The Labor enquirer., 1886-07-03
THE LORDS STEWARDS.
How Tney Have Performed Their Trusts
as the Guardians OF His
Property.
For The Enquirer.

For The Enquirer.
DENVER, June 24.-Why is it that
property has become more sacred in
Flaw" than the laborer's right to life?
lay it down as an axiom that no man
gets rich by his own labor, independent
of the labor of others. Why then should
pro! ertY become more sacred in law
than the life of the man who helped to
produce the same? One reason may be
that the church has taught through all
ages that all property belongs to God
"the earth and the fullness thereof, the
sea and all that therein is, and the cattle
upon thousand hills are Ills also''-and
that He gives or withholds at His pleas
ure that property owners are stewards
for God.
The church also teaches the regal
idea that God is-a king and therefore,
by inference, that all cannot be stew
ards; otherwise there would be no
workers or producers, and having stud,
led the governments Of the ant and the
bee with great admiration, have con
cluded th at this must be the divine order
of human life; many workers and
builders and a few drones living upon
the labor of others, many gathering G and
few Starving.
But when we turn to the Fatherhood
of God as taught by Jesus Christ and
take our lesson from thence, it seems
rather inconsistent that few members
of the family should work and slave to
build up the family fortune, and the
others living in idleness should claim
the whole, and as soon as the industrious
children of the family meet to discuss
this unfair usage these drones and
feecers should say, ''ths property be-
longs to u.s." And no less an authority
than J. G. Blame, when aspiring to the
presidency, speaks of it as national
property, and these stewards of God
caught the idea and call upon the
national arms to protect it for them but
thev will 1t to their own families.
This is the way things get mixed on
this property question. and when the
wor ke's, smarting under this Injustice
meet to discuss this problem, they are
called names, such as Socialist, etc, and
ruthlessly seized by the throat and cast
into prison by those whose duty it is to
protect the weak and dIsinherited, and
the jailOr is commanded to keep them
safely, because, like Paul aud MS COM
panions at Philipi, these men being So
ciaists do exceedingly trouble our city
and teach customs which are not lawful
for us to receive, being Americans. And
why? Because the capitalists see in this
case as in that, that if the people sue
Ceed, the hope of their gains Is gone
that of making profit by means of the
imbeCilitY OF their fellow. men and
women. And these are the men who
have beco ne the stewards of the Lord s
property-more like the wicked hus.
bandmen of Chrlst's day ; seize upon
the property, kill one servant and ill
use another, and finally reject their
Lord and cast him out of the church.
With S42, ,O00, 100000 in the hands of
these unfaithful stewards of the Lord 8
property, His poor children perishing
with hunger and nakedness, and the
Lords treasury empty, it looks as though
the church and its ministers should aid
the Socialists and relieve these success
sors of Judas Iscariot of the RESPONSE
bility of carrying the bag and what has
been put therein" and secure to the
100000 producers fair share of the
fruit of thei labor. now in hands OF
100000 on-producers, illers and
drones. THOMAS YOUNG.