Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1912-07-02
BREAD and Games" R N. ss6 csoaer

events seemed big; a chariot race
was more than a political contest,
which involved the life OF the com
monwealth, and a gladiatorial con-
test was more interesting than
discussion in the senate on the
greatest questions affecting the pub
lie veal. f9
The rural districts were depopu-
lated by a rush of the people TO,
the cities where they could unite
with the city population in all these
urban frivolities. OF course the
high cost of living became an
acute question; for all the ways or
the cities were crowded with amuse-
ment-seeking idlers, and the tillage
of the soil from which food could be
mad was neglected. 1t required much
money for a man to live in IDLE
ness and pursue a life of sport, and
If he could not supply all he de-
sired, he looked to the state to fur
nish it. Hence the cry, Bread ana
Games" His interest in govern
ment was not that it might main
tain Justice and preserve liberty
but that it might supply his wants
whether he worked or not. The I'M
perial treasury became a trough 10
which all the Roman people ran ike
hungry swine for slop; and ne was
the greatest man who promised the
most swill, without regard TO the
constitution and statutes which were
the foundation of the government
Well now, does not the story read
very like a chapter in the history
of our own times? What does all
This twaddIe about progressive par
ties" meanP Does it not mean that
the distribution of material posses
sions is reckoned to be more I'M
nortant matter than the maintenance
of the essential principles OF gov
eminent? In its programme Oh
"nrogress" what does it propose 10
leave behind, If the things whlch
it proposes to abandon be not the
Fundamental principles Wmch lhe
fathers of the republic imoeddeo III
the heart of our political 1nstltu-
lions? And to what does IL invite
us to go forward, if it be not TO a
swill-trough of mere -eA-
things? Is not its Inspiration So
cialistic and it's goal revolution
How frivolous are the people. Inc
preferential primaries for the presl-
dencv. after all the convulslve crles
of bvsterical candidates, brought out
onIv beggarly fraction of the voters
More people went to the daily games
of ball than went to the polls. Never
IN the history of presidential years
have the candidates been so rrantlc
and vulgar In their cries, and the
masses of the people so Indifferent.
And the leaders, notwithstanding
their perferyid appeals and convul-
sive abuse of one another, nave pc
trayed an under-tone of levity IN thelr
conduct. An ex-president, for exam
pile, while engaged as he Claimed IN
the most strenuous struggle TOT the
rights of the people, is reported TO
have said to one of his heutenants
after one Of his political wrestling
bouts, IT like a dead-game sport
Was it only sport after all In whch
he was engaged, scarcely more serious
than hunting big game in Africa?
And the President, while struggling
as he declared for the preservation
of constitutional government, In the
midst of the conflict was reported as
leaving the executive mansion TO at
tend a game of baseball! A Roman
emperor fiddled while Rome burned.
Shades of Washington, Adams, Madi-
son, and Jefferson defend us I'm these
days of sportive statesmen OF the
"dead-game" variety! And some OF
the other national leaders are no bet.
ter. Hound-dog campaigns, bandanna
handkerchiefs, hat-band ADVERTISING
and the like, are set forth before the
nation in all their picturesque frivol-
ity. while the most momentous is
sues confront us. Has all serious
ness taken leave of both the leaders
and the people forever? Is there So
briefly of mind no where among us?
For about a generation our great
universities have been given over to
sports. The college hero is no longer
the scholar and debater, but the
sprinter and the pitcher. We are be-
ginning to reap the crop which has
sprung from that sort of sowing. Pol
itics is now considered as a game,
and the leaders are proud to be called
dead game" sports! And it looks
like that we are sowing for a still
bigger crop in the near future. Banks,
department stores, and even some
churches, have their teams, CAD
ding about for contests with rival
teams"
Meanwhile a disconnected lpopulace
raises the cry for bread and a
frivolous multitude cries games.
And so there sounds again in the
earth the old cry that echoed along
the banks of the Tiber, when imperial
Rome was tottering to its fall,
Bread and Games"l What is the next
chapter in our history, and when will
IT open?