Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-02-21
ISAIAH AN EDITOR.
The Old Prophet Was an Ideal Man
for q Newspaper Office.
BUT HE WOULDN'T MAKE ONE PAY.
Bis Editorial Utterances as . Preacher
We're Not Popular.
THE UNION AND NON.UNION LABOR.
WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATcH.i

| WRITTEN FOR THE DIsPATCH.i
The prophets were the newspaper editors OF
the Hebrew nation. They played the part in
that old day which is played to-day by the
free press. John Stuart Mill says that they
were even more powerful than the press.
And that is true, because they were even
more free. They never stopped to consider
the opinions of constituency. They never
had to pay heed to the tastes Of advertisers.
All that they asked was attention. And
even when attention was denied them, they
still kept on declaring to unattending ears
the dread messages of God.
Isaiah would have made q great editor.
He would have been in his element in the
conduct of daily paper in Jerusalem. In
deed his sermons in that old city, like John
Knox's sermons in Edinburgh, took the
place of the daily press He was himself
/ the "organ" of the opposition. Isaiah
would perhaps have failed of financial sue
cess. 1t is more than doubtful if he could
have made a paper ''pay." All the capi-
talists, all the politicians would have been
dead set against Isaiah's paper, beginning
| with the first issue. Yes, and all the par
sons. The people would have been warned
from all the pulpits against that pernicious
and pestilant sheet, the daily paper of
Isaiah.
Isaiah an Ideal Editor.
Yet Isaiah is the best editorial ideal
can think of-saving One who is the best
ideal imaginable in any avocation. A man
of bravery and brains, with stout pen and
a stout heart; man who knew men, and
was close to the spirit of the day in which
he lived, able to sympathize with all that
was good in it, and to detect the bad; man
who looked at all things from the point of
view of eternal principles, and was the
open enemy of the devil, and was on the
side of all things righteous.
believe that Isaiah, if he had that great
work of his to do again to-day, would not
be seen in surplice and stole, nor even in
genevan gown, preaching in the churches,
but would be found in the midst of the tele-
graphs and the telephones and the type
writer's of newspaper office.
As 1t is, 1saiah's sermons are as fully oc-
cupied with the events and the interests of
lsaiah's day as any newspaper is with the
doings and sayings of the hour. 1t is no
more possible to understand them without
knowledge of the times than it would be
possible century from now to understand
the editorials in this mornings paper. Ac-
cordingly, the first thing to do is to learn
the condition of things in Isaiah's country
when he wrote the editorials-that is to say,
preached the sermons, which we are to
study to-day.
Tho Two Jewish Kingdoms.
Let us begin with a lesson in geography.
The two Kingdoms of the Jews Law side by
side of the Mediterranean sea- There had
been rebellion there and the North had
separated from the South. That had made
the division into two kingdoms. These two
Kingdoms were alike the two portions of
this country which were opposed in the
Civil War Israel was the North, with
Samaria in the place of New York. Judah
vas the South, with Jerusalem in the place
of Richmond. The Southern Kingdom was
aristocratic, but not strong or especially
prosperous. The Northern Kingdom was
progressive, commercial and particularly
prosperous.
Now these two kingdoms, most of the
time at variance, were beset by enemies.
They had the protecting sea on one side of
them, and the protecting desert on the
other side, so that their foes could attack
them from only two directions, north and
south. The great foe which threatened the
two kingdoms from the north was Assyria
A lesser foe from the same quarter was the
Syrian kingdom of Damascus. The great
foe which menaced the kingdom from the
south was Egypt. A lesser foe from that
direction was Philistia.
Complicated Foreign Relations.
It is evident from this glance at the geo.
graphical situationSthat the foreign policy
of the little kingdom of Judah in which
Isaiah lived must have been full of complica-
tions. The politicians of that day did not
N
concerned about protective swords and bat
tie axes. The question of reciprocity was
question of offensive and defensive alli-
ance. The little kingdom was always in
danger, and when danger came the people
fell at once into two parties. Some wanted
to preserve national independence; they
urged reliance upon native resources and
upon the help of God. Others wanted to
make an alliance with one or the other of
the two great powers, sometimes with Assy-
ria, and sometimes with Egypt. Isaiah was
throughout opposed to foreign entangle-
ments. Twenty-Five centuries before Presi-
dent Monroe, Isaiah taught the Monroe
doctrine" of national neutrality.
Isaiah had not been long occupied in his
mission as a speaker for God, when this
question of foreign policy came up The
northern kingdom, which was sometimes
called "Israel," and sometimes .'Ephrafm,"
from the name of its chief people, was for
once at peace with the Syrian Kingdom of
Damascus The two neighbors had become
alarmed
At the Growing Aggression
of the great power of Assyria The Assyr-
ians, the 'Romans of the East" were ex-
tending their conquests. Every day they
were getting nearer to Assyria and Ephraim.
The two had accordingly made defensive
alliance. And now, in order to make the
alliance as strong as possible, they desired
the help of Judah They wanted Judah
to join them against Assyria. But Judah,
enter into this combination. The allied
forces then proceeded to use with Judah the
argument of violence. They sent down an
army to discuss the question.
Human nature does not greatly change
either with skies or with centuries. How
familiar is this ancient history! Change |
the names and it belongs right here in |
Pittsburg This is the labor question. Sy- |
ria and Ephraim have formed union |
against the great centralized power of As |
syria Judah has declined to come into the |
union. And here the union men are get |
ting ready, all these long centuries ago, to |
fight the non-union men.
That policy did not prove to be particu-
larly successful 1t is not likely that it |
will ever be particularly successful. The |
question, as it comes up to-day, is an e1-
ceedingly difficult and complicated one. I |
would not be willing to maintain that be-
cause Isaiah was a non-union in the eighth |
century B. c., he would be q non-union |
man to-day.
Tho Organization of Labor.
1t does seem best for all concerned that |
Ioh eh ha nd -