Workmen's advocate. (New Haven, Conn.) 1883-1891, 1890-03-15
HIS OPINION OF REV. M. J..
SAVAGE AND HUMAN
SAVAGERY.
Every Progress Is in the Direction
Of S0cialism-Hunger Does Not
Make Men Better-Men Cannot
Rise Morally When they are
Degraded Economically.

Ter lectured in reply to the recent ser
mon by Rev. NJ. j, Savage on Bella
my's NaConalism. The speaker began
by describing his friend, Mr.. Savage, as
a man Of broad nationality, sound logic
and irreproachable integrity-as one Of
the foremost thinkers in Boston and a
leader in thought of whom that city
could well be proud-yet, at the same
time, as one who represented type, and
beheld the question of natiOnalism out of
the atmosphere which surrounded him.
"lnhaling this atmosphere" said Mr..
SCHNEIDER, land coming in contact only
with certain circles, it is quite natural
that he should consider this world, the
world that surrounds him, as the only
world, and measure all endeavors to i'm.
prove conditions by the rule of utility
to this special world. When Mr.. Savage
says of Mr.. Bellamy that he shows an
| ignorance worthy of aschoolboy concern
ing the very fundamental principles Of
the science and philosophy of the modern
world, he has right to his opinion,
but from the whole tenor of his lecture,
| |, or somebody else, would have the
same right to say in similar way that
Mr.. Savage seems not to have obtained
from personal observation any knowl-
edge of the actual miseries from which
the masses are suffering in this modern
world. 1t seems to have been his good
| fortune that he never wanted for any.
! thing; that he found his road smooth,
and that the large circle of his friends
do not offer to him sight that would
brighten him, But in order to know
whether Mr.. Bellamy's picture of the
coach IL overdrawn, a man must have
pulled on the ropes himself, must have
lived among the downtrodden, must
have experienced with them the agones
| which come from the vain attempt to
lift themselves up and to reach place
of safety he himself must have felt the
sting of the lash, which hunger swings
over the heads Of the team, and that
| agonizing dread of what to do the next
day it, by some unforeseen accident,
the position should be undeserve lily lost
which supports him to-day, A man may
be logician, a great scholar, an able
speaker, and a philanthropist on the top
of it he may be well informed concern.
ing all the principles of the science and
philosophy of the modern world, and
still he may be as ignorant as is a schot |.
boy in regard to the miseries and the
disappointments of life from which the
masses are suffering. Mr.. Savage utterly
ignores the fact that the novel of Mr..
Bellamy is fiction. Mr. BeIlamy must
he regarded as the medium through
which some grand thoughts. some great
truths have found their way to public
consciousness. MIR. Savage may bring
statistics rs many as he pleases to prove
that there are no poor at all in this
country, or that, as he insinuatps, only
those are lacking the convenlences of
life who through i'll health are unable
to obtain them, or through bad habits
have forfeited their right to them. Yet
his proud declarations lack the same
substantial proof AZ does the assumption
which he puts into the mouths Of Ma
tionalists. If Mr.. Savage has been for
tunate enough not to have seen the mi
series of the laboring classes, thsir want
of all that makes life worth living; if he
has not observed how they have to live !
from hand to mouth, and how the dread
of what the next day may bring haunts
them day and night; if, on the con-
trary, he has found that laborers own
houses, have carpet in one of their |
rooms and even piano, this does not |
prove either that every laborer enjoys |
such Injuries, or that, if he does not, it |
is his own fault. | could furthermore !
declare to be false and misleading his |
strange assumption that humanity had |
begun with socialism and had risen to |
individuallsm. How this can be sub |
stantiated by facts ] am at loss to |
know. The further back we go, the !
more do we find that every individual |
was depending upon himself, and, owing |
to this indivldualism, that state of bar !
baFism prevailed which so greatly |
shocked us. With every step in the d.
rec IN of socialism, of division of labor,
of organizing labor, did the wealth of
the world increase, and all that is
needed is to merely follow this line of
progress.
AS for the state of things today, it is a
fact that cannot be galnsaid that the |
masses, in spite of all the liberties which |
they are said to possess, have at present
little. il any, chance to lift themselves
into better conditions. Fate seems TO
chain them TO their position in Ii even
the education which now is offered to
them avaiIs little. and rather makes |