES TO ALL THE LAND.

The New York Weekly Witness re
Gently reported the proceedings of :
meeting OF the "Prohibition Union O
Christian Men," held in that city, o
which Rev. A. c. Dixon, pastor O
Hanson Place Baptist church, Brook
lyn, is president. Among the speak
ers was Mr.. M. e. Howard, of Koches
ter, organizer of the Union. His
speech in part closed as follows -
Men OF New York, hear me-! If the
Devil keeps on inventlng machines oI
damnation and we continue to go in
partnership with him for division OF
the plunder, IN another genera ton ou,
great cities will reap a harvest of licen-
tiousness and debauchery that will
outrival Pompeii and Sodom.
The Devil has fused the saloon and
the brothel into one colossal machine
to attack the great centres Of modern
civilization, and unless we can fuse the
patriotic, law abiding, God-servlng cit
liens of the country, and meet organ
lied iniquity with organized righteous
ness, the situation is without hope.
One cannot look into the conditions
that prevail here at the present time
without being reminded Of the two col
ored boys who bad began the study oi
the catechism together.
One asked the other, "How far are
you, Jack ?"
"Oh, I'm Just in original sin; How
far are you, sam?"
'sI am far beyond that am past re-
demption."
Well, it was probably not true of
Sam, and it is not true of New York.
But the situation in this city; its
depth OF depravity, its open disregard
for law and the widespread indifference
of its citizens is positively alarming.
1t does not concern New, York only.
It concerns the whole nation.
Our Civil Service is becoming the
favored roost for incapables, thieves
and pIunderers. 1t has become almost
impossible to carry on any public work
that does not result in raid on the
Treasury.
Once confined to our cities, today
the corruption lays its leprous hand on
the State and nation.
Canal scandal in New York capital
scandal in Pennsylvania Allen law
scandal in Illinois City Hall scandal ;
gas plant scandal street paving scan
dal public franchise scandal; Grand
Jury scandal Sentorial scandal; war
scandal. This wholesale debauchery is
perforating the entire fabric of our
civic life.
How long is our commercial life to
be spared? When the political field is
filled up, what next?
According TO the commercial reports
an army of men went astray as en-
bezzIers in recent years, and robbed
their employers of over twenty-six mil
lions of dollars.
Gentlemen, there is danger ahead if
we do not stop this wholesale public
debauchery. It is high time for the
decent citizens OF America to wake up
and organize with no less an aim than
to clean up house-to retire to private
life some of the SCARED rulers OF our
great municipalities to demand for
public officials a brand OF men who
would rather fill hole in the Potter's
Field than to fill public office by
licking the dirty boots OF the rum pow
er, and to close up the dens OF infamy
that are rotting the civic fabric OF our
cities and debauching our young men
and young women by the tens of thou
sands every year.
We have fought one holy war to
throw off the yoke and Spanish mis-
rule in Cuba. I go in for another holy
war to throw off the yoke of barroom
misrule in America.
Oh, ye reformers OF New York, stop
your child's play, cork your squirt guns.
and help the Prohl hlbition Union of
Christian Men to turn on the hose.
go In for cleaning out the whole iniqui-
tous system.
Do you say that it is impracticable
and impossible? Nothing Is impossi-
BILE that Is right. Nothing that is right
is impracticable.
You say that I do not know New
York that fight like that would re-
suit IN wholesale butchery; that ass
assination would lurk In every dark
hallway and alley. Well, the meanest
coward that walks the earth can die
a natural death. It takes a man to
face death for noble cause.
WHO re Women as we'll as men are
~ ~ 10 made miserable by kidney