Omaha daily bee., 1899-04-27
LECTURE BY PROFESSOR HEBRON.
Delivers nm address on Corpora
tipps. Trusts and Cpnsciencps.'

DeIlNers an Auuress on 'tOTDoru-
tions. Trusts and Consciences."
Prof. George d. Heron of Grinnell, whose
utterances on christian Socialism" have
created so much attention, delivered one of
his lectures last night at the Broadway
Methodist church to a fair-sized audi
ence. His subject he announced as Corpora
tions, Trusts and Consciences," being a di-
gest of the eight lectures delivered by him
recently in Chicago. Prof. Heron, who
looks the deep student that he undoubtedly
is, has a well modulated voice and speaks
with deliberation so that every word shall
have its effect. He said, in part:
Broadly speaking, the social problem is a
problem of how to organize the world that
all men may be equally secure in the mate
rial means and resources needful for a COM
plete life. The hope of the social reformer
is to open wide the gates Of opportunity
so that every creature, from the least to
the greatest, may make his life a moral ad-
venture and a joy, and exhaust his posi-
bilities in the thing he can best do. All
that is good in civilization must be for the
equal use of all and there must be equal
freedom for each to choose the work that
will best fulfill his serving capacity and
Municipalities
Along with the elimination of the social
system, indeed at the very heart of 1t, is
eliminating a new kind of conscience. The
responsibility of the individual for the whole
human life, the responsibility of the whole
for each individual, is its distance mark and
quality. The individual feels himself en-
shaved and oppressed in the enslavement
and oppression of his brethren. This con-
science is the precipitation Of the idea and
the initiative of Jesus; it is the ehectuai
working of the leayen which he put into
mankind eighteen centuries ago.
When | call the new conscience Christian
| do not use the word in any professional
or p~ietistic sense. / do not mean that any
particular form of religion need be accepted.
The social awakening does not come in the
name Of Christianity; it comes without OBJ
servation, almost as a new religion spring
ing up from the human soul. Its most
manifest activities and evolutions are I'M
conscious of their relation to him we call
Christ. The truest faith of today rejects
much that is preached and professed as
Christianity. Many things done in His name
are the things which Jesus stood against,
and the things He stood for are done by
many who call themselves materialists or
agnostics.
Now, that which makes the ethical tragedy
Of the present moment is the chasm between
the existing civilization and the new con-
science. The social crisis d~iscloses con-
science and civilization becoming separate
entities, Civilization no longer represents
the conscience of the individuals who must
tind therein their work. The facts and forces
that now organize industry and sO-called
justice violate the best instincts Of man
kind, For instance, ! cannot come from
Iowa college to this city to speak to you
against the existing order of things without
riding upon a railway system, the capital
ization of which is largely watered stock,
Although a large part of American industry
is organized by this system Of watered
stocks, and we consent to II tamely and
ignorantly. 1t is yet the worst historic form
of indirect usurpation and tyranny; and it
renders our national wealth in large part
purely ngtitiOnS. Again this railway system
practically administers the government Of
the United States in all things that concern
the system, and the government Of the
several states of the union MS we'll. The
majority Of the United States senators re-
Gently elected have been its mere appointees
and lobbyists and agents at the same time
for other corporate properties.
II | put sugar into my coffee | support
a trust that practically administers the
finances of the United States for personal
profit.
Again, in order to send my children to the
public school, that holy of holes in the
temple of American freedom, / must buy
the books ordered by a private corporation
that has foTcibly assumed the functions of
administering the free school system of the
United States as private property; that EN-
ploys gangs Of rufians to go up and down
these states and prepares school legislation
for private profit; that appoints school
superintendent, intimidates school princi-
pals, throws out OF employment and black
lists teachers who dare reject it's pub
locations.
II is only the densest ethical ignorance
that talks about a Christian business life
for business is now instinctiyely evil, what
ever good may come out of 1t. Whoever
says that a man can live the Christian life
while at the same time practicing in the
present order of things, is either profound
in the lack of knowledge or else he delib-
erately lies. There are no honest goods TO