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WAKING THE PUSLIC CONSCIENCE
Sy Ex-Gobernor Joseph W. Folk.
LETTER NUNS ER THREE.
GOVERNMENT is good in proportion as
the average morality of the average indi
vidual is aggressive, and a government is
bad in proportion as the average morality
is low and lethargic. When good citizens
attend to their civic duties their civic
energy is represented in good officials.
When they are careless their slothful
ness is represented by corrupt officials.
A
The character of government depends entirely
upon the will of the majority, and no government
is better than a majority of its voters. The best
governed city is where good citizens are most active
and the worst governed city is where good citizens
are most inactive. If each individual were to give
his attention to the public business as his own,
which it is after all, every good official would have
behind him the aggressive morality of his constit
uents, and this would confront every bad official, and
say to him: "No further shalt thou go.”
To arouse good citizens, and make them realize
their civic duties, is a matter of supreme importance.
In a monarchy all authority is in the crown, and
delegated to those beneath. In a republic, such as
ours, the people are sovereign. Each man is one
seventy-five-millionth of a sovereign. It may seem
small but it marks the distinction between the citi
zen and the subject. And yet each American citizen
is a freeman —a sovereign in himself.
Some of you may think if the goverenment were
left entirely to you, public evils would not exist.
But you have a portion of the responsibility now.
If you are unfaithful in part would you be more
faithful with all? He that is faithless with a portion
can not be trusted with the whole. If each citizen
were to leave the remedying of public wrongs to
someone else nothing would be accomplished. There
is sometimes too much of a disposition to allow
others to do the face-sweating in civic affairs while
they do the bread-eating.
Lawlessness the Sin of Republics.
Our government in theory gives more rights than
any other, but some think so little of their obliga
tion to the general welfare that they are indifferent
to being robbed so long as they do not feel the ef
fects directly, and are among the many. The sin
of republics is lawlessness. In a monarchy the gov-
THE WORLD’S CHRISTIAN CITI
ZENSHIP CONFERENCE.
The National Reform Association,
with headquarters in Pittsburg, Pa., is
projecting a World’s Conference on
the Bible Principles of Civil Govern
ment, to be held in Philadelphia, Pa.,
November 16-20, 1910. At this Con
ference it is proposed to have read
authentic reports of the respective at
titudes of the sixty different nations
of the world toward the Christian re
ligion and also toward the prevailing
religion or religions in each country.
Missionaries from all lands will be
present. The great problems of all
countries, such as the weekly rest
day, capital and labor, public educa
tion in its relation to morality and re
ligion, laws relating to the family,
war and how to abolish it, vice and
crime and the means of their suppres
sion, and of political corruption, will
be discussed by the speakers from
this and other countries. The funda
mental principles of government in
their relation to Christianity will also
be the subject of discussion, and espe
cially the place and power of the
Christian religion in our American
national life. Among the speakers in
America are Hon. W. J. Bryan, ex-
Governor Hanly, of Indiana, Commis-
7 HINGS THAT ARE HAPPENING
eminent is sustained by the power of the crown.
In a republic the government rests entirely on the
law which a majority of the people make for them
selves. The reign of law means the rule of the peo
ple. The moral revolution that is now sweeping
over the land is merely a revival of the rule of the
people.
Eight years ago the laws against bribery in all of
the states were considered as practically dead let
ters. Up to that time, for fifty years preceding, there
had only been about thirty-four cases of bribery re
ported in the books of all the United States. Not
because the offense was uncommon, but because it
was uncommon for officials to be prosecuted for it.
When the prosecutions were commenced in St. Louis
the members of the House of Delegates denounced
the bribery law as a “blue law” and as a dead law
because it had not been enforced before. They argued
that members of the House of Delegates, having b een
taking bribes from time immemorial, had acquired
a right to do so, and that it was just as proper for
them to sell their votes as for a merchant to sell nis
wares. Here was a crime worse than any other,
for other offenses violate the law, while bribery
strikes at the foundation of all laws. When the
law denouncing it was not enforced bribery became
the usual and accepted thing all over the land.
Corrupt men feasted and fattened at public expense;
laws became merchandise on the market, and all
this time the public conscience was asleep.
The Awakening Spreads.
When the revelation came, and the people saw
how they had been plundered, and realized that a
government by bribery is a government by the
wealth and the stealth of the few and not by the
people, they saw the offense in all of its enormity
and from one end of the land to the other there was
a civic awakening. The people had been oblivious
to the sowing of the seeds and the gradual develop
ment of corruption. Especially was this true of the
rural districts, for, after all, it must be admitted
that the germ of bribery has its beginning in the
populous centers. At length the truth became
known, and knowledge spread that bribery was rul
ing in many municipalities. At first it was thought
that this condition was confined to the cities. Then
came another awakening, and the people learned that
sioner McFarlane, of Washington,
D. C.; the Rev. Dr. Francis E. Clarke,
of Boston; John R. Mott, and Robert
E. Speer, of New York; Drs. Steven
son and Brumbaugh, of Philadelphia;
Governor Stuart, of Pennsylvania;
Drs. Wylie and McCrory and Wishart,
of Pittsburg; Dr. Scovel, of Wooster
University, Ohio, and Dr. Parsons, of
Portland, Ore.
Delegates will be present from all
lands, especially long-resident mis
sionaries in foreign countries. Many
delegates have already been appointed
in this country. Congregation, Mis
sionary Associations, Men’s Brother
hoods, Christian Endeavor and other
young people’s societies, Ministerial
Associations, Church Conferences,
Presbyteries, Synods, General Assem
blies, Mission Boards, Sabbath, W. C.
T. U. and other reform organizations
are entitled and requested to appoint
delegates. For full particulars, write
the National Reform Association, 603
Publication Building, Pittsburg, Pa.
*
WELCOME TO THE NEWCOMER.
A copy of The Southern Optimist
has come to our reading table. We
note with peculiar interest that this
little journal is taking up a glorious
Wprk, too Jong neglected—the work
The Golden Age for June 16, 1910.
of editing a paper peculiarly adapted
to the deaf and dumb. We wish for
Mrs. Jackson, the editor, and her
worthy co-laborers the success that
rightly belongs to such a noble enter
prise. It might be appropriate to say
that we shall expect The Optimist to
make its presence "felt.”
*
A LOG ON THE COMET.
New Orleans is boasting a centen
narian who remembers the former vis
it of the comet. New Orleans also
makes bold to say that her patriarchal
protege was an ardent student of
astronomy at the time of the comet’s
appearance seventy-five years ago.
According to the statement of Mr. Ed
ward Schlessinger, the centennarian,
he saw the comet in September of
that year, while master of a sailing
vessel bound from a German port to
China. While sailing through the In
dian ocean the comet was visible for
days from the vessel. Mr. Schlessin
ger says there were several great
typhoons at that time. Sailors of that
day believed the storms were caused
by the comet. As master of the ship,
he kept a complete record of the
comet for many days in the ship’s log,
giving every detail of its observations
at sea, and he still has this log, which,
state officials were forgetting their high commis
sions and becoming involved in the meshes of greed.
Then came the knowledge that officials of the na
tional government were making of public office a
private snap, and that graft was ruling in many of
the departments of the federal government. Then
came a stern determination to stamp out the offense
that strikes at the heart of free government.
The awakening came with the revelation as to offi
cial grafting, but a§i time progressed it was found
that in the growth of our commercial activities the
spirit of graft had entered other departments of life.
The directors of great insurance companies were
using the funds held in trust for their own profit,
and contributing trust funds, without authority, for
political campaign purposes. They may not have
realized that this was wrong at first, just as the
official who took money for his vote did not regard
his act as corrupt, but the people are taking a dif
ferent view of the situation, and demand that those
entrusted with funds of that character be held to
the same degree of accountability before the bar of
jutsice as a public official who prostitutes his trust.
Monopolies, even law protected privileges, are
grafts, and should be hateful to every fair-minded
citizen. Unless the spirit of civic righteousness now
abroad in the land dies out, and there is no likeli
hood of that, we will pass from the sordid age of
pure commercialism into the age of high ideals.
Even now wealth is not regarded with the ’same awe
as it used to be, and gold is not worshipped with
the same devotion as of old. The idea everywhere
is to get right and to stay right.
The welfare of the city or state should always be
the first and highest consideration. Some of you
may belong to this party, some may belong to that
party, but all are patriots. Be patriots before you
are anything else. The people, the average voter,
you and I, are responsible for the future of this
government. If the American Republic is to sur
vive it must be saved by the efforts of the patriotic
citizens who want nothing for themselves but, the
advantages that will acerue from the general pub
lic weal. If the public learn to appreciate this, learn
to know the dangers that threaten our future, and
learn the strength that rests with the voters, the
future of this government is assured.
no doubt, would be of the greatest in
terest to astronomers who arc now
studying the comet.
WHAT NEXT?
The calamity howlers have regaled
us for many moons with their com
forting (?) exhortation: “Cheer up;
the worst is yet to come.” But surely
the worst has come now, in the shape
of a resignation upon the part of the
rector of the Episcopal Church at
Riverhead, Long Island, and his
declaration that he is leaving the
clergy to become the high priest of
the liquor forces.
The hitherto obscure and unknown
Rev. William A. Wasson explains his
recent move by saying that the per
fidious crusade of prohibition “denies,
tears away and destroys the lawful
liberty wherewith Christ hath made
us free.” Fie, brother! You forget
that “the liberty wherewith Christ
hath made us free’ has no part nor lot
with the “license that vitiates man
hood and destroys the Godward im
pulse.”
A Wholesome Tonic
Horsford’s Acid Phosphate
Quickly relieves that feeling of ex
haustion due to summer heat, over
work or insomnia.
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