The Indianapolis journal., 1885-04-09
ARISTOCRACY In DEMOCRACY
Henry George Expounds His Theory for
Solving the Great Social Problem.
Moses; or the Foundation of Social Life
The Question with Which the World
Is Confronted.

Henry George was introduced to q comf0rta-
bly, large audience at Plymouth Church, last
night, by Rev. 0. c. McCulloch. with the asser-
tion that no matter what might be thought of
his doctrines, he had started up more thought
than any other man of his time with perhaps
the exception of Charles Darwin. The audience
before Mr.. George one of exceptional intel
ligence, undemonstrative absorbent and keenly
appreciative Mr.. George is hardly of medium
height, with forehead so high that it has pre-
empted large part of the dome of thought, blue
eyes, fair complexion, and a full au-
burn beard. He is credited with being
one Of the most original and forcefui
thinkers on subjects of political economy that
the century has produced, and is. withal one of
the most modest of philosophers. His subject
last evening was Moses, or the Foundations of
Social Life" and his estimate of the great He
brew aw-giver was much higher and nobler
than is given by the pulpit. Mr.. George said
that in modern thought there was disposition
to look upon the prominent characters of history
as resuitants rather than ;nitiatory forces, and
that when we try to trace results to their sources
We at last arrive at the individual;
and while it is true that institutions
make men. it is also true that in the beginning
men made institutions, and that there still exist
among us institutions which carry US back to the
remote past. Mr.. George gave glowing tribute
to the Jewish race-a people who, though they
never founded great empire or built a great
metropolis, have yet made an impress widespread,
potent and irresistible; who have preserved their
identity and faith through all the vicssitudes of
fiune and fnrt,1pa Thnuuh orpniraS hava faded
away, and living tongues become dead, these
people remain as representatives of the democ-
racy founded by Moses-who is by three
great religious faiths, Islamism, Hebrew
ism and Christianity, placed upon the
highest position granted to man. Organ
lied criticism cannot transform Moses into a
myth. He educated people to labor disci-
plined a mighty host into fighting men. He es-
tablished benefcent institutions, mora rehg-
ious, and sanitary. He was politician, legisla-
tor and statesman, and devised laws whereby
each man might sit under his own vine and fig
tree. 1t is the character of strong man,
hemmed in by limitations and conditions, but
doing o stupendous work; and yet behind high
performance is seen the light of still higher as
pirations. In the commonwealth which he
established no one was to be condemned to
ceascless toll. Even for the bond and
slave there was hope There was
the beast of burden. 1t was common
wealth with family affection twined about each
member. IL was not the protection of property
but the protection of humanity that was the aim
of the Mosaic code. It's functions were not to
protect the strong IN heaping up wealth. but to
protect the weak from being crowded to the wall
There was not only g Sabbath day but a Sab
bath year-a year of jubilee, sacred to the low
hest. With the year of jubilee the debtor went
free, and the debt that could not be paid was
cancelled The reaper under this Mosaic code,
must leave something for the poorer cleaner
Even the OK that treadeth out the corn must
not be muzzled. Everything as we now
say in our homely phrase, said live and let
live" From this idea of the brotherhood of man
springs the idea Of the fatherhood of God. What
separates it from the religions among which it
grew up is its utilitarianism. Moses laid the
foundations of a state in which great riches or
deep poverty should be unknown What was the
wisdom and forethought that in the desert
sought to guard against the dangers of the set
tied state.
Mr.. George then asked where is the country
where there is not want and suffering9 Three
thousand years of advance and still
the moan goes up. They have made
our lives bitter vita hard bondage in mortar and
in bricks. Three thousand years of advance,
and the voices of little children are in the mean,
even here in America, where we have sought our
promised land Not narrow strip between des-
erts, but mighty region between the great
seas.s While we prate of the rights of man there
are already many thousands and thousands who
find it difficult to assert the first of natural
rights the right to earn a living and who have
to accept degrading charity or starve. We
pride ourselves upon common schools;
yet after our boys and girls educated it is
often vainly asked what shall we do with them.
In the shadow of our colleges children are grow
inc up in vice and crime because poverty has
driven from their homes all refining influences
Our government is becoming, in many cases,
but means for robbing the people. There is
growing up among us an arlstocracy OF wealth
as mercless as any arstocracy that ever held
sway. Each day brings some new invention which
yet marks fresh advance. Avenues Of exchange
are broadened and cleared, yet the complaint of
hard times grows louder and louder The strug-
gle for mere existence grows more and more in
tense, and human labor is the cheapest of all
commodities, under the shade of churches fes
ters the vice that is born of want. Pauperism
is increasing; insanity is increasing. Men who
don't get wife are increasing more and more
More and more children must go to work before
they have had time to play. Ignorance in the
midst of knowledge; aristocracy in democracy;
weakness in strength You will find to-day
what Hebrew legislator saw 5000 years ago
and provided against Moses saw tho evils of
the possession Of the land by class-the land
upon which the people must live. The land was
not from man. 1t was "the land which the Lord
thy God giveth. .theen-'sthe land which the Lord
lendeth thee" He cried against that which has
converted clvlllZaLlon into ueSpOtlSm Unat Wnlcn
to day is crowding families into single rooms
and filing the roads of our newest States
with tramps. Jubilee provided for a
redistribution every fifty years. and made
monopoly impossible. There are many who be-
ieve that the Mosaic institutions are verify from
the Almighty and who yet denounce, even from
the pulpit. as communistic the principles if ap-
piled to the conditions of the present day That
man was made for the Sabbath rather than that
the Sabbath was made for man carries us through
Christianity to Judaism, back to the code pro-
mulgated in the Sinaitic wilderness.
On next Friday evening, at Plymouth Church,
Mr. George will lecture on Property in Land. %
The admission fee will be ten cents not atogeth-
er as price, but that the audience may be kept
within the capacity of the house. which might
not be the case were the lecture a free one.
Meeting of the Eastern Star.
The Grand Chapter of Indiana, Order of the