The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1897-08-26
The Problem of the Ages.


The annual address of Mr.. Wool
worth president of the American Bar
association, which was delivered at
Cleveland yesterday, is given in part
in our telegraphic dispatches. If print
ed in full 1t would occupy two pages,
and much of it was devoted to a con-
sderation of what, for lack of more
definite term, we may call the social
question. There was such gravity and
seriousness in the tone of this care
fully prepared address by officially the
foremost representative of the Ameri-
can bar as may not easily be shown in
hasty review. The speaker thus took
measure of our social system as de-
veloped under present American insti-
tutions:
Euulity'hefore the law is a tremendous
truth But there is another equality; it is
the equality of all men in the competitions
and rivalries of life. Under our system,
the gates and avenues to the arena of IN
dustl1al enterprise ana adventure are
open to all who run the course-the start
in the 20 Is equal for all; there is no fa-
Nor for any, and the best wins. That Is
the end and consummation and fruition
of the equality unto which Americans are
vored by law; that inequality our faith
ers never could bear. The highest educa-
tion was, perhaps, at one time within
reach of the few; but that advantage long
since became common. Any deserving
boy may by his own hands earn the best
instruction in the great universities. The
ranks of our own profession, the chief
places in the public service, the labora-
tories of triumphant science, the martS
where the most stUpendous transactions
of commerce are conducted, are filled by
those who started even with all others,
or If there was any inequality, the
chances were gainst those who have won
the race.
Yet-and here is the note of serious
ness, even of pathos in the address
the people are not satisfied. Adds Mr..
Woolworth:
Against institutions justified by the self
evident truths of the Declaration of In
dependence and a social order whose de-
Velopment has proceeded on them, other
forces are being set in array. Those who
have given energy and direction to these
allen and hostile forces and seek to drive
them farther and farther, think they dis
cover in modern industrial society and in
the development and operation of Its
fundamental principle, evils that greatly
transcend all that man has achieved. To
them, the rivalries and competitions of
life are virulent stimulants; they make
the strong drunk with pitiless desire, and
snatch from the unfortunate, however
worthy, the rewards of their agony of toll.
1t cannot be denied that in the end, the
equalities of rights and opportunity work
out in some instances the widest inequal-
tiles and the rankest injus tice and that
good men are sick at the sight of them
Great acAumIations Of wealth in the
hands of some, and equal accumulations
of want ignorance, brutality, and mental
and moral IpurE lgtioo ba
of others, go hand in hand. One seems to
correspond with the other. In a measure
they are related. Some assume that one
is the cause of the ether; they say that
there is a law which "rivets the laborer
TO capital more firmly than the wedges
of Vulcan did PrOmetheus to the rock"
This eNaEgerates the relations of one 10
the other one is certainly not the only
cause Of the other. But it cannot be de.
nien that great aCcumulations of wealth
in the hands of the few go along with the
process by which the poor are crowded
Down in deeper depths of poverty; and,
more and more the multitude on the
brink is precipitated into the abyss of
hopeless misery, while their places are
in turn filled by the industrious who beg
for work and ret for bread. Many cam
not suppress a profound sympathv for
the poor. and, almost in despair, cry out
from the Gepths of their hearts against
civilization which cannot save its own
victims
1T is perhaps natural" continues our
speaker, ito stigmatize these doctrines
as foreign importations, at which our
people will not give more than an in
credulous glance, and resent as an in
suit to American common sense the
suggestion that these vagaries and
foolish fancies will find acceptance
among us. But it is easy to perceive
just grounds for apprehension" Among
these grounds he mentioned the rapid
and widespread diffusion of socialistic
literature and the remarkable and
growing tendency of the poor to pull
together. what this great body of
the citizenship, possessed of political
power, transported by the enthusiasm
or self-sacrifice, directed by a relent-
less discipline will be-" he says, "when
1t becomes thoroughly saturated with
these doctrines, it is not hard to divine
In that day, if it ever comes, the feder-
ations of labor, their batallions en-
thusastic, compact, disciplined, organ
lied and moving with one impulse AT
the word Of command, when launched
upon institutions under which thev
suppose themselves trodden down. will
sweep from the face of the earth not
corporations, syndicates, trusts and
aggregated capital only, but all the
whole order of industrial society as now
organized"
Such is leading American LAWYERS
definition of the social problem as IL con-
fronts Americans today. The extent of
the remedy which he deems practic-
able is outlined in that portion Of his
address reproduced on our first page
and includes, we may here say, Jury
reform, reform of the petty courts and.
in brief, a more perceptible equaliza-
tion of the legal rights of Americans.
The remedy is good but incomplete
There must in addition be an entire
overhauling Of American ideas and So
cial tendencies, to the end that the
stress upon the dollar as the great
measure of happiness and worth shall
be reduced to a degree consistent with
sanity and the broadest welfare.
Indications multiply that Tommie At
kins will soon have both hands full in
India.