The City Evil by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jul 12, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 28.

The City Evil

By Editor

The President is credited with the saying "Back of the city is the state, and back of the state is the nation." If this be true, it is bad for the state and for the nation. If the state and the nation are the backing of the concentrated corruption that exists in all the larger cities, then the logic of the situation is that the cities are the exponents—the fruits—of the sowing of the state and of the nation; in other words, the outgrowth of our state and national policy. It would seem that a nation ought to produce better conditions than are seen in the great cities. If it were a "Christian nation," as is popularly claimed, there would be better fruit. And there has been better fruit in the past; there is some better fruit now. But the city evil is becoming so conspicuous, so powerful in the manipulation of state and national affairs, and its baleful influence in political and financial affairs is so permeating as to render necessary a strong reassertion of first principles in both state and nation.