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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 16, 1903)
Municipal 1111.' VT I " 1.' -. M r . . . I I governments of our country Is felt I fit ii T I . 1 .. . . l . i . i . l fl caped public exposure of official Few if our largest cities have es- corruptlon and so general ij the disease that we dim-over its symptoms in the smaller communities also. Even the na tional government is not free from scandal. At the present time while congratulating New York on its recent deliverance from a despotism of crime and venality, we are mourning over the exhibition of civic decadence in the ring-ridden city of Phila delphia, and wondering- at the failure of the groat state of Pennsylvania to make ef fective protest at the shameful Invasion of local rights by tyrannical central authority. We read in the magazines the thrilling siories of "Tweed Days in St. I-ouis," "The Shame of Minneapolis," "Pittsburg, a City Ashamed," "Philadelphia Corrupt and Con tented" we read in the proceedings of the National Municipal league these equally ap palling stories, and we add for ourselves titles of other suffering titles in nearly all parts of the land. Thinking men are look ing for this cause of this epidemic, and are searching anxiously for a cure. The disease had its season of greatest growth In a long period of indifference and carelessness, wherein nobody gave heed to the growth of dishonesty, and the alliance of crime and officialism. This period we trust U coming to an end, for In every city and community may be found a slowly awakening civic pride and a more or less numerous body of reformers. It is beginning to be realized that to be tray one's oath of office and to barter the community's Interests for personal gain is treason, and that an extension of the evil, or even the tolerance of Its present condi tions means danger to national life and glory. The movements to reform local gov ernments have in many cases been spas modic and unintelligent, and often they have moved by combinations or fusions of discordant elements, some of which were anxious only to be "IN." These movements have not been grounded as they should be on high and continuing moral and patriotic purpose and the:e fore have not suported each other and have not persisted in themselves against pposltlon and defeat. There baa not been more critical period In our national his Copyr!ghted. 5903, by T. C. McClure.) T""-""""HERE are two brothers that can not survive separation water and I life. . ,( Water is a chemical eompoti- tlon like a thousand others. It has Its fixed limits of temperature, within which it remains true "water," tho liquid thing that Is so indispensable to life that no plant can drive Its sap, no heart pump Its blood without It. Zero and the water freezes, becomes bard stone. All water on the globe frozen and the whole wonderful machinery of life Would stop. Liet us imagine the process developing lowly. The temperature tlnks steadily. Ail clouds change into snow. Snow piles Itself up not only on high mountain peaks, but everywhere. Prom all the heights slide Ice rivers, glaciers. With tremendous violence the veins of Ice burst within tha rocks, fragmenting them. So it proceeds until everything Is one flat field of ice, one single boundless Greenland. And la this ice lies life, lies humanity, burled like the Siberian mammoths. Those mammoths themselves played a role in the production of this mental pic ture of a new Ice period. A bit of tha nineteenth century must be recalled. In its first half the world begun to leara strange facts. Far away from the moun tains of granite, geology found vast blocks of granite lying in the Mat lands. Incredi ble distances away from the glacier dis tricts of today the hard rocks showed the characteristic bruises and grooves made by the sliding sole of the glacier. Even the limestone and aeashell layers of tho limestone hills near Berlin, In the flat north German plains, showed that a gigan tic glacier once crept over them. In the heart of Germany, France and England lay tho bones of animal some of which still live In the iciest polar regions, llko the musk ox, others of which have been preserved as corpses In tho Ice of the north like the mammoth cUphants In north ernmost Siberia. Old Alpino guides in Switzerland first Utlcrod the belief that the earth ones mint have known a period of cold vus ly grru e than that of modern days. Goethe arrives at tho same idea. At 1 . .. Agassi knots together the loose speciil i tlon and rounds out a picture tho pic ture of the "glacial period." But Agassi himself still labors under the spell of Cuvier's teachings of gr at world catastrophes. He fells us thut the ast "great catastrophe before the appiur anc of man was not caused by red-hot lava In tho interior of earth, but by tierce cold, numbing ice. The mammoths were nut boiled in scalding waves, but wuro Reform and torynor a period wherein was more greatly needed the highest type of moral devotion and love of country, for In this time of prosperity, when we are not en dangered by blows from without, the very richness of our growth Is developing Inter nal rottenness. If we look fairly and speak truly, we are bound to admit that the conceded corrup tion Is not a mere growth of politics, but is rather an extension I nt polities of methods that are common In business life. Gross evils are tolerated by business mea in their city governments tet-ause they are familiar with similar evils in bnslnew. Realising the gravity and the tx'.cnt of the evil, we look about for some extensive organized force through which we may ileal with it radically, and Instinctively we turn to the church. We have a right to turn to the church as a conservator of morale and a fountain of patriotism. We fiel that It must be concerned with the cndl tlons In which the people live, in which characters are formed. In which the de termining environments of life arc estab lished. It must be concerned with the govern ment of a city, whn that government makes compacts with thieves, gamblers and harlots and opens doors to hell on the public streets so that children and youth may stray therein and he lost. When we realise that governmental cor ruption has its necessary root in business immorality and In individual laxity, we feel that a live church must know the facts and must put forth a worthy effort tr correct the wrong. But truth compels the re luctant statement that of all sleepy bodies the one which shows the t lowest disposition to rise to the obvious opportunity nnd duty is the church the very body which by Its foundation, its purpose, its sixc, its c r gantzatlon and its general diffusion over the land Is best fitted for the tayk. Let us see what the church In the United States consists of: It contains 28,000,000 communicants. II has 374 out of 657 colleges nnd seminaries Its young people's associations are largo and enthusiastic. The ChrisiUn Endeavor society (interdenominational) has nearly 4,000.000 members distributed among over 60.000 societies. Kpworth letigue (Meth odist) has nearly 1,000,000 members. The Young; Men's Christian association has over 300,000 members. The Sunday tchools, the What Caused hurled living into ice and snow and thoro frozo mis rably Into mummies. And, inee this was the last act before our time, it gave the world a hint as to what will happen to It. When the Inner heat of the earth shall suffice no longer to seize us with llery arms und devour us the ice giant will eomu The winter of thu Christ child, with the Icicles on tho pine trees, becomes the angel of d 'ath for humanity. Agiu-siz has been dead for many years, and the teaching of the glacial period ha undergone many alterations. In the first place, painful research, which heaped pebblo on pebble slcwly, proved at last that the g'aclai epoch constituted no general world catastrophe. At no time had the tnlire earth been buried under universal Ice. The Ice did occasionally tprsi.d itself out much farther from tho poles than It d.-cs to!ay, eo that certain grrut t rees of north ern Asia, northern Europe and northern America experienced a lo al glacial period to a certain degree. But it cannot be de cided whether or not the Ice swept simul taneously from both the North and South poles. The glacial traces on the southern hemisphere cf tho earth need not neces sarily Indicate the same hour In world his tory as do those of tha northern hemi sphere. Under any circumstances there remained room enough for organic life. Tho mam moth of Europe became extinct not be cause tho ice killed it, but because it wandered away and died out owing to tho Increased warmth of the earth, which it could not bear. And another creature that lived simul taneously with the mammoth on the edge of tho ice remained in the land, accom modated itself to new conditions and sur vived through tho new time after tho Ice period as bravely us it had survived the Ico period ltvclf and probably a certain period before that. This creature was man. In the glacial detris of the lee period lie his t'rst known remains. And we can perceive dlmtv that th'a mighty winter, instead cf being able, to .nnihi'.ate tho splendid child of old r.atu:e, hud played a most d.- Islve part in the most lmiortant licginnii-.gs of Its mental development. Per haps It was that tremendous Christmas that gave man the gift of making firo by nrtitUial means. And ilh the red fire flickering on the hearth, rh genius to whom the mastery of earth was destined parted forever from tho least. The latt-st research permits us to go a little farther. It Is possible thnt this great glacial period in the time of mammoth red cave man was not the first of sueh phenomenon on the earth. It is possible that similar ice Church Young Men's Hebrew association, the Young Women's Christian association, thi Women's Christian Temperance union, the societies of the Catholic churrh, the socle ties of the Protestant Episcopal church ami many other smaller organizations are num erous and busy. Various denominations maintain publish ing houses doing Immense volumes of busi ness, and they circulate many newspaper and magazines. (The Methodists alone have fiftcea.) The great churches ate splendidly orgs n I red, maintain armies of preachers, touchers and workers and meet annually In conference and conventions. The young people's soclctlc have groit national gatherings with thousands of de i gates. They mnke heroic efforts to evangelize tho heathen. The weakness of this grand army is in these two facts: (1) It Is divided Into seels which do not work In harmony, and (J) too many of the local churche are inert religious clubs, affording delightful associa tions and rich privileges for the members, but not touching the life of the commun ity. This condition Is not within the spirit and purpose of the founder of the church, which is In danger of liming its prestige and its rightful privileges by the neglect of lis duty. Kvery church society should know thor oughly the. locality in which it is placed and shocld assume a responsibility for Ms moral condition, especially as affecting the young, and for the conditions of life af fecting the homes. Kvery church should no back to an earnest propaganda, and an In dividual teaching of the principles of tho ten commandments. Kvery denomination should support Its individual churches In these matters. Kvery church should proa.ii business honesty and fair play, should in sist on honest and faithful public service, and should put these matters as religious essentials. Here should be constant, per sistent and earnest prayer for city, com munity nnd nation the enthusiasm of the church running into patriotism as well as religion (patriotic prayer meetings and re vivals if you like.) There should be nationul conferences of all religious bodies, for deliberation nnd prayer on subjects of national honor nnd uprightness, regardless entirely of political policies or preferences. This would bring life to the. church and would help to bring purity to the nation. Until tho religious the Ice Deluge formations extended mysteriously In earlier epochs Into warm lards. This would take us liack into the time of those hlgh-tmnked fern forests whose remains furnish us with our coal today, and further back still. But the evidence Is that even then the glacial periods were anything else rather than annihilating catastrophes. In the particular time wnm such an early period of Ice occurred, at the end of tho coal period, nccordliif; to the belief of prom inent students, a prodigious, crucial ud vance was going on in th life of animals. Out of cold- blooded, lizard-like re ptiles the warm-blooded birds and murnmuls were be ginning to develop animals that curried an equable, lusting supply of neat in their own bodies, and in whose skin the lizard scales were changing to warm feathers, warm furs. And it was directly through this gift of warmth that the mental power of animals was Increased immeasurably. Without It the development of man would not have been possible; man, who, later, In the next Ice period, continued the progress of the uplifting power of heat by devising the means of fire and tho making of clothing. Ever since man has hnn lherdeture of an lee period or of many Ice periods before his eyes he has been seeking for the cause of them.' First there was a simple theory: thnt the earth, once red hot throughout, then with a cooling crust like a vast cinder, was heated for a long period by the hidden heat of its Interior. This heat decreased gradu ally until the first signs of the cooling of tho old planet became visible with the be ginning of the first glacial epoch. But this theory has been driven into its last lair. It has been ascertained that we living things In the earth's surface receive no heat from Its Interior. Tho most simple proof is In the polar regions. In the long months when they are cut off from the sun the surface sinks hopele-i.-iy into the grasp of killing cold. Ami IT there should be no sun nt all thoso regions won 1 be frozen hopelessly. Nothing re.-ches them from below to save them. And what is true "there" Is true "here." And yet we in America, in Germany, in Ahla have no polar cold, no lee period at present, and this "present" dates buck for many thousands of years. It is tho sun that regulates our temperature. It does It tod.iy, und it did it when tho chuicrs crept ever our level plains. In the sun we must toek for the cause of periodical lee times. lysikir roughly at tho course of the earth around the sun, it describes a circle. That the world knows slnco Kopcrnikus. But tho finer calculation of a Kepplcr as certained thiit the path Is mora of tho By Frank Moss, President of the New York Police Hoard forces of the country find the way to fra ternlze and to attack these moral prob lems, appropriately and effectively, tho fights og.tinst corruption will be local and spasmodic. It Is not meart thut the church should seek ta dictate method:! or candidates or In any way to control public polities, but pimply that, like other organlza Hons of cltUens interested In good government, it should be heard and felt for the right. Its deailiiess In almost every struggle for de cency is Incomprehensible, and Its coming into the struggle pproprlatcly and Willi Its splendid fores e.i.d resources would presage victory. Fortunately we have an example of what a church may do, In Hit demand which liishop Potter nnd his de nomination made on the then mayor of New York City, thut a certain section of the lily bo m.nle decent for women und children to live In. Mnor Van Wjck re fused to listen - and the nx'al was si righteous, so forceful, so proper that It went straight to the hearts of the poopla and those of all religions nnd .of no religion responded to the inspired leader ship ami delivered not only tho district mentioned, but the whole city. The church is a moral organization, :el of Its leading denominations covering tho land und having the means of combining thought und effort; nnd all professing prin ciples whii-h should permit a fraterniza tion. It exists for spiritual and moral pur poses and therefore Its intelligence and it.i conscience should be specially acute to general immoralities tending to vitiate the standards of living. Tl.ere is no body or set of sympathetica bodies which should Ihj so sensitive and none which has such powers of opposition to general evil. Its Indifference to tho prevalence of shocking criminality In gov ernment Is a plain Indication that the con science Of the communities and of tho nation Is asleep und full deliverance, founded as it must bo upon aruused and virile public conscience need not lie exs pected In advance of the awukenlng of this church. When Its millions sing und pray, "(!od lilcss Our Native Ijind," with ade quate fervor of spirit nnd consistency ol! life, a new era of good government und) of civic advance will come to Ui naUouu New York City, ? Fh'ipo of the outlines of an egg. It Is an II ipse. In un ellipse the sun docs not stand ex actly In the center of the course. Th9 planet sweeps alternately a little nearer to, alternately a little farther away, from It. Still closer and nicer calculation brought the proof that this ellipse itself was sus ceptible to still further oroillatlons. In tha course of thousands nnd still thousands of years it approaches the truo circle nt llme.4 and at times exaggerates It-i elliptical form. In our days the ell'pse Is tame. The dif ference between aphelion or sun illstaiics anil perihelion or sun-ne irnes.i. Is slight in the course of a year. What the layman feels as the difference between summer and winter today 1.4 Inlluenced only l'ii:j nlllcantly by that oscillation. It Is caused' by another thing, thu position cf the earth's axis. For some entirely subjective reason tha earth stands oblhiue In its course, and owing to this its northern pole and it southern polo alternately turn away ob stinately from the sun for months, an I thus receive either none or only weak, slanting rays. But the ellipse does not appear to have been so tame always. It hud extremes of oscillation. At times the vagaries must have Interfered decisively with the course) of the seasons on earth. The hemisphere of earth that happer.et at such times to have winter, owing t1 tin obliquity of the uxls, mint hn.ve reielved su little sun that flnilly there came a win ter so fierce, so long, that the summer that followed was powerluss to combat It. I'nder the conditions of today it would be tho southern hemisphere thut wouK suffer, for we In the northern hemisphere) always have summer when we ore in can distance. But the position of the uxls Itself is als subject to periodical chsnges. We have exact calculations to show them. The obliquity changes a tiny bit with every revolution of the old earth around the sun. In the course of a certain number of thousands cf years this produces a con dition diametrically opposite to thut of today; the southern hemisphere will have its summer when it gets to sun distance, and the north will have winter then. Think now of a time, long thousand of years ago, when the lengthening of tha ellipse had reached the extreme point. So it remained for thousands of years, for these great oscillations occupy Immense faiiods of time. During these thousands of years tha south pole nnd tho north polo alternately (Continued on Pago Fifteen.)