The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1908-01-20

rights are being denied? Is it any more
possible for United States soldiers to be
commissioned to defend working men IN
their conflicts with their employers than
II would have been sixty years ago Tor
these same soldiers to be commissioned to
defend the southern slaves in any conflict
they might have had with their owners
But is it not true that our soldiers have
been used often in behalf of employers Of
labor? Have they ever been used in be-
half of employees What does this mean
1t means that the existing government
distinctly recognizes that one class of citi-
Zens, the employers. have rights in de-
Tense of which all the military resources
of the nation may be called upon for serv-
ice. Ard it means that the government
denies that another class of citizens, the
employed, have any rights which the
soldiers may ever be called upon to de-
fend. II means that the decision of Chief
Justice fancy concerning the slaVes-that
they had no rights which white men were
bound TO respects in force today re
specting the whole working class in this
country as related to the employing class
submit that this government has no
more right 10 complain if organized labor
fOrbids its members to join the militia or
the army. or if some of its members have
little respect for the flag, than it would
have had to complain at similar state
of feeling on the part of the southern
slaves sixty years ago
"A nation has no meaning and no CO.
herenCe. nothing to hold il permanently
together unless it is a real partnership.
and a partnership which guarantees the
interest and fidelity and affection or
every citizen. The founders of this ma
ton recognized this fundamental neces-
sity when they provided for political
equality, among men, at the ballot box.
That is what democracy, considered as
world movement or spiritual idea,
means And if the early fathers of the
Christian church were right IN saying that
property is, communion with God through
material things this is also what reliG-
ion requireS-a permanent stake Tor every
human being in the earth and its products
rights Of religion. To monopolize ma
tons property is exactly equivalent to the
attempt to mOnOpOliZe God.
''The failure of the Christian church to
affirm and establish these fundamental
rights of men is the moral tragedy of our
time No religion has the smallest hope
of keeping the respect-much less Win
ming the love and loyalty-of sane men
and women which is not concerned, above
all with the question of justice here on
the earth. But the social activity OF the
Christian church everywhere takes The
form Of charity. nowhere the form of
justice.
Believe me- men and women. you can't
fool the laws of nature. You cannot out
wit God And don't you believe that any
man or any body Of men has monopoly
on God or On reliSion God hasn't tied
himself to any book or church or sect
not even to the wOrid-embracinS church
II ne cares more about justice IMAM any
thing else and wants to eStaDnsn II on the
earth, he viii make use of that instru-
ment alone hitch viii accomplish the de-
sired end. The time is coming when We
shall see that We were just as faithless IN
our generation la failing to understand
the. deep religious meaning Of the most
vital and beneficent struggle and the only
splendid faith or hope OF our own time.
though il he embodied in men VINO are
called heretics and atheists. as were the
DrCfessed WOrshipDerS Of Jehovah and the
disciples of Moses who thought Jesus an
irreligious person and put him to death as
such We cannot put the new wine or
twentieth century vision and ideal into
the old bottles of sixteenth century dog
matism or first century tradition. The
new visison of today creates the larger re-
Tgiou Of today. determines the duty and
demand ot today. And the voice of to-
DAYS need is as divine a voice as ever
gladdened the soul Of man. and the vision
OF today's forward looking faces is as
sacred a vision as ever illumined hui
man life.