The daily sentinel., 1903-02-28
the individual becomes jelly fish

What then. is the hope of the under
His hope is not in any system of in
dustry or form of government or or
agnization of economical or political
| forces. but his hope is in his own
right arm. his own personal righteous
ness. and in the reign of love among
men. Let il never be forgotten that
the trouble with society does not lie
in its industrial sy stem. but in human
nature. The fault is not in outward
forms, but in inward character. The
wrong is not in public theory. but in
private practice. The evil is not So
cial crime. but individual sin. AS
long as selfishness continues 10 be the
ruling factor in human conduct. there
will be an upper and under man in
society. whether it be in social stic
| Utopia or in some form of competitive
reality. If human nature should ever
become 80 thoroughly reconstructed
| as to make socialism. temporarily. "A
workable scheme. the same recon-
structed human nature would Danish
| the ills of competitive scheme The
ills are not in the scheme. but in the
units of society who constitute the
working factors of the scheme.
The helplessness of the under man
does not grow out of the present sys-
tenn of competitive system of industry
but out of the partial absence of COM
| petition in a so-called competitive
| system. The real obstacle is not COM
petition. but the w ant of it. What
| the under man needs is opportunity
| under a competitiv> scheme. not the
legislative supply of his wants under
! socialistic scheme. His poverty
must disappear. not b efore an act of
congress, but before his own manly
| act in open competition with his fell
lows. Give him. not the order of the
king. but give him chance.
My quarrel is not with the funda-
| mental principles of the present in
dustrial system but with the way it
/ works. and therefore with the men
who work it. Ny quarrel is not
with the dynamite but with the fiends
who used it to explode mine under
| the Maine. Dynamite il a good
thing among the rocks of Hellgate.
Ny charge is not against the instru-
| ment but against those who wrong
fully use it. If competition must go
at the edict of socialism, because sell
| fish men abuse it. then water. fire.
air. love. everything good in the
world must go for the same reason
The trouble is not with competition.
but with the competitors. themselves.
Competition may be either humane or
| brutal. 1t may belong 10 the plane
of the Golden Rule or to the order of
! red tooth and claw Ifyon and
contest in the same business. there
are two ways in which l may surpass
you. One is to establish better
| reputation than yours for general bus
mess reliability. and the other is to
damage your reputation. One is the
Golden Rule. the other the rule of
blood. One would be right among
angels. the other would be wrong
among devils. If follow the Golden
Rule. | can look W ithout flinching in
to the eve OF God, even though | fail
i'll business. If / follow the method
of the wild beast. / shall blush to
look into the eyes of the devil. even
though l succeed in business. # we
both follow the Golden Rule in our
rivalry. or still better. the divine
rule of love, we have done our con-
science no violence, we are both
stronger in all righteousness than be-
fore we contested. and we are both
clean in the sight of God.
We are told by the prophets of So
cialism that it is impossible to follow
the Sermon on the Mount under our
competitive system. 1t that be true.
then the Sermon ON the Mount is at
war with Gods interchangeable order.
When you strike at competition you
do not strike at the political econo-
mist, who upholds it but at the AL
mighty who ordains it. When you
saw that the Divine teacher condemns
competition. you put war between his
word ON the Mount of Beatitudes and