The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1895-04-28

dence of the God who is leading the ma
tons forward and who is leading every
century little higher in the realms of
civilization and of life. l cannot help see
ing in the noble spirit of brotherhood,
which is inculcated in every worthy or
/ ganization of laboring men. the spirit of
/ the strong to help the weak; ] cannot
help seeing in it the hand of providence,
the witness of the power of him who de-
clared that all men were brothers be-
cause they had one God.
There is a movement of providence, in
the general discussion of today in regard
to the rights of property and the abuses
! of the ownership in land. [ do not for
moment imagine that Christianity calls
in question the right of private property
but what / do say is that the ethics of
the gospel of Jesus Christ would elevate
thing nobler than mere ownership; II
would make it stewardship" 1.-The
earth is the Lord's;" that is where 1t
belongs. The Lord is interested in all of
us more than he is interested. in any par
ucular one OF us. The most sacred right
IN this universe is the right of humanity.
There is no other right that can take pre-
cedence of 1t; and if a man holds his
property in such quantity or in such a
way that 1t can be proved that it is TO the
detrlment OF the general welfare, then 1t
is perfectly plain according TO Christian
ethics that the government has a right TO
step in and in some way regulate that
matter
Christianity believes that the artificial
man. the great corporation created by
the state, ought to be in some measure at
least controlled by the state. Walker has
said that this artificial man never has the
palsy never dies, his estate is never dis
trlbuted- He never waneS While genera
tons come and go, and no individual man
can cope with that enormous artificial
creature that we have made. If the gov
eminent creates it, it thereby is RESPONSE
Die Tor controlling it. Christian ethics in
sists that the government like the Lord
shall be no reSpecter of persons or cor
porauons. 1t cries out that there is some
lhing wrong, as Washington GLADDEN. has
sald, when d man who steals a ham out
OF a freight car is sent to the county Jail
While the man who steals the railroad is
sent to the Senate.
Somebody has not done his dlItv. and II
Is the man who does not go TO the pri-
marieS; the man who thinks that poIi-
tics are too vile for decent man; he is
the man that is responsible for such
thlnSs. Never until every Christian man
IS active in municipal and national af-
fairs, SO far as his duty goes will those
thlngs be r1ghted- Christianity has no
mealy-mouthed message for criminals or
paupers gamblers or drunkards. While
II would do everything that it can for
Jne criminal as man. it says to him that
his crime is a wrong against society.
and 1t is the duty of society to make
crime Just as difficult as possible; it is
the duty of the Christian state to re-
duce pauperism to minimum. 1t was
a most disgraceful state of things i'm
england fifty years ago when the food
and raiment of the pauper were a great
deal better than the food and raiment OF
the honest laborer. The man who can
work, and VIII not, is an enemy to So
city and should be suppressed. The
gambler is leech upon society. He is
the worklngman's foe. He is his worst
foe because all evils come hardest upon
him. He is a leech and should be sup
pressed DO not care whether he is
q professional who plays with chips or
the grandee who PLAYS with stocks
Christianity holds that the saloon is not
only parasite but that it is a poison
in the body polite. Not only does it
give no adequate return for the money
expended. but it goes far toward deterior-
atInS the very structure of citizenship.
And more than that, the government is
bound &c take cognizance of an institu-
ton which has shown its hostility many
d time to the government All those
things come hardest on the iaboring
man; but l look with great satisfaction
upon the movement in many directions
for labor leaders and labor reformers to
unite their cause with the leaders of
temperance movements. Their interests
are one and the same.
know that the poor man has been
many times irritated and outraged by
the cOmplacent remark of some rich
nan, that If tho laboring man would
not go to the saloons, all would be
WE'LL" that all that is needed is self
control.
There is grain of truth in that, but
the spirit in which IL is said is what so
outrages the laboring man. There was
truth in the statement of Bishop Fellows,
when he said that if the ten millions of
dollars put into the six thousand saloons
in Chicago every year by the wage earn
ers We're turned to wholesome uses. it
would go a long way toward solving
some of the difficult problems that con-
front us today.
I hold that the state ought in some in
dustries and in some places, limit the
hours and amount of labor that is ex-
acted not only from women and children
but from men as well. 1t viii not do to
leave the matter to competition.
John c. Adams said: THE free play
OF individual interests tends TO force
the moral sentiment pervading any trade
down to the level of that which charac-
terizes the worst. man who can main
tain himself in it,
Therefore hold that it is the iegiti-
nate function of the government to .n-
terfere in such matters
Washington GLADDEN. says that the arts
tocrat may be Christian, and the pie
bean may be a Christian, but the logic
of Christianity is democracy. It may be
that the capitalist is a Christian; it may