St. Paul daily globe., 1888-08-27
Heir Of the self same heritage,
Child of the self-same Goo"
CORPORATION MORALITY.
& Seasonable Sermon Which Will
Be Read With Interest.

D. DE hcdU w lCn interest.
At the Church of Christ yesterday
morning, Rev. Nv. j. Lhamon preached
sermon from Proverbs XII, 81, which
may prove interesting, especially to poll
ticians and members of corporations.
He said:
Is there one code of morals for the
man as man and another as a member
OF club, party, or corporation?
Are frankness, honesty truthfulness
and general good behavior, virtues in
the individual, while their opposites are
the virtues of the politician? Is theft
permissible in the president of a trust,
while it is punishable in the man who
leads more humble life? Does the
ability to buy up legislatures exempt
the railroad king from moral law?. Is
the citizen because he is party pol
ltician justified in working publicly for
what he privately condemns? "Though
hand join in hand, the wicked shall not
be unpunished.''
The question of corporation morality
must be discussed with increasing
interest within a few years. We
are in an age of great parties and
great corporations. These are made
possible by the very individualism to
which Christianity and republican
form of government have brought
us. The Christian republic takes
his monarch or his master and
makes him man, free and intelligent.
Such man will naturally strike hands
with another such man and say, 1--WE
will be partners" Thus there grows
the corporation Oh the one hand, and
the labor unions on the other. Our
duty is not to quarrel with corporations
merely because they are such. for they
not only have right to be, they are a
necessity, and will perhaps become
more so. Our present style of life
could not be managed without them.
The striking of hand to hand is not the
be great blessing. and will be if only
it is a brothers. hand that strikes
brothers hand for mutual, and for
others good. eff thy heart is as my
heart give me thy hand" On this prin-
ciple, which is as old as creation, and
God-given, parties are formed, societies
/. organized, workingmen unite with
working men, capitalists with capital
lists, Christians with Christians, and
man with God-or devil.
The Whole question of corporations
is one of moral rectitude in men as men.
Make all men right, and all their hand
plan Jesus pursued. He began with the
individual that he might reach society.
Its strange that some men who are
honorable in their own affairs are
d1shonOrable in political matters,
and men who. though tender
and kind in all other ways, ARE cruel and
crushing in their corporations. How
can you who would shame to tell a lie to
further your own interests read with
relish what you know to be a campaign
canard? AS men you presume to be
clean, but as politicians you work in the
dirt. No, that will not do. If you are
dirty as politicians you are dirty as men.
Ii your corporation is cruel and you
sanction it you are also cruel. If the
coal trust, or the lumber trust of which
you are member makes big steal by
debating lower wages and higher prices,
and you share in the plunder without
rebuking the plunderer you are a partl-
cepS criIniniS. you also are thief
Though hand join in hand. the wicked
shall not go unpuniShed." When will
parties learn to conduct their campaigns
on principles, to discard the mud-ma-
cnine, to tell what good they know
about their opposing candidates, and to
discountenance their own party press
and platform whenever it decends to
breach of the high political etiquette?
Let the party that goes in go by the way
of decent campaign and an honest
ballot box. If it climbs up some other
way it is thief and robber. tits pos
sible for our government to continue no
matter what party is defeated, but
it is not possible for it to con-
tinue if righteousness is defeated,
if the citizen sinks in the partisan, if
manhood is sacrificed to the lust for of
fee and the greed for power, if the ma
tion's morality gets stuck in the politi-
cal quagmire.
Tie history of 5000 years confirms the
clear vision of the prophets when they
affirm that they see for nations either
righteousness or ruin.
There is not one coat of conscience
for the communion table and another
for the ward meeting or the board of di-
rectors. God sees the individual in the
corporatian. Morality is one. Religion
is its root. Peace and prosperity are
its branches and fruit.