Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1878-12-10
ATHEISM AND PROPERTY.
A Reply to Colonel Robert IugersOll.

hon. george w. ending, OF Cln-
%cinnati, made a speech in Pixies Opera
House, Cincinnati, in reply to Colonel
Ingersoll, the infdel leader. We ex-
tract the following:
Consider now the second element
Property. The very highest point
that infdelity can reach here is the
time-worn maxim, Honesty is the
best policy" That maxim is the re-
suit Of observation and experience,
and may be confirmed by process Of
philosOphic reasoning. But what
conception of honesty shall the young
man have, young or old, whose obser-
walton and experience are not wide
enough to teach him that honesty is
the best policy? | ask you as bust
ness men is it that maxim or is it the
training and influence, remote or di-
rect, of religious fathers and mothers
that give you to-day a trustworthy
class Of young employees, clerks, sales
men, messengers and all? Which
commands your confidence to-day, a
young mans character as a philoso-
pher based upon his reason, observa-
ton and experience, or a young mans
character based upon a conscience?
Inidelity then is a crime against bust
ness and against trade. Ingersoll an
initiates conscience. Gambling is a
fine art with conscience left out.
Confidence and conscience are syno-
nyms in the world Of trade. Infdel
philosophy may originate a few wise
maxims, but it can never give energy,
form and vitality to that soul Of bust
ness, and honest conscience.
And, gentlemen from the board Of
trade, from counting room and store
room, remember again just here the
! millions upon whose broad shoulders
I rest your countless enterprises, and
whose strong arms produce and ex-
change all your objects of trade.
j Take away from them the thought that
you and they stand equal in the sight
I of God, a thought given to them by
] Christianity; take awayfrom yourselves
= the thought that they are your equals
in the sight of God take away from
them the feeling of brotherhood, a
feeling given to them alone by Chris
+ tianity; leave to the toiling millions
naught but a toiler's life and a toiler',
y grave, with noreckoning beyond where
at last all the uneven things of thil
most uneven world may at last be sci
even go forth with Ingersoll, anC
g write upon the gates of your cities
o There is no God, and proclaim tina.
Death is an eternal sleep; in a word
kill, burn out, annihilate c~onscienc,
all the way down to the nethermos
!. stratum of humanity, and woe, wot
betide your comprehensive schemes o
d enterprise, and woe betide your every
: accumulation of wealth. Where i
the power in this land of ours tina
4 shall then stay that beetle-browed bag
! in6delitys twin sister in every age
d and in every land, inidelity's twin sis
ter to-dayin st. Louis, Chicago, Cincin
natl and New York city, where it ma,
not be altogether a dream, that unde
J. her foul incantaions there is gather
- ing a storm that may some day rem,
: the earth beneath your feet like al
. earthquake, inidelity' twin altar upol
o. every page of human history - tn.
!. Commune. Is there no signifcancI
~ for American business men in the fac
u that but a little more than a year ago
= few thousand honest but misguide,
4 laborers, melted in some of our prin
= cipal cities by French, German an,
er American infdel Communists, mad
Of every business man in the land cry on
n, for a stronger government? do no
I'd say that every infdel is a Communist
lie but | do say, and say it deliberately
e. that from the British line to the wa
tiers of the gulf from ocean to ocean
ly every avowed 0ommunistic leader i
il this land ID . goddess iptdel, BY tn
q. light of Pittshurg's confagration
K can see Ingersolls legend, Religion i
superstition, floating in the night owe
er the heads of a frenzied moh,'