The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1894-07-30
The Social Conditions OF Today-Mr.
Hathaway's Sermon.

1t is a pleasant and an edyfying
thing to see a public teacher in the
position of the Rev. MI. Hathaway of
of this city take up the burning ques-
ton of the day in the and
earnest spirit of enquiry which
marked his most interesting sermon
of yesterday. This discourse is very
fully reported in our news columns,
and we have no hesitation in pronounc-
ing it one of the most deserving of
publicity that it has been the privil-
public in this city. 1t is animated
with a spirit of charity which har-
monies it with the place of its ut
terance. It is a serious endeavor to
find an opening from the darkness,
which like that of a raging dust storm
such as we read of in the desert,
blinds the face of society. 1t has none
of that historical sensationalism
which we are too much accustomed to
in pulpit discussions of popular
topics.
Having said so much Of Mr.. Hath
Always sermon, and commencing 1t to
everyone as material for thought, we
hasten to add that we are far from
endorsing its conclusions Is either
touching the fundamental truth or
leading to a solution of the practical
-voo1eI ooI ~auorty Wa
still adhere to the idea that labor is a
commodity, and that competition is
the immutable law of industry and
commerce.. We are utterly sceptical
as to the ability of Legislatures to
reform systems which are the product
of natural laws. We regard the state
control of great corporate interest as
a mere plunge into the darkness and
despond of socialism, and we believe
that when this experiment is tried by
any community it is only n step
distant from despotism. the Nirvana
OF all the transmigrations of sociology.
Just what the solution is going to
be, we do not undertake to say, not
having the secret of human destiny
confided to us; but we are more than
half inclined to combat the ldea that
the world, or any part of it, is any
worse off today than it ever was be-
fore, or indeed that, except in a
spasmodic and accidental way, it is
very badly off at all. The control
which individuals are described as
holding over vast accommodations of
wealth is in fact hardly more than
a form of expression. The amount of
personal use which an individual can
extract from wealth is exceedingly
limited and it is hardly going too far
to say that the owners of vast estates
hold them mainly for the public use,
and are little more than vast dis
tributing and administering agents
in the great scheme of the worlds af-
fairs. A special fallacy is disclosed
in Mr.. Hathaway's comparison of the
great fortunes of today with those of
by-gone ages, including the
what mythical MI. Croesus, of SOM
where in Asia Minor. 1t is well to re-
member, before ~stigmatising the pres
ent are, that wealth is not SO much a
matter of arithmetic. 1t is a matter
of purchasing power, and there is
more than enough historic evidence
extant to show that the fortunes OF
olden times conferred-or were cap
able of conferring--as much luxury
and inconceivably more personal
power than any heap of treas
ure that any nineteenth century
millionaire has yet been able to
amass Indeed, it is not going too
far to say that this is essentially the
poor mans century. This is the first
period in the worlds history when the
mar of no fortune or small fortune
has figured as a ruler and a leader.
In the past, he has been thinker,
teacher, disturber, or instrument of.
the power of others; but today, at
last. he has acted as an independent
entity and backed by popular force
has successfully combated the forces
of wealth and all that has constituted
power in the past.
Mr.. Hathaway is %grievousIv in error,
we think, when he argues that it is
for the benefit of the very rich that
wage are in some cases depressed be-
low the living limit. He admits that
the social conditions OF the ION
wealth-owning classes have vastly
improved in later years. 1t is to feed
this improvement, to cater to the de-
veioped tastes of the working classes
that the cost of production has
been pushed down and down. The
worst we can say of this is that it is a
case of the poor preying upon the
poor. The ricn have no concern in it.
The Boston women alluded to by MI.
Hathaway as giving dinners a tS10o a
cover are not the women who wear
the clothing made in squalid tene-
ments or feverish factories out OF the
blood and bone of half starved wild
w.. The rich, to do them justice,
a in a princelY fashion for what