The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-12-05

| DelleVe that In the twentieth centur
 no intelligent or decent man will sneal
 out of his duties as a citizen" w
 trust that this prediction will be verl
 fled. For citizenship is a rich legac.
 bequeathed us by our forefathers Wh
 had purchased 1t with their blood. I
 is not to be bartered like merchandise
 for selfish ends, it is not to be tossed
 aside in contempt, but guarded and em
 ployed as sacred trust. Nor can wt
 acquire for our children so choice be
 quest as purified citizenship.
 The next line of thought shades nat
 urally out of that we have just dis
 cussed.
 ?. Indifference to the Responsibili.
 ties of Citizenship.
 | Dr. Parkhurst recently wrote "The l thing we have most to fear Is not the depravity and criminality that are ram pant, but the decency that is languid | and the responsibility that is lndiffer-
 ent and that will go junketing when a state is on the edge of crisis or go fishing on a day when a city is having it's destiny determined for it at the
 polls.
 Would that there could be some legis-
 lative enactment by which every re-
 spectacle traitor of the sort could be
 denaturalized and branded with some
 stigma of civic outlawry that should
 extinguish him as an American and
 cancel his kinship with Columbus, the Fourth of July and My Country'ts of Thee!" I speak with full assurance when l say, for instance, in regard to the city of New York that there is no singe moral issue capable of being rais- ed in regard to it's administration where the great preponderance of sentiment would not be found on the side of hon esty or against corruption, provided only, that the sentiment were sufficient ly resolute and alert to come forward and declare itself. The purpose of a campaign under such circumstances is not to convince people of what is right, but to stimulate to the point of action those who are already convinced"
 The indifference which Parkhurst de- plores and which constitutes the dead Hest peril of free republic Is manifest ed in many ways. I instance several.
 The indifference of hosts of citizens is shown by their failure to keep informed on subjects which as citizens ought deeply to interest them. There has been degeneration in this respect since a century and a quarter ago. Our Revolutionary fathers long before the war with England, were intensely interested in public affairs, first in re- gard to their own respective sections and secondly in regard to the relations of the colonies gener- ally with England. We see this from the character of the newspapers they published. Farmers gathered in the stores at evening and discussed politics, though they had not tithe of the privi- eges of citizenship that we have to-day And thus it came about that there assembled in the little hall in Phila- 1elphia on the eve of the crisis such a band of men as, for intelligence and patriotism and statesmenship, the world lad scarce ever seen. In later days every American seemed destined from 1is cradle to make speeches on politics. Those were the days of Senate oratory # the splendid deliverances of Webs CT, Clay and Calhoun. Their speeches were printed in the newspapers and cad. But the age of Senate oratory s over and if it were not, what papers would print more than garbled extracts? \ species of degeneracy has come. To ,e sure the material advancement has 'een immeasurabe- engines. telephoes, palatial residences [ but the defense of a republic is not | Il inventions and all the luxuries of | modern life. If patriotism is decaying, | [ fewer and fewer still interest them | elves in the great problem of govern 1ent, if men of education and refine nent, in increasing numbers, turn from olitics with contempt, then the experi- lent of free government Is failure.
 Hosts of citizens nexer examine for themselves the great issues upon which arties wage battle, but get their ideas rom the papers they happen to take nd vote according to the orders which ome to them through their respective arty megaphones. Thousands never ,ok into a statute book to get an idea rst hand of the laws under which they ve Multitudes of city dwellers have ever examined the city charter, care tile about civic matters which inn concern them and feel little lterest in the conduct of public off, als.
 The indifference of the average voter
 further evinced by his failure to ex- else any influence as is his right, up- I the choice of candidates for office. he key-fortress of American citizen lip Is the primary where nominations re made. It is the inalienable right of l ,ery citizen to attend and exercise some fuence at the primaries of his party $ S matter of fact however vast { aiority of decent, respectable we'll ' eaning voters are never there. The I 'imaries are attended by but a hand Il, and these are generally manipulat z
 by professional politicians, bosses, l ho have the slate already made up. S e business cut and dried It oft mes happens that the primaries are q by influences which emanate r rectly from the saloon. So bad men k e nominated for office, and decent ople meekly vote them in. n Bad and incompetent men make bad n Id unwise laws or administer an f. ulterated and poisoned brand of jus n e, or, if they have the appointing a wer choose such a waste the public f oney and return incompetent and cious service. a manifest itself, also, by h glect of the sovereign privilege and r