The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1897-07-14

Press y which presents q vivid picture
of civilization past and present. BEAD
the daily papers of your city. Learn the
opinion of keeper Of al immoral re-
sort as to the cause that recruits the
ranks Of her class Hear another e1-
clamation: 81 can't give bond. My
Gcd, give me trial and let me go. I've
gos sick baby at home. .
Consider the enormous aggregation OF
poverty and want III the world and the
crime that springs from it and then
Judge whether it can be ecadicated by
any of the means now employed. TO re-
| II wholly on individual treatment is
like attempting to cure smallpox Dy
poulticing the pustules. Society IS an
organism, and it must be treated as such
How much may be done in short time
by wise legislation is shown by the Eng
Iish factory acts How long do you
think it would have taken to brlag
about that reform by preaching temper
ance and virtue to the white slaves and
Justice and kindness to their masters:
Can you hope to lift these thousands
of women from the deepest depths Of
! our social inferno while twice as many
Thousands are working 16 hours day
! for less than decent living:
Can you hope to lift the millions to
any conception of spiritual life while
they are suffering from want Of the
barest necessities of physical life? What
ro,,ood3oc oro offerodr
Economy? That is good, but it sounds
absurd to the man who has no income
whatever.
temperance That is excellent. But
drunkenness is as much effect as cause.
In fact, Chxfles Booth Whose London
Poor'' is the most careful study of the
problem ever made) says that out of
5, 900 poor in given district only 13
per cent owed their poverty directly to
drink. And Frances Willard said not
long ago: Eve have been for a long
time trying to make people prosperous
by making them temperate. 1t is time
to make them temperate by making
them prosperous. y In reply to ques-
ton submitted to her by the Chicago
Single Tax club she wrote, ST am free
to say that believe the present eco
nomic condition Of the country, the
miseries of millions Of our people, the
vast numbers of thefunemployed, call
for reforms which, if they could be
brought about, would vastly diminish
the tendency to drink, and that one of
these reforms, with farreaching and
unspeakable benefcence, is the single
tax as set forth by its great apostle,
Henry George
Not to particularize further, to one
who has grasped the philosophy OF the
single tax, all measures for social
amelioration Except education which
potentially compreherds land tenure
and all other reforms) seem partial and
merely palliative, as if during slavery
times the good women Of the land had
formed societies for providing the slaves
with good masters or for seeing that
families were not separated or for pro-
yiding ointment for lacerated backs or
for pleading with the masters not to
give more than 20 1ashes at one whip
ping.
How would that have sounded to
William Lloyd Garrison? Just SO appear
to Henry George and those who think
with him the tenement house and other
reforms that merely skim and finn the
ulcerous place while rank corruption,
mining all within, infects unseen. :"
T trust have made plain what call
.sthe fundamental question: 1t is the
right of every child born into the world
to an equal share in the land which
God created as the common heritage
and for the common sustenance of all
his children. It's the equal right of ev-
cry individual to life and liberty.
It is not, except incidentally, a fiscal
question. It is a sociological question.
It is whether conditions shall continue
to exist which have always caused and
now cause and must of necessity cause
those enormous inequalities in the hu-
man lot that destroy the peace and or
der Of society and threaten its over
throw.
It is moral question. 1t is whether
some men shall be allowed under sane
ton of law to exact from other men &
portion of their earnings.
It is religious question. tits the ac-'
knowledgment or the rejection of the
brotherhood Of man and the fatherkood
Of God. Deliberate continuance of pres
ent conditions is a practical denial of
both. The fundamental question is, Is
there Father Almighty and are we all
his children? :. -
Take JOHlNSONS