The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-08-07

stream or commerce.. like the Nile, will periodically,ris and sbb tiii 1t becomes
 too shallow for safe navigation.
 Furthermore. its growth Is never nor
 maj. The whole trouble during the dis astrous years of 1898 and 1894 has been confessedly lack Of confidence. But when is there ever mutual confidence? Dishonesty is SO common. charges and counter-charges so rife. that none knows at any time whom to trust. So saving
 and investment are slow. I have no doubt that the increase of national wealth would be twice as fast were bus
 mess conducted on honest and unselfish principles. As 1t is. investors vibrate between feverish speculation and panic.
 No healthy development of civilization Is possible.
 Most of what have said will be gen.
 orally conceded. but objection is made
 that all this Is unchanseable as a law
 of nature. Does not the very compari-
 son to the inundations of the Nile im-
 ply this? But granting that panics are
 due to natural laws, is does not follow
 that they cannot be prevented. Engin-
 eers are now proposing to build great
 reservoirs on the upper Mississippi In
 which the spring floods are to be kept
 back to maintain the volume of the
 river during the summer. If a river
 can thus be controlled. why not the
 natural fluctuations of business? This
 is precisely what capitalists themselves
 are attempting in trusts" which. by
 monopoly, do away with competition.
 These are no passing phenomena. They
 are inevitable. Consolidation of all
 great industries so as to abolish compe-
 tition Is certain. The only question Is.
 Shall it. be done by few capitalists for
 their own enrichment. or by the state
 for the good of the people?
 But l have said that the real cause of
 panics is moral; and we cannot grant
 that the principle Each man for him
 self" is an unchangeable law of nature.
 If we did, how could we believe that Jesus was anything but lunatic when
 he said. Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself?"
 If the law of love Is practicable the selfish principles on which business is to-day conducted can and must be changed. If those principles are as unchangeable as natural laws. then Christianity is a lie! It reduces itself to this: You must either give up the sermon on tho mount or revise your political economy? Which will you do?
 To conclude; my claim. based upon our text Is this: That business panics are simply indications that our whole business system Is conducted on a false, that is an immoral basis. We confess with our lips. we so-called moral. respectable men, that we are yet fear we have the vabuest of ideas what our sins are. Our lips are right. We are all terrible sinners. all in so far as we share without pro- test in the utterly unchristian Indus trial system under which we live. Our sins are habits of indolence and lack of cooperation. which make competition necessary. If have proved this. my purpose is accomplished. I have not time, if could. to describe the indus trial system which must take its place. But this much 'WiIl say: Industry must be made Chr1stiafi.;o and to be Christian. all production of Wealth must be cooperative not competitive. all are social not selfish! .,....
 The social problem Is moral prob lem, therefore 1t is my right and duty as minister to deal with it. Do you say, No. your eis simply to make individuals honest and godly? How can you make men honest, when as. soon as they enter the field, of business, as they have to do in order to live, they are compelled to leave behind the law of love, and to practice the fierce com petition of selfishness? Gan life be thus Gan the !G9lden Rule be true when we meet in church, and false when we meet in fhe market? Did Jesus say: 'All authority is given unto Me in heaven and earth-except, of course, in the field of business, where the teachings of a goddess political economy must always prevail?" Are we who hail in our songs as king, Him who though He was rich for our sake became poor that we through His pow erty might become rich," and then go | put, and in all our labor. our buying and selling. Implicitly follow the ex- ample of those who,, though they were once poor, for their own sakes became rich. that we through their riches might | become poor? No! Jesus will accept no partial loyalty. Either we must con- trol the law of supply and demand by l the law of love in the world of busi- l ness, or we join those who cried: we will not have this Man to reign over us" | None can be Christ's disciple unless he | takes up the cross. that Is unless as Christ did. he sets himself against the | false spirit of the world. He who tries to save his own soul while leaving the l world unchanged, has a soul too small | to save! Unless preach this. I do not preach the gospel. Unless I address society as whole I do not preach the Bible. The whole Old Testament. nearly. is addressed not to individuals put to the nation! There are sins so great that no ono man can commit | them, sins of the nation as a whole. | Such a sin is the existing industrial l system. I believe in conversion of in- iividuals, but I believe also in some- hing grander, the conversion of society tself! For what else does Christendom pray when 1t plainly says "Thy King lom come, Thy will be done. on earth tt it Is in Heaven" If Christianity be rue, the present theory, of business, Each man for himself" Is false. f 1t is false, 1t cannot end n anything but disaster. Let us not be deceived by outward prosperity, or the xcellence of our free institutions. Ev- ry civilization that has preceded us