The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-07-30


 of the fitest God bids you take care | of yourselves physically This is tru- | ism but it is a truism the Darwinian ] teachings. as well as the divine com mandments. never tire of pressing home to human hearts. see the broad, stout chested farmers boy coming to the town and pushing the pale faced physical weak lings to right and left.
 Christian Communism. I would also tell you that there is an memorable law of the survival of the Attest in the mental world. The man who can think the quickest, the man who can supply some long felt want in the community, Is the man who is going to crowd his competitors to the wall and there is no help for it. The same law which makes 1t possible for a cat to bounce upon a little chicken or a leopard ta leap upon the back of a lawn is pre- csely the same law which makes 1t pos s.ble for the man of brains to climb to his throne over the backs of men who have no brains. Communism says ',rhat Is not right. No one man should have more than his fellows" But communism may talk from now until doomsday. Talk ing will do no good. There is a universal law of the survival of the Attest in mental way and no communism except the communism Of Christian love can change it.
 How is this law working out-that brains which think trample over brains which do not think? Why, you can see its results on every hand. Thirty or fcrty years ago every little town had it's cobbler. This cobbler not only re- paired the shoes and boots, but also made the shoes and boots, but one day there came along a man with brains
 He said to himself. What is the use of all these cobblers making their boots by hand? will make machinery do the work of flesh and blood" This man of brains went to work He built large factory. He employed 200 hands. He made these POO hands, with the use of machn- cry, do five times the work which the same number of hands used to do. He also lowered the selling prices. The shoes and boots were sold one-third cheaper than they used to be. The man of brains who drove out the village cobbler was the same kind of man that drove out the village wheewright. The man of brains who drove away the village cobbler Is also the kind of man of brains who took away the business of the typesetter. One day this man of brains walked into the print ing office and said Here, editor, is a typesetting machine. Instead of employ ing twenty, thirty, fifty men to set your type, all that you will have to do is to have a man sit down at this machine as a Paderewsld sits. down at the plano. He can play the keys for awhile and the whole work is done" But" cry the vi- lage cobblers and the village wheelwrights and the old typesetters, you have take away our 1fe's work. We cannot do aught but follow the line of work we used to do. We shall starve. We shall die"
 But the memorable law of the survival of the Attest means that these machines shall exist and that the man of thinking brains shall triumph over the man whose brains never think.
 Getting Sidetracked.
 The Attest survive in the mental realm. There Is no doubt about 1t. Now, my friends, and especially my young friends, what are you going to do about this fact? Are you going to let your brains lie dor- mant2 Because some have been cobblers for twenty years, are you still to be cobbler now? Are you mentally going to try to do the work of the present cen tury ln the way our forefathers did thingssand not by the present up to date methods? Are you going to resist the advancements of the times in the way sS sG%s manx nsarsls9,sa fSr%ays ss s1y ing these facts exactly right but the story I am telling is substantially true. One of the prominent railroads of the east was extending It's lines toward Pitts burg The railroad officials wanted to run their iron rails through a certain township The farmers rose up in pro- test. They said: 'If we allow the rail- road to be built it will do all the hauling. Our farms will be broken up and our horses will be useless, because then there will be nothing left for them to carry to market" These farmers not only pro- tested thus. but in the state legislative halls at Harrisburg, through their rep resentatiye. they defeated that railroad from running through their township.
 The result was that that railroad going into Pittsburg took another course. The old farmers township is now sidetracked. It is nothing but simple country town On the other hand, the valley through which that railroad now runs Is pros porous and wealthy. Land has doubled and trebled In values. There is an in- evitable law of the survival of the Attest Yn brains. How are you grasping your opportunities? Are you trying to make the world travel in stagecoaches and canal boats when the shrieking whistle of the overland limited Is calling its passengers to get aboard? If you do not develop your brains, then, by the law of man and the law of God, to the wall you must 20. "rhe survival of the fit- test Is the mental demonstration of life. Never let that one truth out of your mind until you have developed your intellect to its highest possibilities.
 But the Attest survive in the moral world as well as in the physical and the mental The man who Is honest and true and noble will always, in the long run. win over the man who is de- citful and dishonest. There is abso- lutely no doubt about 1t. All other things being equal. there is a survival of the Attest in the moral realm. Yet to hear some people talk you would sup pose that 1t never pays to be honest or truthful business life.
 Sell where you can sell the dearest. Buy where you can buy the cheapest. Get all of the money out of the people you can without landing in jail" is their motto. Look at F. T. Barnums success they say. "In one of his books the great snowman says. '"The American people love to be humbugged.' Then he had the unlimited impudence to/write a book entitled "The IIumbngs of the World" In that book he showed how he had humbugged the American peo- pie. "Oh, yes." they say, it never pays to be honest. The man who can cheat and deceive and lie and steal the most in business is the man who makes the great est success in mercantile life" Is that your opinion of mercantile life? We'll my friend, l want to tell you that you are wrong, and wrong in toto. There is a survival of the fittest in the moral world All other things being equal, the man who is true and honest and upright and just is the man who will win in business life, and not the scoundrel.
 Fair Dealing.
 fTTI4