Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1908-02-06
Hon. Seaborn wright's Grafton.

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so holds the passionate interest of
my mind, as the biography OF
nations. From the dawn OF his
tory to the darkness of the middle
ages, the story of the life of one is
the story of all, yet a story so
fraught with meaning, so filled
with lessons, upon the faithful
learning of which the lives of all
nations hang, that each seems
new in the great truth it unfolds;
the light of the central truth is one
blazing forth uppn the other 'like
another son risen at mid-noon."
And the lesson, my countrymen,
written in letters OF living light
across the face Of all history is
this: "THE WAGES OF NATIONAL
SIN is DEATH" This destruction
was never the wages of poverty or
Ignorance, but of vice. When
Babylon, Greece and Rome were
tottering to their fall there was no
dearth of wealth, no decay of ma
terial power. The dreams of ava
rice YER dimmed by the enormity
of their riches. Their palaces and
gardens were visions of splendor
and beauty, their hilltops were
covered with gorgeous temples,
their streets with monuments of
the living and the dead. And so
to the end did the national intel
lect retain its vigor. In poetry
and literature and science, they
sang and wrote and sp%eculated
until the darkness fell. Wealth
and intellect have no arm to save
when they render allegiance to
vice. Rather are they blind Sam
sons, pulling down the pillars OF
the temple of the State to perish
in the common ruin.
The man is the State; his char
acter is the character OF the State.
Given a nation of saloonkeepors
and the nation is a drunkard.
Given a nation of gamblers and
the nation as a whole becomes
the embodiment of this passion,
Given a nation of libertines and
prostitutes and the nation itself
is a mammoth monster of lust.
The nation is what its people are
regardless of it's resources, its
wealth, it's power
What is the trouble with this
wonderful nation of ours? Some
thing is wro ng-terribly wrong
1t is not poverty. Ours is the
richest nation on earth. Our re-
sources, developed and undevelop-
ed, have never been equaled by
any nation dead or living. 1t is
not Ignorance. The range OF oul
mental view is higher, broader
than of any people the world has
ever seen. Let me come to the
truth at once-it is sin. Sin that
is undermining the character OF
the individual citizen, and W
through individual citizenship the
body polite, the nation.
Arc we becoming a race o.
drunkards? The people of this
republic spend directly for liquors
annually two thousand millior
dollars. 1t is spent largely by the
masses of the people, and out o!
it comes poverty, crime, socia.
and political rottenness beyonc
the mental grasp of living man
Why does the national govern
ment tolerate it? Why does thu
Government Of Washington ant
Jefferson and Lincoln permit a few
thousand liquor barrooms to CAPT
talize the appetites, the passions
aye, the sins of the people to max
money out of it? The answer
simple and direct: The govern
ment revenue of S215, 000,0 OO GU
of the untold millions reape'
from the wreck and slaughter G
her children.
This in conclusion: the contes
between the forces of good an
evil is as old as the history Of mer
Great leaders look down upon u
tonight from all the nations the
have gone before-captains of tn
rival forces contending for th
mastery of men and nations.
Twenty centuries ago, Nei
reigned in the palace Of the Caes
ars. He was master of the dei
TIMES of men and nations. T
stood upon a pinnacle, ''sun flasf
ed" his power to bless or say
was world vide. The brief spa
Of his public life is the crown
infamy in human history. Eide
ity to truth was to him an VI
meaning term, conviction Of dut
the dream of fools. He was