Deseret evening news. [volume] (Great Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1867-1920, 1908-12-16
TODAY S PROBLEMS
FOR AMERICANS
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Prest. Jacob Could sohurman Of
Cornell University Says They
Are Economic Ones.
ARE REcAsTlNG PARTIES.
In United States Situation intensified
BY Great and increasing IN
eaualities OF Contlitipns

II
Corn exposition today DR.. Jacob Gould
Schurman, president Of Cornell uniNer-.
sity. gave an address on "Our National
Outlook" The immense concert hall Of
the exposition building was crowded.
He said:
The great majority of problems which
today interest American voters are eco
nonlic problems. It is economic prob
lens which are transforming, recastng
and recreating our political parties.
And herein our historyis but following
the course of European history. If we
look over Europe" says Mr.. Bryce IN
his American Commonwealth. I'VE shall
find that the grounds on which parties
have been built and contests walsed
since the beginning of free governments
have been in substance but few. in the
hostility of rich and poor. or OF capital
and labor, in the fears OF the HAYES and
the desires of the Havenots, We per-
ceive the most frequent ground, though
it Is often disguised.
{ In the United States the situation is
intensified by the existence of great and
increasing inequalities of economic
conditions. 1t is this phenomenon which
fosters Socialism amongst us, and the
Socalistic spirit is far more widely diff
fused than the number of voters for the
Socialistic ticket would indicate. Many
minds are rendered susceptible to the
allurements of Socialism by resentment
at existing contrasts between our very
rich and our very poor. while that
equality which is the Foundation of the
sociallstic state has something in 1t.
akin to the sense Of justice and fair
treatment. whchlis the deepest clement
in the moral nature&of man.
THE soCIALISTIC REMEDY.
While synlpathize with the social
istic desire to improve the conditlon
Of our unpropertied classes, nave Ell, no
faith in the Socialists panacea That
forced, unjust and unnatural equality
for which he stands would destroy the
genius, energy and initiative of the in
dividuals to which the progress of ciVil-
ization is in the last analysis due. And
the Socialists suppositipn that the
state would manage great IN dus s's
enterprises as SUGGEST rs az pr pa 10,
-tndividuats- is ne tuted EVERY. day by
experience and observation of the man
ner in which, III all countries, business
is conducted by the political leaders
and managers who constitute govern
nent for the time being.
Nevertheless l am profoundly con-
WINGED that q new and serious problem
is arising for US in consequence or the
inequalities of economic con-
ditions. And I1suppose no one could
deny that the contrast between the rich
and the poor would conceivably reach
a point at which there was no alterna-
tive but revolution. That Is to say, the
of people in the country with
out property might become SO large ana
wealth so concentrated that 1t would
not seem to the voters worth while to
a form of government under
which such inequalities had been de-
and We're being maintained,
And we must not for moment lose
sight of the fact that the right to hold
private property and the right to be-
uueath it. as we'll as the existence OF
the republic itself depend entirely on
the sentiments of the voters of the,
The majority must be reason
ably satisfied with our institutions. or;
our institutions Will be modified to meet
their views and sentiments.
THE MAXIM OF EQUALITY.
4 Ii have no faith in the socialistic
scheme of state ownership OF capital
and equal compensa ton for all On
the other hand I recognize the lesson
of history that inequalities of fortune,
when they have become very conspicu-
Gus and firmly established under the
aegis Of existing institutions, lead to
revolutions. A reasonable equality of
economic condition seems to be the les-
son taught by the experience of the an
Gent Greek Republics as their history
has been interpreted for us by the pen-
etrating analysis and profound detiec-
tions of Aristotle. There is one wise
and just observation of human life
Which the Greek drama contributed to
our New Testament. That"evil commu-
nications corrupt good manners was
Il maxim of Menander which Paul cited
to enforce his exhortations to the Cor
inthians. Everyone recognizes the truth
and Importance OF this observation
There Is; however. another maxim of
Menander which sometimes wish had
also become part of the New Testa-
ment for 1t Is no less Just reflection
on human life and an indisputable cor
rollary of the political experience Of
i'm of that profound Greek observer
who taught us that EVIL communica-
tons corrupt good manners" Is this:
Choose equally and flee greed. - If
this maxim were generally accepted
and to a measurable degree applied to
the business OF lie, we should not be
confronted with the grave economic
problem which modern Industrial condi-
lions are continually aceentuating.
THE socIALIz1NG SPIRIT.
Let US not, however, be guilty of mis-
or exaggerated alarm
as l have said, Is an inn
Individnalism is the only
scheme Of society, and, when
tempered with a proper social spirit,
it is the justest scheme The danger.
however. which lies near it is of becom Y
ing, anti-social and of breeding reyolu-
ton. It's safety lies In renewed bap-
tisns of the social spirit And that
social spirit, while admitting ineuuaI-
tiles. and even great inequalities, vet
exercises an influence III the direction
of greater eq,:aitty. It thus becomes
the purifier and preventative of ex-
isting institutions. The men who :igi1t
1t, the men who contend for unlimited
as champions of revolution. Il
however sincere they may be, thew are
short-sighted.
II the majority of voters are to be
with existing Institutions cer-z
tain changes of a character which
might broadly describe as sociatjZine
though not socialistic. seem to me IN
evitahIe Socialistic schemes, like gov
eminent ownership and control of rail-
ways, have little attraction for tho
American people. They recognize that
to buy the railroads the state or the
nation would need Ito borrow large
SUMS Of money, precisely as the present
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