Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1901-04-24
GOSPEL OF WEALTH.
HOW IT COMPARES WITH THE Cos
! PEI AS GIVEN BY JESUS.
Social Banditism and What It Feeds
On-The SOrdid Spirit In Church
| and Nntion-WronS VIII Perish
From It's own Excesses.


Especial Correspondence
Most people of our nation have heard
of certain Gospel of Wealth." writ
ten some time ago by a certain man
accumulate the bagatelle of $4,000
900. Only n few weeks ago the world
heard that in a single Industrial con-
Germ the same man was worth S215,-
100000. Besides that snug sum, 1t is
well known that he has immense terri
torial possessions In Great Britain,
some in this country, and no doubt he
owns piles of millions of government
bonds, English consols, etc. Considera-
BILE fun has been indulged in by some
in regard to that gospel, while other
people consider that gospel about as
good as the one preached in JudRa 10
centuries ago by Jesus. A certain
weekly that halls from New York city
contains an editorial in the issue of
March 0 which in forms most en-
phatic again places that modern gos-
ptl Oh IL iIhtA W Vic olb oiltb anu
all because the former eXhorts the
rich people to occasionally drop a mil
lion dollars or so for some public pur-
pose out of every ten or more millions
piled up and snatched from the wealth
producers under laws of monopoly
and injustice, and hence piratical in
the highest degree.
J The gentleman who stands for his
Gospel of Wealth" recognizes that to
bequeath large sums in favor of wives
and children is often injurious to them,
hence 1t is better to scatter the wealth
In charitable purposes. All! So 1t is
dangerous for some to have great
wealth, and yet 1t is all right for some
to pile 1t up in hundreds Of millionsl
And what about the social system un-
der which the piling process goes on? Is
that all right? That Gospel of Wealth"
does not say anything about 1t. That
alone proves its own incompleteness,
Its own force. That alone condemns
the Gospel of Wealth" as one of the
greatest alterations of the wise and
the powerful-wise after their own con-
ceits, powerful because of the oppres-
sions of wrong Industrial system
which repudiates the order of Gods
universe and all principles of human
brotherhood
Social banditism on a scale never
seen before, legalized by human enact
ments, by agreements in legislative
halls, agreements among men who
don't know and don't want to know
anything about conscience, human
duty, love toward all, peace on earth
or anything else; social banditism
and charity or philanthropy with
which to hide the gangrene of a vitiat-
ed social rganiZation-there we have
the alpha and omega of the modern
gospel of wealth, a gospel which Is
bound to destroy civilization and is de-
stroying 1t as fast as it can or else
preparing a reaction with which to
save civilization from its own excesses
as soon as we have enough brave men
to stand by right and truth, by the
gospel of Jesus.
And what did Jesus say to that rich
man who wanted to know how to
have eternal life? AS that fellow was
satisfied with his own righteousness
and could see nothing wrong in the
social fabric that gave him piles of
wealth, while the producers of all
wealth got simply piles of poverty,
taken all in all under such peculiar
mental conditions Jesus could only
find remedy for that dreadful sick
rich man, sick in mind and soul, the
worst kind of sickness we can have.
The remedy was that he should get
rid OF all his wealth right off and
should stand by the brotherhood of
men-that is, by the sound, honest,
social conditions embodied in the Cos
pei of Jesus. That was the spirit of
Jesus answer, to abandon all wealth,
or. rather, all desires for wealth accu-
mutation, and to work not for the con-
tlnuation of injustice in wealth pro-
duction and distribution, but for con-
ditions which would give wealth to
all, and hence practically wealth to
no one, because what Is wealth to-
day but the power to keep most men
In poverty?
1t looks, then, as IF there was con-
siderable difference between the gos-
pei of Jesus and that farcical gospel
Of wealth approved by our modern
plutocracies. And the worst is that
such plutocracies control the sordid
spirit of churches and nations. The
weekly above mentioned approving
the gospel of wealth is principally
controlled by an eminent divine. Most
OF such eminent fellows seem to be
sold to Mammon in our days of aber-
ration. in politics, religion, Industrial
Ism, etc.
Never mind, wrong cannot last for
ever. Sooner or later 1t must perish
through its own excesses. In the
meanwhile there Is great work that
somebody must try to do-the work of
reasoning through correct processes,
with but one grand aim In vlew-viz,
TO Dlace civi1jzatio on n basis that