The San Francisco call., 1899-03-26


! health had fed, he laid it down.
|
Explorer Reid intends not only to
penetrate Thibet, but to invade Lhassa
the sacred city, where so far as re-
corded, no white mans face has been
seen. Perhaps Reid is not fool, but
| he has the symptoms. He might as
well keep out of Thibet, for if he start
and return he will come out earless,
minus at least one eye and bearing
other marks of native disapproval. AS
to Lhassa, if he look upon that the
mutilated remains of him will never
escape and there viii not evens be left
the arctic comfort of sending a relief
expedition after him. A person of or
dinary discernment might, conclude that
the ladies and gentlemen of Thibet are
mot at home to foreigners, and to try
to set aside this rule, which seems to
please them, and to enforce Which is
| their distinct right, is a piece of i'm
pertinence. 1 hope, not that Reid will
be declared, but that he will be kicked
back to the arms. of the civilization he
adorns. Some day, of course, as en-
lightened nations lick all the compare
lively easy wicked people there are yet
to subdue, they will send their armies
to instruct and -edify and butcher the
people of Thibet until the roof of the
world shall be red to the last rocky
shingle, but before the arrival of that
happy day Reid would better either
keep away or make his peace. If he
feels that he must do something with
| a spice of danger in it he might come
here and explore our Chinatown While
the highbinders are conducting nego-
tiations with q hatchet
Rockefeller is reported to have said
that to any man capable of taking
charge of his business he would willing
ly pay a salary of $1,00O0 900 year. If
Rockefeller ever said this he was bluff
fing, for he would not willingly pay
anybody a million year Of the hard
earned money for which he has toiled,
and there are scores of men capable of
filling the position. 1 myself know
plenty of people who make point of
managing everybOdy's business, not to
the neglect of their own either, for they
have none.
A thoughtful man, by name Henry
E. Allen, has written a pamphlet with
the title In He'll and the Way Out"
That the people are in that unpleasant
place, with greed tanning the Goals, he
demonstrates clearly. but the way out
seems to me beset by impossible bar
riers In other words, agree that We
are in hell, but think we are destined
to stay there until the receptacle en-
CULTS the last of US, even to those now
outside, and our after fate must for the
present be left to the prophets. There
is not space here for an. analysis of
the book. Evidently it is the work Of
a person who has devoted much time to
the study Of social conditions. He per-
ceives the ills, apparent to all; the
blight of monopoly spreading over the
land like a shadow of impending disas-
ter; the rearing of great fortunes which
must come from the earnings of the
toiler, who meantime grows poorer and
more poor; the heartless task-masters
of the sWeatshops-all these are among
the conditions he mentions in terms
more profuse than mine. He thinks
selfShness the root sin. So it isi the
basis of all sin. Yet selfishness has al
ways been the rule of human action,
and always will be. There is no help
for this save the making over of the
spiritual essence of man to conform to
the spiritual essence which from the
Mount taught the lesson of love. How
hopeless this task! For hundreds of
years the church has formally sought
to impress the lesson, and the church
to-day, while generally a moral in
f1uence, cannot conquer even within
itself the traits the Master stamped
as base and wicked. Some of the rich
est men in the country, adding to their
store by unclean methods, by crushing
rivals, by Usury, by grinding the faces
of the poor by selling rotten beef for
our soldiers, are pillars in the church.
Yet did they live as they profess to
desire to live the would regard money
only as a means to aid them in doing
good And the ministers go where sal
aries are highest. Were they not told
to take no thought for the morrow?
After all these centuries the root sin
has grown anF fiourished so that it in
vades the sanctuary as well as the
mart If TO inaugurate material reform
selfishneSs must be banished the future
holds no glimmer of millennial dawn
Chief among the cures advocated by
Mr.. Allen is that of direct legislation. |
AS set forth by him it seems feasible;
judged by reality it is a dream. Capital
has so long held sway that so far as
peaceful means are concerned it is in
vincible Does legislation threaten it?
1t buys a legislature. Would a just
construction of statute be an injury?
1t buys a court. Does a faithful public
official brave it? 1t casts him from
place and seats one of it's own Great |
ures. Under the existing status there !
can be no enactment inimical to capital
and at the same time effective, for it
will be declared null. The fact might
as we'll be acknowledged that capital is
the ruler and labor the ruled, and that
labor can't help it, for it is Just as
selfish as capital and it's individuals
will never act in harmony nor invar-
iably resist bribe. 1 do not write
these things in the effort to say aught
that is new, and yet in the beating of
old straw a sound grain may fall to the
threshing floor. Where is a real remedy
for potent evils such as mentioned?