The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1894-04-13

their existence, and they are not cor.
rected because no combined attempts
are made to correct them.
The argument of those occupying
the high places and enjoying the lux
uries and the rich products of the
world, is that it was always so and al
ways will be so. This idea is repug-
nant to all progress. That is false
veneration that builds ship after the
model of the Mayfiower. Had our
ancestors lived and acted on the same
principle we would yet be living in
huts and chiseling utensils with
stones.
shall not believe that when the
great God of Creation was placing in the
bowels of the earth the coal, and the
oil, and the phosphate rock, the gold
ana silver and precious stones, that he
was depositing these things there for
the exclusive use and benefit of Mr..
Rockefeller, Mr.. FIagler, or any other
one individual, and any law that per-
mits the monopoly of the bounties OF
nature by any one individual permits
wrong to every other individual
throughout the whole universe. Tie
monopoly of the soilof Ireland by few
absentee landlords has for centuries
made that country the weeping queen
among the nations, and what a mo-
nopoly of the soil has done for Ireland,
it will do for the whole world in time.
Tie same laws act the same, and hui
nan nature Is no better in the United
states than in Ireland. The lay
IF gravitation is the same and water
runs from the mountain to the sea
wherever water, mountain aud sea
exist.
With all of Ireland's woes it is
stated on good authority that there are
more evictions in the city of New
York in a single year than there is in
the whole of Ireland. Mr.. Gladstone,
who after making a fight for struggling
humanity that has crowned him with
laurels from all lands, said with full
knowledge of the facts before him,
that the sentence of eviction was in
many instances equal to the sentence
of death, and If this he SO with more
than twenty thousand evictions in
one city alone under the stars and
stripes of America, what awful TRACE
dies are going on under our eyes and
to which the press is dumb.
is Ephriam so welded to his idols
that he can see no wrong except in
other lands?
What is the debt the world owes to
labor?
Labor fells the forests; it plants the
seed; it harvests the crop; it drives
the nails; it lays the brick; it starts
the FORCES; it turns the wheels; it digs
the canals; 1t constructs the railroads
and builds the cities; it has made the
desert redolent with fragrance; it has
fashioned sticks and stones and un-
slightly clay into beautiful palaces. II
has whitened every sea with the traf.
tic of commerce and has carried the
sunshine of civilization to the re.
hottest ends of the earth. But is the
sweat of honest toll longer considered
a credential of true nobility? Is the
dignity of labor not a mere senti.
ment that has no existence in real
life? Is the hand roughened by toll a
passport into modern society circles
Is not caste finding Judgment in che
United States the same as it has done
in other lands?
Is not the unequal distribution Of
riches producing the same results here
as IN other portions of the world?
And what is being done to correct
these abuses?
What are the churches doing along
these lines?
When was boy, / remember tt
have often heard sermons preached
against the possession of great riches
The text, verify / say unto you thai
it is easier for a camel to go through
the eye of needle than for a ricf
man to enter into the kingdom o
God wasn't stretched to slip IN tht
Millionaire by St. Peter, and the s'ey,
of the needle wasn't interpreted t
mean great hole ia mountain
PASS" In those days the pulpit was i
power because the preachers had thu
courage OF their convictions anc
wasn't infected with the money-get
ting mania of the world. They wer,
inspired with something of the spiri
Of the prophet Nehemiah who re
buked the mobiles and the rulers ano
said unto them: "Ye exact usurg 8
your brother, and / said unto them
We have redeemed our brethren, The
Jews, which were sold unto the heath
en-; and will We even sell your breth
rem? or shall they be sold unto us p
The prophet understood the socia
question and knew the exaction 8.
usury meant the slavery of all who
borrow.
Thirty and forty years ago 2per cen
per month was unknown, and there
was no such inequalities of wealth al
we see to-day and the poor were made
to feel that they had a place in the
church militant as well as hope in
the church triumphant. How is i
to-day? The churches have lost theil
simplicity. Theyrun to high climbing
spires; windows of stained glass
they have high priced pews Of soft
plush velvet, and higher priced preach,
ers Of still softer material, and the pool
are being gradually weeded out.
Il is give, give, give! and when &
big preacher leaves his costly pulpit