Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1899-11-09

,TUMW-A, WAPELLO Cl
and lie, in order to get food and fuel. I
don't know that Jesus would have done
some Of the things have been obliged
to do for living, but I know have
never knowingly done wrong when out
of work. Sometimes think maybe he
would have starved sooner than beg. I
don't know"
The old mans voice trembled, and he
looked around the room timidly. A ST.
lence followed, broken by fierce voice
from large, black haired, heavily
bearded man who sat three seats from
the bishop. The minute he spoke nearly
every man in the hall leaned forward
eagerly. The man who had asked the
question, "What would Jesus do in my
case2" slowly sat down and asked the
man next to him, "Who's that3'
t.That's Carlson, the socialistic Lead
er. Now you'll hear something" :.
"This is ali bosh, to my mind, y be-
gan Carlson, while his great. bristling
beard shook with the deep. inward
anger Of the man. ''The whole Of our
system is at fault. What we call civil
lization is rotten to the core. There Is
no use trying to hide it or cover it up.
We live in an age of trusts and COM
Dimes and capitalistic greed that means
simply death to thousands Of innocent
men, women and children. I thank
God, if there is God, which very
much doubt, that /, for one, have never
dared to marry and try to have home.
Homel Talk Of hell Is there any big
ger than the one this man with his
three children has on his hands right
this minuteae And he's only one out Of
thousands, and yet this city and every
other big city in this country has its
thousands Of professed Christians who
have all the Injuries and comforts and
who go to church Sundays and sing
their hymns about giving all to Jesus
and bearing the cross and following him
all the way and being savedl I don't
say that there aren't some good men
and women among them, but let the
minister who has spoken to us here to.
night go into any one Of dozen arts.
tocratic churches could name and pro-
pose to the members to take any such
pledge as the one he's proposed here and
see how quick the people would laugh
at him for fool or crank or a fanatic.
Oh. mol That's not the remedy. That
can't ever amount to anything. We've
got to have new start in the way 81
government. The whole thing needs re-
constructing. Idon't look for any re-
form worth anything to come out Of
the churches. They are not with the
people. They are with the aristocrata,
with the men Of money. The trusts and
monopolies have their greatest men in
the churches. The ministers as a class
are their siaves. Init We need Is i
system that shall start sfrpm tliecom.
mon basis Of socialism founded on the
rights Of the common people,
Garrison had evidently forgotten all
about the three minute rule and was
launching himself into Q regular ora
ton that meant, in his usual surround
ings, before his usual audience, an hour
at least, when the man just behind him
pulled him down unceremoniously and
rose Carlson was angry at first and
threatened little disturbance, but the
bishop reminded him. Of the rule, and
he subsidized. with several mutterings
in his beard, while the next speaker be-
gan with a very strong eulogy on the
value Of the single tax as genuine
remedy for all the social ills. He was
followed by man who made a bitter
attack on the churches and ministers
and declared that the two great obsta-
cles in the way of all true reform were
the courts and the ecclesiastical ma
chimes,
When he sat down, q man who bore
every mark Of being street laborer
sprang to his feet and poured out per-
feet torrent of abuse against the corpor-
ations, especially the railroads. The
minute his time was up a big, brawny
fellow who said he was a metal worker
by trade claimed the floor and declared
that the remedy for the social wrongs
was trades unionism. This. he said,
would bring on the millennium for la
Dor more than anything else. The next
man endeavored to give some reasons
why SO many persons were out Of en-
ployment and condemned inventions as
the works of the devil He was loudly
applauded by the rest of the company.