The Thin Crust of Civilization
"The Thin Crust of Civilization," in the American Magazine for April, presents a fearful picture of an American town, an illustration of many others. The crime of Newark, Ohio, Mr. Ray Stannard Baker lays at the door of the corrupting power of the saloon, and that seems to have been the chief agency in Newark; but history is not wanting in illustrations of the same unreasoning, mob-mad spirit aroused by mere suspicions or false charges. The boy who was killed in Newark was killed by a mob in sympathy with men in the liquor business. The boy was innocent, merely doing his duty. But there have been other instances where innocent men standing for order and due process of law in defense of a suspected victim under arrest have been shot down by men professing Christian civilization. The simple fact is that the brute is in every man who has not been regenerated by Christ; and sooner or later, unless the man is moving upward, the thin crust, under pressure of temptation, will break through and reveal the pit of innate human corruption.