The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1901-01-24

old mistress of the Seas and Queen of
Commerce is afraid Of the enterprise
of the American, and is so meek and
still so wise that she counse1s her
young men to learn of the American
that they may be able to hold their
own in the commercial struggles of
the Twentieth century.
Is the moral standard of the people
of the world lower today than CEN
tury ago? Is there less honesty, less
purity of character, less deep religious
feeling and less genuine charity in the
world today than when Adams was
President? It is impossible to know
the relative virtues of two ends of
century. History fails to record the
private lives of most of it's great men
and women. But men and women
have never been too good. The tales
that the initiated tell of the vices and
wickedness of the supposedly best men
and women of the day do not far ex
coed in viciousness the tales told by
the gossips of a hundred years ago.
In sort of general way we are in
c1ined to read our history and judge of
the people of an age by what history
tells of the character and deeds of the
men who were before the public at
that time. We are generally agreed
that the people of time of Charles II of
England were most desperate, 1lcen-
tious and wicked set, because history
tells of the 1ooseness of the court OF
the gay Charles. We are likewise all
of us of the firm conviction that NOR
ais were extremely lax during the
reigns of Isabella, of Bavaria, Louis
XIV, XIV, an XVI in France, because
the pages of history are embellished
with suggestions of the prohigacy,
either of the central personages OF the
time or of their followers. When we
read of the early days of the Republic,
! however, we usually attribute the most
straight and staunch moral character
to the people of that time, because we
throw about them the halo of the great
deeds that they accomplished, their
patriotism, their character and their
wisdom. We read of Washington and
think of all associated with him and
all about him in the light of the noble
work in which they were concerned.
In our pride, our fond imagination
peoples the thirteen states with George
Washingtons, Ben Franklins, Thomas
Jeffersons, Alexander Hami1tons, Ad-
ames, Hancocks, Madisons and the
rest, and these as they appear on the
pages of our history, and not as they
might appear if all that was reported
without foundation and all that might
have been told on good authority had
been written side by side with the
story of the sacrifices and struggles in
the service of their country.
It is the notion of the people of the
day that our National Capitol is hot
bed of gi1ded vice, that pure men are
scarce in Washington, and that most
of those thathaunt the halls of Con-
gress are minions and mercenar1es.
Few, however, who are so charitable,
would place the representative from
their own particular State or district in
| that category, Because there are
temptations at Washington and every
where, indeed, that laws are made, it is
the supposition' that Eswrong doing
abounds. Our early Senators and
Congressman were more org less free
from this sort of thing. Railroads and
| other big corporate were not very
numerous in their day, and naturally
there was no opportunity to charge
| them with chicanery in that direction.
But as to the kind of wickedness that
it is the delight of the people Of this
! day and age to insinuate against their
men in high position, rumors of the
same kind were not lacking in the ex-
perience of the great and good men
who made our laws and guided the
destinies ofg the Republic in its pima
fore days. Even the characters of
George Washington and Ben Franklin
have not altogether escaped the tar
nish of scandal. Hamilton and JEFF
ferson, Clay and Webster have all suf-
fered from it's blight, and, were the
faci1itiess so great in those days of
learning and reporting the private af-
fairs of the public man as they are to-
day, there is strong possibility that we
would not have had so comparatively
d poor an idea of the morality of our
own times.
It is more than possible that if all
were known, the character of public
men, and of the people generally is as
high and pure today as in those days
when Uncle Sam wore knee breeches.
. Chief of Police O'Hare received d