The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1886-03-04
CHRISTIAN COMMUNISM.
Continued from Page g

America, fOr here they could get land
Re- tleaeneaa and misery found a better
way Of escape Ihan agllatlng against
long standing injustice Ia lhe Old cOun
tiy, IL would emgrale " the new. But
room the land III America will DO all
taken up, aud the ajw Of emigration
cease.
The land here Ia held IN small hold
inga aa a rule, and herein lies the
secret OF the G0ntHntment and general
welfare OF the agricultural classes In
this country. The man who owns a
piece OF land Ia independent BIZ the
times adverse or prosperous, no can get
hts living from his own lanU, But in
some OF the chosen parts Of the west
there are the beginnings OF land mo-
nOpoly. Some Of those same English
men who own whole counties In Eng
ana, have been buying whole counties
In our own great west. II works no
particular hardship yet, perhaps. hut II
Will In the very near future. and wise
legislation ought 10 prevent such
large holdings whether by Americans
or foreigners, especially by the latter.
and gradually but surely break them up
where they have already been taken.
Such Legislation ought 10 carefully
avoid doing Injustice to the present
owners, but II ought also TO carefully
guard against a great II juatice TO the
many In the near appr0g ching future.
Very s00A II will be In the great west
as II In now In Stark c0unty-the land
will be taken; an the man who has In
this generation secured thirty miles
square, will In the next generation be
looked upon aa doing an injustice to his
fellows by holding IL undivided, while
they are compelled to 80 laDdlesa. Bul
the chief trouble In our country to-day
does not come from land monopoly
That question Ia aa fayOTably disposed
here as any place In the world, and
more 10. Our chief trouble In with the
third OF these monopOlies-lhe monOpO'
Iy Of employment.
Great Industries are m0n0p0llZed by
the few, aud from these few the many
must secure employment. These EN-
ployers aud emp.Oyed stand TO each
other 10 natural aud heHlthful relation
That there should bo the employers and
the employed Ia a necessity In the very
nature OF things. And they are natural
friends aud allies, II they become enc
mics instead OF friends, II In by subyeTt'
ing the natural order Of things That
they do become enemies is a fact, and
IL IL one OF the most deplorable and
alarming facta OF our present industrial
aud commercial system. That they do
hecOme enemies must be set down to the
charge OF that selhshness and graspiDp
greed, and lust OF power, and pride OF
wealth, which unhappily are the
characteristics OF twisted and distorted
human nature the world over.
In the COL llct which In the result Of
this enmity, capital has the advaL tagC
over labor, even where Doth are equally
we'll organized. Capital 10 proud and
powerfn', aud fulfilled, aud seli-sOill
Client. Labor Ia c0rrespondingly weak
aud hungry, and insufficient In itself
Capital, when a COZ nict comes, has east
and plenty before II I'LL the conact II
ended.
Labor has penury aud starvation, ant
the plu ched faces OF wife and children
who are crying for bread.
IL may further DO said that capita
has upon ite side shrewdness, far sight
edness, larger intellectual capacity
begotten Of larger training, while laboI
In handicapped by lack OF large via
dom and keen Insight, u sincere bu
real ignorance, mingled sometimes
nnhappily, but not necessarily, with
vicious aud dis0rderly spirit,
have stated here what Ia the mos
serious problem which IL given us ~
people To solve. Aud as we bec0mI
more aud more manufacturing people
and the wage workers increase In mum
bers, the problem will gain In impor
tance, aud solution that is ja1t ~ fall
10 both employers and employed be
comes more and more imperative.
That II In q serious problem already
We have abundant proof In the frequent
and Tuin0us col lllcts, the news o.
which IL almost daily borne 10 uq by
the preeg-c0nllcts which are rulnOue
both 10 employers aud employed, ant
snbveralve Of the general prosperity, In
that they disorder and disturb the cur
reht OF commercial aud Industrial life
II. Having glanced at the evil, let N
now look at the possible and proposed
remedies.
Here II becomes any one 10 be boil
modest AMI careful. fhe unwlse criti
Ciam Of the existing social order, ani
the proposal Of radical revolutionary 0
~ opi8n" remedies, In the existing
state OF restlessnesa, IL like throwing
llrebrands towards n powd,r mag02l o
have no fear or hesitation 10 say wha
| believe IL right and what wrong, bu
one can be surer In his determining tha
u thing IL wrong than he can be In pro
po lag remedy for the wrong, especial
ly when the evil IL n complicated one
aud one which IL sorely taxing the bea
wisdom OF the age,
Az | have stated the evil cOmpTehen.
eively In a word-Mon0poly; 80 | Cal
atate the remedy comprehensiyely In /
wurd-Cummunisn Perhaps | startlC
you by this word, but | am In earnest II
saying tat believe that Communism
ls the sovereign remedy for the evils IL
society which | have described No
Communism, however, In the specia
sense Of that word, as we have come IN
recent years 10 use II; not that Commun
Ism taught by such teachers az 81
Simon, Fourier, Proudhon, Louis Blanc
Henry George or Parsons, which Ia athe
istlc and revolutionary, and eubversiy,
OF the entire existing social order; no.
that Communism which IL Socialism al
30, which says that property ls crime,
and which makes war upon religion ant
upon the family relation; which woult
pull away the corner stones Of society
whose chief agents are the pistol ant
dyna mite; whose evangelists, II proper
ly treated, would DO eifectually silencet
by dose Of their own medlcine.-No1
THAT
Bat that communism which IL dis
tinctively Christian, and lies enfoldet
In the robe Of the gospel Of Jesus Christ
which does not indeed instruct mon Il
surrender their own individual owner
ship and have oil things In common
but which does make war upon human
A n.A. a IL a -. a