The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1911-04-20
FOLK DELIVERS
POLITICAL SERMON

After introduction by f. c. Smith,
president of the Commercial club, FIX
| Governor Jos. W. Folk of Missouri de-
! Ivered in his earnest manner a strong
political sermon at the Heilbronner
hall Saturday night. The subject of
EXGov. Folks address was "The Era
of Conscience.
In the beinning of his speech he told
of the recent rise of public conscience
and of the high standard of political
morals. 1T has been the growth of a
new spirit of patriotism, he said, 'for
there must be patriotism of peace as
well as that of war. The man who
will live for his country every day in
the year is the real patriot. Every
day duties of civil life demand just as
much courage as do the duties of the
battlefield. The man who lives his
whole life in fighting public evils is the
man upon whom the life of the
republic rests. However, EX- Gov.
Folk stated, many men would be will
| ing to fight on the battle field who are
really tearing down the republic by
political corruption. AS an example
he related the following incident 81
was at banquet in St. Louis, " he
said, several years ago. After the
repast all arose and sang the hymn,
America" One of the men present
stirred by the voices and music, turned
to a neighbor and said, oh, how | wish
| could die for my country. Three
weeks later this same man was kneel-
ing at the feet of justice because of
the part he had taken in the st. Louis
boodling
The former graft prosecutor says the
great percentage of graft that this
country has had to submit to, is caused
not because we have so many dishonest
men, but because the honest ones
allow the thing to go on without
making any attempt to put a stop to
it. He says: "Any man who is
afraid to show his colors is of no hene-
fit to good government, but the man
who darcs to strike at public wrong,
no matter how small his blows NAV be,
has character that is effective for
good. A government by the people is
the worse form of government we can
have, unless the people can govern
themselves. If every man does not
take the part he should take special
interests will rule. Every man should
make himself one seventy five million
tn part of sovereign and take an
active part IN the affairs of govern
! ment. The honesty of our citizens is
too often passive honesty"
One of the most interesting parts of
the address was the history of the de-
velopment of graft in St.'sLouis. The
audience was startled 10y the story of
the annumcrahle corrupt acts that the
municipal legislators of that place
attempted to carry out. They even
attempted to sell the court house for
an office building, each one to receive
a portion of the proceeds of the sale. -
SAID the man who prosecuted them, and
an attempt was made to sell the insane
| asylum to a company for shoe fac
tory. The deed under which the
former was purchased prevented them
from carrying out their purpose with
respect to 1t, and the city charter pre-,
vented an alienation of the property OF
the insane asylum. In 1902 we reached
the climax of corruption in this
country The public conscience was
asleep. Politicians came to think they
had a right to receive bribes anG
citizens, instead of considering THEN
| votes as the property of the nation, tc
be used for the best good, sold anC