Arizona daily citizen., 1901-03-14
the
BOER AGAIN.

The late ex-President Harrison in re-
cent address voiced, among other grace
ful things, the following: "Can we now
calculate commercial gains before the
breath OF a dyirg republic has quite iali-
ed or the body has quite taken on the
rigor mortis? Ii international justice,
government by the people, the party OF
the nations, have ceased TO be workable
things and have become impractlble,
sh Il we part with them with a sheer
May not one be allowed to contemplate
the heavens with suppressed aspirations,
though there are no consumers there?
Do We need to mock of the stars because
we cannot appropriate them?
The calling forth of this sentiment OF
the ex-president'4 life was prompted by
the conditions in South Africa and pre-
sent tendency of all men, all parties, all
nations, toward the consuming greed
for power. That such condition should
universally exist, is, according to all ,he
teaching of the Nazarene, utterly la
mentable; but it exists. 1t exists not
only in the "soulless" corporation, but
in every profession and business, with
merely individual exceptions. From
the minister OF the gospel at the country
crossroads, to the portly personality OF
a sugar king, the same Unsuitable thirst
after power is vividly apparent. The
crossroads minister understands the call
of the Lord 10 be little louder when
a raise of salary is in the wind; the
business man understands the license OF
business dealing to be expanded from
money-earning to money-grubbing, with
every added competition; and the pro
fessional man contemplates the stars
maintains his suppressed aspirations, !"
and, in spite of the ex-president's fine
irony, really appropriates the heavens
to the use of earning dollars and cents
by hunting out the institution of learn
ing that bids the highest salary.
There are therefore two sides to this
question of determination to secure a
competence. No man whose business
rises in our midst to favor and build up
a community, representing the human
means lifted family above the public
charities-no man of such legitimate
success can be censured for his success
There is, obviously, a difference between
incorporating and money getting; a
difference between skill and cunning,
business Fl 'elity and ten-cent immoral
ity. So with the professional man: He
whose sacrifices represent holy aspira-
tion to the "heavens" or scholarly
knowledge OF the stars or a comparative
mastery of the infinitude OF chemistry,
ought to reap the benefits OF such sac
rifice. So the whole thing would seem
to hinge upon unavoidable conditions; !;
men have been given bodies that civil
ization demands must be clothed hun
ger demands that they should be fed !;
the rigors of winter demand that they
should be housed with comfortable
FIRE. These are necessities, born of un-
alterable conditions, and no man or men
can be legitimately censured for observ-
ing the prime laws OF human existence.
But there is still another side: No
circumstances warrant blindness to the
rights of others-and here is the point
in the Nazarene's teaching evidently
forgotten by most of the strenuous
sons of the present. The problem with
all men ought therefore to be. how may
/ secure competence and guard my
family against want, and at once remain
charitably conscious Of the rights of 9TH
ers? And it is this problem about which
all men are thinking little today. The
Boer war is war for power, a war fol
greed, war for money; it is circum
stance far beyond the simple golden rule
of the Nazarene, and it will ultimately
"foor" England in the minds of homes
men, because it is not right.