Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 February 1886 — Sodal Disorders and their Core. [ARTICLE]

Sodal Disorders and their Core.

That there is a tendency to disease, or at least disorder, in the social body and brain of which our individual bodies and brains are particles, is proved by the fact that Congresses and Legislatures, courts and jails, and poorhouses are thought to be necessary. / ; There are several diseases or disorders to which our social system is at times subject. There is the, dyspepsia of hard times, caused by a weakening of the social stomach, and a clogged circulation of the social blood; there is the fever of war, the; malaria of trade restrictions, the headache that follows a business debauch, the consumption of poverty, and a long list of other sicknesses causing pain and annoyance in different degrees. Social (’physicians—statesmen, politicians, reformers, and such of the populace as care to put out their signs—make careful diagnoses, feeling carefully of the public pulse, and name the cause of the disorder. One carefully examines the patient, 1 ooks at the tongue, takes the temperature, listens to the respiration, and feels the pulse, looks thoughtful, then wise, and finally pronounces the disorder a too high tariff on imported goods. Another, quite as eminent a social M. D., with an excellent practice and half a dozen diplomas, makes his diagnosis in a much similar manner, and, after due deliberation, says: “Too free coinage of money. You have too much mercantile blood in circulation. We must use leeches.” Others of the regular school come in, view the sick man, and ascribe tho cause, some to a .reduced tariff, some to too little silver, some to want of Civil Service reform, some to the Democratic party, some to the Bepublican party, some to the President, some to Congress, some to the banks, some to the brokers, some to Vanderbilt, and seme to Gould. All ane eminent physicians but few of them agree. « While the “regulars” are quarrelling, the “irregulars” take their turn at prescribing. One recommends woman suffrage, another greenbacks, another State socialism, another absolute freedom of trade, and another anarchy. While these latter are not looked upon as eminent social physicians, many of them use very persuasive arguments, and show the earnestness of firm conviction. Meanwhile the seeds of the disorder permeate the whole system, and many times recovery has been brought about simply because nature took its course. When doctors disagree, who sjiall decide ? Under the present system it must be the body politic, the brain of the social system. It may take the advice of the “regular” physicians or of the “irregulars ;” it may take physic or calomel or mercury; it may trust to the mind cure, the cold-water cure, or the hot-water cure; it may take of all the nostrums advertised on billboards and in newspapers; and peddled about the country by quacks of all kinds; and it may, if it thinks best, leave nature to affect the cure unaided. It is, probably, better that the social physicians do quarrel among themselves, for, if they were to agree, their agreement might be upon a poison whose effect (would be disastrous, if not deadly. The social system has strong vitality, and when sick the thendency is always toward health. An occasional purging, like that given by var, is doubtless needed, but homoeopathic treatment is better for most of its disorders. Save ns from those doctors who-make snap diagnoses and promise immediate cures, whether they treat the body human or the body politic, whether they cry nostrums in bottles or nostrums in books.— C. M. in Boston Globe.