The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-02-07
But Which the Commonwealth
Club is Working For.
so SAY ITS MEMBERS.
Professor George Heron, of
Iowa College,
An ExpOunder of the Higher
Doctrines, Speaks.
Also Chancellor Snow and Sen
atOr Young.

Prof. George D. Heron of Grinnell,
Iowa, who is in Topeka this week de-
hvering a series of lectures under the
auspices of the Commonwealth Insti-
tute, has convinced those who have
heard him that he is a thinker. Sun
day night his lecture was on THE
Ethical Tragedy of the Economic Pro-
blem," last night on 1.-The Ethics of the
Labor Movement" and tonight in Uni
ty church he will speak of Public Re-
sources and Spiritual Liberty"
Prof. Herron's lectures are all pre-
pared, as he makes a practice of de-
livering them in series in different cit
les. The lecture he will deliver tonight
is a severe attack on the present econo-
says:
with the moral standards produced
by our economic system, it is no wonder
that our periodical appeals to good
or reform the nation, have become gro
tesque and clownish. The good citi-
ZenS' we call upon to rise above their
material self interests-and that on the
ground of more material self interest
lest the political corruption they have
begotten sweep their material things
away-are in fact the socially worst; it
is from them that the city and the ma
ton need saving;the social redemption
will come, at last, through the people
the good citizens exploit and fear. The
good citizens are the chief enemies of
goodness; the men of 'blamelesS lives
are the high priests of wrongs that af-
front the skies, that blaspheme the I'M
iverse, and that make the very stones
cry out against the suffering of man.
The social conscience of our day, and
the depthless human need from whence
it cried, are as but dust in the balance
when weighed with the subtle and in
direct, yet absolute, influence of money
over both religion and politics. If the
head of some great oil combination,
though it had violated every law of
God or man, besides the so-called econ
lou ioI, Co ma n
ever had anything to do with, and
though it had debauched our nation in
finitely beyond the moral shock of the
civil war, were to stand before any re-
spectacle religious gathering with an
endowment check in his hand, he would
be greeted with an applause so vocifer-
Gus as to partake of the morally id1otic.
We have surrendered our spiritual lib
critics into the hands of money, and we
have done it with an ignorance most
culpable. We deserve to work our way
out of economic bondage with shame
and tears"
Interest in the Commonwealth Insti-
tute is growing. While yesterday morn
ing but few people gathered in the adj
house, this morning the Office was
crowded. The entire forenoon session
was taken up by Judge John s. Hop
kins -of Holton, speaking on 1.-The Way
to Make Reform Measures Successful
Is by Direct Nomination Of Candidates
for Office by the People,"
Judge Hopkins is an interesting tallher
and he was listened to with attention
this morning. From time to time his
expressions were received with applause.
After reciting the evils of the present
political conditions, he advanced his
theory of direct nominations by the
people. In concluding he said:
Let the people make the nominations
direct and there will be no political par
ties. People will then vote for the sake
of principle and not of party. 1t Will
take years to bring about such con-
dition, when you go to your homes
start to work for such condition. When
it comes, altruism will have overcome
the world, and a temple of absolute
liberty will at last be erected on earth"
This afternoon Prof: Edward w.
BemiS of Boston is speaking on TRUSTS
The Good and the Evil in Their Do
velopment." Prof. Bemis holds that
trusts are the result of evolution, and
an the world. Also that they will event
ually die by self destruction.
Chancellor Snow of the state univer-
sity occupied the time of the institute
He declared himself an optimist which
had a visibly dampening effect on the
ardor of those present who were evil
IDENTIFY strongly of the opinion that there
is vast room for improvement in the
present status of things. However, the
chancellor was interesting. He assert
ed confidently that civilization was to-
day higher than it ever had been be-
fore; that the United States is undoubt-
eddy gaining in national life. He de-
fined the obligations of the state to the
citizen as, first, those of protection in
freedom of action, speech and thought,
safety for home, family and society.
Lastly, which evidently in the good
chancellor's mind was firstly: The
state is bound to give every man a uni
versity education if he wants it. After
that men ought to struggle for their
daily bread. No struggle, no strength,
no warfare, no crown. If we have no
troubles, we win no stars. 1t has been
asserted that there are no great schools
in the United States that are not in
dead mems hands. Those who assert
this forget the state university. OF
Kansas especially which has men in the
state house today who are very much
alive, the ever active regents who are
on the floor of the legislature asking for
means to carry on the school.
There is still missing connecting
link between the university and the
farmers boys and girls. The county
high school would supply this. The
chancellor asserted that, contrary to
accepted belief, the university does not
unfit men for practical life, and cited
Edwin Taylor of Edwardsville a
proof of a practical university man. He
claimed that education was as yet too
limited in its field in Kansas. There
are 5000 totally unframed teachers in
the public schools of Kansas today.
He mentioned as a curious fact that
most pupils soon reached the limit of