THE SCItAXTON TRTBUXE SATURDAY MOUXDsG, FEBRUABY 2, 1895.
11
IT IS NOTJOLE PASTIME
Rev. Dr. Parkhurst Cautions Reform
ers Not to Trifle with Reform.
'HAT IT MEANS TO FIGHT SIN
Tsxt Of an Address Which Every Amer
lean Citizen Ought to Read and Dl-
gest-TcllIng Truths of Brave
and Earnest Man.
Chleago, Feb. 1. The Civic Federa
tion, composed of earnest men, has de
cided to reform Chicago, Lexow
fashion. Before reaching 'this decision
they communicated with Rev. Dr.
Parkhurst, of New York; and after
some Interchange of letters he consent
ed to deliver an address In this city, be
fore the Marquette club. He delivered
It Jan. 23. He said:
"The questions that are most deeply
agitating the public mind this year, and
that wUl continue to agitate lit probably
for many years to come, are not na
tional ones but municipal. We have
reached a period that may be designat
ed 'the renaissance of the city.' The
remarkable concentration of popula
tion at urban centers has operated to
accentuate 'the municipality; and to
such degree has this concentration
reached, and so largely are material
values and intellectual energies ac
cumulated at these points, that we
may almost say that the real life of the
nation Is lived, and throbs itself out,
at these centers, and that the nation Is
going to be Increasingly what our mu
nicipalities make It to be, determine
that It shull be. At the same time and
closely connected therewith Is the fact
of quite a general deterioration la the
quality of municipal life. And men who
have respect for themselves and who
love their city and appreciate the Inti
mate relations in 'Which municipal con
dtlons stand to the question of our na
tional life and to the permanence of
American Institutions, are bestirring
themselves, pondering 'the situation
and squaring themselves to It.
Intcr-Municipal Fellowship.
"It Is generally In our favor that
there is a kind of Intermuntclpal fel
lowship In this business.' While each
city has Its own interests and indulges
In a little rivalry once In a while In such
questions as those of relative wealth,
papulation and the like, yet there is a
fellowship among cities, and a good
cause In your city is helped by the fact
that the same good cause Is being
worked out In another city, and In a
good many other cities.
"I would like to say Just at this point.
If you will let me refer to myself as I
shall be obliged to do a number of
times In the course of the hour that
that has been one of the compelling
motives that has helped to keep me In
good spirits during the exacting war
fare of the last three years in New
York, that If the damnable elements of
evil in our own city could be crushed
that would be in Itself demonstration
complete that they could be crushed In
every other city. And you here In Chi
cago, in view of what you have under
taken, need to feel the grand conspiracy
of effort of the same kind, as It Is at this
Very hour in progress in so many slater
cities. Let me add here that that Is a
motive which has influenced my ac
ceptance of the invitation tendered me
by the Marquette club. This is the first
time I have spoken outside of New
York city for a year, but I have felt
that If I could contribute, no matter
how small an amount, toward aiding,
toward stimulating In the task which
you have upon your hands and hearts,
it would be so much done not only
toward redeeming Chicago, but so
much done toward purifying and
strengthening individual, social and
civic life throughout the great north
west. Effect of a Redeemed Chicago.
"You believe In Chicago; I never
struck a Chlcagoan yet that did not.
But Chicago is not the whole earth,
and you Willi do well Just at this point
of your enterprise to realize the effect
that a redeemed Chicago Is going to
exert not only upon yourselves and
your state, tut upon contiguous states.
I mention this because if you are go
ing to carry this undertaking through
to the end, you will need the re-enforcement
and the buttressing of large mo
tives or you will geit tired. You oa.nnot
dive on the farce of a resolution, but If
your machinery is to be kept running
to tihe end of the trip, level grade and
up grade, you will ihave to keep replen
ishing your fires by solid chunks of
combustible motive. Enthusiasm is
good, but it takes a constant suocession
of motives to kep it up.
"You understand, as I do, that my
object In coming fcere and discussing
the municipal problem Is not to rescue
your city. You will have to do that
yourself. The Cincinnati Tribune re
marked the other day, that Dr. Park
hurst would find it another story when
he undertook to tackle Chicago. I am
not Duere to tackle Chicago, although,
as for Cincinnati, I might say in pass
ing, that I have exceptional opportuni
ties for knowing what her moral and
political condition is, and that It will
be more becoming to her to use her mop
in scrubbing her own dirty floor, than
to use it in bespattering Chicago. I
on mot here to tackle Chicago. It is
true I have availed myself of all means
within my readh of acquainting myself
with your condition; but even then you
know llhat condition better than I can
a (hundred to one. As nearly as I can
make It out, your municipal depravity
exceeds that of New York. It costs ira
no pang to yield to you that pre-eminence.
You do everything in a colossal
way In Chicago and it is natural to
expect, therefore, if your municipality
la depraved, it ,wlll be colossally de
praved. Vice Not Orgonlicd In Chicago.
"In one other particular, however, I
am confident that your municipal con
dition has -the advantage over what
oura has been, 'this, namely, that as to
your municipal depravity, while there
le more of it. It Is not so thoroughly or
ganised; .that while you have no Tam
many Hall, exaotly, you have stuff
enough to make dt, make two perhaps,
so that your bottle as contrasted with
what ours has been will be that of
fighting burtljwthackers rather than con
tending -with an organized ary.
"Now, (Whether the corruption that
ha fastened upon your municipal
vRals is one tJhat shows Itself promi
nently in the matter of election frauds.
or in that of blackmailing, or In that of
city contracts, or 1n your Judiciary. In
ferlor of auperlor, makes very little
ai Terence, it is the municipality that
Is diseased. I do not mean the mayor;
I do not mean the alderman and
Judges, It is the municipal condition
that you have to aim at If you have
a mercenary Judge, or a black mailing
polloe officer, displacing him does not
touch the heart of the matter. Bad
municipal conditions can put new cor
rupt Judges on the benoh Just as fast
gut you can Impeach the old ones. Lop-
, ... . ( ' i J -
ping off Ilia tops does not embarrass
the roots. There is . yery little use in
doing anything unless you Hre prepared
to do the wiholey Bpasms'of .virtue I
think are quite as racking to the system
as chronic Iniquity. ,., '
"The inquiry I put to you, therefore,
is: Are you prepared to make a thor
ough Job of it? That is the: first ques
tion you have to answor. Do .you ask
how long It will 'take? We have bnly
begun yet in New. York." All the car
toons of dead tigers with 'which pur
illustrated Journals, have fooled their
readers Bince'the sixth "of last. Novem
ber are simply the produot of an over
heated' imagination. And even if the
tiger were killed, 'there la a whole
menugerle full of other beasts .wh(ch,
if more respeotable, some, of them a.re
Just as bloodthirsty and keep tljelr
incisors in Just as good trim. .
After Another .Municipal Beast.
"In fact, Just at this moment, the
very men who were among' the heart
iest and most chivalrous In our recent
Higer hunt have mounted horse again
and are off scouring the Jungle for
another municipal beast of prey who Is
more decent than the tiger, but Just as
hungry and ten times foxier. It is not
well to discourage people, but It is al
ways wholesome to face the entire sit
uation. To use an illustration that I
have used u great many times at home
in order to accomplish anything that is
really worth the pains It takes to ac
complish It, you will have to regenerate
your city. That word is a quotation
from Presbyterian theology, . but an
swers the purpose well even If it Is.
It means more than reformation.
Reformation denotes a change of form
only. Regeneration meuns a change of
heart, the Inauguration of a new qual
ity of municipal motives and Impulses.
If you say this Is dealing with the ideal,
of course It is dealing with the Ideal.
You are not going to win except by the
pressure of a splendid enthusiasm, and
you will start no popular enthusiasm
by any effort that you rqake to achieve
half measures. Remember", If you
please, that I am not speaking to you
along a line' that I have' not myself
trodden. Municipal mending, Jobbing,
cobbling, will not move the popular
heart, and it Is by the pressure of the
aroused popular heart you are to be
saved, If you are to be' saved. Now,
how are you going to do that?
"Let me go on and In a few para
graphs give you a little Idea as to how
we did it In New York. The conditions
are, in some respects,"' different with
you from what they are with us, but
men ore men everywhere, corrupt
municipality is corrupt municipality all
over, and there Is enough in common
between our two cities to1 make the
policy pursued in New York at least of
service to you here. I have examined
with a good deal of care all the material
that has been put In my hands rela
tive to your municipal condition and
there is scarcely anything In it that
differs essentially from what Is appli
cable to my own municipality.
Many Obstacles Encountered
"When we began work In February,
1892, everything was against us. The
difficulties were so gigantic as to be
Inspiring. I have known what It Is to
climb precipitous Alpine peaks that
were so nearly up and down that .the
ugIy obstinacy of the pile refreshed me,
recuperated me and filled my legs with
a nervous irritability and muscular In
spiration that easily carried me up
over the rocks, perpendicular and all.
That was something the way we felt
when we started out In '92. Everything
was In the hands of the enemy. Mayor,
aldermen, commissioners, district at
torney, police Justices, all banded to
gether In solid, organized resistance to
assault, and the town In all Its better
elements either so asphyxiated by the
foul miasmatic air It had been so long
respiring, or so appreciative of the dif
ficulties of the situation as. to be pros
trated in the apathy of a supine resig
nation. "I had been requested to take the
presidency of the Society for the
Prevention of Crime vacated by the
death, of Dr. Howard Crosby. I con
sented to the arrangement provided
the society would quit quiddling with
small matters, such as arresting saloon-keepers,
and commence gunning
for big game, subh as gambling shops
patronized by police captains and dis
reputable houses frequented by the Ju
diciary. My conditions were accepted,
and we started In. The opening gun
of the campaign was fired In the shape
of a sermon preached from my pulpit
Feb. 14, 1892.
"I never could see how It was fair
to preach against lihe Ahabs and Jeze
bels 3,000 years back and be any less
pronounced In the respects we pay to
the sarnie genius of depravity brought
down to date. It its Just a bit sugges
tive of cowardice to pound the antedilu
vians for their depravity and Ignore
the manifestations of equal wick
edness that are contemporary. If
a man preaches In that way it
looks as though he were preach
ing for his salary and setting up his
target centuries enough away to guar
antee ihlm against the risk of libel suits.
Severe Arraignment of Officials. '
"You will pee w.huit sort of a situa
tion we had to confront if I quote a
sentcmice or two from the Just men
tioned discourse. And I want to re
mark , that my characterization has
since ithat time been Justified by de
velopments a good many times over.
I said:
Here Is an Immense city reaching out
arms of evangelization to every quarter
of the globe, and yet every step that we
take looking to the moral betterment of
this city has to be taken directly In the
teeth of the damnable pack of adminis
trative bloodhounds that are fattening
themselves on the ethical flesh and blood
of our clixcushlp. We have the right to
demand that the mayor and those asso
ciated with him in administering the af
fairs of this city should n6t put obstruc
tions In the path of our ameliorating en
deavors, but they do. There is not a form
under which the devil disguises himself
that so perplexes us In our efforts or so be
wilders us In the schemes which, as
Christians and churches, we devise for the
good and the saving of men In our midst,
as the polluted harpies that, under the
pretense of governing tills city, are feedj
Ing night and day, on its. quivering vitals.
One of the most striking things to the
American reader of English newspapers
Is the not infrequently encountered ad
vertisement of Home city or "corporn
tlon" for the services of an official to take
charge of some department of Its munic
ipal government. Very often a city thus
"short" of first-class officials secures them
from among the civil lists of sister cities,
by offering superior Inducements. To an
American who rei-ollects with what eager
ness, amountinga)mot te unanimity, tho
male population of one of his own cities,
seek office at the first suggestion of a pos
sible change or vuoancy this business-like
English custom- -appears Inexpressibly
droll;, yet it is what we shall probably
have to come to. In this-(Mist .-land of
freedom, if we expect ever to put the srOv
ernment of our cities down from their
present chaos to the bed-rock level of sen
sible, honest and efficient government.
Because In England, monorchia! though It
be, the qlty is governed purely as pri
vate or corporate business Is governed.
It Is managed by experts for the benefit
of ths contributing partner. One isn't
They are a lying, perjured, rum-soaked
and libidinous lot.
"And thpy were; but they did not like
to be told of It. The grand Jury of that
month called me down for my sermon
and asked me If I had any authority
but common rumor and newspaper
statement. They Issued a presenti
ment against nie as a means of snuffing
me out as a warning against any other
interloper who should venture to in
vade the eecret precincts of a Tam
many administration.
"The Jury's presentment taught me
a good lesson never to go gunning with
blank cartridges. My next step was
to fill my cartridge box. The grand
Jury threw down -the gauntlet and I
nicked Jit up. I accumulated a few
facts that I was not obliged to write
with quotation marks.
I npalatuhlo Facts Presented.
"Having been trodden down, sneered
at, cursed, threatened, 'presented,' for
Btatlng what I did not know as of my
own knowledge, I would have entered
hell if need be to find facts to an
swer the Challenge. I did go tuto hell,
and I got ny facts; then I got out my
little gun on another Sunday and went
Into .my pulpit 'With cartridges that
were not blank cartridges, and then
they swore at 'me worse for knowing
what 1 was talking about than they
had the month before for not knowing
What I was talking about. It Is almost
impossible to suit such people and to
adjust your treatment to their ethical
and esthetic propositions.
"Thereupon the grand Jury of March,
which was of quite a different com
plexion from that of its predecessor,
took our evidence against the police,
Bcured some more of its own, and Is
sued a presentment agalnt them, tell
ing them that they were either crimi
nal or incompetent, and that they were
not Incompetent.
"It would take an unpardonable
amount of time and be of no service to
you to continue with any detail of the
three years events. The community
knew the condition of things through
out the city, but 'had no feeling of It.
There was conscience enough, but so
far as these matters were concerned,
It was 'not sufficiently supple to be
practically available. The clergymen
were not interested In the movement
except to the extent of Intimating from
tl-ne to time in a general sort of a
way, that a minister's duty is to preach
the Gospel. However, we believed in
the people, and kept at our work of
discovering the facts and publishing
them. We knew, or thought we knew,
that when this process had been con
tinued long enough, something would
give way.
"Our society' suffered some pretty
hard raps at the hands of the police;
amcng others, our detective was ar
rested and thrown into Jail on the
charge of blackmail. The object of this
move was to discredit our work and
to prevent his interfering with their
practice of blackmail. Our police and
yours, I soe, are cut from the same
cloth, they are so sorry to have people
do wrong that they are self-sacrificing
enough to do all the wrong themselves
so as to save others the bother of the
iniquity.
Helped by the Newspapers.
"All these proceedings kept the town
stirred up. We availed every oppor
tunity to get some new facts into the
air. All this helped the newspapers,
and they requited uj by turning round
and helping us, or if they did mot help
us they bluckguarded us, which, In u
way, answered the same purpose, for It
kept the thing in the air and htid peo
ple's attention fixed upon it. We were
careful not to- let more than a week
go by without giving the public some
thing fresh. We secured the lndict
n.em of a captain and our society stock
went up. We failed to convict him
and stock went down. But people kept
talking about the matter. They knew
there was a good deal in it, land they
beKiin, after about a year and ' half,
to feel that there was a good deal in it.
They were beginning to get 'their moral
blood up. Public conscience had been
Chafed so long It was beginning to feel
sore.
"We would scour a whole precinct,
make anywhere from twenty to sixty
solid cases against gamblers and the
keepers of disorderly houses, then pub
lish a list. All of the papers would
publish It. Then I would sharpen my
pen. nix up a concootlon of oxalic acid
and vitriol, write a complaint against
the captain In question and send copies
of it to the mayor, the public officials,
the newspapers and the ' New York
Sun. And that was what did It. Facts
did It. We did not bother with theo
ries, but trleJ as nearly every day as
we could to get some fresh facts into
thi papers for the citizens to flavor
t'lelr coffee with at breakfast. We
were a good deal of a nuisance in a
way- -at least we were told so and
1 think that those who told us were
sincere; but we knew we were right and
kept doing it Just as we kept going
to bed at night and getting up in the
morning. There was nothing particu
larly difficult about it. It required no
special genius except the gerolus a dog
shows in fastening to a root -the ge
nius of hang-to-it-lveness. It Is like
drllllna into granite the, granite may
be tough, the drill may be dull and
the hammer light, but If you keep
pounding and live long enough you are
sure to get through. You can dp, the
same thing here' and you w Ml -'get the
same results, only, as I said . before;
while thers may he Just as great thick
ness of a rtratum to drill through her,.
I am confident that it Is nut go knottl
,ly organized as it was with 'us.
' "When finally the thing had been
pushed so far that people began to bo
ashamed 'of themselves, and of each
other, to live In a city that was gov
erned by a crew of banditti that would
be a disgrace to Turkey, amd a brood
of libertines that would have been re
fused naturalization papers in Gomor
rah, they sent up to Albany and ob
tained an Investigating committee, and
the whole world knows the' rest. ...'.
"I .would not dike to address you-In
any such .terms as would be Offensive
to you, but I .wan to say that how
much you will accomplish here in Ohl
oago will depend entirely upon how
Sevemtlh Day::-
asked hqw he votes on national election's,,
or what race, creed or ward he., "repre
sents." The question Is: "What can you
do In exchange for your salary, and how
well can you 'do- H?" But never mind.
We will reach that point, too, In due Sea
son; we will reach It or "bust.". -
(
In all probability one of the lessons that
will be learned by. a good many people In
various portions of our country as a con
sequence of the recent depression In trado
.la that the poRcelon of great wealth ly
a comparatively few men Is not an un
mitigated evil. The man accustomed to
handling great sums of money; the man,
-Indeed, who has great sums to handle, Is
generally, the last one to get soared In a
panic Instead of colleotng all Ms stray
change In a convenient-' stove-pipe or
.feather bed tick,' he Is apt to put tt out
with renewed briskness Into the channels
of stagnant business,. Into new building
and, generally peaking, Into Investment
that have to do with real estate as
basis. Hs does thl because, In the first
much you are willing to sacrifice. You
will have to pay for everything you get;
and it Is not money that I am think
ing of either. I wonder how many
there are in this great city that are
willing to "take their coats off and keep
them oft until they die, or till Chicago
Is redeemed? That is what will do it,
and it is the only thing that will do
it. You will have to take your life In
your hands and your comfort and your
ease in your hands and conquer a vic
tory step by step. There is no call for
the dlUettarata or the dude. Reform
clubs are numerous and they have
large enrollments, but some how they
do not succeed in saving their city.
There is no short cut to municipal sal
vation. You cannot win It by the pres
tige or the wealth or reform organiza
tions, municipal leagues, civic clubs or
by whatever other name the Institution
may be distinguished. You will avail
nothing exopt to the degree that you
fling your personality and all that It
stands for directly against the oncom
ing tide of evil, even at the risk of be
ing inundaited and swamped Sy it
If this language Is more strenuous than
fits into your predilections, you have
only yourseir to blame for it, for I
cume here at your bidding, not my own.
If you have any object in life that
means more to you than the redemption
of Chicago I would counsel you to keep
out of the municipal regeneration busi
ness. It is to be gone at in the same
way as that in 'Which the Dutch saved
Holland and our revolutionary fathers
enfranchised America,
Reform Is an Expensive Luxury.
"You have got to pay for the thing
all It is worth, and you have got to pay
for it In the expensive coin of your own
personal tissue. There is nothing
funny about it. You will not live any
longer for It. You will not rest better
nights nor eat with a better appetite
daytimes. It Is feasible, but the cir
cumstances are a good deal what they
were In the old days when the children
of Israel wanted to reach the promised
land. There were the Anaklms, and
they would have to be met and beaten
down, and there was no fancy device
for doing that except to club them
down; and that they had no grit for,
and so they wasted thirty-eight years
zlg-zagging through the wilderness.
But postpone It as they might, the
pinch came, and the Anaklms had to be
met. You may zig-zag as they did, and
feed on manna till you are worn into
your graves as they were, but you or
your children cannot escape the Inevit
able. It is a long, bitter, square fight
that will be the means of giving into
your hands a city that you can gener
ously be proud of, and it you do not
do It, somebody will have to, or your
city will go utterly to the bad and sway
the whole country along with it.
"The movement with you will not be
a question of numbers though. The in
fluences that shape national or munic
ipal destiny are not arithmetical. It
has always been the case that the lar
gest results have been achieved in the
first Instance by small minorities. 'One
man shall chase a thousand,' Is just as
true here as It was in the days of Israel.
If I knew that there were ten men In
all this city with good heads, honest
hearts. Indomitable pluck and thor
oughly appreciative of the situation,
that were prepared to lay themselves
upon the municipal altar, with the same
steady eyed unreserve with which
Savonarola gave himself to the world,
there Is nothing on earth or In hell thatJ
could defeat you. That Is the principle
upon which history has always been
administered, and In all likelihood al
ways will be.
Side Issues Must lie Avoided.
"It is quite closely akin to that to say
that if you are going to do thorough
work you will have to be most punctil
ious In avoiding all side Issues. What
ever the movement with which I have
been associated in New York has been
able to accomplish has been due to the
fact that we have kept to a straight
line and have refused to be side
tracked. The one object we had In
view was the breaking down of Tam
many hnll by showing the collusion be
tween Tammany's police department
and the criminals. We simply wanted
a good city government administered
ou business principles and conducted
according to the requirements of the
ten commandments, and every other
consideration had to go by the board.
"The personal investigation of dis
orderly houses with which, in February
of '92, the movement was Initiated, was
not a crusade ugainst disorderly houses,
but against Tammany's vicious
method of protecting and encouraging
disorderly houses. It was Tammany
we were after, and not the disreputable
women with which Tammany had cap
italized itself; and all the hypocritical
curses heaped upon us by the police
commissioners and Tammany chiefs for
persecuting the poor, frail unfortu
nates, was unmitigated rot and known
by the police officials to be such. We
had no interest In the social evil, no
more did we have interest in the gam
bling evil or in the violation of excise.
Those were simply three points at
which we tried to Jab our dagger Into
Tammany's vitals, and we Jabbed it, we
did. We tried to show not that crimes
existed and ought to be broken up, but
that Tammany was working in with
the criminals and that therefore Tam
many ought to be broken up. And we
did show it: at least we began to and
the Lexow committee finished it up.
"And I want to tell you that all the
prominence ithat was given by Tam
many officials and their friends to the
work done by our society In connection
with disorderly houses was done for the
purpose of confusing the Issue, shift
ing the attention from themselves to
us, and working our activity as a kind
of moral umbrella to ward off the drop
ping storm from their own unprotected
heads. Tammany Journals obfuscated
thtSalr with such religious consecutive
news ithat dt was a good while before
the issue become clear; but when it
became dear, the people were with us
and are there today. So that when re
porters came to me to ask my opinion
as to the proper method of dealing with
the social! evil, I told them to go home
Thoughts .amid
place, he has been through panics be
fore and tin got over being skittish; and
in the second place because he knows that
at such times Ms dollar will go further
than It will when men are "flush" and
times booming. If It were not so, we poor
mortals would have felt the pinch a good
deal more poignantly than we did feel It.
I had occasion lately to visit a commun
ity In another state where there are no
.rich men to speak of, and honestly the
average condition of that community,
with each man hiding his few dollars un
der the attto rafters, was something ter
rible.' I doubt If altogether there was a
much money in active circulation In the
place as would suffice to buy one square
meal at a metropolitan care. A few bold
millionaires thereabouts Would have been
hailed as dor.iirlght luxuries.
The recent discussion, by several local
clergymen, of the sinfulness of certain
amusements, among which novel-reading
and theater-going are sometimes clamed,
calls to mind ths fact that I saw at the
and mind their business or words to
that effect.
' Wary of Politicians.
"I speak of all this because too much
consideration cannot be given to the
matter of working with an eye single
to one end. It is impossible ito do two
things at the same time and half do
either of them. And there is nothing
that has come nearer to making us
profane (that is, the clerical members
of our society) than the attempt to
impart into the crusade political and
partisan considerations. Whatever ad
vances we have made In my own city,
we have arrived at the point at least
the rank and file of our citizens have
where we wanlt ithe administration kept
untouched by the taint of politicians.
There Is no Republican and no Demo
crat in the ten commandments; no Re
publican and mo Democrat in business.
So that politics ds as much an imperti
nence In the honorable conduct of a
municipality as in the honorable and
successful administration of a bank
or manufactory. New York will never
be administered honestly, economically
and effectively until It is swept clean
of politics and politicians. And the
same is true of Chicago and every cither
city.
"Our movement, then, has had no
partisanship in it and no sectarianism
In it. An all found man Is bigger than
either party and the decalogue Is as
broad as Protestantism, Catholicism and
Judaism, all placed alongside of each
other. You will not eliminate munici
pal corruptlon till you decide that the
exclusive qualifications for official posi
tions are Intelligence, adaptedness and
honesty. Such a condition of things
would be purgatory to the politician
and chronic crucifixion to the 'bosses.'
But it is meat, drink and no end of
dessert to the rest of us.
"When It came time to make up the
slates last summer, the party leaders
beat their drums till the ground shook
and the party organs worked their
diapasons till the sea roared, but the
people called them down and ground
their heel into all political fooling;
and our new mayor proposes to run
New York as he would Tun any other
bUH'Intes in the Interests of decency
and the stockholders.
Probe Needed, Rather Than Plaster.
"In the materiad from various
sources that has come Into my hands
to be used as 'pointers' in shaping my
address to you this evening, considera
ble has been said about 'elevating the
tone" of your community. There Is
something In thalt way of phrasing
things ithat ds lialule to be misleading.
Tho first thing you have to do is not to
elevate but to tear down, and rip to
pieces; you Willi have to bore Into your
city council, riddle your police force,
put your pol Ice courts Into the criminal
box and let daylight clear through your
assessors' office. 'Elevating the tone'
does not quite touch it. So fur as I can
learn, you have no tone that is worth
elevating. It Is like our police force
that 1s to be reorganized. I tell our
people that they cannot reorganize rot.
When mortification has begun to set
In, the moat considerate thing .that can
be done is to hand the remains over to
the offices of the undertaker.
"I am not counselling on your part
any procedure different from the one
we have been ourselves prosecuting.
The first step toward putting up a
building Is to dig down to excavate.
Architecture is of no account until you
have touched solid bottom. Under ex
isting circumstances, therefore, I beg
of you not to talk of 'elevating' your
'tone.' Drop it. Of course, all of this
performance will create a stench. Well,
we know out our way what stench isi
We have had the moral sewers of our
municipality open now about three
years, and metaphorically speaking,
during the past six months we have de
pended on surface drainage exclusive
ly; and 1 have sometimes feared that
when we come to breathe pure air
again the shock of the change will be
so great as to asphyxiate us. But It Is
your only way out. Better make thor
ough work of It than to play the dilet
tante with It and do it in installments.
Popular Heart Must Ho Touched.
"While of course this enterprise will
best be prosecuted by a limited number
on the principle that the auger needs
to be smallest at the point where it en
ters, yet it is a matter wherein you
need the backing of all classes so fast
as you can get It. Let me caution you
to make your movement comprehen
sive enough to win the confidence and
support of every Btratum of society.
The Marquette club, under whose aus
pices I am privileged to speak tonight,
Is made up of men who are eminently
respectable so I am told; and you have,
I believe, other seml-polltlcal organiza
tions of a similar character. We do
not want to disparage 'respectability'
1 am using the word noV with quota
tion marks but too much respectabil
ity In a lump Is fatal in a community
as composite as yours. You will have
to touch the popular heart or you will
fail.
"Our success in New York was due
to the fact that our movement was
learned to be also In the Interests of the
poor, the distressed and of those who
were born, or whose parents were born,
on the other side of the sea in Ger
many, Italy, Poland, Russia; and It
was the votes of that class of people
that made victory possible last Novem
ber. If you are going to win the hearts
of these people you will have to go Into
It as a matter of heart and not merely
as a matter of policy. You understand
that it is the poor as well as the rich
that are suffering from the present
situation and you will draw them from
bad alliances by demonstrating to them
the practical advantage that will ac
crue to them from contracting alliances
that are better. If you will persuade
them not only that what you are in
pursuit of Is a city that is more decent,
but a city that will be more comfort
able for all classes of people to live In
a city whose more economical adminls
tratlon will reduce taxes, and a city
where the taxes will be so assessed that
paying the tax commissioner or his
'pal' a consideration will not relieve
Sluggestiol5oOIIIIIIIIIllll,'l'
theater, the other evening, during the
performance of the Baldwins, a number
of persons who would disdain to witness
an ordinary play, but who saw no Incon
sistency in viewing the queer feats ot
theee clever wonder-workers. I am not
going to discuss this apparent Inconsist
ency, much lees criticize it, but wish
simply to use It as a pretext for alluding
to a somewhat remarkable editorial In this
month's Chautauquan, evidently from the
pen of that excellent magazine's cultured
editor, Dr. Theodore L. Flood. It Is en
titled "The Drama and tho Novel." I call
It remarkable for the reason that In It the
eminent divine who wrote It takes the
somewhat usual ground for a clergyman
that both the play and the novel are
here to stay; and that it behooves wide
awake Christians to accept this fact and
act upon It, rather than try to Ignore the
whole subject. But perhaps I ought to
give his exact language. This Is the gist
of It: "Perhaps It is time that we adapt
our vision to a new light and take Intel
ligent cognizance of what the drama and
the novel should be and ef what should be
the millionaire from his Just proportion
and so throw a heavier burden upon the
pockets of the impecunious I say If
you will put the whole matter in simple
and transparent shape before the less
prosperous classes of your city and
show them that decent ipeople will look
more carefully after their interests
than the rascals and blood-suckers will,
that are befriending them now, you will
win from them all the backing that
your cause needs and deserves.
Arrogance of City Officials.
"I urge dt upon you also that you
should let dt be part of the clvlo gos
pel of this community that every citi
zen should count himself to be a privi
leged and active member of the city
corporation. That Is part of the genius
of our Amercan institutions. If there
is any one thing that makes me angry
to the extent of causing me to wish
that I could write a new dictionary
that would give me words that would
do Justice to the way I felt it is to have
the official classtd spurn our inter
ference, and complain of us for ex
erolslng our Qod-glven right of keep
ing tab on them. We are where we
are because we have not kept tab on
them.
"A year ago or more I put detectives
on the track of some of our police Jus
tices. Studying up their history as
they make it day by day, but more
particularly night by night (we like
to have full obituary records In stock
against their provldehtial withdrawal
from the field of their sublunary ac
tivity) I say I put detectives on the
track of some members of that sport
ing fraternity known among us as the
police bench, and Superintendent
Byrnes of the police force got wind of
it ( It is one of .the remarkable features
of that gentleman's administration
'that, while he ds as innocent as a cana
ry of what dids own officers are about,
Ignorant that they are buying cap
taincies, peddling female virtue JUBt
as your policemen are, and playing the
guardian angel to the bunko-eteerers;
that while he never seems to know
anything of this, I never do anything
but he is immediately 'on to It.' That
Is one of the ways he takes of showing
what he calls his sympathy with my
cause). Well, as I was saying, I put
detectives on some of our police Jus
tices, and Byrnes came out and notified
the public of the fact, as though he
Imagined it was going to embarrass or
humiliate me.
Public lllllet Doux for Mr. Byrnes.
"I thought It was a good thing to do.
My wife and I look after the servant
gli'ls in the kitchen, and it never oc
curred to me that I was doing anything
essentially different in keeping an eye
out for the servants that we are em
ploying and helping to pay the salary
of in the police courts. So I sent
Byrnes a public billet doux through the
press and told him he was right; that
I had my emissaries out on the track
of the Justices, and that when circum
stances seemed to me to warrant it I
should .put one on him. If he was
straight K would do him no harm, and
if he was crooked it might do him good.
"It would be useless and out of taste
to relate the love passages that have
transpired between Byrnes and my
self; but I wanted to make that refer
ence as an illustration of the principle
that no citizen is doing his whole duty
as a citizen who conceives of a public
officer as being anything other than a
servant of the popular will and an in
strument for the execution of public
choice. Officers are our representa
tives, not our substitutes. You cannot
deposit your vote In November and
then Tetlre Into the shell of your own
private Interests and have any reason
able ground for expecting that the gov
ernment will be administered accord
ing to the principle which your vote
was Intended to express.
"The sense of personal responsibility
for the quality and trend of the munici
pality one may happen to belong to
should be counted the axis of all civic
virtue. That is the best that simply
indulges in discussions of civic account
ability. Any man In this city who
knows official crookedness and gives
no sign of it to that extent is himself
criminal and ought to be blacklisted.
No Confidence In Politicians.
"With special emphasis let me urge it
upon you to pray to have your reform
movement delivered from the influence
and participation of professional poli
ticians as you would pray to have it
delivered from the devil. And I am not
speaking Jestingly. I entered Into this
work In no spirit of Jest three years ago,
and certainly there is not anything of
it In me now. We are dealing with
matters here that concern the deepest
Interests of yourselves and your chil
dren and that not only embrace the
weal of your city but extend out and
forward and Intertwine themselves
with the destiny of the nation. Every
thing in all this business depends on
the solidity and everlasting immobil
ity and the unmarketable righteous
ness of the men you tie to. Therefore,
skip this sort of creature I have just
designated as you would skip Satan.
Never give them your confidence, never
repose upon them any of the weight of
a critical situation. Make none of them
sharers with you in your movement.
"If I were to mention the hardest
lesson that I have had to learn during
the past three years It would be that
of the damnable dangerousness of n
professional politician. You know what
I mean by that term; we are In no
need of bothering to give a definition;
you have specimens of your own that
you can lean your mind upon while
this species of creature Is being dls
sected.
"The professional politician is the
people's natural enemy. He takes a
technical satisfaction In manipulating
the popular Interest without having any
sensitive appreciation of the sign ill
cance for good or evil which such In.
terest Involves. He Is like a man play.
ing at chess: he enjoys handling the
pieces without those pieces being rep.
resentatlve to him of any other value
than what attaches to them as gam
Ing Implements. It Is not intended by
any means to say that every man who
officially concerns himself with these
matters is animated by the spirit we
our attitude regarding them. Certainly
It is too late to think of abolishing them,
and the most Inveterate and Indiscrimin
ate play-goer and novel-reader will admit
that reform Is needed. It would seem that
there must be a safe middle ground where
on thoughtful and right-minded people
can come together to use their Influence
for a pure spirit In the production of the
novel and the drama so that the power
exerted by fiction on the stage and In
books shall not be destructive of high
morals and subversive of good manners."
In other words, If it be right for profess
ing Christiana to lend their countenance
to public, entertainments In mlnd-readlng,
real or pretended, the evident purport of
the Chautauquun's argument la that It
would be equally proper for these person
to commend that which la good In the
purely dramatla art of the stage and of
printed fiction, to the end that both the
drama and the novel may be gradually
improved In tenor, tone and morals. It
aeema to me that this I a fairly good
theme for reflection. As such I present
tt, for what It tt worth.
have Just specified. Sweeping vituper
ation would be unwarranted and in ex
cessively bad taste. Still, the prof es-'
sional politician, understood In the sense .
Just Indicated, is the people's enemy.
His watchword is diplomacy rather
than principle. He is made dizzy by
traveling a straight line. He values a
situation according to the number and
variety of interesting combinations Into
which it can be developed, and has no
interest in municipal reform for the
reason that the farther it is 'carried
the more it will contract the area of his
own versatility.
Appeal to Chleago Clergymen.
"And now, if I may be permitted to
conclude with a brief appeal to the
clergy of this city, I would like to say
that civic conditions and duties are not
a field into which the modern prophets
of God have entered with an earnest
ness and effect that comport with their
wide opportunities and high endow
ment. Responsibility need not be taken
from the shoulders of the laity, but
the relations proper to be occupied by
the clergy in a crisis like yours hero
and ours in New York are unparalleled
and unique. A live preacher, If he only
gets far enough away from his study
and his Bible to know the world and.
what Is going on In it, cannot watch
the footsteps of the prophet statesmen
who swung the destiny of the people
of Israel 3,000 years ago without feellnfr
that the inspiration still vouchsafed to
the man of God Is never designed to be
employed exclusively in fitting men to)
get out of this world respectably and tu
live beautifully In the world to come.
"The Lord's prayer teaches us to
pray, 'Thy will be done on earth.' For
you that means, first of all, 'Thy will be
done In Chicago.' And there Is no
point from which such a keynote can
be sounded so effectually as from your
pulpits. It ds encouraging to know
that the feeling is growing that Chris
tian fidelity means patriotism Just as
much as it does piety; means being a
good citizen just es much as it does
being a good church member; and that
'Nearer, My God, to Thee,' and 'Star
Spangled Banner,' are both Christian
hymns in the mouth of an all-round,
Christian.
"We are not saying that there ara
not a great many matters In municipal
administration upon which the pulpit
Is never so eloquent as when it keeps
Its mouth religiously shut, but those .
are not the matters that have been en
gaging us In New York or that need
just now engage you here.
Battle Not Political but a Moral One.
"Our battle has not been a political
but a moral one. The appeal has been
steadily to the conscience. 'Expedi
ency' we have known nothing about
and cared nothing. Republicanism
and Democracy we have had no inter
est in, no more Interest than Republi
cans and Democrats had in us till they
found the movement was going to go
and might have something In it that
they could make capital of. The move
ment with us began In a church, and
the appeal all the way through has
been to that which the church and the
synagogue represent. The strength of
the game throughout has been man's
responsiveness to the authority of the
ten commandments..
"One of my most thrilling experiences
in the campaign of last autumn was
the enthusiastic response with which
an audience I was addressing greeted
my reference to Moses and the Deca
logue. Perhaps you would not think
that of New York, but it was a symp
tom of the municipal condition of
mind. 'Thou shait not kill,' 'thou shalt
not commit adultery,' 'thou shalt not
steal' are what you might be disposed
to call ethical 'chestnuts,' but they
were what laid out Tammany.
"Of course .that is matter for the pul
pit. There is no event recorded In the
old Bible story that for sanctity would
rival the enterprise for regenerating
Chicago, and no situation in which
there was more occasion than here for
the ringing out of the voice of some
local Elijah, and the more of them the
better. The whole question that con
fronts you Just now is a question of
righteousness versus iniquity, honesty
versus knavery, purity versus filth;
and If the clergy cannot come out en
masse and take a direct hand in 'the
duel, what under heaven is the use of
having clergy, anyway?
Moral Leadership Is Needed.
"There is a moral leadership that It
belongs to the clergy to exercise, and
that It is wickedly delinquent 4f it falls
to exercise. An appreciation and a
vision of the eternal reaUtles that load
the Instant makes out a very large part
of the genius of statesmanship, and it
is that appreciation precisely that dis
tinguishes the preacher if so be be Is
gifted with divine equipment.
"In the odd days of Israel the states
man was the prophet, and the prophet
was the statesman; and within certain
limits It even yet lies In the intention
of nature and of God that the two
offices should coalesce and that the
man who knows the secrets of God
should shape the moral purposes and
Inspire the moral counsels and activi
ties of his town and time. And I ven
ture to say to my brethren in the
Christian ministry that I speak with
the assurance of definite knowledge
when I say that there is no influence
that will more immediately operate to
bring back the world to the church
than for the church and its modem
prophets to come back to the world
and fulfill to it their mission of gentle
authority and moral governance.
"This is a view of the case I under
stand perfectly well that the politician
will resent. No preacher ever puts the
pressure of the authorlatlve office upon
the local moral current of municipal
events without hearing from one or an
other of his parishioners that the pul
pit would better confine itself to the
spiritualities and .leave civic concerns
to -the arbitrament of the expert, the
district leader and the party 'boss.' I
would see the entire center aisle of my
church swept cleaw of the whole breed
of them before I would surrender aught
of the dignity that God puts upon the
the pulpit or drop to a more Indeter
minate key the tone of authority with
which the preacher is divinely ordained
to address himself to all that concerns
the moral life, purposes and economy
of Ws town and rime, knowing not only
that this la the divine meaning of the
pulpit, tout knowing besides that the re
treat of the politicians through the
center aisle will be more than mads
good toy fresh access of worshippers In
the gallery. ,
"I .have, perhaps, made too heavy a
draft upon your time and attention. I
have, of course, not treated the matter
exhaustively. I have tried simply to
put before you for your interest and
possible guidance a few of those point
that atamd before my mind as the more
conspicuous outcome from my own,
three years of effort along mumftelpal
line. You oertalnily have no harder
task before you here than we had in New
York. Theaccompllehmentof It 1s not so
much a matter of numbers as It la a
matter of a few trusty souls combining
with one another in singleness of pur-
pose, untainted by considerations of
preferment, committed in a sacrament
of affectionate devotion to your city,
and prepared to serve till ths tfma
ripens and the vlatory comes," ,
A
V