The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1895-09-10
GREENACRE CONGRESS.
Addresses by Able Men at the South Eliot
Meetings.

oICOdooIo, 11iiOU, Mt, OopG o' q
The weather has been charming beyond
description during the month of August,
and in fact throughout the whole sum-
mer. While many portions of the west
have been parched with heat and drought,
the days here have been cool enough to
be constantly invigorating while vegeta
ton has almost the freshness of early
June. In August there were ninteen
sunny days and eleven more in which
the sun shone part of the time, and only
one rainy day Rain fell at night several
times however, but with the morning
would come the smiling sunshine. The
happy pilgrims to the Greenacre Con-
gress were contir ually singing praises for
the enjoyment of lovely weather as we'll
as other benefits. Ralph Waldo Emerson
is a name specially dear to those who are
trying to make the idealism OF this seer
practical, and hence most attentive au-
dience greeted Frank B. Sanborn to listen
tscences of Emerson" Mr.. Sanborn had
the privilege of thirty years OF lntlmate
friendship with the Sage Of Concord, and
he takes his listeners into his subject as
much as possible. He said in part: IL
never come to this theme without dl1I-
dence and profound sense of the height
to which he rises above any picture OF
him that I can draw. AS Sir Robert
Harley's chaplain said of that noble En-
glishman, My language is not match
for his excellent virtue; his spiritual
lineaments are above my pencil. When
those who know him best think OF him
there rises before the mind a presence
stately but kindly; something of Milton,
something of Wordsworth in his charac-
ter, while he added a freedom of range,
versatility of imagination which among
English poets we find only in the great
est-in Shakespeare Emerson grows
greater as we recede form him. The sub
tie insight of the Concord Sage is as won.
derful in its way as the Omniscience of
Shakespeare. Nothing could be better than
the best things either of them say, only
Shakespeare says the most. His habitual
meditations and the elevation at which
he stood made his position solitary one.
Men might approach and they were al
ways welcome: but some influence drew
a circle within which it was difficult to
enter or to remain No man was ever
more loyal to the voice of the Spirit;
none ever trusted himself more absolutely
to the Power that rules the universe.
From this faith and devotion come
great part of the influence on his age and
on the ages which are to follow.
On the morning of the same day IN
cred, Mr.. Sanborn delighted large COM
pany in a pine grove near the Inn by dis
coursing upon another of his old friends
of great distinction, Henry D. Thoreau..
why bellows in Immortality was the
subject of thoughtful lecture by Mrs
Ursula N. Gentefeld of New York. she
said that while proof in the sense of i'm
mediate demonstration, is not possible
careful examination of self-evident
truth and known facts leads to the con-
clusion as a logical necessity. Is not
mans destiny involve in his origin? That
which images God must be like Him
without beginning or end. Sod being
of the "survival of the fttest, P" and what
is there so fit to survive as the soul? Ac-
cording to our consciousness of what we
are to do we climb the ladder of the SOUL
We must see that continuity as Individual
consciousness is for the soul; and that
continuity for the body is only continued
general use of its material Nowhere In
nature do we find cessation of action.
only cessation of means which made GER
tain modes of motion visible. A break
ing up and reconstruction of such
means, is proof of continued actlon-con-
tinued life. not OF death. If man die
shall he live again." No. Logically,
does not die. His instrument of express
sion, the visible body, drops away. He
the soul-goes marching on.
Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of
Labor, gave an earnest address upon the
Labor Problem and how to Solve it. "
His definition of the labor question is
that it is the struggle of humanity for
for the better life. He says we have no
right to discuss the labor problem apart
from an ethical point of view, and it is
mere folly to do so. The labor problem
has to do not only with the physical man,
but with his intellectual and spiritual
we'll being. Mr.. Wright spoke OF various
proposed remedies, such as socialism.
anarchism and legislative enactment, but
he feels that none of these, taken alone,
will accomplish the great end; and that
we can have no solution of any perma-
nent value outside Of work with the, in
dividual. 1t must be found in uplifting
and idealizing the lives of individuals.
the welfare of each; the welfare of each
makes the welfare of the whole The
best way to work with the individual is
to work with him from his higher spirit
ual nature, for when this is taken care Of
illuminated and elevated, all the other
phases of his nature or life, will, OF their
own accord fall into line. 1t is
William Lloyd Garrison presented the
"Problem of the Unemployed and En-
forced Poverty" in a very forcible man
ner. He has profound conviction of
the capacity and upward destiny of the
human race, that man Is, though
sullied and dishonored, still divine" 1t
is not true that men prefer poverty to
comfort or vice to virtue, though it is
true that vile conditions distort and de-
grade the natural impulses of the human
soul. The so-called problem of unem-
ployed labor and enforced poverty, is one
man. TO attribute it to an inscrutable
Providence is as stupid as it is impious.
Mr. Garrison then went on to discuss
land monopolies, landordism and the