St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-09-05
THE CANoNIsTs' THEORY
Found Impossible Because of the
Middle Man.

Found Impossible Because of the
Middle Man.
have set out literally the tenets of
the various schools ofpolitical economy
for double purpose. / wanted to
show, first, that all departures from the
school Of mercantile political economy
were but reflected light from the divine
sermon on the mount. This was true of
the canonists' theories. But the canon
ists' theory of truth was found impos-
sible for the use of mankind, because.
in its constructed agency for develop
ment it placed a middle mana man.
constructed church - between Gods
truth and mems cOnscienceS, and the
divine ethics, bound fast to this self
constituted human interpreter, became
involved in the downfall of the usurp-
ing function which came between mans
conscience and mans God.
The conscience of man had to evolve
its own liberty; iD fact. conscience is
yet involved In that struggle for full
liberty, and it ever will he until it &C
eepts the fraternal principle taught by
the Divine Messenger as truly divine
and as truly binding on both govern
mentS and men as the God-sent Ten
Commandments of Moses. The trouble
with all forms of church life is that, by
holding fast with Sceptic firmness to
the divine law as given to Moses, they
have never insisted upon the creation of
a public sentiment which must give
1 g 81; III, 81
OF fraternity taught by Christ as the
fulfiller of the law of Moses.
The ethics of the French physiocrats
reflected the same fraternal principle,
but that school suggested no plan for
the establishment of system of organic
economy Which should preserve to
labor the rewards of labor. They taught
the doctrine of laiSseZ faire, Let things
Alone" But now. after centuries Of
waiting and letting things alone, NAH
kind is startled by the most convincing
proofs that everything in the material,
and equally in the moral universe, al
though they contain the seeds Of right
and usefulness inherently, they will
ever be of no use to man unless the
latent usefulness shall be discovered,
utilized and preserved by the intelli-
gent force of human labor.
And so, however true or parallel TO
the Divine Teacher were the beliefs of
the physiOcrats, they were useless to
mankind without all intelligent machine
or system Of enforcing their function,
Just as electricity, discovered long ago,
has never. until our times, been utilized
by the discovery of a system for its in
teiligent use. In fact, the very posi-
bility of such system of economic free
dom was never possible to either the
e ,.,Ne, IS 4,
Gratis, nor do l believe ever possible IN
til the present decade of this century.
Conscientious liberty. the elder brother
of all other forms of liberty, had first to
evolve its own freedom, and cOnscian-
tious liberty, when first freed from the
slavery of mankind by the power of the
light of the sacred cross and riven tomb
of Christ, had first to assist its Lext old
est brother and friend, personal liberty!
from the same slavery of humanity de-
yised forms of human government.
And never until but little over one
hundred years ago did collective men
dare to publish to the world that life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness
were rights endowed by God and not
dependent on the grant of an aggregate
force of human government. That the
government of these United States
could never enter honestly into the
development of system of economic
liberty, based upon the fraternity OF
the Divine Messenger, while these
states permitted and defended human
slavery, must be apparent to every can
did mind, for liberty and slavery cannot
flourish IN the same land. l point TO
you the fate of all past nations. Human
Slavery in some form has ever been the
fell disease by which their national life
has hppn paOl,prph and nortifiad IN
loathsome and never-ending death.
The political economy of Adam Smith,
which was the first to assert the truth
that the wealth of a nation was to be
| measured by Its manual labor, adopts in
part the doctrine of iaisseZ faire, and in
part defends existing class legi>l ltion,
lnvidious to labor. by basing such legis-
lation on the ordinances of Moses, not
| on the naked decalogue. but on the svS-
tenn of Jewish theocracy. The fatal
doctrine of subServient "civil liberty;'
was taught England by Locke. and an
| acceptance of classes of middle men with
administrative functions, he espouSed,
never seeming 10 perceive that the fra
ternity taught by the Risen Saviour had
been written i'll letters of blood across
the decalogue of first principles to the
| establishment of fraterna( life. 1t thus
appears in no way strange that Ricardo
and John Stuart Mill, VINO followed him
as writers on political economy, both
perceiving the impoSslbility of again
claiming the unfettered souls of men to
belief in the divine right of kings OF
of classes, sought to find an escape from
his false logic and false system by sug-
costing the ultimate disbelief of man in
theism, and the ultimate creation of
popular religion, socialistlc in its gen.
eral features.
England was, at the time Of Adam
Smith, and ever since has been, using
its fullest powers to secure and hold
national pre-eminence by a constant
adherence to the mercantile political
economy. Locke had convinced Eng
tand in 1896 that "riches consist in u
plenty of gold and silver" that is. as
he explains, in having more in proper
ton Of those metals than the rest of the
world, or more than our neighbors. He