Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1901-04-01
MINISTERS TALK
ON CITIZENSHIP
Timely Sermons Delivered in
Rock Island Churches
Sunday.
NEED OF REFORM Is POINTED OUT
Voters Advised to Support Re-
sponsible Men Regardless
of Party Lines.

The munlclp9l problem, as one that
is uppermost in the minds of a ma
iority of the citizens of Rock Island,
was favorite one in the various
churches of the city yesterday. Rev.
G. b. Simons, of the First Baptist
church, chose for the subject of his
morning discourse 1.-The Obligation
of Christian Citizenship" The text
was part of the seth verse of the
21st chapter of Acts of the Apostles,
"a citizen of no mean city" Rev.
Simons, after tracing the rise of the
American people and paying tribute
to American energy and enterprise.
likened the evils that have developed
in the various departments of the gov
ernments to the barnacles that fas-
ten themselves to the hull of ship
and hamper it's movements.
The strength or weakness of rep,
Preventative government. he said, de-
ponds upon the character of its citi-
zens. OF the latter he said there
were three kinds, the good, the bad
and theindifferent. After referring to
the evil tendencies introduced by I'M
scrupulous leaders he mentioned the
characteristics that go to make up
bad citizen. Chief among them he
placed the blind, unreasoning par
tisanship in municipal affairs which
sacrifices good candidates for the sake
of the party.
Indifference to Duty.
The Indifferent citizen, in Rev.
Simons' opinion, is less entitled to
respect than the bad citizen, for he
wilfully shirks duty that he realizes
to be duty and then blames others
for the way things go.
The ill repute of the city, he said,
has gone abroad to the extent that it
is said by some to be the worst in
some respects of it's size in the mid
die west. 1t is VIGOROUSLY "wide
open" in the popular sense OF the
term. The character of the city may
be Judged from a comparison with
Moline, where only SO saloons exist
against our 90. Rev. Simons said
that only recently man had offered
to show him 20 saloons harboring
women within three blocks of the
Baptist church. These women. he
was told, are used as a decoy to draw
trade.
II
candi 1ates, Rev. Simons asserted that
while the democratic platform does
not 60 far enough, he had learned
from experience that it is better to
ask for little with some prospect of
getting it than to ask for much with
no chance of success. When he asked
Mr.. Knox why he had> not taken a
stand similar to the one taken by Mr..
Banding, he replied that his political
advisors had objected to such course
on the ground that it would look as
though he were initiating the oppos-
ing candidate.
Rev. Simons held that the average
citizen cannot escape the RESPONSE
bility for the present condition of
things in this city, and if the decent
element cannot take common stand
regardless of political parties. those
who believe in reform had better go
to some place more susceptible to. the
claims of decency. However, he felt
that the present agitation will pro-
duce some good results.
Rev. McNary Touches on Politics.
Rev. d. L. McNary, of the United
Presbyterian church, took for his
evening subject 1.-The Duties of the
Citizen in Municipal Life" and mis-
sermon was substantially as follows:
what are the duties that devolve
upon a man by virtue of his being
citizen of Rock Island? 1 shall speak
of three.
'First-To vote in our municipal
elections for the men whom he be-
lieves will best administer the affairs
of our city. Such advice seems super
huous, as self interest should prompt
to that duty. But here is what makes
it necessary: The voters of our land
are divided into two political parties
upon national issues, such as the
currency, the tariff and our colonial
policy. We are told we must vote
with our party in every election and
yet those parties were not formed
with reference to single issue in our
municipal life. The result is that
most men simply vote the party
| ticket whether it touches the issue or
not. That is what does damage. We
must vote on city issues regardless of
party.
Interest In Moral Questions.
lin reference to the present cam
paign. feel deepest interest in the
moral questions. rejoice that one
of our candidates has brought them
to the front. ! see no reason why
any decent citizen should oppose the
reinforcement of our laws against vice.
These are not blue laws that have
been singled out, they are those en-
forcing common decency and moral
lity. do not see why any saloon
keeper should object unless he wants
to keep a low dive. The man who
takes his glass of beer cannot object
unless he is sensualist. Party lines
are delusion in our city elections,
because our political parties were not
founded on city questions.
| "Second-It is the duty of every