The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1913-12-06
WHAT IS. IAE::FAIE IN
STORE FOR NATION
Signs and Conditions in Our Lite
That Tax the Hope and
Courage Of the OPP
tomist
A Glance at the Inevitable Harvest
of Indifference to Old
Moralities
Where is That Respect for Law, Re.
Iieion and Principles of Liberty
Once Called Americanism?

ot44ots philosopher, a Frenchman
and phrase maker, who viewed Rus.
STA with repellant eyes, once said:
Russia will be rotten before she ia
ripe" Under the conditions that seem
70 be obtaining to-day in this Repub.
TIC a man need not necessarily be
d pesslmlst, says recent issue Of
truth he may be merely an obsery-
ant citizen. to ask is America tray.
cling the same road? Will we be
rotten before we are ripe?
1t Is quite in order to-day to ask.
What Is the matter with America ~
For there are signs and conditions in
our life that tax the courage and hone
OF even the smoorptn .shrletuda sh
Of even the most pronounced optin,.
list. What has become of the hard
common sense and shrewd knowledge
OF men and measure that character.
lied the Republic of 60 years ago, and
which were the wholesome fruits of
hardship and struggle, tempered by
faith in. God and religion? Where is
that respect for law, religion, the
rights OF our neighbors and the sound
principles of liberty we used to call
Americanism? Gone with the winds.
Achievements.
We have kicked the devil out of
theology; we have revised the Bible
from a book of authority into a par.
Tor ornament; We have taken the
nots out of the Decalogue and the
spine out of authority; the churches
echo with the gospel of all Game,
Eleanor Glynn and Winston Churchill
and st. Paul and the Evangelists are
turned over to the higher critics. Edu.
cation, which used to be training and
development of mind and soul, con.
duct and character, is transformed
into an official. tax-paid propagation
OF paganism, an invasion of the rights
of parents by paternalism, and the
destruction of nnodesty and morals
by pseudo-science and pruriency and
sexualism masquerading as know
ledge and freedom. The theatre has
become the clinic of vice and the
ethical standards of the gutter strut
through colleges and schools as the
New Thought or some such humbug.
Was there ever an age in our his
tory when a mean and murderous de-
generate like Thaw was acclaimed as
hero? When before was. a cheap
hImbug, a confessed 'forger, the dirt
lest product of dirty politics, hailed
by fat.witted. roaring mob as mar.
tyr and patriot? When could rogue
like Sulzer, kicked out Of office by q
solemn court, his pockets stuffed
with plumber, his hands, soiled with
the meanest of transactions, the
tawdriest of demagogues, step from
the booth of Justice to nomination
by the People" in any other era of
American history? And Sulzer is
merely the most impudent and foul
of a class whose nomination and
election in these halcyon days are
only too frequent.
The Modern Way.
What is the trouble Pare we not sac.
rificing the soul of the nation for the
body? Are We not throwing over the
Decalogue for the dollar. and making
the will-o'.the-wisp we term success
the paramount thing in our lives and
activities?
False education; false standards OF
conduct, spurious ideals of character,
contempt for honor and honesty,
the worship of the material and a
dull scorn of the eternal verities are
eating the heart out of America.
Waste and, extravaganza are the
keynotes of private and public life:
eat, drink and be merry for to-mor.
row we die is the measure of our
song. Personal independence is fad.
Ing. away in the light Of government
paternalism. Why should men work
when q benevolent government pays
and pensions Us al THRU, Mork. tie