The Jamesburg record., 1897-10-16


read Stead's books ON Chicago. If you
think these the work of a sensational
rhetorician, read the official report OF
the Illinois factory inspector. Read Oh
i've Schreiner's allegory, 1.-The Wine
Press" which presents vivid picture
of civilization past and present. Read
the daily papers of your city. Learn the
opinion of a keeper of an immoral re-
sort as to the cause that recruits the
ranks of her class. Hear another ex-
clamation: "I can't give bond. My
God, give me a trial and let me go. I've
got sick baby at home. "
Consider the enormous aggregation OF
poverty and want i'll the world and the
crime that springs from it and then
Judge whether it can be eradicated by
any of the means now employed. To re-
" wholly on individual treatment is
like attempting to cure smallpox by
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
lish factory acts. How long do you
think it would have taken to bring
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 a spiritual life while
they are suffering from want of the
barest necessities of physical life? What
remedies are offered?
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, Charles Booth (whose "London
Poor" is the most careful study of the
problem ever made) says that out of
5000 poor in a given district only 13
per cent owed their poverty directly to
drink. And Frances Willard said not
long ago: 'We 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. In reply to a ques-
tion submitted to her by the Chicago
Single Tax club she wrote, 81 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 the unemployed, 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 particuiarize further, to one
who has grasped the philosophy OF the
single tax, all measures for social
amelioration Except education which
potentially comprehends 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-
viding ointment for lacerated backs or
for pleading with the masters not to
give more than 40 lashes 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 film the
ulcerous place while rank corruption,
mining all within, infects unseen"
1 trust have made plain what 1 call
the 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. 1t is the equal right of ev-
cry individual to life and liberty.
1t is not, except incidentally, a fiscal
question. 1t is sociological question.
1t 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.
1t is moral question. 1t is whether
some men shall be allowed under sane
tion of law to exact from other men
portion of their earnings.
1t is religious question. 1t is the ac-
acknowledgement or the rejection of the
brotherhood of man and the fatherhood
of God. Deliberate continuance of pres
ent conditions is practical denial of
both. The fundamental question is, Is
there a Father Almighty and are we all
his children?
had parrot once an ugly bird,