The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1903-09-06
STUDYING THE WRONG PEOPLE.

A good deal of interest is being taken
in these days in what people who are en-
gagged in the study are pleased to call So
GEOLOGY. The researches into the science
so-named are pursued entirely in what the
better classes pityingly and patronizingly
regard as the lowermost stratum of So
ciety. To work in the slums, to endeavor
10 uplift the Submerged TENTH has be-
come not only a popular philanthropic UNI
d~ertaking but a favorite intellectual pas
time. not to say a fashionable fad. Nc doubt
much good is accomplished by these in
v~estigations. If nothing else it gives
the workers something worth while
to think about. There is oppor-
tunity. however, for more than per-
sonal benefit. Wherever there is extreme
poverty and ignorance there are other ills
Jack of cleanliness, ~unsanitary conditions,
immortality of various sorts-and tits well
that all these evils should be combated. 1t
is important for the community and for
the people of the slums themselves-mostly
foreigners of recent arrival-that they be
so enlightened and led that they will make
worthy citizens. All work in this direc-
ton is commendable. but is the need of
moral uplifting limited to this lowest stra-
tum? Nay, verify.
There is a great call for moral regenera-
ton in other fields. Is it out of the slums
that the Missouri boodlers come, against
whom Attorney Folk is conducting his war
fare? Not at all. They are representative
citizens. thought well enough of by the
community, most of them, to be elected to
high and responsible offices. Did the men
in the Postofice Department who nave been
found guilty Of crookedness. of the use Of
their positions for personal gain, of graft
ing etc.-did they come from low and ir-
responsible classes? BY no means. They
are educated men. men thoroughly enlight-
ened as to the principles of right and wrong,
men Of repute in their. respective commun-
tiles when they were appointed to their
places. The members of the Dawes Indian
commission. now charged with betraying
their trust for the purpose of lining their
pockets. are they of doubtful antecedents?
Hardly. Appointed to a position of pecul-
lar responsibility, they were chosen with
especial view to their intelligence and in
tegrity.
Municipal governments all over the coun-
try are said to be corrupt; in many cases
they are undoubtedly and VIGOROUSLY so.
Did Doc Ames, the boodling mayor or
Minneapolis. come up from the submerged
tenth? Far from it. He was a man who
had been born to all the advantages of en-
iightened American citizenship. Ask any
man ION the inside. in public life II it Is
the ~foreign-born citizen. or the low and ig-
norant who dvances the schemes for
working the community for his own pri-
vate benefit, and he will tell yon that these
grafters are commonly from among our
best citizens" Ask any man with the
appointive power-Governor. mayor. school
Observation-Disclosures it is who is most anx-
ious to pay his private debts at public ex-
pense, and he will tell you that he is most
frequently a prominent and influential gen.
tleman. a church member. very likely a
''reformer." This insider win also point
out that in city councils. school boards and
such bodies 1t is not the German-American
or the Irish-Amer1can member from an out
lying ward who Is frst and last ION the
make" These adopted citizens do not brine