The daily morning journal and courier., 1905-05-30
are wrong or unpermitted or avoidable at another time.


 at another time.
 Certain things are permissible and, therefore, right, by civil law, at one. time which should be unpermltted at another time. Jesus admitted that Moses enacted a law of divorce which, in the social conditions of the times was the best that Moses could do; put Jesus affirmed that law to be tsmpora- " and not permanent; it was to pass with the passing of the social condl- tions which made it permissible.
 Now in view of these facts, it can never be justly claimed that a human institution or law or custom is right and should continue simply on the plea that 1t is or has been. That fact may give some presumption in its favor, but 1t does not prove its right to continue to be. Therefore. in a word wherein IS an imperfect and progressive society, we must keep an open mind and must be prep1l ed for change of thought, leg islation and custom. Only thus is pro gress and perfection possible. .-
 That which is recalled to mind dur ing this week in which Memorial day occurs is war. War has been com mon occupation of many men. Men have extoled was as calling into exer- else many of the finest qualities of man. Patriotism, loyalty to a leader, devotion to duty and courage, have i been displayed in war, And, yet, # may be questione whether these woul3 not have foand as free exerci se il the arts of peace, and there is no doih- CT l the evil passions which war ha,; engen- dered and the detriment which 1t has l been. to human progress. Via'o::S has not always been on the side of the most intelligent, moral and useful na- l tions. t ~-AFr-"f
 I Thus the cause of war; one side Or | the other or both, is almost, if not al- I ways, the denial of brotherhood and | the attempt to take from others prop erty or liberty or life. Therefore, as I the spirit of brotherhood spreads in the | world war must become more humane, less unjust and less frequent. The past forty years give evidence of this fact. 1 The growing opposition to var, the practice of arbitration, the esGlhl.sh- ment of an international court at the l Hague and the power which the Ckris- tian nations of the world possess to prevent wars, and which it Is hoped l they will more and more exercise, all prophecy the coming of a time of more common more continuous aud more universal peace than the world has yet seen. >8f..'5..N
 1 Another fact which is recalled, when we remember our late war; is the in stitution of slavery and the overthrow as an institation in which .ma:1 can be considered and treated as a chattel. Slavery has been an ancient and wide spread institution.
 l Certain writers on economics cia m that slavery, therefore, has been origi- nally beneficent institution, as is i1as tended to educate men in habits If in" dustry and has thus made them inte.ll- gent, skil1ful and useful. That trcra is truth in this may be admitted. It does not seen, clear to me, however. that il has proven the necessity of slavery as a social institution at any tim,. Ire evil effects of slavery have been so great that it would require a vast amount of good tovoverbalance them. :, MT. Lecky counts the "unWearled. unostentatious and inglorious crusade of the Anglo-Saxons against slavery az amongst ''the three or four perfectly virtuous acts recorded in the history Of nations"
 The spirit of slavery however, has not yet passed from the world. When, ever one man would deprive other men of their natural liberty or of their just opportunity of personal iInprove- lnent, or of their possession of the pro- duct of their skill and toll, there is the spirit of the master. Brotherhood ad- nlitted in name, but denied in practice will never produce justice, and peace in the world. :
 Certain things indicative of this are iworth noting. One of the singular
 things, if we think of it, in the history of mankind, is the claim when men have made to the absolute and the per- petual ownership of land. "The earth is the Lords and the fulness thereof"
 'The earth hath he given to the chill
 dren of men," But the older children have forgotten the younger children, and the men of one generation hava claimed the right to dispose of land for all time. That titlesto permanency of occupation must be granted to men if they are to improve land and to have
 security in the possession of their im- provements is evident, but that the re-
 turn made to society for such pernle- nency of possession should be made
 continuously and not simply to one generation, would seem to be likewise evident.
 At the present time the mayor, re-
 gently elected in Chicago was chosen for his office for the express purpose of attempting to secure. for the fity o2 Chicago certain of such franchises.
 And in the city of Philadelphia the
 mayor is engaged in a, strenuous fight
 with the city council to prevent the
 sale for long period of tims of the gas works for sum of money to be
 immediately expended, leaving future
 generations without any return to them
 for the use, in their tine, of the land |