Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1906-10-31
|S|[|N[R AROUS[S
MEMS interest
Second Lecture Before Search
light Club Presages Better
Ones to Follow
MANY QUESTIONS INSPIRED
Discussion on "sooi.l discomfort"
Creates Curiosity Of Business Men
to Know Moro Of Present Day Con.
ditions-Problems and Needs Con.
fronting America Today

The second lecture in the course on
Social Discomfort by DR.. Steiner be-
fore the Searchlight Club. was deliv-
cred last evening to an excellent and
appreciative audience. This number,
which might perhaps be technically
classed as the first in the course on
social discomfort, was largely prefa-
tory and explanatory, as leading up
to the numbers to come.
The doctor laid the foundations for
am extremely liberal course of treat
ment of the social question in his pre-
liminary lecture and forecasted a SER
les that is likely to awaken much in
the close Of each lecture. When he
finished last evening there was a rapid
fire OF questions that indicated the
strong interest of his hearers, and that
the speaker had accomplished what he
set out to do by carrying the audience
further along the lines of his subject
than sthe days work OF the evening.
Indications arc that at no course ever
delivered hers will have aroused SO
much interest and brought out so large
and regular attendance as this on the
social order and the causes of dis
content. There was a notable scarcity
Of hand and mechanical workers In the
audience last evening, and this is the
more astonishing when It Is consider
ed that DIR. Steiner is talking with the
most perfect freedom along lines
whereupon the workers are thinking,
and in which their interests are in-
extricably involved.
At the outset the doctor paid a neat
compliment to the Searchlight Club by
saying. that no other club Of similar
purposes in the state had so large q
membership and such regular attend
ance and argued that df the men of
Marshalltown could unity for such
purposes they might become solid
iifed force for greater things.
1.-The need OF America" said DR..
Steiner, sis national democracy" We
must be honest enough to face facts.
We must not cover up poverty with our
prosperity and refuse to see the faults
and failures of our system. The bet
ter side of life is always shown. We
naturally gravitate to the electric
lights and the paved streets. But there
is another side and this side is no more
to be ignored than the other Optim-
ism and pessimism are things of nerv-
es and digestion.
Discomfort is general. Japan, Rus
STA, China, and even Persia, are in
stances Of its prevalence. Not be-
cause human suffering has increased.
for it has decreased, and charity and
altrufsm have grown. The poor live
better than they ever have done. Cons
mon people live better. A plumbers
wage exceeds the college professors
salary. Discomfort is greater because
education Is more general. It is due
to, the popular uplift. With education
comes struggle and desire. The ignor-
ant are the most content. Education
Is revolutionary. Shut the public
schools If you want to keep out dis
content. You can't teach the Lords
prayer without making people Ndiscon-
tented. Christianity and God are dem-I
ocratic. Modern life, the telephone and
the newspapers, are revolutionary
forces. Hearst's success is not because
men are worse housed orsfed, but be-
cause they have seen great wrongs.
Americas causes Of discomfort are the
instability of wealth, the desire OF
wealth to keep others from becoming
wealthy and the desire of the poor to
get rich. The man at the top is disin-
clined to let the one below climb up.
Another cause of discomfort is the
Insecurity Of the wage Garner. He has
nothing to fall back on. When he has
given his life and strength to build up
business, he may be discharged at
the will of others, and his income
ceases.
The division OF labor has aided to
create classes. Labor, not individu-
ais, makes things in factories. AN ar
ticle goes thru many hands to Its COM
pletion. Laborers are setting them
selves aside as a class. Capitalists are
a class. The social question is grow
ing to be an international question. The
labor movement has become brother
hood. Glass making cause against
class is dangerous condition.
Men are questioning everything.
Even the moral laws are under ques-
ton. Everywhere social, religious and
political systems are being questioned.
All is in state OF flux We are facing
a new social order
The need is for justice. Social de-
as defined by the doctor, is "a
social order on communistic principles
in which the common interests are pro-
tected" We must, he said, be ready to
face and solve the causes for this dis
content, and he predicted the fight will
be waged and decided in the strategic
point of the middle west, where the
social order comes nearest to true de-
mocracy
DR.. Steiner has been called to the
east. where he will deliver a number
of lectures before colleges and socie-
ties in Boston, New York, Hartford
and other points, and will be the guest
of honor at dinner in New York con-
gratulatory to the value of his new
book, "On the Trail of the Immigrant"
His place will be filled before the
Searchlights next meeting by Jane
Adams, of Hull House, the noted set
Element worker, of whom DR.. Steiner
says She is one of the greatest wom-
an in the United States"
Out-of-town guests at the lecture
were Rev. George c. Rheinfrank, of
Des Moines, lecturer under the Red
path bureau, and former pastor of the
Sulzer Memorial German Lutheran
church at Lacrosse, Wis; S. c. Wy
and Of the Memorial nniYersitx- Ma