The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-11-16
New York American.)

lNeW YORK Americana
Bishop Henry C. Potter is the author
of a book, consisting of half dozen
lectures grouped under the title of THE
Citizen in Relation to the Industrial ST.
tuation," that will do more toward clari-
flying the economical situation than any
thing that has been printed for years.
You are not required to agree with the
prelate. You will, if you have thought
of these things at ALL doubtless feel that
he goes too far in some respects and not
far enough in others; but this small VOL
ume, issued by Scribner's, is the analysis
OF the situation by a man eminently we'll
balanced. who has read all that is worth
reading on the subject of which he
treats On the whole the book makes out
better case for the wage Garner than
for his oppressors, but the Bishop by no
means acquits the laborer, any more than
he does the capitalist, of share in what
ever there is of wrong in present condi-
tions.
If you are a socialist or any other sort
of an extremist, you will find fault with
the prelate for his conservatism.
If you are Trust magnate you are
likely to be shocked that a man of the
position of Henry Goldman Potter should
entertain such radical views.
1t is the book of moderate man, and,
though you may not agree with the de-
auctions, you cannot fail to profit by
the exposition of the facts and conditions
from which those deductions are based
The American" would like every read
er it has to study this work, for no man
can read it without realizing vividly his
duty 10 those who work for him and
equally his duty to those for whom he
works.
The Bishop is brave enough to sound
his warning clear, and to make no dis
guise of the gravity of conditions.
In his lecture on the Relation of the
Citizen to the Industrial Situation, he
says:
"Ort Of our present situation it has
come about that there has been begot-
ten a sullen class hatred which is quite
as acute here in our own republic as
under the most despotic forms of gov
eminent; and whose menace threatens
not only the relations which bind to-
gether certain industrial interests, but
the whole social fabric"
Because he is a prelate of the church
it is natural that Bishop Potter should
turn to the teachings of Christ for guild
ance in these matters.
"Denunciations of wealth and rank or
personal or social inequalities, he says,
'are as remote from His teachings as
denunciations of poverty or lowliness or
ignorance. Christ did not denounce
wealth any mere than He denounced
pauperism. He did not abhor money;
He used it. He did not abhor the COM
pany of rich men; He sought it. He did
not invariably scorn or even resent a
certain profuseness of expenditure. With
a fine discrimination, He, while habitu-
ally discouraging it, yet recognized that,
here and there, there was a place for it.
What He denounced was the love OF
wealth; the lust OF riches; the vulgar
snobbishness, that chose exclusively the
fellowship or the ways of rich men; the
habit of extravaganza; in one word greed
and luxuary and self-indulgence."
Bishop Potter disputes lot of the ac-
'cepted commonplaces of industrial dis
cussion. He denies that 1.-The rich are
growing richer and the poor are growing
poorer and that "all wealth belongs to
those who create it, etc.
lie says: without the Iabors of the
captains of industry. not of eight hours
a day, but of fourteen or eighteen even.
there would be no ships to sail, no mines
to develop, nor factories to run, nor tasks
for the vast majority of workmen at all.
II such men are paid more than the day
laborer, it is because they have earned
more.
But he does not indorse the PROPOSE
ton that a man is entitled to all ne can
get, regardless of how he gets it.
TT is quite another question when
we have to do with that class of capt
talst whose manipulations of values
have essentially no quality than is diff
ferent from the Iegerdemain of the card
sharper Their directorial chicanery in
connection with great corporations is one
of the deepest stains on our commercial
honor.
These are the capitalists with whom
honest men can hold no intercourse:
"(a) Managers and directors who, by
manipulation of the stock market in col
fusion with others in the secret, arti-
ficially depress values to the loss of fell
low investors,
"(b) Managers or directors of vast cor
porations, railway, mining or others. who
withhold regular reports for their own
personal advantage.
"(c) Managers or directors who employ
intricate and obscure systems of book
keeping which mislead or deceive.
"By such methods as these great for
tunes have been made, which do not
honestly belong to their possessors.'
1.-THE evil of the corporation" the
Bishop says in another lecture, ''is not
in its mechanism or in its bulk, but in
its temper and in its morals.
Corporations indeed have no souls,
but those who compose them have con-