The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-10-26

| ing this.-Ecelesiastes 7:10.
The pessimist who believes that the
world is growing worse and worse and
as bad as it can be, should guess
| again. incidentally he might make a
few Intelligent comparisons before
making his next guess.
One does not have to go back a
| thousand years-nor five hundred-to
find a sign post in morality from
which measurements may be made to
J ascertain whether humanity has gone
forward or backward in morals and
religion. The progress in a compare
lively few years is marked. The An
thony Republican recently printed
the following paragraph, which illus
trates this point:
Judge ]. D. Bradley of Attica, who
was over Monday to attend a case be-
fore the probate court, says the most
wonderful thing to him is the con-
stantly higher moral standard the
whole world is coming to. When he
was boy in Missouri the drunkard
was rated as a jolly good fellow and
there were lots of them. Free and I'M
limited whisky was had at all house
and barn raisings, and the candidates
knocked in the Heads of whisky bar
rels and tagged them with their names
and the office they wanted, then ask
ed their friends to drink with them,
the barrels being set out on the side
walk, where all could see and drink.
Judge Bradley asked, What would
the voters of today do to a man who
would do that now?'"
Our grandfathers used to take their
liquor as regular thing. Ministers
of the gospel did it without reproach.
Yet today even the sale of intoxicants
is prohibited as crime in large por-
ton of this country-counting the dry
counties in local option states-and
the prohibitory sentiment is sweeping
over the land.
Graft has been more or less common
during all the centuries that have
passed, and it may be for years to
come, yet the anti-graft movement
which has been started in the last half
decade has already made men stop and
think, and things which they deemed
entirely proper few years ago they
would scorn to do now. Mems moral
perceptions are becoming much keener
recently.
The same thing is true of business |
mon within a very few years are now
outlawed. Men who believed them |
selves to be paragons of virtue a few |
years ago have been shown that some |
of their acts are exceedingly reprehen-
sible. Just because one has the power |
TO take advantage of a competitor does |
not make It right morally, and the |
business world is beginning to realize |
it. The time is not far distant when |
the business man who is guilty of sharp |
practices and receptions, even though |
they may be technically legal, will be |
classed with the professional green |
goods swindlers.
This moral progress is not confined |
to America by any means. 1t is world
wide. Nearly every nation on the
globe is waking up. William T. Ellis,
the Philadelphia newspaper man who
recently circumnavigated the globe in
vestigating missions, told a Topeka |
audience last Sunday night that the
best Christians he knows of in the
world are the converted Koreans. They
come far nearer living New Testament
said Mr.. Ellis, than do the
Christians of America. Mr.. Ellis hap
pened into one Thursday night prayer
meeting in Ping Yang where there was
an attendance of 1900. There are few
churches in Christian America that can
get out 1900 people to a prayer meet
ing. Yet it has been only fifteen year,
since Korea opened it's doors to the
admission of missionaries.
The man who insists that the world
IS getting worse instead of better must
be not only a pessimist, but he must
be stone blind to human events.
Incidentally in this case it's a good
hing to go with the crowd. Are you
going that way?