People's voice., 1900-03-29

no use tfying TO inide it or cover il up
We live in an age of trusts and COM
bines and capitalistic greed that means
simply death to thousands of innocent
men. women and children. | thank
God, if there is a God, which l very
much doubt, that i, for one, have never
dared to marry and try to have home.
Home Talk of hell Is there any big
ger than the one this man with his
three children has On his hands right
this minute? 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 luxuries and comforts and
who 20 to church Sundays and sing
their hymns about giving all to Jesus
and bearing the cross and following him
all the way and being saved | 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 60 into any one of dozen aris-
tocratic churches l 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 a crank or a fanatic.
Oh, mol That's not the remedy That
can't ever amount to anytl ing. We've
got to have new start in the way Of
government The whole thing needs re-
constructing. don't look for any re-
form worth anything to come out of
the churches. They are not with the
people. They are with the aristocrats
with the men of money. The trusts and
monopolies have their greatest men in
the churches. The ministers as class
are their slaves What we need is a
system that shall start from the COM
mon basis of socialism founded on the
rights of the common people,
Carlsen had evidently forgotten all
about the three minute rule and was
launching himself into a regular ora
tion 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. Carlsen was angry at first and
threatened little disturbance, but the
bishop reminded him Of the rule, and
be subsided, 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 a 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, a man who bore
every mark Of being a 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 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
Finally the bishop called time on the
free for all and asked Rachel to sing
Rachel Winslow had grown into
very strong, healthful, humble Chris.
tian during that wonderful year in
Raymond dating from the Sunday
when she first took the pledge to do as
Jesus would do, and her great talent Of
song had been fully consecrated to the
service of her Master. When she began
to sing tonight at this settlement meet
ing, she had never prayed more deeply
for results to come from her voice-the
voice which she now regarded as the
Masters, to be used for him.
Certainly her prayer was being an
swered as she sang. She had chosen the
words:
Hark, the voice Of Jesus calling,
Follow me, follow mel
Again Henry Maxwell, sitting there,
was reminded of his first night at the
Rectangle in the tent when Rachel sang
the people into quiet. The effect was
the same here. What wonderful power
a good voice consecrated to the Masters s
service always isl Rachel's great nat
ural ability would have made her one
Of the foremost opera singers of the age.
Surely this audience had never before
heard such melody. How could itI The
men who had drifted in from the street
sat entranced by voice which "back
in the world never could be heard BY
the common people because the owner
of it would charge 50 or SO for the
privilege. The song poured out through
the hall as free and glad as if it were a
foretaste of salvation itself.
Carlson. with his great black bearded