The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-12-29

QOuG us ii lOhtIt VI lllt tSl6thl III WHICH
Mr.. Spencer was held
Instructions were received several days
ago from the general officers of the DIFF
ferent roads reminding them that the
crepe should be taken down yesterday,
and it was removed in accordance with
those Instructions.
evitably that you are members of a
favored class, immeasureably removed
from many of your fellow countrymen.
This audience is composed of the most
favored class of American citizenship.
You have not been stunted by hunger,
nor msshapen by pitiless toll your bodies
and your minds have been nourished
and trained until all things are possible
to you, for every opportunity you have
enjoyed, there is laid upon you a cores
ponding responsibility which you cannot
escape.
Money-Mad Country.
This country is money mad. The ideal
of success held up before the youth of
this nation is money, money, and again,
money. Money by all means, fair or
foul, and no means so foul that money
will not excuse. As a result of this
money mania, this false and putrid ideal
so long held up as mankind's chief end.
the commercial spirit has invaded every
department of our life The greatest
Williams have been extoled and applauded,
their crimes excused and forgotten, be-
cause they heaped up money.
l shall waste no time explaining that
I am not speaking of honest thrift. You
understand fully what | mean and you
appreciate the cant which meets every
attempt to destroy our national god. that
cant which names such efforts as social
istic, anarchistic or what not. No, | am
speaking of predatory criminals, who
enter the temple of their golden god by
methods of bribery corruption. base be-
trayal of their positions, official or other
wise, as did, for example, the officers
and many OF the directors of the great
life insurance companies in New York,
and of the sordid wretch who puts mere
acquisition of money above culture, above
decency and above honor.
The Frisco Disgrace.
No more fitting example of the latest
PdllipllSlll SNicnElli VI our peoDltJ
the foul and dangerous enemies which
menace them, has ever occurred than in
the great earthquake which destroyed
San Francisco In the stress of that
stupendous misfortue, just as would
happen in the case OF an armed inva-
sion, vice skunk away ashamed, cupidity
and selfishness hid their heads, even
graft forgot to ply its poisome trade
The mate courage and patriotism of the
people, stimulated to the highest pitch by
their great common misfortune, famed
out in deeds of noble charity. of splendid
magnaminity, unifying all elements of So
ciety into generous patient, patriotic
whole 1t was picture upon which the
eye delights to dwell, that scene of death
and desolation illuminated by the pure
flame of generous patriotism, and show
ing a people unbowed by calamity, suf-
fering into bonds of genuine brother
hood But alas, that we must recall
the grim and evil sequel.
Before the city's ashes were yet cold
patriotism sank back into its old SOM
Violence, sordid avarice raised again It's
ugly head, graft came forth from its hid
ing place to renew its depredations and
the nation stands agha-t to learn that
two million dollars OF the funds sub
scrlbed for the needy in their distress,
have disappeared, proving again that the
patriotism of the battlefield, or that
evoked in some great disaster, will not
serve all the needs of citizenship, that
the latent spirit so easy to bring forth
under these conditions. too readily lapses
into Indifference, and while the good
citizen pursues his selfish course of
money getting, the evil citizen plies his
trade as WELL the one responsible for
the other indifference in the one maxi
ing an open road for vice in the other.
Child Slavery.
Out of this sordid spirit of commercial
ism have grown many Of the greatest
evils which now imperil our country.
What else but avarice gone mad could
make 1t possible for hundreds of thous-
ands of little children to toll and slave
in the mines and workshops of this coun-
try, stunted of mind and body, predis-
posed to vice. denied the air and sunshine,
growing into gnarled and wretched man
hood, If surviving the awful privations
of their youth. white slavery, gentle
men. compared with which the old black
slavery, when the careless negro sang
in the cotton fields was a beatifc state.
Here in this new slavery. the tender
flesh and blood of little children is ruth
lessly ground into money, cursed, thrice
cursed money, to satlfy the demon god
of avarice, the American god of gold.
Let us choose, then, between human
our country shall be judged.
Our form of government Is based pri-
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