The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-06-03
rHE BROTHERHOOD or MAN.

lueOIy anu Iu6Spuu SSHlSuCSs, anu
sometimes we see it exhibited in
practice. But as rule men act as
though they lived for themselves and
their immediate families alone, and all
other people were aliens and enemies.
IT is for that reason that there is so
much human distress; that the rich are
growing richer and the poor are getting
poorer; that the wealthy are hugging
or locking up their gold, and people
who depend upon labor for living go
unemployed; that the millionaire feasts
upon all the luxuries of the earth,
while the workman eats his dry bread
to the last crumb within the scent of
the viands which smoke on the bank
er's board; that plenty teens in this
glorious land, and thousands tramp its
thoroughfares without a meal of food
or roof for shelter.
1t may be said it has always been
so. 1t is true that with the increase Of
wealth on the one hand there has been
suffering from want on the other. back
to remote ages. That does not help
the situation nor afford evidence that
it is right. 1t only proves that the dis
order is one of long standing. It makes
clear the fact that the brotherhood of
man is in great degree a pleasing
platitude something to talk of but not
to make actual.
The Fatherhood of God is another
fine phrase and it is the origin of the
other If God is the father of US all
then all mankind are brethren in very
deed. But it is very clear that few
believe the saying, or if they do that
it is in a way of simple assent and not
as living. active principle of faith
which is shown by works.
If the people who profess belief in
the Fatherhood of God would act on
that profession. logically and fairly,
the brotherhood of man would be a
living fact and much of human misery
would be averted. There would be
some sentiment in all the transactions
of life. Sentiment and business are
now considered incompatible. The re-
lations of capital and labor are those
of hard and cold calculations governed
by seifshness. The employer wants
labor at its lowest rate and longest
time; the employee wants as much as
he can get in the easiest way and the
shortest possible hours.
Bargain and sale, home trade and
foreign commerce. contracts public
and private, all that is done by indi-
viduals, corporations, companies and
governments is conducted on the prin-
ciple of self1shness and individualism,
and sentiment is banished as puerile
and stupid.
There will be no real redemption
from the conditions which now con-
front the masses and under which the
common people" have groaned for
ages, until men feel and sense and act
on the fact that all the race are mem
bers of one great family-with Deity
for the everlasting Father. Christian
ity, so called, has been preached for
nearly two thousand years and yet
the great Christian principle. What
soever We would that men should do
to you, do We even so to them" is al
most a dead letter It matters not
whether the sentiment was original
with the Nazarene. It was enunciated
by him as an essential principle and is
an integral part of the system called
by his name.
Whatever of kindness and benevo-
lence and sweet charity prevail and
shed their benign influence upon soci-
ETY., comes from the practice of that
axiom of true religion. It needs to be
fostered and inculcated and sensed by
all people of all classes. Men of brains
and means would then devote time to
the general welfare rather than to in
dividual aims and ends. Wealth would
be more evenly distributed The pro
Queer would obtain a larger share of
the products of field and loom and
mill and forge. Capital and labor
would draw together instead of being
as now repellant. And the needs and
worth of men would enter into the re-
lations of employer and employed, in
stead of the grinding and sweating sys-
tenn which now prevails.
On this day which nature and reli-
gion, which law and custom decree
shall be a day of rest and peace, it is a
good time for people to think on those
principles which lie at the root of the
tree of happiness, and those precepts
which, if practiced, would benefit and
redeem the race. The brotherhood of
man is timely theme, and it would
be a splendid thing if we would all feel
its truth and gauge our lives by what
it suggests.
AS TO PETITIONS.