The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-07-16
ANARCHY AND SOCIAL PROBLEM.

The Central NJ. E. Church was crowded
TO the doors again last evening in response
10 the announcement that Rev. DR.. Ollie
would take for his text The Signs of the
Times" drawing further lessons from the
situation growing out of the great strike.
His discourse hit lawless men and an
arcby some hard blows, while not letting
the railroad company off without scath-
ing arraignmeut for its greater law-break-
ing record.
There are a great many people nova
days" he said, poor people, who say that
the churches are selfish. caring only for
their own interests; that the church, find.
ing the people growing FESTIVE under the uD-
just conditions of society. does nothing for
them but gather them into mission chaDes
and preach to them the gospel of content
meBt aud submission. Instead of helping
them to better homes on earth it talks to
them about mansions in the skies.
what are the signs of the times to-day
VIII this Government be perpetual? Will
this republic last? viii the present So
cial and Industrial order endure? Or is
the established order OF society like that
in our SaYIOr's time, so corrupt as to bear
within itself the elements of its own de-
ELIucllOD
fashioned this ration and bTeathed into
its yOungiand beauteous form the inspira-
ton of their great thoughts and noble lives
did they utter an empty boast when they
pronounced upon 1t the loving benedlctiOn,
'estO ierpatua'-be thou immortal.
the chief peril that threatens our ma
ton tC-d day is one born Of its very growth
aUd Drosg Gritty, of Its expansion and in-
crease of population. 1t is the danger that
ba1 Of iyht
That national expansion and growth are a
source of national peril has been an axiom
of craftsmanship for centuries. No an
cient empire one-half as large as ours ever
lived long or prOspered.
1T is true that the distance and isolation
Of the separate paris that broke the COhe-
sive forces OF the great nations of anti
guilty are somewhat neutral Zed by the con-
ditions under which we live, and especially
by the facilities for intercommunIcation
we enj0y-or did before the strike.
eve hear the expression. 'VoX POpuli.>
VoX De- bat that is only demagOgue's
catchWOrd. We have escaped the dogma
of the divine right of kings, but we are in
danger of falling into the more dangerous
error of the divine hight of ma jorities-for
thers is no tyranny so cruel as that of an
ignorant and vicious majority. 1t is only
when the people speak truth and justice
that their voice is the voice of God, and
they will only speak truth and justice
when they are educated ana eaveneG by
the Gospel of Christ. We can only neu-
tTaI.Ze the perils of universal suffrage by
universal education and pure religion.
Free schools are esseDt Ial TO manhood gov
eminent, and we will defend them il need
be 10 the last man, the last hearthslone,
the last drop Of blood.
Let me read you an extract from let
ter written by the statesman and historian,
Lord Macauley, to an American friend in
1857: I do not believe that the supreme
authority of the state ought 10 be entrust-
ed TO majority Of its cltizens-that is. to
the poorest and most ignorant part of
sOciety-fOT they are always in the ma
jority. | am convinced that institutions
purely democratic must sooner or later
destroy liberty or civilization, or both. LII
France they almost did so in 1S48 and
civilization was only saved by sacrificing
liberty-by the man on horseback (And
we have seen IN the last few days the man
on horseback military rule in the faireSt
cities in California;.
You may think Lord Macauay goes
on to say. that your country will be an
exception. But your fate is only deferred
by a physical cause. While you have a
vast expanse of fertile and unuccupieu
land your labOring population will be
more at ease than IN the Old World. But
wien you have given away your last acre
of public land and the last prairie dog is
driven out OF its hole il will be DARK day
for America. When New England is as
thckIy populated as old England wages
will be as low and work as scarce; you
will have your ManchesterS and Birming-
hams, YOUR bread riots aud your labor
strikes; then your institutions will be put
TO the test Distress and hard times re-
sulting from oYerproduction and over
population will make the labOrer mutinous
and disconnected, and incline him to listen
eagerly TO the socialist and the agitatOr
and believe that II IS crime for Que to
have a million and another not 10 have a
meal.
"'In England we can restrain discomfort,
for the rulers here are the educated ana
property classes, who are naturally con-
servatiVe of vested rights and Interested
in maintaining the existing order. But
with YOU the majority are your rulers, and
they have the rich (who are always in the
minority at their mercy. Some hard year
will come when the disconnected poor,
goaded to madness, will rise I'D against
what they believe 20 be an unjust social
order and confiscate the property of the
rich. Then the sun of your republic will
GO down III blood and darkness amid the
horrors OF another Commune, and then
some Napuleoh-sOme man on horseback
will set up a military despOtlsm on its
ruins
THAT letter contains much food for
serious thought. especially hat since it
was written we have gwen the ballot to
100000 of foreigners, most OF whom are
untitled bv character and education for the
duties of American citizenship.
"This nation to-day is In greater danger
from foreign immigration than from all
other causes together. The riots in Chi
cago was the work of the very scum of
Europe. colouzed in our great cities by the
plutocrats.
1--WE thrust the ballot into the hands OF a
foreigner who is so ignorant he cannot
read it, or so little American that ne Can
not read it in English.
"a citizen was manufactured here the
other day who thought that Grover Cleve-
land was Emperor and that kalloch was
Mayor of this city.
''The only way to destroy boss rule and
corporation rule Is to make The people
wiser and better.
"One Of the evils that come in the train
of the armies of the aliens who are coming
10 our shores is that the seed of an
archy is beng transplanted to our
shores, and 1t is its scattered seed that
has borne fruit in the lawieSsness at Chi
cag0. in the riots at Cripple Creek and
the terrible crime at treste at Sacra-
mento, as we'll as the lesser lawlessnesS at
Oakland and elsewhere.
81 said last Sunday night that if the
strike failed, if the righteous cause OF
labor was lost, it would be the violence of
the strikers or their sympathiZers or of the
criminal classes using the strike as pre-
text that would defeat it; that the man
who used violence was not only a trans
gressor against the law of the land, hut
against the sacred cause of labor Itself,
and was only riveting tighter the chains