Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1885-02-23

The Concluding Discourse of the
Series-Reply to n Socialist-The So
cIaI Help We Need.
Rev. DR.. Smyth gave the concluding dis
course of his series on ''Social Problems"
at Center church yesterday forenoon. A
large congregation was present. The sermon
is as follows, in full:
Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be
called the children of God.---Matt. s. %.
In bringing for the present this discussion
of social problems to a close, must necessa-
rily pass by many questions which the sub
iect suggests. One of the social needs of the
day is that one-half of the world shall I'M
derstand better what is going on in the mind
of the other half of the world. The social
peacemaker must be above all an interpreter
between men. 1t will he an evil thing, and
dangerous thing, if any part of our city
shall become foreign land to other parts
of it. AS wish to bring to fair expression
social ideas which working in the minds
of some intelligent men among us, before
proceeding to my proper topic for this morn
ing, shall read and comment upon an eX-
tract from letter which has been sent to me
by Socialist in reference to last Sundays
discourse. After quoting remark of mine
several Sundays ago concerning the harmony
of nature, he writes thus: eyes! Just OBJ
serve how the sun Society drinks the water
| of the oceans (wealth), and how the wind
Transportation drives it to the forests, fields
| and mountains, and how through the various
channels of distribution (wages) every plant
and animal receives its full share of its need,
no less and no more. What perfect harmony
| in this vast and intricate process! And why2
Because the sun and wind don't ask percent
ages for their labor" Let us think of that
| moment. Neither in nature nor in human
affairs are laws and processes always SO SIM
pie and easy as they seem It is problem
in science how the sun keeps up its enormous
expenditure of heat. To limited extent the
sun may receive back profits or percenta-
ges from space frequent meteoric showers;
yet it is thought by some that its rate of heat
is maintained only at the cost of Q constant
shrinkage of it's volume capital and SCI.
ence calmly speculates how long it will be
before the sun becomes a bankrupt; and
whenever heat shall be diffused equally in a
| universal communism, then the business of
| life, so far our solar system is concerned,
shall be wound up. The wind tasks per
| centages'' for transportation But aerial
| transportation for the clouds is gained at the
/ cost of inequalities of temperature; and
| though the great powers of the air work on
| the whole beneficently and for the general
| good, yet occasionally they combine in reck
| less tornadoes get up for an hour fearful
| corner in cyclone. And as for every plant
| receiving what it needs, no more, no less,
| through the channels of distribution,-Ih have
| been much in the woods, and I have often
| noticed and pondered over the unequal ad
| 7antages of position in the struggle of the
/ trees for moisture and light and sometimes
| have rejoiced to see the brave birches plant
| ed upon the rocks, with an almost inteli-
| gent vitality searching with their rootlets for
| the soil in every little crevice, and sending a
strong root down among the broken boulders
| for the living waters which / could hear
| trickling below / have seen some of the
| most splendid trees growing up strong and
high in what would seem the most unfavora-
BILE circumstances, and others, to which
| everything seemed to be brought growing
| too fast and too soft to survive. Oh, nature
| is a vastly more intricate and complex thing
| than my friend with his easy scheme of it
seems to conceive; nature is system made
| up of percentages, of balances OF good and
evil, of profits and loss. There is, y he con-
tinues, emo such thing exploitation in ma
| ture" But have you ever read that terrible
| arraignment of nature which John Stuart
| Mill once wrote almost in despair OF good.
''Nearly all the things" he wrote, (Which
| men are hanged or imprisoned for doing to one
| another are natures everyday performan-
| ces" Nothing which the Socialists have
| ever said against the constitution of society
1 equals John Stuart Mills indictment of ma
/ ture. We have two replies to offer to his ar
| raignment of nature; first, nature is a foil
| for man; in our struggle with nature the
highest powers of manhood are developed, as
| they could hardly be were nature one dead
| level with no heights for the strong to climb:
| And, secondly, this limited area of things
| which we call nature is only part of the
whole of the universe and the final harmony
| of things. The same answers apply to the
| socialists arraignment of the constitution Of
society. Upon limited areas of nature or
history there may be exploitation, waste, de-
| graduation of force. Only in the whole crea-
| ton is there perfect compensation. Nature
comes out right, not in one season, but
through infinite processes. Limited sections
| of human life present strange problems.
| Divine Justice and benevclence require for
their full vindication the competitions of the
present in the eternal ages. abolish" my
| correspondent continues, Exploitation of
| men by men, and there will be no such thing
| as selfshness and avarice." Right there lies
| the fundamental moral assumption of all SO
| cialistic reform, that change of circumstance
| involves change of character. But 1 have
| seen poor men become rich and rich men be-
| come poor and yet remain very much the
| same men, kind or hard of heart. will be-
| lieve i'll the possibility of changing men sim
| ply through change of the social atmos-
pllere when can believe that a sour apple
| tree if transplanted from New England
| roadside, will, under a change of climate,
| bear sweet oranges in Florida. The social
| question is how to make men honest and
| true in any climate. No drawer, truer words
were ever spoken than Charles Kingsleys adj
dress to the F'Workmen of England at the
| time of the Chartist riots: You think"
| he said, ''the charter would make you free;
| would to God it would! The charter is not
| bad, if the men who use it are not bad!
Tbs final question which in the prosecution
| of my own thought lam now bound to consider
/ is this: What can we do to prevent any of
| these evil tendencies and to help the good in
| crease! Let us recognize at once certain
| things which we cannot do. 1 will summa-
| rize these under two heads. First, we can
| not work economic miracles for the benefit of
any man or class of men. The State cannot
| work any social miracle through legislation.
| All the legislative powers in the world could
| not make all human conditions equal and
keep business going, all the engineers in
the world could not keep a locomotive rum
| ming if there were no difference of tempera-
| ture between the boiler and the condenser.
Again, no societies or combinations of mon
can work industrial miracles. They cannot
alter, for instance, the law of diminishing
agricultural returns by which beyond a Ger
| tain point of population the ratio of produc-
| ton to each person from the same ares be-
| comes less. Neither can men by any fiat
| money make the actual products of coun-
| try worth in exchange more than they are.
Secondly, we cannot hope to cure all social
| ills by some simple panacea. 1t is to the
credit of the intelligence of English aud
American workingmen, that even in the
midst of industrial distress they have never
regarded with much favor social patent med
| icines which promise for the most opposite
| ills quick and wonderful relief
Hoping, therefore, for no social miracle,
and possessing no universal solvent, let us as
practical men inquire further upon what lines
of effort, If upon any, may seek TO make
| this better and happier world for us ALL
First, then, and I might say foremost, any
man and any group of men, whose condition
needs improving, must begin by improving
| themselves. Self-help is the first condition
| of all help. No one who will not look with
forsthought after his own interest in life can
| expect that interest to follow him around
| looking after him. Frugality, management,
self-control, temperance, purpose, pluck, per-
| sistence-these are the cardinal virtues upon
| which success and advancement depend in
| any sphere or place. Whatever may be
| thought or said of the amount of our an
nual production which goes to profits,
| whether it be only ten per cent, as Mr.. At
| kinson holds, or more than that, but one
| thing can be said of the social misery which
results from waste. Even our anarchist
| friends might find more profitable field for
future reform or plumber than among the
funds which they consider was ted in the sup
port of the clergy, when they reflect upon
4 what have seen somewhere stated the
fact, that all the salaries of religious teachers
added together in this country do not amount
| TO Sc much as the sum which the country
spends: l. will not say wastes, annually in
keeping its dogs. America wastes enough
yearly to feed the thousands who are now
said to be out of employment. The time