The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1906-01-21
GREAT SPEECH BY
GOVERNOR FOLK
Missouri Executive Guest at a Ban
quet Given by Boston Mer-
chants Association.
PROBLEMS OF THE TIMES
GOOD GOVERNMENT DEPENDS
UPON THE PEOPLE.

GOOD GOVERNMENT DEPENDS
UPON THE PEOPLE.
Boston, Jan. 2O.-Five hundred of the
leading business men of Boston, mem
bers- of the. Merchants association, at
tended the annual dinner Of the or
ganization at the Hotel Somerset today
and heard. addresses by Governor 10
seph w. Folk Of Missouri, Mayor
Weaver of Philadelphia, Governor
Guild and Mayor Fitzgerald of this
city.
Governor Guild, in extending the well
come of the commonwealth to Cover
nor Folk and Mayor Weaver, said:
Governors and mayors of states and
cities pass and shall pass and the mem
Dry of their titles may vanish as last
years SHOWS. but so long as virtue and
conscience control the human hearts,
the men shall still turn to history for
the inspiration Of the record of
achievements, for the righteousness
that exaIteth a nation eternally writ
ten about the names Of Joseph W. Folk
and John Weaver"
, Governor Folk said:
Governor Folks Address.
The more I become acquainted with
this country the more I am impressed
with the fact that there is not much
difference between the sections after
all. The bad people are. alike every
where, and good people are the same
wherever they may be found. The diff
ference is in external appearance,
caused by different circumstances and
different problems of light. Though
some belong to one state and some to
another all are now Americans. In
solving the great problems that con-
front the American people, the patriot
ism of the west is the same as the
patriotism of the east. Time was when
a speech appropriate in Massachusetts
would have been very inappropriate in
Missouri. That is not so now. Never
before in the history of the nation has
there been less sectionalism than there
is today; never before have the Ameri-
can people been so united in mind and
in patriotic purpose. There is now but
one heart in aII-nOrth. east. SOUTH
west-and that is the heart of America.
Never in all history were greater move
ments in progress than those now go
ing on.
OFFnCT FGIOIGN movements
There have been great reform move
ments of a political nature in days
gone by, but they were merely local.
The people were not awakened; there
was no conStancy in the movement; no
concerL of action; no organization of
the forces of reform; nothing but local
crusades brought on by local influ-
erces, which died with the movements
that gave them birth. The present
reveals a situation of brighter promise
to the lovers of good government. Re
form shows signs of becoming univer-
sal instead Of local and transitOry. The
revolt from political oppression is rear
ing its head in city after city and state
after state. A civic regeneration is
going on all over the land and its in
fIuences are extending from the do
main of the public to that of the pri-
vate wrongdOer and probing into the
doings of rascals Of every kind. The
elections of last November were but
the taking of the first breastworks of
the opposition. The fight must be and
will be kept up with unceasing vigor,
and the time will never come when the
people can be secure of their political
liberty while they rest upon their arms
in idleness. The battle against civic
evils will continue as long as men love
their family, their home and their
country. This is what civic revival
means-Iove Of country.
Great Civic Awakening.
This civic awakening to the neces-
sity of stamping out the things of dis
honor in public life and the things that
Cypress in private life, the revelation
of private corruption and of private
wTOng-doing do not indicate a moral
degeneration It does not show that
men are becoming worse, but that men
are becoming better. The hope for the
perpetuity of a government by the peo-
pie was never brighter than it is to-
day There viii be only white lights
ahead as long as the people are awake.
The accepted idea Of morality is very
different now from what it was. Tn
less this idea of civic right now abroad
in the land dies out we will pass from
the age of sOrdid cOmmercialism to the
age of high ideals. Even now wealth
is not Worshiped with the same de-
votion it used to be, and the idea is to
get right rather than to get righteous.
A new standard has been established;
new, yet old-just honesty; that is all.
The~remedy, for corruption has been
found in the hearts of the people, There
is nothing a corrupt man or those who
make a business of violating laws fear
more than publicity and an aroused
public conscience. The prisons might
be filled with grafters, yet if the peo-
pie are awake grating can be stopped
through the force Of public sentiment
The. gPafters who would make money
at the expense of the common good
do not know good from bad; all they
know is whether it pays or not. They
are being taught that official grating
does not pay, and when this lesson
shall have been thoroughly learned the
revolution will be victorious and rep
resentative government will be en-
thrOned.
Honesty the Best Politics.
Political parties are beginning to
learn that honesty is after all The hast