Los Angeles herald., 1892-05-16
LABOR AND EVOLUTION,
The Great Question as 1t AT
fects Development.
Some Peculiar Views of the Ques-
tion of the Day.
The Labor Problem Factor in Human
Evolution--Theori About the
Snbject-Prospect for
the Future.

agitation all over the country, which
has been accumulating force for the
last twenty years, is one of the most re-
markable of those movements which
make history. The tendency of this
movement and its possible settlement
are looked to with interest and anxiety
by the most advanced thinkers and
philanthropists of all nations. There
is a process OF education going on
quietly but no less surely, there is a
growing sentiment, not merely that
something needs to be righted but that
forces are being brought into play that
will right it, and right it in way that
will be for the ultimate progress and the
ultimate stability and perfection OF
society.
There seems to be constraint in
many quarters about discussing this
question. 1t seems to be so difficult to
keep it above the plane of demagoguery,
and out of bad company generally, that
many people seem to think it better not
to discuss it at all, as if it could be set
tied any other way than by the fullest
and most sincere discussion. 1t is
question really that calls for the most
earnest thought of the wisest men OF
all classes. 1t ought to be handled as
purely scientific subject, as question of
social science, the most important and
fascinating science in the worlds
thought today, though only in it's in
fancy.
This fact, that social science is only
in it's veriest infancy, accounts for the
inability of most writers to discuss the
great social change that is drawing on
the world, in spirit OF fairness and
without undue prejudice. For me to
attempt to discuss it in the ordinary
method would only add to the weari-
ness with which this subject is regard
ed, go l will introduce new feature.
Suppose for instance that the condi-
tion OF labor in the United States was
improved so that every individual in
the land was sure OF employment at
good wages whenever he wanted to
work. Does not every one see that the
immediate result would be an inunds-
dation of outcasts from Europe, Asia and
Africa, like the Mississippi overfiowing
its banks? From which it is very evi-
dent that the great labor problem can
not be settled in the United States with
out being settled in all the rest of the
world.
1t is also evident that it cannot be
settled any other way than in the way I
have mentioned, that is by system by
which any one who wants to work can
get employment at good wages at all
times. As things stand now a frst-class
mechanic gets about wages enough to
live on by being very economical; all
below that do not get wages enough to
live on. They don't live at all; they
merely slave and starve. hope some
one will disagree with me here and
write a protest so that l will get
chance to reply and prove my position.
The condition of labor in the United
States is better, believe, little better,
than anywhere else in the world; yet
no workingman below a high.class me-
chanic gets wages enough to live on and
be a respectable citizen and good
Christian. But now we have to draw
on imagination once more. Suppose we
had no poor people and every one got
good wages and was comfortably fixed
financially. What then? Why, here
comes scientist with a dreadful theory
called the Malthusian doctrine, and
tells us that soon the world would be SO
thickly populated that there would not
be standing room for all the people.
These gentlemen with the terrible NAL
tbusian bugaboo tell us that poverty,
with ite accompaniments of overwork,
starvation, disease, prostitution, drunk
enness, etc., is the only thing that pre-
vents the people from reaching the
state of innumerability aforesaid, and
that therefore poverty, if not exactly
blessing, is at least necessary evil that
cannot be removed; and that settles it
as far as they know. Thus it is that
every. crank with theory settles this
problem in his own mind; but in actual
fact it is not settled at all. 1t is the
problem of evolution, and the progress
towards ultimate perfection OF the race.
And now when we look at the world
as a whole, we find state of affairs
such as has never existed before in its
history. We find all nations linked
in bonds of amicable intercourse by
commerce. We find a condition in
which wars between nations are begin
ming to be looked upon in their true
light as disasters to the many, though
they may bring temporary profit to
the sordid and soulless few. And the la
Dor agitation, with the economic educa-
ton it involves, is doing as much as any
thing to link all nations together in one
grand federation and relegate war to
the category of impossible evils. Then
what remains for science, for philan-
thropy, for Christianity, but to turn their
allied forces to relieve the internal evils
which have scourged the race with Bit
ter SORROWS, the heritage of an ancestry
of barbarism.
Here is field that is wider than mere
selfish patriotism-it is the field of
worldwide philanthropy, ripening for
the reapers; the harvest of the struggles
and sufferings of all past ages; the prac-
tical application Of Christianity and
realization of its ideals on earth. Is it
not possible that we are treading on the
threshold of future brighter even than
we have dared to dream Of? Christiani-
ty has always talked of millennium.
Theosophy tells us that the world is
now passing quietly into new cycle
OF progress and evolution. Science ie to
the front with her practical applications
OF natures forces to relieve man from
being the slave of material wants and
necessities. Let us read all these signs
OF the times and see whether they be-
token the daWning of new and brighter
day for the whole world, or whether they
sound the dirge of approaching doom.
This is the way to treat of this ques-
ton, to take it out of the hands of the
agitator and the mere politician, to raise
it above the plane of narrow sectarian
and prejudice, to make it