Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-06-26


Especial Correspondence
A friend of the writer said years
ago. THE worst enemies of modern
progress are not the wealthy as much
as the would be wealthy" By modern
progress he did not mean our present
industrial system or anything of the
kind, but one which should embody
radical concepts OF freedom and ethics
for all, one which should give to every
child of God n full opportunity for the
development of full manhood, one
which should not keep the bulk OF hn-
manity in bondage to any set of people
however fine and polished in their per-
sonal dealings, however honest in their
individual life, because what can be in
Gods eyes the value of individual hon
esty as long as we keep n dishonest In
dustrial system In full bloom, pervert-
ing the media In which we all have to
live? And the larger we make the cir
che of honest individual people in a
given nation which refuses to extend
honesty TO all Industrial relations, but
prefers to intensity all that is wrong
there, the greater the force for evil In
its most fatal manifestation, in wrong
enactments, In vicious, selfish legisla-
tion.
Besides the wealthy and would be
wealthy as obstacles to all healthy
progress we have a large number of
people intensely attached TO their little
patch of wealth or larger wages OF
salary. or somewhat more important
position than the many below. They
are afraid to lose that to be dislodged
from their little higher pedestal where
they can play the actors on vaster
theater where they have a few more
admirers, where they can pose as fel-
lows of a higher grade, built up with
better clay and 30 with more chances
to be prominent in the life beyond, as
they have been in the life below. Spir-
itual greed on top of material greed!
That is perhaps one of the dreadfully
low moral ideals that yet pervade hui
manity today inherited from heather
religions and which actually make
modern Christianity an out and out
heathenish Christianity, the antithesis
of that of Christ essentially distinct
from It In all moral and ethical as
poets anyhow, the most important OF
any religion that may claim to evolve
Joy and manhood.
As a matter of actual fact the bot
tom principles Of our philosophy of life,
backed Try our choice people, those who
have from time lmmemorial converted
nations into dens of iniquity, have al
why's claimed that the perpetuation of
Ell, and hence that of social and In
dJyluai deformitics, is to be the order
oTthe day for long, long period of
h1nan growth. That was already the
do2trine of the ruling classes in India
when Jesus, the grand reformer, told
them, Either make the tree good and
his fruit good or make the tree corrupt
and his fruit corrupt" Jesus did not
accept the diaDolic conception of our
tint teachers about any social organiza-
tion partially good and partially bad
deserving some respect from sensible,
honest men. Such n corrupt social tree
as that of today deserves nothing but
contempt 1t must necessarily be still
more corrupt than that of 10 centuries
ago repudiated by Jesus because evil
Is bound to grow as long as it is al
lowed to live, since the law of life, for
good or evil, is u law of growth. The
sins of our old age are more con-
temptible than those Of youth because
of our greater experience, knowledge
and opportunities to suppress evil The
same applies to every old organized So
ciety and hence to the organized greed
We may see fit to develop, promote,
gf,, l,,s.,
to detest, And we love evil If we don't
hate it and fail to do our best to kill
1t in any form it may appear.
one of the factors that make our
civilization stand self condemned Is the
existence of classes and masses, as dis
tinct us ever, If not more so; also that
eternal exclamation of how to save the
masses, how to convert them, how 10
rescue them from their own bad habits,
and, as the churches, with all their
wealth and power, acknowledge their
ineapacity in that direction, we have to
have pauper churches, called missions,
and there again we hear of prayers to
God to save and convert the masses
Well. If the rich churches had at least
converted the classes, the masses
would have long ago been converted
too. Instead of that we find that the
classes, with their love for class legis-
latlon, are the greatest obstacle to the
establishment of equity in industrial
life and insist upon the worst laws
through which most wealth may be
rapidly shifted from those VINO pro
duce it to those who don't.
All modern ideals rest on the prin-
ciple of how to get S5, SO, $50, 500
from the general fund of wealth for ev-
cry dollar we may contribute to that
fund. And how often some contribute
nothing while getting in five or ten
years the wealth that the best worker
could not produce and save in 10000
years Of steady work under the best
condtionsl And this is considered as