Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-12-14
Macaulay's Prophecy for the U. S.
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

monstrous iniquity that one man should
nave q million, while another cannot
get full meal. In bad years there Is
plenty of grumbling here and sometimes
a little rioting. But 1t matters little, for
here the sufferers are not the rulers.
The supreme power is In the hands
OF class, ISenerous indeed, but select,
OF an educated class, of class which
Is and knows itself TO be deeply in
terested in tho security of property and
the maintenance of order. Accordingly,
the malcontents are firmly yet gently
restrained. The bad time Is got over
without robbing the wealthy to relieve
the INDECENT. The springs Of national
prosperity soon begin to flow again:
work is plentiful: wages rise. and all
Is tranquility and cheerfulness.
Through such seasons the United
States will have TO pass in the course
OF the next century If not of this.
How Will you pass through them2
heartily wish you a good deliverance.
But my reason and my wishes are at
war. and l cannot help foreboding the
worst. 1t is quite plain that your
government will never be able TO re-
strain q distressed ana disconnected
majority. For with you the majority
Is the Government, and has the rich,
who are always minority, absolutely
at its mercy.
Doubted Intelligence Of Electorate.
THE day will come when in the State
Of New York, multitude of people, none
of whom has had more than half q
breakfast, or expects TO have more
than half dinner, will choose legis-
lature. Is 1t possible TO doubt what
sort Of legislature will be chosen? On
one side Is q statesman preaching pa
tience, respect for vested rights. strict
observance of the public faith. On the
other is a demagogue ranting about
the tyranny Of capitalists and usurers
and asking why anybody should be
permitted TO drink champagne and 70
ride in carriage while thousands of
honest people are in want of neces-
saries? Which of the two candidates
Is likely to be preferred by a working
man who hears his children cry for
bread?
II seriously apprehend that you win,
In some such season of adversely, do
things which will prevent prosperity
from returning; that you viii act like
people in year of scarcity. devour
all the seed corn and thus make the
next year q year not of scarcity, but
OF absolute famine. There will be,
fear, spoliation. The spoliation will
increase distress. The distress will pro-
duce fresh spoliation.
40 AA0tAAAlAb W Quay yOus OuE
Constitution is all sail and no anchor.
When society has entered on this
downward progress, either civilization
or liberty much perish. Either some
Caesar or Napoleon will seize the reins
OF government with a strong hand, or
your republic will be as fearfully
plundered and laid waste by barba-
rians in the twentieth century as the
Roman Empire was in the fifth; with
this difference, that the Huns and
Vandals who ravaged the Roman EN-
pire came from without, and that
your Huns and Vandals will have been
engendered within your country by
your own institutions.
Thinking thus, of course, cannot
reckon Jefferson among the benefac.
tors Of mankind"
These words of so long ago written
by a man of humble origin who rose
by his own efforts to become a peer of
the realm, have curiously ominous
ring when foreshadowings of so many
OF the things he mentions are falling
over the United States today