t
I 1
'VOL 13 NO 8 4
ESTABLISHED IN 1886
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8 OBSERVATIONS.
So far as appears the grand
jury is doing what everybody ex
pected as soon as its composi
tion was known, and that is-nothing
much. In spite of the discoveries of the
council committee and of the apparent
collusion between the gamblers and
the officers appointed to make gamb
ling impossible, the grand jury, so far
as we can see, causes the gentlemen
of the plaid clothes no uneasiness.
The rattle of the dice and the balls in
their grooves can be heard any night
by those with an ear for music, who
care to listen. Gamblers have a keen
scent for the huntsman as well as for
prey. If the profession were in danger
' the members would be in hiding and
the wheels would go round noiselessly.
There is jet time for the grand jury to
show a reason for assembling and The
Courier hopes that it will deign to
investigate the sore spots in the
county and city administration.
Mrs. Martha More Avery, a socialist
speaker of some prominence in labor
meetings on the Atlantic coast has
been speaking in Social Science hall
for the past two weeks. She has a
command of English and a habit of
frequent appeal to "Almighty God"
that generally distinguishes an agita
tor. Her sermons lack coherence,
they are more passionate than logical.
She has heard the growl of unem
ployed and sarving labor, she has
studied Karl Marx and other socialist
writers, accepted their conclusion
and proposes a remedy, the details of
which are not very clear. Vague de
nunciations of the present commercial
and social system will do no harm and
may hasten the inauguration of a bet
ter one. But to those of us who be
lieve that the laborer is entitled to all
the products of his labor, there is lit
tle satisfaction in listening toa social
ist speaker, because he proposes no
remedy that is not revolutionary or
impractical. The money a man gets
by sharpness, shrewdness, trickery, or
by superior ability, he counts his, and
nothing but the words of the Christ
who taught men that to save life it
was necessary to give it up and that a
neigiibor should be as dear as one's
self, can teach us how to help those
who cannot help themselves
A redistribution of the wealth of the
community would give only temporary
relief. And the local committee ap
pointed to conserve the community
interests and disburse the common in
crement would not lie apt to possess
any more integrity than the local city
government, which so far in the his
tory of this country has not been a
success and in many places, as in Lin
coln, has been a system of organized
robbery. It is not the rich that block
the way to economic freedom, it is
human nature. The solution of labor
troubles would be easy enough if the
doctrines of Christ were the founda
tion of the laws of the commercial
world. But between the church and
business there is a gulf set which is
crossed at half past ten o'clock on
Sunday morning's by dint of self de
ception and by calling a spade a lily.
Some time before Monday morning
the deacons cross the chasm and stay
on the other side till the next Sunday
morning. Business as it is now con
ducted is irreconcilable with Chris
tianity or the doctrine of equalizing
self-love and neigiibor love. The
higher and more complex the business
the more difficult the reconciliation.
The unskilled laborer has no excuses
to make, the skilled laborer produces
something beautiful and is in harmony
with creation, God and himself, but
the gains of the proprietors of a de
partment store depend on the number
of small proprietors they can drive
from competition. Their complete
success would be a failure because the
livelihood by which their customers
have been able to buy goods, the de
partment store has destroyed. The
hundreds of merchant proprietors
have been forced to become clerks
while their purchasing capacity has
been almost destroyed. It has been
so in Chicago, it will happen so here,
only in Chicago there are enough
laborers, speculators, managers and
professional men to lessen the effect
of the practical disappearance of the
small merchant class. Members of
many other occupations are in the
same side of the chasm when Sun
day morning comes. But the end of
it all, the good socialist believes, is the
destruction of competition and the
establishment of cooperation.
jt
Miss Frances E. Willard has been
revered even idolized by the thous
ands of women composing the mem
bership of the W. C. T. U. for so long
that she has grown to believe that her
advice is never out of place, even when
addressed to the managing board ofa
university for young men. The Yale
board has decided not to take any no
tice of Miss Williard's threats. New
Haven has the reputation of being a
very quiet and orderly town. The
authorities of Yale college have always
done what they could for sobriety and
temperance and according to the tes
timony of the alumni and of resi
dents of New Haven, there is very lit
tle rioting there. Strict prohibitory
rules would tempt college youth to
break them, whereas, if there were
none there would be no fun in it. Miss
Willard has been worshipped so much
and so long that she has no hesitation
in attempting to impose her con
science upon the president of the
United States or a governing board of
a university, as the case may be. This
adulation which lias deprived Miss
Willard of her original sense of pro
priety is a strictly femininepeculiarity
and is noticeable in club women or in
any association of women. It should
be discouraged, because worship, un.
less the object be a little ivory or jade
god with immovable oriental features,
or a supernatural being, cannot but
move the object out of her common
place relations to the rest of us. It is
dangerous for any human being to
forget his relative insignificance. If
he forget, lie is liable to do silly and
impertinent things. The ark of the
covenant, which is the evolution of
the good, does not need to be steadied
by human hands. It is well enough to
do our best but it is necessary to let
Gods affairs alone if we wisli to escape
the punishment of Uzzah.
jt
If the pops had the courage of the
republicans they would manifest the
same patriotic devotion to good gov
ernment and to the law. Instead of
which contrast the work which the
council committee has done without
pay with the silly and wasteful sit
tings of the legislative committee,
which has cost the state ten thousand
dollars and accomplished nothing
worth recording. The committee has
been under the direction of Governor
Holcomb the apostle of pretention.
Each member of it, :is a senator or
representative, is unconstitutionally
receiving pay for prolonging the term
of office for which lie was elected by
the people. Secretary Porter dis
graced his position by breaking a law
framed to protect the ballot. Yet
these repeated insults to the people of
Nebraska have received no reproof
from the populist party, which is in
politics for revenue only.
is a fact and not mere phrasing
that the American system of self
government is still merely an experi
ment. Especially in municipal affairs
it is true that an oligarchy, comjiosed
of those who make a trade of politics,
rules. The people are only superfi
cially consulted. It is a government
of the people, by the gang and for the
gang. The interests of the people are
heard of only in speeches. When it
comes to deciding a question concern
ing the wellfare of the whole people,
the city is sold to the highest bidder.
The municipal system now in opera
tion all over the United States is a
failure. In New York city,Boston,Phil
adelphia and Chicago the amount of
corruption and the size of the failure
depends upon the size of the city. On
Monday night the year through in the
cities of the UnLed States from twelve
to sixteen councilmen meet and wran
gle over formal unessentials, while on
questions of selling a valuable fran
chise to a company able to make it
worth their while, they are unani
mous. Philadelphia lias been frequent
ly quoted in the past few months be
cause the exhausted and defeated city
has given up theconductof water and
gas to a company. A New York paper
says of Philadelphia's corruption:
"Were any proof wanting of Phila
delphia's municipal corruption, con
sider the schemes now on foot to
wrest millions from the city owing to
the water needs. Philadelphia has an
adequate supply of water in the
Schuylkill, it being necessary only to
filter that water. To build filtration
bedsfiveor six millions are necessary
and the peoplo by their votes at the
last November election decided to
make a loan for this purpose and for
other public improvements. But some
people have seen a chance to put mill
ions in their pockets and councils have
been hypnotized, so that instead of
passing the loan bill they killed it.
Now they propose to buy from a cor
poration composed, with one excep
tion, of men who are not Philadel
phians, a filtration plant and pay for
it over a term of fifteen years the sum
of sixty millions! How is that for
financiering? In connection with this
it must not be forgotten that the
Beading Railway company's officers
