The Elbert County tribune., 1906-11-15
PRIVATE RIGHTS
STRONG DEFENSE BY ARCH
BISHOP IRELAND.
IN ADDRESS TO VETERANS
Dangers Of Anarchy vividIy Portrayed
Private Property Must Be Sacred
and inviolabIe = Large Fortunes
Not Necessarily An Evil.


Council Bluffs, Iowa.-The Army Of
| the Tennessee closed its annual reun-
ion here Friday night.
| The most notable speech was that OF
Archbishop Ireland, in response to the
toast. Our Country" After paying a
glowing tribute to the wonderful
growth In all that makes for greatness
in the nation and to the patriotism OF
the people, and especially of the vet
Grams of the Civil War, which have
made that growth possible, Archbishop
Ireland said:
THAT all is perfect in present condi-
tions we must not assert, but this we
must assert, that nothing should be
done subversive of public order, de-
structive of the spirit Of the country
and of its Institutions
THE wild anarchist, the would-be
assassin, are public enemies of So
ciety, whom to tolerate is to tolerate
open sedition.
"An enemy. too, of public order is
the workingman who, refusing his own
labor, deters by violence a brother
workman from his offering Of his la
Dor, as is, even in a greater degree,
the strong and the powerful who over
ride the law of the land in carrying
out the scheme of their ambition.
Private property and the right Of
every man to own and dispose of the
fruits of brain and hand must be re-
garded as sacred and inviolable. 1t is
the corner stone of the social struc-
ture. Destroy it, weaken 1t, you arrest
ambition and effort; you give room to
carelessness of the morrow, to in
dolence and idleness; you establish
barbarism. Barbarism is that state of
society where men. having nothing
which is the exclusive possession of
any, prey upon the strength and the
| labor of others.
THAT in the holding of private prop
erty there will be inequality is a fact
that is inevitable. Men are not and
never will be equal in the power that
builds up property, in the sacrifice of
self, in the economy that preserves
and increases it. The preaching Of
Utopias in remedy OF this inequality,
the proposal of schemes that ignore
| the nature of men and the vital condi1
tions of human society, are an insult
no less than an injury to the individ-
ual whom they fain would beguile.
"a chief panacea put before US is
common ownership, through city,
state or nation, of productivity and of
transportation hither and thither, of
the results of this productivity. Let
us be on our guard; common owner
J ship in one direction leads to common
ownership in another, all the more so
when the purpose really held in mind
| by the many Is to grasp wealth with
out much personal effort; to make up
for ones deficiency by despoiling
Others"
Large fortunes legally obtained
the speaker declared, are not neces-
sarily an evil. They are necessary to
the marvellous growth characteristic
of American life. They must not, how
ever, be allowed to violate law or op-
press the weak.
The society reelected Gen. Gren-
vile NJ. Dodge president.
A resolution strongly denouncing
the statement of an orator at the re-
cent function at Gen. u. S. Grants
monument, to the effect that General
Grant aspired to dictatorship at the
close of the Civil War, was adopted.
Gen. o. o. Howard, Gen. John c. Black
and Mrs. John A. Logan Joined in the
denunciation- of this assertion as cal
umny and Gen. Frederick D. Grant
took occasion to declare that it was
without the least foundation in fact;
that his father never thought of such
a thing.