The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1910-05-17
THE WORLD is GETTING BETTER.

teri
,rhre are those who hold that it Is
improving all the time and there are
those who say hat It Is growing
worse. There are evils Of today thai
did not exist a generation ago-se-
rious evils There are evils that men
aced the world a decade g THAT are
not threatening today. On the "hoie'
we believe there Is an upward ten
dency and thai the world Is growing
better, though there is no wisdom IN
shutting the eyes to the gross wrongs
and irreligious influences that al
flict this generation.
Rev. J. II. Shakespeare, OF Lon
don. Secretary OF the Baptist Worlo
Alliance, and q delegate to the Norm
ern Baptist Convention, preached a
sermon in Chicago last sunday IN
Mandel Hall, University OF Chicago.
in which he declared that society and
sporting life are weakening the Eng
lish nation, and said:
In England we have passed into a
mood of religious depression. ID
atm osphere Is not favorable to s1Ha-
plicity Of belief or Of practice. There
is an abandonment Of simple n So
Der living. Luxury and ease are gam
ing power over the people and there
Is a looseniDg and loss OF faltn IN
the church
THE people are getting richer. Sum
day Is losing its Significance and may
aim ost be said TO be going out IN
England today. The trouble with US
is that the people have grown away
from the ideals Of P~uritanisH which
prevailed 20 years ago. The
lation Of wealth is seriously menacifRs
our nation. -.
The growth OF the weekend habit
is one OF the most alarming features
OF our life. People go away Fr1day
night and stay until Monday, playing
golf, tennis and other games Satur-
day and Sunday and disregarding the
Sabbath altogether in sport, recreation
and reveiry."
On the contrary the Springfield Re
publican does not agree with DR..
Shakespeare or President Judson, OF
Chicago University, who believe the
present is the most decadent s in
history. 1t quotes from past evidence
that graft and bribery and control Of
legislation by political bosses is moth
ing new, and says:
The continued disclosures Of legis-
iative corruption seem dishe2rtering,
but they are very far from Justify
ing so despairing q cry as that Of
University Of chicago, who asst week
declared TO a Baptist convention that
the present s is the most decadent
in history, saving only the times pre-
ceding the downfall OF Rome and the
French Revolution. Other conditions
doubt stir him to speak in his man
ner, but let us consider for a moment
this particular manifestation Of moral
6egeneracy.
THE New York Legislature has been
shown to be Q as bad as any could
be-, yet this is what TThurlow Weed
wrote OF the Albany situation around
the year 1885 and later on:
"Formerly the suspicion OF cor
ruption in a member would have
put him into Coventry" whiie
knowledge of such an ffense
would ave insured the expulsion
of the offender. Now bribery and
corruption prevail to an extent
greater than existed In the worst
days Of the Parliament OF Eng
land, where, happily for Eng
land, the practice has been re-
formed, as it must be here, OR
corruption will undermine the
SOFS& Nv q q
ever meritorious escapes the at
tention of strikers" Venal mem
bers openly solicit appointment
on paying committees : : + The
vii a been growing, each year
being worse "a the preceding,
until reform is sternly demanded.
Could the secret history of the
Legislature be exposed to the
public gaze, popular Indignation
would be awakened to a degree
hitherto unknown. In the Assem-
bly, everything is struck at, Not
even q religious charity finds
eXeIn ption-'
1.-The situation today is certainly no
worse than that. It seems to be much
better, for knowledge of offending has
just resulted in the virtual expulsion
OF a New York State Senator, as
Weed said would have been the case
in the good times preceding that pc
Rod Of which he was writing.
but in this autobiography of the