Morning journal and courier., 1885-02-09
SOME SOCIAL PROBLEMS.

I Rev. Newman Slmyth Discusses the
 Claims of LabOr--Somethfng About
 Socialism--PIain Speaking.
 l Rev. Newman Smyth delivered yesterday ! in Center church the first of a series of dis courses which will deal with matters of vital l importance to society. In the audience were l number of Socialists who listened to the preacher attentively. Following is the dis | course in full:
 Much food is in the tilage of the poor; but there
 is that is destroyed for want of judgment-Pro- verbs 1928.
 l Some incidental allusions to social prob lems which have been dropped from this pulpit have brought back to me from several l workingmen the expression of q desire that i should discuss directly certain industrial | questions which are fast coming to the front among the great questions of our age. Any subject in which any number of human be- ! ings are vitally interested has just claim to candid and thoughtful consideration in any Christian church, and I know of no pulpit | in the land which should be more freely opened to the discussion of living social questions than this pulpit, which nearly two hundred and forty six years ago was estab- Ished, not far from this spot, for the cause of equal civil fellowship as well as of reli- gious faith and liberty. Upon the same day, and in the same act by which our fathers
 founded this church, they abrogated the
 English law of entail, by which the monopo-
 ly of land in England has been maintained,
 and adopted the Hebrew law by which es-
 tates were to be divided among many heirs,
 and cheek was thus put upon the vast ac-
 emulation of property in the hands of o
 few families Remembering that from it's
 first establishment throughout its history this pulpit has been true to human rights 1
 and social justice, do not hesitate, amid the l
 worthiest associations of this place, to turn l
 aside for a few Sabbaths from the ordinary |
 -s- -R1 11-- fN- k1,o a1-4 0E II
 ting up the broad aisle of this church to a l
 respectful hearing, and, I trust, candid dis l
 cussion in this pulpit, certain industrial ideas
 and socialistic sentiments which have been |
 born of want and wrong in the world with |
 out: which, though mocked and seourged of 1 men, have persisted in living for the past
 hundred years; which shall never be put | down by mere force, and which can be pre- | vented from becoming disturbing factors in ] civilization only as they shall be settled right in social justice and economic truth.
 Professor Jevons, in concluding his dis cussion of s'The State ill Relation to Labor," remarks: The subject is one in which we need above all things discrimination. (p. 165.) In the beginning, and through the middle, and at the end of all discussion of the mutual obligations and rights of men in a free State, we shall do well to keep in mind this first need of discrimination. I have purposely chosen, therefore, as a text for our present consideration of some of these mat ters that word of the wise man, There is that is destroyed for want of judgment" Indiscriminate denunciations only aggravate existing evils. Indiscriminate judgments visited by one class upon another do not serve the cause of law and order. If, on the one hand, any manufacturers should wish to condemn indiscriminately the claims of la bor and labor organizations, they would thereby very likely only add fuel to human passions which it is not for the well-being of oe k, hov iDfa aad fha | other hand, any workingman has come here expecting me to denounce indiscriminately the powers that be, let me tell him before hand that he will be disappointed; and if he respects his own reason he should be the first to resent from any man on his behalf the easy hypocrisy of incorporate speech.
 The need of careful discrimination meets us upon our first approach to these subjects; for I presume, should begin with the word | socialism nine out of ten even of intelligent people would have in their minds an uncom- ssortable suspicion of anarchy, revolution and dynamite, But if wished to argue with he anarchists, or to find words in which to ,ebuke the tactics of violence, might quote rom t'Der Socialist the official organ of he Socialists in New York; or from the cola lmns of the tfVolkszeitung, the organ of he labor party. or might read circular lated January 29th, issued by the national ,xecutiye committee of the Socialists whom ha New York police were unable to discrim- nate from the Anarchists who disturbed heir meeting, in which they condemn the rorks of the Irish dynamiters in language as ,lain as our House of Representatives will Yer be likely to adopt. % sa sI
 The fact is that the word socialism is as lastic as a rubber band, and divers opinions ave been included within it. Hence lead no German historian of socialism begins his ccourt of it with reference to the laws of loses and Lycurgus. He pronounces Christ D be the first international Socialist and up D the present time the greatest. Isaiah and he prophets might be called soeialistic in heir dsnunoiations of growing land monop- lies in Judah and Israel. Flato's republic socialistic. A Roman Catholic bishop has z dyocated a socialistic scheme in the name f the church the Protestant clergymen, [aurice and Charles Kingsley, in spite of no m tile obloquy, called themselves Christian ,ciSlists; there have been professional SO alists. sweet-water socialists, as they were W cknarned in Germany, socialists of the Ge ha;, Prince Bismarck has put forth some s3' sf' c;siistie idaas af legiglation and Mr: Jo- ab nb ChambeTlain, of the English cabinat, in | iiis recent speech at Ipswich, advanced views aged with some socialistic color concerning R