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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (June 1, 1899)
u r j 10 Conservative * TIIK COMING CKISIS. In the dark days of Valley Forgo that tried the hauls of the men of ' 70 Thomns Paine wrote thobO immortal "crises" which gave courage to the starving , ragged and demoralized soldiers ; re newed the disheartened patriotism of the people , and inspired the hopes of Washington. History repeats itself. Another crisis is threatening to strangle freedom in the shrouds of ignorance and superstition. A reincarnation of Paine is wanted to awaken the slumbering energies - orgies of the nation. From the begin ning to the end rolls on the wheel of evolution and dissolution carrying with it the filter of the eons in its ceaseless revolutions. The filter is the struggle for existence ; the struggle to maintain individual solidarity. Those who with stand the test are the lit , those that fall through its meshes into the slough of individual dissolution are the unfit. The most desperately fruitless struggle of all has been and is that egotistical endeavor of man to deny the application of this universal condition to himself. Altru istic spectacles shade the eyes of all re formers , ancient and modern. Though many are called into being , but few are chosen to succeed in the race for a com fortable maintenance for themselves and theirs. The coming crisis is the en deavor to force , by law , the surviving fit to maintain the non-surviving unfit. A Hlhtoric Ex 'f eiu'y. The crisis of ' 70 was whether unfit hereditary kingship should rule over the people , or whether there was individual imperialism enough in them to select its representative from their ranks and establish - tablish and maintain a government by and for themselves. The people formed the Union , established the government and selected "Washington as their repre sentative imperator. Thus was imper ialism established on American soil. An imperialism is a government by recipro cal union and mutual assent to uphold and maintain it. Whenever govern ment exists by consent it is not an im perialism , it is a despotism. The fathers did not consent to bo governed by a he reditary Icing. They demonstrated their fitness by asserting imperialistic abilities. Their sons have fallen among the unfits not showing the imperial abil ities of their sires. Imperialism means the power to self-niaintonauco Self- control is ono of the chief essentials. Ho who cannot govern or maintain him self is unfit to take part in the govern ment of others. Ho is a slave to his own weakness , and slaves have to be taken care of. Hereditary monarchy is usur pation of the imperialism of a people. Invariably they have forfeited it. "Tho spirit of ' 70" was its awakened assump tion by the people and the dethronement of usurping monarchy. Moral and IMenlal Decline- . The people have slowly but surely re lapsed. They have lost , their imperial ism. They have become indifferent. Indifference is ignorant selfishness. Patriotism is intelligent selfhood. Igno rant selfishness is egotistic , intelligent selfhood is egoistic. Usurpers are strong only when people are weak. In difference is a suicidal form of weak ness. Political indifference in the self- maintaining fit is the disease manifest ing the loss of their father's imperialism , and showing their unfitness for self- government. They no longer assent to govern by mutually selected representa tives. They consent , by their votes , to machine government and to be the slaves of the boss. The throne and the king are replaced by the machine and the boss. The imperialism of the people has been decapitated by the machine guillo tine. The strength of the machine is the political indifference of the self- maiwtaim'ng. They supply the oil. The fuel is supplied by the voting unfits massed , organized and governed by the boss. lioss Despotism. Though boss or king may die , or bo dethroned , like an hereditary mon archy , the machine appears to have con tinuous life. The boss is the counter part of the usurping king who estab lishes a monarchy. In all such cases the people are weak. The machine is the hereditary throne. The boss is self- elected. Ho selects the president and elects him by chain-gang methods. There is something imperial in Mr. Oroker. There is often apparent safety in the despot be he boss or king. For this reason the self-maintaining fits be come political unfits. A crisis is approaching preaching when they must either mani fest their fitness as the fathers did or give way to those fitted to order and maintain this government. The unfit may linger but they never survive among the self-maintaining. The indif ference of the self-maintaining fit ; their blind ignorance of the dangers threaten ing them , is leading them into a crisis , in comparison with which machine des potism is an angel of self-preservation. Phiicdo Piety. This coming danger is "Christian communism. " Not \ve but its advo cates speak of it as a "religious crusade. " The writer is no "shepherd's boy" cry ing "wolf. " The wolves are here. They are in our midst. The ignorant and indifferent self-maintaining show their unfitness by supporting them in the pulpit and endowing institutions in which they are spending their pestifer ous infection in the minds of our grow ing and too susceptible youth. The pres ent is an era of unthinking , emotional good-naturism. It is dangerous. It supplies the best of soil for the seeds of communistic anarchy. The whole social system is infected. It is attacking the business interests of the nation. In the name of "the brotherhood of men" it is setting man against man , employee against employer , wage-earner against wage earner , and maid against mistress. Ubiquity of Error. Its advocates fill professorships in our universities and occupy the editorial chairs of leading journals. It tinges yellow journalism with sheolic shades. It has journal after journal of its own. No other books find so profitable a sale. The shelves of public libraries are filled with them. They are greedily sought after. These communistic microbes are as dangerous as the Sansculottes of the French revolution. Their leaders are not such men as Mr. Bryan. Sucli are en tirely too selfish. These men are of that ever dangerous class , "religious fanat ics. " They claim and write themselves such. They attack the wealthy and deny any right to self-maintaining abil ity except the right to bo plundered by communistic laws , or the "moral ob ligation of absolute self-sacrifice. " Our fathers asserted and manifested their imperialism in the dethronement of heredity monarchy. Their sous face a greater task. They have to manifest their ability to dethrone ignorant super stition massed against them by fanatical ability of the most malignant sort. The Slogan. The battle cry of "Christian commun ism" is the dethronement of ability , or its total subjugation for the benefit of non- self maintaining inability. The asserted "humanitarianism" of the Spanish- American war , and the resulting taxa tion , is a specimen of this kind of jus tice. The present standard of survival in the struggle for existence is business ability. It is utilitarian. Its principle is , he who serves the needs of others to the fullest extent serves himself the best. The millionaire is ho who fills the wants of millions. The Christian com munist demands that the wants of the millions shall be filled without due re turns to those who fill them. They say to ability "your money or your life. " While antagonistic to money-making ability these modern Claude D avals are especially spiteful to the children of the rich , who have inherited this wealth. According to their creed there is no place on earth or in Heaven for such. They are only fit to be robbed on earth and damned in Heaven. There is noth ing so useless , nothing so wicked , as these unfortunates. 'Twere better they had never been born or that their moth ers had tied a mill-stone about their necks and cast them into the depths of the sea. Reader , you do not believe this ? From hundreds of similar re marks only a few can be quoted. A Chicago Crunk. In a book entitled "Wealth and Moral Law" ( by E. Benjamin Andrews , ex-president o * Brown university , a Bap tist institution , and now superintendent
