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Show WILL OUR REPUBLIC LAST? Does history record any change in a commonwealth common-wealth or among a people so rapid and so ominous as that which marks the difference between the colonists col-onists of 1776 and the American people of today In less than a century and a half we have passed from p state of republican simplicity and youthful vigor to a stage in our national evolution whose surface sur-face showings bear a striking resemblance to those of the decadent days of Rome which Gibbon has so eloquently described in his pathetic pages. Whenever When-ever the skin of American society is now pierced and the probe of publicity inserted into the political polit-ical and social body, what a state of rottenness is exposed! We need no other evidence than t.W i given by our daily newspapers to convict us of the grossest political corruption, commercial dishonesty, dishon-esty, social immorality and physical decadence. We do not particularly draw attention to the shocking revelations in the Gould divorce trial as laid bare in the "Town Topics" report, to the cold-blooded Eastman murder at St. Michaels, Md., nor to the atrocious strangulation of the foolish Sunday school teacher, Elsie Sigel, by Leon Ling, for these sporadic and monstrous manifestations of human depravity have occurred in all, times and in all countries. coun-tries. It is the habitual and almost national disregard for all morality, honosty and decency so painfully prominent which threatens the permanency of our republio and the stability of society. Trials of wealthy, or political malefactors have become a burlesque. The finanoial methods of high American finance, as evidenced in the insurance investigations in-vestigations and in the examinations of ths trusts and railroad corporation ; the commercial immor-ahty immor-ahty of Chicago, San Francisco, Philadelphia and Pittsburg, as tho world with amazemont saw it exposed; ex-posed; the growth of radical eodaliam and tn-I tn-I a why ia our country these aro but one of tho ominous rumblings which foretell the coming social j 'Tow national society, where divorce is almost as easv as marriage, where killing is no murder, and perverted ingenuity justifies its breach of the mosl low by an appeal to nature, and whose numbers num-bers would decline through race suicide wer? it not for the yearly influx of foreigners-if this be the highest product of our vaunted educational sys tem and of our advanced civilization, then indeed . may the barbarian and the savage wonder whether f civilization is any better than their own states. , The notion of Right seems to be insensible to i Jit the majority of the rich and the poor, and Force Jt) affords to both classes the only argument for the f present, and the only guarantee for the future. The rich man trust3 to the influence and pover of his wealth to dominate society, gratify his unholy ambitions and make of his expectations realities. The poor man retains the, prejudices of his forefathers fore-fathers without thoir faith, and their ignorance without their virtues; he has adopted the doctrine of self-interest as the rule of his actions, without ; understanding the science which controls it, and he j has more admiration for the shrewd dishonesty of David Harum than he has for the Sermon on the i Mount. Society is becoming enervated by a liberty which ; has degenerated into, license and is gangrened by : all the refinements of corruption. Our criminal dockets everywhere are filled with the names of prisoners pris-oners and convicts whose criminality and grossness degrade them below the state of wild animals, and the multitudinous examples of youthful depravity furnished by our police courts are a menace to the permanency of society. If society be satisfied with its present condition, it is not because it relies upon its strength and it3 well-being, but because it knows, intuitively, its weakness and its infirmities. Everybody feeh the evil, admits it, but does not know where to seek the cure. The desires, the hopes, the sorrows and the jk joys of the time produce nothing that is visible or ; permanent; they are like the passions of old men ' which terminate in impotence. We have experimented with secular education, . h. ' divorced from religion and morality, and we have - secured crime, discontent, huge penitentiaries and fin armv of tramps. Wo have tried higher education, educa-tion, oelect colleges, high schools, academies and universities, and we have produced bank wreckers, , monopolists, bribers, corruptionisrs a-r.d professors : of atheism and immorality. At'best, the outlook for Lhe republic is gloomy and portentous, if not prc-pheiiV prc-pheiiV of disintegration. |