The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-01-08

tions-demanding free-labor contract, open competition and distribution to in-
 dividuals. Government Is not, as some allege, a necessary evil, but a necessa- ny good. Its functions are neither to be abolished nor expanded without linn it, but by true doctrine of individual ism, enlarged from time to time ac- cording to specific proposals. Pure in-' dividualism and pure socialism are two tendencies that we must steer between. Questions of legislation on shorter hours of labor, government telegraphs and railways, the ownership of street rail ways, gas and electric-light plants, &c., are to be taken up each by itself and the advocates of any separate measure
 do not commit themselves to the com
 plete interference of the state in all
 things. In general, the education of the individual mind and conscience, and
 general progress must afford relief from
 existing evils. The appeal is always
 open to experience, and progress is re- sultant from the diverse action of op-
 posing tendencies. The wise man is the
 opportunist who adapts legislation to the needs of the day and is led neither
 by enthusiast nor Bourbon. He, with out being tremmer or an emperic, crit
 icises each extreme as impracticable in
 fact, unless qualified by the other. The
 American spirit, at once humane and
 practical, conservative and progressive.
 hospitable to ideas and acute in criti-
 cism of their concrete working, will find
 path between paternalism and admin
 istrative nihilism. The lively and curi-
 ous American intellect is unmistakably
 inf n tIa OyIJ Ia aoif nf
 the social problem, and unreservedly
 committed to it as general theory that
 the welfare of all deserves first conside-
 ration. It has no sympathy with such
 despair of life as Schopenhauer taught.
 Neither does it accept the analogy
 drawn from the conditions of the lower
 animals of struggle for existence. Civilization. humanity, Christianity, the
 ethics of Jesus and Paul, the social
 body, brotherly kindness, the spirit of
 the New Testament, must mitigate the
 untempered rage of a pure competition. A cold-blooded pseudo-science. return ing from Its study of the beasts must not nullify proper philanthropy. Knowledge of human life and character is older than physical science. The brute man is not our ideal nor his in stincts justification for selfshness and greed. Still we must not be carried too far by our reaction, but discriminate between hardness of heart and softness of brain, against watchwords and agi- tations which set one class in bitter conflict with another
 The present tendency towards social ism is rapidly sketched by the author. The reason for this movement is not because the poor are poorer, but that | the rich are richer and have more leis- ure to study social questions. More inn portant is the concentrated attention of the great body of men, neiti- T rich ! nor poor, upon the question of the dis l tribution of wealth. Fiction writers | like Dickens and Besant have stimula- ted this. Yet the great mass of thor l premises to conclusions which contradict premises to conclusions which cntradict | the widest-reaching lessons of human | experience. Their denunciations of the prevailing order are untruthful and un- | charitable, their programme unfeasible. I Men are never wanting to plot ungen- l ious schemes for revolutioniZing socie- | ty But society Is so vast and the ac- | tions and reactions produced by an im- I portant change so innumerable, that | the prime requisites for the reformer are 1 definiteness of aim and limitation of | field The literature of socialism is
 mostly of foreign origin and refers for l Justification to European conditions
 which obtain in America in much less
 degree or not at all We have no East
 London and the land is still open to all
 who will live upon it. Despite the rapid
 growth of cities only little more than one-fourth of our people are in them 1 and the vast mass are still on the soil
 or in small towns. Doubtless immigra- tion must be restricted, the emigrant
 must keep the peace and not perpetu-
 ate his lifelong habit at home of being
 "agin the government" The loss of the
 personal element of human sympathy in our cities and acquaintance between
 employer and employe in large factories l is deplorable and Is one great root of la | bor difficulties. But the great propor- | tion of our people. living in the country
 have no considerable longings for state
 control of industry. Everybody, as well | as the thorough going socialist, desires the abolition of poverty and the intro duction of general comfort. But the
 method of getting these cannot be l changed. Industry, skill, patience and thrift and the help of invention and sci
 entifc discovery must be in the future as in the past the way to progress. The dreamer and prophet inspire and arouse us warm the heart and stir the conscience, but are seldom helpful mem