The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-10-21

broad sweep of the solomonic proverb
 Where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increase is by the strength of the OK
 It is only the ignorant. the stupid, the slothful the stagnating mind, that is satisfied with it's present conditions. Progress is not like a swamp, with fetid air and surface of slime. There every thing is still and quiet True mental progress is like the commoton and dis ordered waters of brook. There the
 waters are pure and sweet, because one
 moment they are tumbing over a cas- cade, the next they are being dashed into foam against some powder, and the next they are as a waterfall leaping over some cliff They are never still. They are all
 ways moving, always readJusung them
 selves to new conditions.
 As I note the restless commotions of the individual mind, so l note also the
 restless conditions of the social world
 and the conflict of the classes against the masses. The soeialistic upheaVals of the present time are not sign that our
 present governmental life is to be de- stroyed They are a sign, and a sure
 sign. that out of these upheavals there shall come forth a better truth, a better honesty, a purer social life. How many
 wrongs there are to be lighted on both sidesi Capital, with it's vast resources and machinery, frequently has more mer-
 cy upon it's iron and steel bars and it's
 leather bands and it's huge pile drivers than upon the bone and sinew and mus
 cle of it's workmen. Capital does not say to itself: How much can l make these goods for and sell them at a fair rate of profit that the people may buy them the cheapest and yet l get fair return for my money?" No, capital does not say
 that Capital says: How can I make these goods the cheapest and sell them the dearest? How can decrease my ex- penses at home and yet sell at the max mum price the needy people will pay?" An. there is something commercially wrong about such a condition as that. Capital. by her own actions. stands as n l confessed usurer and eXtortioner Her
 motto often is: Squeeze the last drop
 of blood out of the people. Do not run A business for a fair competence, but
 run 1t to get every cent of profit out of the human race that we can.
 Sins of Capital and Labor. On the other hand, labor is just as cruel and selfish an extortioner as capi- tai when she gets the chance. In fa- nous bookstore of Chicago there was one corner which went by the name of
 Saints and sinners" Books of all creeds
 were placed there side by side. There in fdel and atheist and minister would sometimes meet for quiet chat in a Monday symposium. But In the social world taken as a whole there are no
 saints" Too often we find both capital and labor robed in the black garments of selfishness instead of the white robes
 of altruism Their motto becomes, not
 Tive and let live" but Hive ourselves
 and get all we can at the other mans
 expense" Of course I am not now talk
 ing of the capitalist and the laborer as
 individuals
 Yes, capital today cannot be proud of her past record. She has a heart of stone. Neither has labor today anything to be proud of in her past actions. She has an adamantine heart of seltishness and greed. But when I look upon the struggles of these two mighty social fac tors I am not n pessimist. for in the so- cial storms, in the strikes and recrlmina- tions. in the blows. which are now falling thick and fast. in the wars and rumors of. wars, in the universal social disorder, I see a bright day coming, Peace and prosperity and universal brotherhood | shall yet be evolved out of the present social chaos No "stagnating social cos mos is here. All these social upheavals are only rainbow signs In the heavens | that the social wars shall soon cease Where no oxen are the crib is clean