The Advocate and news., 1898-08-03

Nedrly al the eVllh WnlCn we are IN
the habit Of attributing to bad hearts are
in reality the moral fruits Of our eco
nomic struggles and inequalities,
What are the results OF your OBJ
serVations and Investigations" l asked
OF an ardent rescue-workeT, who had
spent five years in dealing with what we
are pleased to call fallen girls" and who
began his work without the slightest
hint of the existence Of an economic
problem. do you see that great de-
partment store?" he asked in reply.
THE system there embodied Is the cause
In that department store 5000 girls are
employed at an average weekly wage OF
three and One-half dollars. Upon that
wage they are expected to live, and ap-
pear neatly dressed In their places of
work. They must pay room rent board,
car fare, and clothe themselves. Those
who do not pay board help support fam
lilies at home. They cannot live deCently
In this city on less than six or seven dol
lars a week. At best their life Is one
OF hopeless rayless poverty. The evil
we seek to remedy comes almost as q
matter Of course This store is but an
instance Of a whole system of things
that drags down thousands where indi-
vidual effort can lift up one. There is
no remedy but changed economic sys-
tenn" The experience and testimony Of
rescue worker applies to the whole
range Of moral evils which we point out
as causes, when they are In reality eff
| fects. Perhaps half million people will
sit down in the saloons Of Chicago to-
night; not to get drunk or even to drink,
for vast numbers of them do not drink at
all, but because the saloon Is the only
social shrine, the only municipal draw
ing-rOOm, in which the greater number
Of citizens can get together as human be-
ings, and shake their hearts out" to
each other, as the Germans say. In this
sense the saloon fulfills a public and
profoundly religious function, which the
church and municipal system have alike
failed to offer; 1t Is the only social ref
uge which gives warmth and color, re-
lief and fellowship to millions of toll
eTs. The drunkenness and crime which
follow are the direct fruits of the social
system. In her last years, Miss Willard
declared poverty to be the cause Of
| drunkenness rather than drunkenness
the cause Of poverty. We privileged
classes are wickedly insensible TO the
fact that, to the majority Of human be-
ings In what we call ChristendOm, the
sensations Of drink and sexuality are the
only experiences which make life inter-
esting; the only things that give an
ticipation and romance to life; the only
sacraments Of human fellowship save
the common misery and poverty. Cen
turies ago, the great Augustine declared
physical immortality to be but perverted
divine yearnings after fellowship. And
more than four hundred years before
Augustine, Jesus declared that the har-
lots and publicans would enter the king
dom Of heaven before those OF us who
| belong TO the privileged and religious
classes, for the simple reason that they
are infinitely better than we are: they
still have yearnings, while we seek only
our own righteousness, and the safety
Of our interests in the existing order,
A newer and truer evangellstic effort
will throw its energy and ardor into the
system of things which destroys human
lives by the thousands where the old
evangelism can save one. An evangel-
ism that has a genuine interest In really
saving individual souls, instead Of a sub
tie and self-deceiving interest In It's own
success as to numbers, will lay the ak
at the root OF the tree of economic evil,
upon which all manner of moral evils
grow as natural fruits. 1t is because
evangelists and philanthropists have re-
fused to face the economic sources of
moral evil, to confess the economic sup
ports of moral superiority, that their
honesty is rightly questioned, and their
aDnpals either unhpard or heard only
with contempt. ."
1t is only the densest ethical ignor-
ance that talks about Christian bus
mess" life; for business is now lntrin-
sically evil, whatever good may come
out Of II. There is no such thing as arr
ethical bargain; for bargains are matters