davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08

toned Jungle articles and the SUISSE
ouent official inquiry. Add to this the
pure food law, with incidentally good
deal of the increased cost of living, and
you have as the net result a picture of
nation in search of health.
Precisely here is the point at which
the prohibitory laws, local option laws,
and other attempts to discourage the
trade in intoxicating liquors come in.
The enormous significance of this pop
ular movement Is being missed by many
who are taking an Industrious part In
the political dispute. But far back
of the political dispute is a deeply en-
tienched custom, deeply rooted super
stition, which the advocates of pub
lie health have been steadily workin &
against for many years past. The bat
tie has been waged with this supersti
ton in the public chools of America
as in those of perhaps no other land
since human history began. Temper
ance orators and advocates have pushed
the battle with much acrimony as well
as much justice and much injustice
blended together inseparably But 1t
remained for the trade itself to give
the main evidence on which at least
action is certain to be taken by ev-
cry cilivized government.
Hence we have come to a period III
human history wherein the great DEM
ocracies are bent upon conquering dis
ease and making themselves fit. For
1t is not America alone, but the whole
world that is concerned. And though
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08

erful legislator our country has pro-
duced in the 121 years of the republics
existence.
In the early day the. debates in Con-
gress were academic, and that made
Clay, Calhoun, Webster, and a hundred
others of their caliber Can you fancy
Robert Toombs or William L. Yancey
Stephen A. Douglas or Rufus Choate,
wading through an enormous bulk of sta
tistics? Tom Marshall in the field of ora
tory and speculative craftsmanship was
UNNECESSARILY superior Of Nelson w. Aid
rich; but when 1t came to laying tax,
one of the Rhode Islander was worth a
dozen of the KentuckianN Marshall was
the slave of the imagination; Aldrich is
the child of experience, and he had the
gift to make his own daddy-that same
Dolliver and Cummins both are orators.
Aldrich talks, and a not very entertain
ing talker is he at that; and yet he up
tipped both of them in the making of a
republican tariff for monopoly only last
summer. The greatest speeches the
American Congress ever heard would
not interest Aldrich at all.
Let me tell an anecdote. There lived
a fine old fellow down in Barren county,
Kentucky, many years ago. He was a
practical man and the wealthiest citizen
OF the county. Humphrey Marshall came
that way and made one of his powerful
stump speeches and the people were talk
ing about what a wonderful man he was.
Then It was that old Lause Trigg. who
was on the other side, rose up and con-
founded the crowd with this terrible in
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08

Jesus and the triumph of His Gospel. In
regard to church members he says:
What about the mass of church peo-
pie? Are they not as fond OF the pol
luted book, the play with its appeal to
sensual passion, as their pagan neigh
bors? Who hears of their refusing to
buy a cheap and repuisive sheet that
costs a penny that they may give sup
port TO great but two penny paper?
Who ever heard them object to the poor
dancing girl on the stage, dancing her
soul away to please low tastes? Who
can report any revolt on their part over
the shame of the city and the tradition
Of infamy that carries on its black tide
thousands of youths to the pit? Do they
not know that every cheap and ques-
tiorable book. every Shiny play, every
audacious device of the person who ca
ters for pasans. every social function
far removed from sanctity, every ave-
rue of excluslveness and pride, every
black art of gossip. every twist and turn
OF the ropes OF inhumanlty: and do they
not attend church and look for the COM
ing of the kingdom of God? What kind
Of revival will meet this case? Hysteria
will not do, nor the devoutness of Lent,
nor turn at psychic healing, whether
as patient or patron. What Is demanded
here is the axe laid at the root of the
tree the new heaven and the new earth
wherein dwelleth righteousness; the re-
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08

this arena appears to be Sinclair of
Jungle" fame. who has starved out the
demon dyspepsia and established himself
serene on the twin-pillars of Hercules, the
chewing jaw and the empty stomach. He
gives Mr.. Fletcher his need of gratitude,
but supplements him with the crusade
for fasting. 1t appears that ten days
fast is but a bagatelle, and that when
one gets his hand in-or rather his
stomaeh-he can go 40, so or 60 days with
a brain growing clearer and correspond
ingly slight butchers bill.
And that is not all. Who does not plead
guilty of seeking the aid of the doctor?
What a nuisance brother ass, as some
dear saint called the body, can be! Shall
we not go to all these lengths, and Others
too, to lick the obstinate wretch into
shape? What else mean these full-page
advertisements for men and women to
take a correspondence course in Sandow' s
school or to pay dollar for learning how
to breathe? Why else should the Y. M.
c. A. be sustained SO energetically in it's
campaign for athletic membership? Why
else these golf links and athletic clubs
and swimming contests? America in fact
is out for her health and she is going
to get it. She is proposing to be the
strongest, cleanest, prettiest, brainiest
readiest nation on earth
To the same passion for health must be
traced the wave of Indignation that sliced
us all upon the terrific indictment of the
meat packing industry by the aforemen-
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08

he Is talking about, and did you know,
that is a great thing-in a senator in
the United States congress?
John q. Carlisle is a genius. Among
his accomplishments is that of lightning
calculator. AS a mathematician he is
no slate, but depends upon a mental pro-
cess. After delivering powerful speech
against the Mckinley bill in the House
of Representatives of the F'ifty-frst Con-
gress. he entered the Senate as the sue
cessor of James B. Beck. before the ses-
sion was over. The cotton schedule came
on. and Carlisle debated It, He devoted
his argument against the cumulative tax.
at.on-specifc and ad valorem, and, per.
haps. compensatory" Be that as it
may. Aldrich had the temerity to tackle
the most exquisite intellect of that gen.
GRAFTON. 1t was the clerk turned states.
man VS.. the statesman urned clerk
Carlisle never referred to a paper He
had specific" and lad valorem" and
compensatory at fingers ends. In the
twinkling he made the calculation that
was absolutely memorable and conclusive
But the children of Cain swarmed round
the corridors. hungry for doubloons. l
fear If I were to finish that figure from
Edgar Allan Poe somebody might take
1t ac offense. and IL by eating meat Of
fend my brother, then shall 1 eat meat
no more forever. Be that as 1t may be,
Carlisle emerged from that conflict the
frst debater in the United States Con-
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08

terrogatory: 'If he is such a great man,
where the hell is his money!"
That is Aldrich. What "have you got
to show for It? What have you done?
He would hold an operative in Rhode
Island cotton mil greater than Daniel
Webster if the man had devised a way
to produce a bolt Of calico 10 cents cheap
err than it had been produced before. 1t
is doubtful IL he ever heard of "Junius,"
and It is certain that he never read
Junius. He never read Swift's Tale of
a Tub perhaps he did read the Ora
pier Letters but If he did, and l doubt
If he did, 1t was to convince himself,
or rather to fortify himself, in his advo-
cacy of the gold standard He believes
in an oligarchy. So do I; but would
incline to that intelligent, that virtuous
that patriotic oligarchy we had in the
"OlG South" the very best government
mankind has yet invented, or will in
vent; but 1t is eradicated and gone for
ever But 1t had for foundation stones
Justice and Honor, Economy and Hon
esty.
The oligarchy that Aldrlch would have
and that he has done SO much to create
is the boards of directories composed of
the captains of industry. He would not
give one materialst like Carnegie for
a regiment of sentimentalists like Lamar.
AS for me, I would not give one Lamar
for an army of Carnegies reinforced by
another army of Rockefellers. One vir-
tuous sentiment, one patriotic impulse,
is worth more than the gold of Ophir,
added TO the jewels of Golconda. Aid
rich calls that sort of talk rot.
He went to the Senate to succeed an
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08

devotees of Battle Creek, who dip PRO
tose' from a jar and put the latest
volume by Fletcher in the place of the
family Bible. The Ladies' Home Journal
intimates that to chew a crust, instead of
boiling steak and potatoes Is the first
Wet it Is understood has developed the
look and manner of a seraph, with wings
translucent! Mr.. c. w. Post varies his
propagation of predigested and pepto-
nized near-cofsee by attacks on the
labor unions. 1t proves how energetic
the new food system makes it's disciples
And now Mr.. Fletcher and Father En-
deavor Clark have a league with Mr. Nc
Clure, who has rolled up his editorial
sleeves in the cause. A doughty man is
Father Endeavor Clark, whose escape
from nervous breakdown was literally by
the skin of his teeth Mr.. John D. Rookie
Teller can get his new stomach now and
should put up a million-dollar publicity
plant for the dissemination of the only
true bethod of millionaires and man.
kind. To chew or not to chew that Is
the. question. Whether tbs nobler in the
mind to suffer the slings and arrows of
outrageous torture than to take arms
against characterization and by much jaw
work end It? Hamlet up-to-date may be
written, Ham! Let it alone, or If you
must eat pig meat, at least don't eat 1t
like a pig"
But the dougiltiest of the doughty war
rors now contending against sickness in
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08

is strong enough to restore to Congress
its constitutional office of asserting poll
cies, and even he shrinks from the job
He spent the radiant spring and the glor-
ious summer of his career comforting on
monopoies the right of unjust and I'M
constitutional taxation, and now in the
the wane of sumptuous autumn, after
making the meanest tariff that ever was
made, he abdicates and leaves the field
to the insurgents, no one of whom dares
to challenge executive usurpation, and
all of whom glory in Theodore Roose-
welt, who has done more to debauch
American politics and make impotent the
congressional function than all the rest
of our leaders together.
believe he will be the next president
If he wants the job again. Then and
In that event the Empire will supplant
ruled from Washington with a rod of
iron.
"Aldrich of Rhode Island" was the
second name on the roll of the Forty
sixth Congress that used to be called
by Tom Petit. Of Kentucky. and Neil
Brown of Tennessee, the reading clerks
of that body. Nobody thought anything
of Aldrich then. in 1880. People look
ed at Randall Carlisle. Garfield, John
Randolph Tucker, William R. Morrison,
g. 8. Cox. Joe Blackburn, Frank Hurd.
Proctor Knott, Alexander 8. Stephens
Tom Reed, Fernando Wood, pig Iron"
Kelley, Roger Q. Mills and others with
out thought that the quiet. sedate, black
eyed and rather stately man from Rhode
Island would develop into the most pow
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08

science is beyond the reach of govern
ment' Is not such a man more danger
Gus to the state than even those who
have yielded their judgment to ecclesiasti-
cal authority? Is not-so many political
rulers have asked-is not Professionalism
the religious phase of social disunon and
political anarchy But those who cherish
such fears have little knowledge of his
tory and no understanding of the Protest
ant condition. All history shows us that
there have been no more loyal, compact
and coherent nations in the world than
those protesting the Protestant faith.
Cromwells Ironsides, Wellington's regi-
ments, Washington's hungry but devoted
troops. found in the Protestant religion
power which welded them into irwin
chile armies. There are today no more
united. loyal, patriotic races on earth
than those which are dominated and
energized by Protestant Christianity"
s...ifl no. now enter upon any discus
sion of the differences between Roman
Catholics and Protestants. Such discus
sion here would in my judgment be out
of place and out of taste. But assuming,
for the sake of our argument, that Pro-
testantism Is all right. is our brother
wise when he tells us what "all history
shows?' Does any competent judge doubt
that there were among Cromwells Iron
sides" not a few men who would rank
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08

efficiency. There is the sense that, az
Emerson said, Here and now is the
Who'll fact" A man has no right to
be a weakling. We have been touched
once more by the Greek ideal and ths
Individual soul responds, reads Fletcher,
buys a membership in the Y. NJ. c. A..
cuts OUT the stuff that poisons him.
VIII neither it be solid, fluid or spiritual.
and keeps regular hours.
But that is only half the story. Ja-
pan has taught us a lesson and We
know that for patriotic uses the indi-
vidual man and woman must be mads
whole. Mentally they must be made
their utmost best Morally they must
find their laws of conduct in what they
can do for the whole body of their
countrymen. Physically they must be
fit to control the guns, the airships,
the delicate instruments of science.
whose mastery will decide the existenc.
of civilization itself. Women as we'll
as men must be fit to heed a nobler
generation of the sons and daughters
OF men. There Is the recognition OF
social unity that is conquering class
prejudice and forcing us to bear one
another's burdens. Thus 1t would seem
that in at least one direction the pres-
sure of the new age is teaching us.
forcing US over toward the law OF
christ. 1T is safe to prophe5y that
whatever puts itself In the road of this
advance will be ground to impalpabls
dust
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08

yer tried to sweep from New Orleans
train on which I travelled in east
Texas was boarded by foolish looking
persons armed with sh otguns and rifles
Was there to by a lynching? By no
means. These gentlemen were estab
fishing a quarantine against yellow
jack and wildly insisted Oh knowing
whence each passenger had come. Such
proceeding would be laughed at by
the very men who see wisdom and
necessity in the shotgun quarantine
against squirrels. This is scientific,
the other was absurd.
England has stamped out hydro
phobia. New York has reduced the
death rate by consumption from so to
40 per cent. The day when tuber~
culosis shall be the rarest instead o.
the commonest of diseases is not too
distant to be believed In and prayed
for. The end of the hookworm is
not far Off Being recognized he is not
long for this world. Cancer Is being
treated by serum and will be over
come No longer will the finest and
most beautiful and most valuable lives
he cut in half by that poisoned scim-
itar of destiny.
Now, to- call this a religion may sur
prise some readers. But behind it as
hidden spring of its face is the con-
viction that the individual owes it TO
himself to be strong, whether with
masculine muscle or feminine grace
There Is the aspiration for personal
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08

old granny in war and an old incapable
in politics, Ambrose e. Burnside, of the
famous whskers. Conking had just re-
tired in disgust and Blaine had just left
the Senate to run the administration of
Garfield. Ben Hill, Lamar. Beck, Nor
gan. Pugh, Garland, Bayard, Vest, Vance,
Hamilton and Harris were there from
the south, and from the north were Platt
of Connecticut, Ben Harrison, Dan Voor-
hees. Allison. Ingalls,, Hoar, Sherman,
Edmunds and Morrill,.
Nobody supposed that this young sen
ator from Rhode Island would rival,
much less eclipse, anyone. the least one,
of these; but he did and a time came
when he was the chief lawgiver of the
United States. He even bullied Theo-
dore Roosevelt into the acceptance of
the wall street" amendment, alias the
Allison amendment, to the rate bill.
We may be sure that Aldrich was ac-
tive in the making of the tariff of 1888
It is certain that he had more to do
with the enactment of the Mckinley tar
if than Mckinley himself. He dictated
the cotton schedule of the Wilson BILL
and that is why a democratic president
refused to sign the bill. He made the
Dngley bill and he made the Payne
bill.
Aldrich is no orator He Is fluent. but
not distinct. Like old Holenan of In
diana, the great objector," he has but
one gesture, and that of a woman scat
tering oats to hen and chickens. He
simply talks; but he always knows what
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08

lido NOT believe the. retirement of
Nelson w. Aldrich and Eugene Hale
/ from the United States Senate Is an
unmixed blessing. We have fallen on
times when presidents have policies,
and IL that idea goes unchallenged anu
unchecked it is but a few days till Con-
gress will degenerate, as did the Roman
Senate, and convene for no purpose otn-
er than to register masters Will. Where
is there any authority in the constitution
comforting on the president the preroga-
tive to imagine any policy except an
advisory one? Nobody but Congress can
institute policy under our system,
and IL Congress had not been craven
coward Theodore Roosevelts bluff would
have been called, and the government OF
this country moved from the White
House back to the Capitol edifice at
the other end of the avenue where 1t
belongs.
The fault of our system is that 1t
hodges so much power in the dlscretion
of the president. He has more patron-
age than all the crowned heads Of Eu-
rome combined, and when we reflect that
the average statesman In elther mouse
of Congress has thoroughly persuaded
himself that the greatest calamity tnat
ran befall this country Is his defeat for
Reelection. It is no wonder that the pres
ident has usurped the powers of Con-
rress to make laws and annexed them
10 his prerogative like the savage that
hangs his enemies scalps to his belt.
Nelson w. Aldrich is the one man who
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08

an American lady has done more than
any other to proclaim the identity of
religion and heaith, other nations have
even surpassed America in their achiev-
ments for health. Again and again ply
scians have contrasted the shame
full typhoid death rate in the Florida
camps during the Cuban war with the
absence of typh old from the great
armies of Japan in her struggle with
Russia. Indeed there are many indica-
lions that those two wars did more
than all the years of peace to ar
rest popular attention in the cause OF
physical health.
Back of this again Is the tremendous
progress of biological and pathological
science. On the one side Is the germ
theory no longer a theory but a DEM
onstrated fact. We know that heas
end rats carry the same black death.
which once laid London in inglorious
heaps of unouried corpses. We call II
bubonic plague, but we cooperate with
other nations in studying 1t, In fearing
1t, In conquering it. little army III
the mountains of the Pacific coast Is
engaged In shooting squirrels for the
United States government. Why? Be-
cause If they are not hindered from
mingling with their kind across the
range they will carry fleas and in
lection and mpel 1t across the CONT
nent to Texas and every southern states
none other than that same plague.
few years ago, when the yellow fe-
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08

n ELIGIoN is a very many-sided
tx factor in the life of men.
L y Whether you think of so-called
heather modes of thought concern
ing life and heather worship of
the unseen, or of our own familiar ways.
the religion of men reaches from life's
commonest details up to the furthest and
most spiritual aspiration and to the ulti-
mate edges of the Power-not-ourselves.
Everywhere religion handles both this
world and the other world. Sometimes
its emphasis swings over to care of such
things as hygiene and diet At other
times it speaks of heaven and the world
to-come. Among the Japanese Buddhism
represents the secular side and Shinto the
spiritual. In our day the religion of
America is pre-eminently practical, secu-
lar, physical in its relations Our fathers
were more concerned with the world-to-
come, we with the world that now is.
Now 1t must not be assumed that | am
proceeding to criticise this tendency or
even to congratulate ourselves upon 1t.
at present merely draw attention to the
enormous breadth of It,
To begin with, the search for health Is
a characteristic movement of the time.
Never was there such demand. such
thirst, for physical efficiency. Every
magazine exploits the popular longing for
clean blood, clear eyes, and stomach
that ceases to obtrude itself on its owns
notice. Among ones friends are the
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08

gress. But only a little while and wa
had the Kentucky that aped the Roma
THAT refused statue to Cato. How is it
Bolingbroke puts it?
Cato lost the election of praetor and
that of consul, but is anyone blind
enough to imagine that these repulses
reflected any disgrace on him. The dig
nifty of those two magistrates would
have been increased by his wearing them.
They suffered, not Cato
THE bearings of these observations
lays In the application on EN-"
Clay, Benton, Douglas, Fessenden and
Ccnkling were all leaders of the Senate
successfully Perhaps to the list NAV
be added John Sherman. But none of
these ever welded the power that Nell
son w. Aldrich has exercised in that
body the past 20 years. Calhoun, Web
ster. Toomhs. McDnffe, Wright. Marcy.
JEFFERSON Davis John ]. Crittenden.
James b. Beck. John C. Carlisle, Allen
@. Thurman. James @. Blaine, Matt Car
penter, Ben Hill. L. Q. c. Lamar. Georgs
G. Vest, Ben Harrison. George F. Hoar.
Thomas F. Bayard and numerous others
made the Senate llustrious, but no one
OF them ever grasped the power held
by Nelson w. Aldrich. the simple bus
mess man from Rhode island.
For one democrat, ] am sorry he il
going to leave, and II Theodore Roose-
welt shall succeed Taft in the Whits
House the absence of Aldrich from the
Senate will prove a positive calamity
Next week I shall try to write somes
thing about Eugene Hale. the right arm
of Mr.. Aldrich
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-05-08
RELIGIOUS SPEECH-By J. G. Hiden,

nunciation of the devil and all his works.
and the profound and sincere appeal to
the Eternal God
1t would be a great comfort to my
soul If could conscientiously say that
there is little truth in this powerfully
written arraignment; but, taking each
statement as 1t comes, l am constrained
too often to say. "'Tis true tbs pity. and
pity tbs it's true" And yet, If I ac-
cepted every word of 1t, | could still say.
with Hamlet: "All which, sir. though I
most powerfully and potently believe. yet
| hold 1t not honesty TO have it thus set
down" The tone and temper of the style
are such as to make US feel that the
preacher must have greatly enjoyed the
delivery of his tremendous blows against
THE society people" in the churches. and
that he was "fightiV1 mad" when he
wrote his terrific diekfibe Schopenhauer
himself could scarcely have gone beyond
the writer In his pessimism. or course we
preachers must preach against vice and
sin; that is our business; we are COM
missoned to do 1t. and we dare not
neglect It, But the temper in which It
is done is all-important. To tear pas
sion to tatters. to very rags" may split
the ears OF the groundings;" but though
1t may make the unskillful laugh cannot
but make the judicious grieve.