St. Paul daily globe., 1890-12-29
No Possible Danger Of Human
! q ity Being Reduced to
Il AnimaliSnl.
II the Great Conflict Comes,
!, Good Sense Will Still
), Dictate.
Man is Endowed With Special
! iPrerogatives and Right
? !; Prevails.


the old sentence with especial reference
to the conditions of the present. He
said:
On Christmas day, when all our
thoughts are turned to Bethlehem's
plains, where, in the night. the shep-
herds. feeding floeks were startled as
they saw a strange pervasive light fill
ing the heavens with roseate glow,
and voices making all about meIodious
with song unheard by mortal ears be-
fore, proclaiming that in BethIehem's
manger lay smiling babe, whose
breath would break the shackles of the
slave; whose smile the heavy burden
would unloose from him who long had
borne it patiently; whose word would
change the course of Kingdoms. en-
throning virtue, making gentleness a
queen, and giving justice for her court
the public place where high and low
and rich and poor alike would find re.
dress for wrongs. On such day what
is more proper for consideration than
those deep questions that tremble just
beneath the surface of our social life?
Before stating his final position the
preacher would take one of the latest
books as symptom of much of the
thinking that was going on at the pres
ent day. In Caesars Column a man
of unquestioned ability had touched the
question Of our national tendencies and
had pointed to some of the dangers that
are calling for immediate attention.
Any thinking man must feel that in the
federatiens of capital on one side and of
labor on the other, and that, too, with
avaWed antagonism, and especially with
the avowed antagOnism that is devel-
Oped when these organ iZatiOnS become
strong, there is the pOSs ibiIity of a col
fiSiOn that may be of serious Importance.
If Henry George goes into Chickering
hall to advocate his theory of revolu-
ton in methods, and can say to the me-
icliapic. here is a man who runs one of
'thel most fashionable churches in the
city. a church debating moral sentiment
to. d marked degree, yet this man gets
tthe IS, 900 he pays out of his own pocket
to- four singers from the Standard OIL
company, a corporation built up OH an
uhipst financial basis, he will have
a most potent argument to show the
F" Collision of Capital and Labor.
II If the farmer within a hundred miles
of. Chicago knows that four men for a
series of years, by.a combination backed
by the business sentiment of his state,
have controlled the selling price of his
live stock, and to-day are giving him
price far below actual value, that man
eiS' being prepared by that course of
action to JOIN a Federation that will re-
coil by and by with force making
somebody tremble, unless it is guided
by the rareSt wisdom. Within six
months events have plainly indicated
which way the stream of public opinion
is. going, and unless the greatest care is
used we shall find when 1t is too late
. federation OH one side in an antagon-
istic spirit means federation OH the
other in the same spirit, and it all Sug-
gests the danger signal. In such a time
it is to the mutual interests of all classes
to have a watchword that will be the
rallying cry of those who may be
rich, or those vino may be poor,
and like the old cardinal of Bulwer's
play, as. contrasting the sloth, the
poverty, the unrest Of the former France
with the present, he said: "Out of these
conditions have re-created France, and
civilization on her luminous wings scars
phenix-like to Jove. What was my art?
Genius, some say; witchcraft, some.
Pll tell thee of my art-'twas jnstice."
And again, For justice ali place pal
ace and all season summer" And SO
say we. That is one word. the other is
cooperation. The leveling process is
an idle dream. We must have men mark
out; we must have men to hew. One
IMAM will de more work in an hour than
another willin day. One man can sing
in a small way; ne is worth a hundred
dollars for given time. But you can
not force Patti to his scale, nor can you
reduce MendelSSohn to Sankey, nor can
you
Reduce Jay Gould to a EHod-Carrier.
But if we conceive of the industrial
system as great structure, we will find
that the smallest stone is as important
as the largest, and that the tiniest figure
of the freSco has a meaning when con-
sidered i'll relation TO the whole. In.
ages when the world was young, and
men made homes iD unSubstantial tents,
and greed and cruelty swept down oh
these at night, carrying away their
treasure won by faithful hands, ,aS eagles
sweep upon the dove-cote, leaving ruin
IN their wake, then men gathered side
by side for mutual protection. But they
were not bound by bonds of love. Safety
was the only watchword known. Then,
in later times, when commerce whitened
all the smaller seas, when cunning hands
wrought fabrics rare or gathered from
the trees fruits fitted for the kings
table, OF from the mines rare gems,
again we had the mutual interest, but it
was the combination formed for gain
, and men felt no particular obligation to
each other OH the grounds of common
need. But in the morrow of the world
men will band because the interest of
- 10 e
: ALL, This is all have to say. believe
see this common interest and find
way out.
And now passing on, the thing want
to controvert in this book and all the
books like it is the doctrine that any
course can reduce the world again to
animalisn,. The alleged possibilities
marked out in these alarms are impoSsi-
biiitieS. There may be reverSions, but
they can only last moment; to make
IAN educated animal, with intelligence
+ that surpaSses ours hundredfold and
combine it with an animaliSm that de-
scends to deeper degradation than the
lowest savage, cannot be done. And if
notswhy not? Ii a man believes that
the Christian religion is based on the
true instincts of the human heart, and
if he believes that its principles are
found in modern civilization, of course
he cannot accept
Such an Idea of Reversal.
But suppose he claims that human
nature is utterly corrupt, what then?
Then l dispute him OH that point, and
you will allow me to lay before you
some pain and well-knOwn facts.
/ claim that if there had not been be-
meath the surface life of the lowest man
or race of men force of divine origin
and substance, if men had not been up
borne by inner principle tnat was
stronger than the animal tendency, or
If the truth and good, stronger than
bands of death, were not ever in the
life of man, then long ago humanity
must have sunk by its own weight, lost
beneath oblivien's surging waves, its
requiem sung by seabirds eirciing over
head. Turn to primitive man. Mark
his battle with his hard conditions; the
north winds teeth, the rage of giant
beast made fierce by hunger, the scanty