Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-04-05

merely put things right side up. The
solution will b an extension of the prIn-
cipe of our religious and political free
dom, being of the people, for the people,
and by the people. When the industrial
revolution was accomplished then
wealth, which comes from the people
and belongs to the people, would be ad-
ministered by the people. He closed
with brilliant picture of the benefits to
the whole civilized world when this
peaceful revolution shall be accom-
plished.
On the previous Sunday, March 23,
Dr. John II. Barrows, of the First Pres
byterian Church, addressed large con-
gregation on the following subject
"Moral and Social Lessons from Recent
Books by Bellamy, Howells and War
ner." Mr.. Barrows is by no means
man of broad ideas or excessive courage,
and his economic knowledge is appar-
emily very limited. With modern
thought and aspirations he has little
sympathy, and his Christianity is of the
accommodating sort that says, most
illogically: "While the rich might settle
the question by disposing of their prop
erty as Christ would in their place, l
am not among those who contend that
in this generation no Christian has a
right to be possessed of more than
$1,0O0,O00." But precisely because this
man is a fair representative of that
eminently Christian middle class who
believes that its inherent right to "make
money is only limited by its duty to be
charitable to the poor" the effect of
modern thought upon him may be
watched with some interest.
INTERNAL METHODS.
"The rich," SAID he, "have been grow
ing richer and the poor have not been
growing poorer; but, with 1000 capital.
lists owning more than half of the prop.
erty, people generally feel that they
have not been getting their rightful
share of the vast increase and hence the
many schemes for the banishing of pow
erty. Christ's great plan was, first of
all, to make men love each other; but
the effort to-day is to bring about bet
ter state of things, not primarily through
moral but through legal and social
changes. Henry George would Danish
bu hf, 4
troll all the land and by taxing that.
Edward Bellamy's book shows higher
conceptions than Georges. He is not
struck so much by the poverty as by the
meanness and moral unworthiness Of the
present age; by the awful selhshness,
stimulated by the competitions of busi-
ness; by the brutal and even internal
methods which are at work-the dog eat
dog policy which leafs men to spend
their lives in robbing each other.
"Nearly all of you are familiar with
Bellamy's
LOOKING BACKWARD,
book of immense interest to students
of social problems. II is not SO much a
novel as a moral force which has taken
an organized form, enlisted enthusiasm,
excited faith, hope, and love, which has
commanded some of the leading minds
of the country. Bellamys book is
dream of golden century, a dream,
however, which has excited healthful
discomfort with the present conditions
of things. While Bellamy's book is
dream of golden age, with bitter de-
nunciations of present ways, Mr.. How
ellis
a HAZARD OF NEW FORTUNES
is realistic picture, admirably drawn,
of things as they are to-day, especially
in the life of New York. Mr.. Howells
the most sklllful American portrayer of
the superficial aspects of life, has gwen
us here something better than his other
stories.
"Howells' book is full of those debates
which are going on all about us over the
rights and wrongs of labor and capital,
and unquestionably it will open the
minds and hearts of thousanGs to the
workingman's side of this greatest of
modern controversies. There is no toll
Grafton of lawlessness, but there is a
keen and ample comprehension of the