The record. [volume] (St. Maries, Idaho) 1913-1918, 1913-07-29
THE GRAFT AGE

Judge George d. Alden, OF Boston,
IN a Chatauqua lecture, said that the
need OF the hour IL return to old.
fashioned standards Of indivldual
honesty and morality, a respect for
God with less theology aud more
Christianity. Is not that the need Of
the hour In every ageY Shakespeare
makes Falstaff say "'there live not
three good men unhauged Ia England
and one Is fat aud grows old" Aud
when was IL that cold fashioned
goodness and morality was not refer
red to In contrast with contemporan
eous timesY Since the garden Of
Eden was put In the mast mankind
has ever postulsied goodness as past
and spoken of the present as degene
rate But doubtless Judge Alden Is
right in saying that the spirit Of this
age is dominated by graft. lie deaig.
mated the spirit that dominated diff
ferent ages from that of Rome 10 our
owl. Our war period he called the
age of humanity aud honor when ia
fact It was based on the most sordid
aud awful of Conditions -that OF hui
man slavery With its trail of evils
The humanity aud honor OF that time
we're the reaction from 1t.
So we may have reaction from our
present age of graft. Undoubtedly
this ia. as the speaker said "the aRc
Of gold dominated by the spnit of
graft and greed " II 1t continues.
he went on to say. socialism, or some
thing worse may be expected. Why
not expect another age of humanity
and honor that shalt end this Hge Of
graft, as the same thing ended hu
man Slavery A New York man,
long years Wall street broker, said
recently that the time had gone by
when man could take SO aud 60
down to 'the street" aud make
million. Aud he predicted that thare
would be fewer millionalres made IN
this country 10 the next few years
than ever before The laws we're
rendering II impossible for men TO
amass The millions that men had
\ Rmassed In the last few years-m eu
~ kerLeeds and GAtes aud Dan Rled
and Hartman aud Tom Ryan, who,
With the late Whitney, ravaged New
York's street car system aud made
tens Of millions Of money out Of
wind aud water with no law anywhere
that they violated aud none to call
them 30 account. Certainly we are
growing out Of that.
Massachusetts IL just now traus
forming her railroad commission inS
a general utility commission, as IfsN
diana has done. Wisconsin presents
an example pretty nearly all along
the line of restraint of graft. Idaho
has just Joined the general movement
The spirit of the ages is changing snd
this. we think, Judge Alden does not
sufficiently reckon. All around the
horizon there are signs not OF a cata
olysm wrought by socialism or anar-
ohy, but Of reformation by law In the
awakening OF the people and their as
serti0n Ia orderly form of equality OF
opportunity and just reward for intel
ligent effort In proportion TO value.
~ Ia other words, as We read the
slgns, there has never been a mo,e
hopeful outlook for better things. !
Depend upon It. the people who could |
create an age Of Humanity and hon
or" to extinguish human slavery. are
equal to creating another to extin.
guish industrial slavery and CONNER.
eoial greed that has exploited the
wonderful prosperity of the ouontry
crsated by this very assertion Of the
common good against the arlstooraoy
that ruled until the shot against
Sumpter sounded the cali. We are
not doing It by blood and arms, &C
then, but by the silent force Of law,
which is working change no less
great and no less quickly. We are
simply striding ahead toward better
things, not standing still Ia despair.
And we are doing things that will
make future ages refer to this age as
the time of "old-fashioned honesty
and morality"