The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1908-02-09
A Pertinent Question
Submitted for Answer.

Submitted tor Answer.
One OF the best known and most
popular pastors in Pensacola has re-
ceived a postal card on which the fol-
lowing question is asked:
lWhat is a man to do who is out of
work In a financial crisis and is starv-
lns?"
The pastor who received this card
referred it to The Journal, with the
request: 'TWnl you answer this ques-
Eon?"
The Journal does not know that it
ran answer the question It does not
know that any satisfactory answer
could be given to it. But The Journal
does know that such question de-
rhands an answer, that the question,
whether answered or not by individ-
uals now. must inevitably be answered
by civilization itself some time in the
future, and that the sooner the indi-
viduals of society take upon them
selves the responsibility of answering
It the sooner civilization will be re
IeVed of the great blemish and bur-
den which the question implies.
The question is as worthy of an
swer by the pulpit as blythe press. 1t
Is eminently a more appropria e sub
Jet for pulpit discussion of the pres
ent day than the story of Joseph's
starving brethren who went down to
Egypt to profit by the wisdom of a
Pharoah who had considered this
same question in his time 900 years
ago. Joseph, his brothers, and Pha-
raoh,, have long since become dust,
but there are flesh and blood men to-
day who are more in Interested in the
physical pangs of hunger than they
are in moral lessons deduced from
the lives or acts of any nan or men
who belonged to the remote antiqui-
ties of the past.
The question assumes three things:
ID that a man may be out of work;
GU that a financial crisis may occur;
and go that the man, as a result of
the two former conditions, may be
starving.
One of the objects of government
Is to secure to mankind certain self
evident and inalienable rights, among
which are life, liberty, and the pursuit
pf happiness. A government that
balls to do that is falling in a part of
It's mission, and a government that
neglects to provide for a condition I'M
der which a man may be out Of work,
and IS starving as a result of that fact,
has failed to insure either the hap
piness Or the life of its subject.
In other words, it should be i'm
possible under a free and just govern
memt, for any able-bodied man to
want work and not be able to secure
II. Yet such thing is not only pos
sihle in our own government, but is
an actual, existing fact It follows,
therefore, that our government has
failed in one, at least, Of its functions.
What is the remedy?
The question cannot be answered
by one person. 1t can only be an
swered by the composite wisdom of
an entire people. Nor will the answer
DOAAC OH eiI OhO HIM. 1t IluSl, w the
same process of evolution which
formed the world itself, the men who
people it, the birds and beasts which
live upon and in it, and the intelIi-
gence and morals from which have
grown our governments and all other
human agencies-this same process
must continue its work until a system
OF government has been evolved I'M
der which the conditions assumed In
the question to the pastor will be inn
possible.
We may say that. under a perfect
financial system. money panics and
business criees which come from them
could not occur. We may go further,
and say that until our government
quits farming out to private ndivid-
uals the purely governmental function
of making and circulating money. our
financial system can never be perfect
We now allow bankers and so-called
hnanciers to, In effect, make our
money and issue It to us in such
amounts as they see fit 1t would be
Just as reasonable to give private in
dividuals the right and power to levy
taxes, declare war, or run the army,
the navy. Or the government itself