The evening times., 1899-03-29
TRUSTS DENOUNCED
BY PROFESSOR SMALL
He Reads a Vigorous Paper Be.
fore Methodist Preachers.
Refers to Combines of Capital as
Inhuman and Atheistic.
Declares Such Syndicates in Every
Degree DemOraIizins-Morp Val
ues Turned Upside Down.

Chicago, ILL.,, March 29.-The Methodist
preachers of Chicago listened yesterday to
paper by Prof. Albion w. Small, profess
cago. on The Value of Sociological Study
to the Minister" which created some hing
of a furore. The lecture was notable main
ly for its treatment of the subject of capi-
tai and trusts and for its radical and pes
simistic views in regard to the future OF
human society.
Il am spending my life in the study of
sociology because / believe-and l see
more and more reasons for the belief the
longer / study-that the social system in
which we live and move and have our b :
ing is so bad that nobody can tell the full
measure of its iniquity,' said he In this
age of so-called democracy we are ge ting
into the thrall of the most relentless sys-
TEN of economic oligarchy that history
thus far records.
That capital from which most of us,
directly or indirectly, get our bread and
butter is becoming the most undemocratic
inhuman and atheistic of all the heatnen
divinities. 1t breeds children, only to de-
YOUR the bodies of some and the souls of
others, and TO put out the spiritual eye
sight of the rest. In spite of the historic
campaigns for liberty, in spite of the
achievements OF Christianity, there has
never been a time since Adam was born
when the individual counted for so little or
availed so little as today.
Compared with any worthy conception
of what society must become if life is to
be tolerable, the socialistic ind ctments
against our civilization are essentially
sound. AS abstract proposition these dag
noses expose with approximate truth the
CHASTITY inequalities and injustIces. which
our present social order sanctifies
1t is literal and cardinal fact that our
present economic system cries Ia heaven
for rectifcaticn. 1t stulties human ma
ture. Ii nullifies the purposes of God. The
men who denounce present society have
profound reason for their complaints. We
are in the midst of the most bewiidering
labyrinth OF social entanglement in which
the human race has wandered up 10 date
AT the same time these facts are wiring
ing such involuntary cries of pain from
some and such artificial description and
Characterization from others, they are pro-
voking others 10 bitter and violent denun-
citation, and incting others TO such Wis
ionary and vicious schemes of readjust-
ment that we. who are both conscientious
and clear sighted, find in these intellectual
symptoms OF our social disease an added
complication and aggravation of the Ills
There seems to be no practical alterna-
tive between, on the one hand swelling
the clamor of wild and incoherent revolt,
and, on the other hand. giving ones moral
support TO conservatism. most falsely and
fatally so called, which intensiies the
evils by denying that they exist
II you viii heed the symptoms from
bank and Office and factory and railroad
headquarters and daily press, you have dis
covered that the very men who are making
these combinations are beginning to be
afraid of their own shadows. These very
business men. who claim to have monop-
oily of practical common sense have involv-
ed themselves and all the rest of us in
grim tragedy of errors
They are already beginning TO ask on
the quiet how il is all TO end Whether
they realize ii or not, our vision of free
dom is passing into eclipse of universal
corporate compulsion in the interest OF cap
ital. The march of human progress is
getting reducible to marking time in the
1ockstep of capitals chain gang.
1 have no doubt whatever that the vast
majority of capitalists are good capital
lists. They operate strictly within the
rules of the game Nevertheless. capital
ism is not a good game, and it is our bust
ness TO see the reason why. The whole
programme of our present civilization turns
at last on the calculation of effects upon
the accumulation of capital
"A programme for Christian civilization
would turn rather on its effects upon the
quality of men that civilization shall pro-
duce. We have turned moral values upside
down. We are making men the means of
making capital whereas capital is only
tolerable when il is simply the means of
making men.
1T would be infinitely more for human
veal if every dollar of wealth should be
cleaned from the earth if we could have in
stead of il industry and honesty and Justice
and love and faith than to be led much fur
ther into this devils dance of capitalism