8 The Conservative *
AN APPEAL.
Columbia stands at the White House door
More worried and anxious than over before ;
She always comes down from her station on
high
When the time for another election draws
nigh
And watches and waits and would gladly be
heard
If the people would list to a rational word.
She calls to Republicans : "in your wide range
Is ample material for a full change ;
There is no time to bo lost ; you've constantly
blundered.
The people are cheated , insulted and plun
dered !
It is 'right-about-face' , drop your ill-gotten
gains
Or you'll have only ruin and shame for your
pains ;
You must hunt up n man at once honest end
bravo
Who from 'bosses' the country is able to save.
I want some one wise , and with principles
sound ,
I don't want a man with his car to the ground ,
Who whittles and turns on the slightest pre
text ,
Who's 'high tariff' one day and 'free trade' the
next ;
I don't want a man always ready to pray
And equally ready to rob and to slay ;
Nor a man who by hook or by crook plays the
tyrant ,
Seeming willing to bo for a crown an aspirant
There are men enough still of the Washington
kind ,
You can easily flnd them unless you are
blind ;
And I warn you , unless you are prudent and
quick
You'll go up like a rocket and down like a
stick ! "
She calls to the Democrats : "have you no man
In time of such danger to place in the van ,
A patriot honest in things great and small ,
Who quietly waits for the nation to call ,
Who's fitted by knowledge , experience , tact ,
To suggest and advise , and is ready to act ?
Oh , there are such , I know them , and you know
them too ,
For popular favor they never will sue.
They are there in their homes , they don't wan
der about
And make themselves cheap for a crowd and
a shout ;
Don't you see ? Don't you know ? The Repub
lic's on trial ;
Hero's no room for skepticism , doubt , or de
nial ,
'Tis for yon the betrayed constitution to save ,
Or your hopes must bo buried in Liberty's
graveI"
Feb. , 1000. EMZAUUTII E. EVANS.
THE ETHICS IN THE I.IQUOR QUES
TION.
"Might is right. " That which the
builders rejected is the corner Btoue of
the Temple of Cosmic Ethics. Mr.
Darwin's profound law , "the survival of
the fittest in the struggle for existence , "
may be compared to a napkin in which
is enclosed that stone of the wise which
all have sought and none found. Let
us open the napkin ! "The survival of
the fittest" is dependant on the most
profound of all conditions. That which
makes the fittest survive is far more
fundamental than the survival. The
surviving factor is the might innate to
the surviving fit. Might is right b.
Might is the key-stone to the Ethical
Arch without which all moral super
structures are but card-houses. They
topple over as unfit in the ethical strug
gle for existence. When might is not
right the survival of the fittest will cease
to bo law. Non-surviving weakness
will then be the greatest of moral
virtues. Force will no longer be all-
oervadiug when might is not the ethical
) ost. Fittest has not only a connotation
of best ; fittest is the best. Better than
fittest is impossible. Strange so many
show their unfitness by denying this.
False prophets ! Writers on ethics and
ethnologists generally deny the possi
bility of ethics in the cosmos. Blind
coders ! Even Mr. Spencer sadly an
nounces that his search for an ethical
basis in evolution left him high and dry
on the shifting sands of uncertainty.
The Natural Hauls of Ethics.
If it is true that there is no scientific
basis for ethics , no foundation for
morality , in the cosmos , then all our
fforts ore in vain. Individually and
socially man is an ethical and moral
failure. Ho stands on a vacuum liable
to collapse at any moment. The end is
anarchy. Although it must be admitted
; hat social movements have most
marked ouarchistic tendencies , he who
knows the cosmos , the student at the
Delphic oracle , is aware that subjection
to the law is the universal manifestation
of cosmic might. Anarchy is doomed.
Its prophets are ravening wolves driven
to madness by their gross misconcep
tions. The might to know and fulfill
the law marketh the fittest to survive.
The prevailing moral anarchy is of ab
sorbing interest. Theoretically , the
race is without a moral governor or
compass. Instinctively the race is ethi
cal in its tendencies in spite of its
intellectual misconceptions as to its
moral course. The fittest are mightiest.
They alone survive. The fittest is in
variably true. Truth and best are
identical. Truth is mightiest. An
ancient declared that : "The pathway
of truth is imperceptible. " Its progress
is only apparently slow. It never
falters. The torch-bearer often falters.
A paradox Truth is invulnerable ; truth
is the fittest , yet the torch-bearer of
truth often perishes as unfit. Because
of their weakness the torch-bearers of
truth fall among the unfit.
Man's Ethical Nature.
A great writer , one of the greatest of
the world's ethnologists , devotes a chap-
ter to show that man has no ethical
nature ; that morality stands on a
vacuum and has no foundation ; that all
man's so-called moral principles are but
the result of make-shift empiricism.
Such conclusions are superficial. They
are immoral. They are based on insnffi-
cient observation. One might say "the
prejudice of ignorance" and not depart
from the pathway of truth. These un
ethical misconceptions find their origin
in the apparently uuravelablo hetero-
geneity and contradictions in the moral
jheories and actions of the same people
at different periods of their existence
and in different people in different parts
of the world during the saino chrono-
ogical era.
Slavery was once almost universal.
One-half of the people of the United
States considered it a virtue and the
other half a vice. Once slavery was a
jreat ethical institution. It was a pro-
bund advance from slaughtering all
vanquished males often women and
children also to permitting them to
ive as slaves. There was nothing
inmauitnriau in the act. The victor
did it for self-benefit. It was not until
a conquering nation had become rich
and developed some culture , that it
advanced from slaughtering the van
quished to enslaving them. Morality is
a saving virtue. Mercy prevails when
it pays. Never otherwise ! The ethical
difficulty is that the majority are too
ignorant to know when it pays to be
merciful. Ignorance and indifference
are twins. Toleration born of reason is
ethical. The toleration of indifference
is bastard. Polygamy was once general.
When it ceased to pay monogamy
became a virtue. In Utah polygamy is
ethical. In other parts of the country
"Vielweiberei" ( promiscuity ) is fashion-
ablo. The one is said to be a bar to
congressional honors. Nothing is said
about the other. A severe struggle for
existence is antagonistic to polygamy
and favorable to Vielweiberei ( promis
cuity. ) The struggle for existence forces
it as an inevitable necessity on females.
Males profit thereby. Stealing is vir
tuous at one time and place. It is
criminal under other conditions. It is
robbery for the common man to steal
but the community that condemns the
private thief honors the disreputable
politician with reelection. Murder is a
crime in the individual , but when a
nation enters on an entirely causeless
slaughter of its own people , it becomes a
virtue. Only statesmen can account for
that freakof intellectual prestidigitation.
Once everybody drank liquor males
especially. He was the best man who
could drink everyone else into a blind
stupor. Many localities honor such a
man. "He has the best head amongst
us" is no uncommon expression. The
"four bottle man" has far more respect
than the man with four times his intel
lect. Many a college youth venerates
the "hardest head in the class" far
beyond the valedictorian. King Alcohol
has his devoted and heroic followers.
Bravadoes should have been said.
Think of the self-sacrifice of the votaries
to royal Bacchus ;
The Immorality of Hedonism.
Is it any wonder that it should be
asserted there is no ethical foundation ,
no common ground , on which to develop
a uniform morality ? "Seek and y.e
shall find ! " There is such. The
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