Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1902-01-17
THE GREAT PROBLEM
UNITY OF THE FORCES NECESSARY
FOR ITS SOLUTION
Adjustments That Must De Made
Along Scientific Lines-Piety, PHI
Ianthropy Personal Purity Lack
Force Under Present Conditions.
Especial Correspondence.l

Especial Correspondence.l
III ,aGySical as well as in ethical con-
ditions all is question of scientific adj
justment along lines of least resist
nnce, so as to produce the greatest re-
suit with the minimum expenditure of
force in relation to the supply of force
back of respective phenomena. Wheth-
er we deal with the chemistry or me-
chanics in the cosmos or i'll connection
with conscious individualities, success
is only attained in proportion as we act
on scientific principles. 1t follows,
then. that as soon as we decide to live
in social groups we have to take cog
nizance Of equity i'll collective rela-
tions, that being essential to scientific
dealings with each other. Yet that is
what men have always neglected to
do. They have assumed that piety,
philanthropy and personal purity were
all that was needed to keep social rela-
tions in good trim. How idiotic! We
have thus dealt with each other on en-
pirical principles. We have thus made
Il wretched hash out of all social com
pact because acting as if we had moth
ing to do in discriminating between
two antagonistic forces.
For instance truth or righteousness
constitutes a certain specific group Of
relations closely connected with each
other, evolving Il corresponding set of
phenomena in human development.
Evil, wrong or falsehood constitutes an
other certain specific group of relations
also intimately connected with each
other and producing corresponding
set of results in human growth. The
two groups of relations and phe-
nomena are diametrically opposed to
each other and so, when mixed up, as
we have most stupilly mixed them up,
can produce nothing but chaotic, bar
barrie conditions in the realm OF
thought, emotions and yolitlons, per
sonal and collective, In the world of
matter or mind to which that dread
full mixture may be attached. Hence
the utter inutility Of piety, philanthropy
and personal purity combined without
the element of social purity, of col
lective equity, of industrial honesty,
so utterly repudiated by all ages and
nations, but never quite as much as to-
day by our modern leading nations.
And so we are willing to do all we
can for each other except what is
right for all. We are anxious to realize
all the good that Is possible in the
midst of the legalization of bottom
wrongs. We give to each other the
spirit of equality in the bosom of the
greatest and most criminal inequalities
the earth ever saw. We cannot see the
beauty of legalizing truth in national
life. We can only see the transient ad-
vantages we may get from each other
through the legalization of our own
human selishness, whims or foolish
conceits. The spirit of general imita-
ton, so intense today, in all the nom
sensical externals of human existence
is but the result of an education which
breeds the spirit of equality blended
with that of greed, and thus we upset
the moral order. Equality and greed
cannot mix but by producing the most
hcartless and repulsiye inequalities
through the whole social organism, just
what we have.
The ensemble of the above indlca-
tions seems to explain why not even
radical reformers can consolidate them
selves into a species of national league
for the purpose of political and eco
nomic education through several dali
lies and weeklies in the principal cit
les, backed with sufficient funds, and
thus inviting large circulation. Such
papers should be fixed up in such a
way as to appeal to all classes. They
should have all that most men require
today blended with carefully written
and concise essays on modern social
problems.