The Advocate and news., 1898-08-03


tions. can no longer clothe myself
whether in good clothes or cheap, with
out the likelihood that my clothes arc
made under sweat-shOp conditions, in
which men and women and children toll
together in hOt-air slave-pens, fourteen
to eighteen hours day, for earnings
that range from two to five dollars a
week.
There Is nothing in nature to bring
about this conflict between civilization
and conscience; nothing that need have
prevented material facts from beng the
perfect expression of spiritual forces.
All progress shows nature to be the
friend of man and righteousness, and
the enemy Of force and fraud. Nature
has never been lacking in providing re-
sources and food for man; nature always
Overproduces; nature Is prolific and
prodigal in bestowment and opportunity
We pray, Give us this daily bread"
but our Father answered that prayer
before the foundation of the world. Even
in the present monstrous organization
Of production, the people could not by
any possibility consume all that they
produce in any given year; and the pos
sibilities Of production have scarcely
been touched. A conservative statistician
estimates that the State Of Texas alone
If its resources were all organized to that
end, could support the present popula-
tion Of the world An eminent Aus
trian economist figures that all that Is
produced in the Austrian empire would
require but three hours day from each
tOiler If production were nationally Or
ganized and each man to toll; and that
if the production Of Austria were equi-
tably distributed each family would have
enough for an abundant life. Z"
1t thus turns out that the evils that
we have been scientifically charging
upon nature are due to the imbecile and
and ruthless selfshness of man. Our
trouble lies, as Mr.. George has said, in
that we have "given into the exclusive
ownership of the few the provision that
bountiful Father has made for all"
The persistent assumption that sheer
economic might, with the inequalities
and miseries 1t brings, is in accord with
natural law, is piece of academic bluff,
a wanton abuse Of science, that will no
longer phase the people. The economist
who thus persists has only to keep on
saving his job long enough to lose 1t
forever, and to make permanent the
moral disgrace into which his science
has deserVedly fallen.
The most fatal difficulty in the way of
economic change and social hope Is in
the empty individual maXims which
teachers Of various sorts persist in Of
fering as social remedies. IF mems
hearts are only set right" says the re-
ligious teacher, "the system of things
will be set right" "Any man can get
on" says the authoritative commercial
instructor Of both priest and people, III
he is only honest and Industrious" Yet
all classes alike are more or less shame
fully conscious of the sneaking piety
and wanton commercial hypocrisy Of
these indiVldualistic observations.
To begin with, the present economic
system denies any adequate moral re-
sponsibility to the vast majority Of hu-
man beings; and there is no individual
responsibility where there is no ability
to respond. We destroy the ability Of
the people to morally respond, and then
hold them responsible. We deny the
people moral right, and then demand Of
them that they be morally right. We
build civilization on the backs Of the
people, and then piously enjoin them to
get up. We fasten yokes and fetters on
the people, and then blame them for
not getting on" We go on creating
and supporting an economic order that
morally and physically exhausts the null
titudes, and then condemn the social
for the Industrial mill out of which 1t
has been ground When Richard Wag-
ner declared his faith that the people
would be the artists of the future, and
that from the most absolute democracy
the true music would come, his critics
pointed to the ignorant multitude as
conclusive answer. This mob" said
he in reply, "is in no wise a normal
product of your unnatural culture; all