The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1900-12-23
WHY THEY FAIL.

The wave of moral sentiment which Is
now sweeping its way through the chief
cities of the nation has had more than
one parallel The immediate occasion of
it is the spread of social vice in its
varied forms in sections of the several
communities. Those particular sections,
as a rule, are inhabited by the very
poor There the disorderly house and
the saloon can be found in great hunters
There. too, the professional politician,
without conscience and without RESPONSE
bility, exerts his strongest influence,
From that source it is that the worst
influences operating in social and political
life alike originate.
No one who knows life in the very large
cities of the country can be under any
illusion as to what all this means.
Clergymen who administer the affairs of
parishes which are represented by men
of large wealth, and business men who
day after day are actively concerned Iii
the great problems of commercial life,
which involve for them success or failure,
are rarely brought into actual contact
with the conditions represented by Urban
sections of this general character.
Yet it is, we suppose, undenfable as a
general proposition, that the prevailing
reform movements are mostly conducted
by this class of citizens In New York
it is indisputably So The mass of the
poor people, that is, the mass of men
who make days wages or who conduct
one or other small business and derive
from it fair income and good living,
do not take part in such movements. 1t
is so in Chicago, and it is so in Phila-
delphia. 1t is a most regrettabIe circurn-
stance; but those who argue that it is
due to the Indifference to the evils
which abound simply do not know that
class of people.
Take the saloon: In every large city
the saloon is frequented by good people,
men who work every day faithfully and
devotedly, who give their lives over with
out a thought Of self-sacrif1ce to the
maintenance of their families. They may
be what are called laborers in the loose
parlance of the times, or they may be
store keepers or clerks or men in any
station of life, who just make enough
to enable them to remain in self-respect-
ing touch with those around them. They
visit the saloons. They spend their sur
plus earnings or fair proportion Of them
in the saloons. They know of the exist
ence CT unmentionable places in their
immediate vicinity. AS long as those
places are kept out of reach; as long as
they are permitted to infect the immedi-
ate neighborhCods in which they live
they accept them as a matter of fact
and rarely have reference to them among
themselves
How much does the activity of men
like Archbishop Potter, who is at the
head of the moral movement in New
York, affect these people, their opinions
or their lives? Not one particle as a
! children of such men attend the nearby
| church. They themselves may attend
! too. But as a rule they accept the
! churches and their government and the.l
| influence pretty much as they do the ex-
| istence of the places against which the
| present movement are leveled. They
| would like to see the influence of thC
! church extended and the influence Of
!
reason that they are not consulted I
is none of their affair Immediately, anG
they keep on day after day living tn:
lives and maintaining the associations
which they have ever lived and have
| maintained.
To such men the saloon and the loca
political leader signify more than tn,
church. and its ministry and membership
in such a movement as we have refer
ence to. A recent writer who is no
blind has had something to say On thi.
score. It would not do to quote him a,
| length But the following extract wcult
show what sensible man has foun:
out in that behalf He says:
THAT same instinct in man which leads
| those of thS more resourceful classes tC
form such clubs as the Union League
| club, or the Marquette club; which leads
| the college man INTO the fraternity, leads
! the laboring men into the clubs furnished
! them by the saiocnkeeper, MT from phi
| lanthropic. motives, but because Of shrawd
| business foresight. The term club ap-
| plies; for, though unorganized, each sa
| loon has about the same constituency
/ night after night. Its cha; acter is det r.