Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-02-14
CLOSE OF THE CONVENTION
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION ASSOCIA-
TON ENDS ITS SESSIONS.
Adiourns to Meet in Chicago Next
February-Address by DR..
Lyman Abbott.

After sessions extending through three
days the fifth general convention of the
Religious Education Association adj
journed last night to meet in Chicago
next February. Addresses were made at
the final meeting in the First Congrega-
tional Church, 10th and G streets. by Rev.
Dr. Lyman Abbott of New York on 1.-THE
Significance of the Present Moral Awak-
ening of the Nation and by Rev. Car
ter Helm Jones of Lynchburg. Va, on
1.-The Demands of the Christian Ideal of
the Nation" Much of the meeting last
evening was devoted to discussion of
THE Education of the Conscience of the
Nation" Resolutions emphasizing the
belief of the convention that the real So
luton of the problem in the future de-
ponds upon the enlargement of the place
of religious education in the curricula of
the theological schools were adopted.
Bordering almost on socialism, yet de-
claring that socialism does not offer the
answer. the address of DR.. Abbott was
regarded as one of the most notable or
the convention. In 1.-The awakening OF
the country" the speaker said, he sees
the imminent doom of capitalism. and
expressed the belief that earnings should
be divided equally between capitalists,
directors and laborers.
Ownership of Labor's Product.
Man is man, and should share in the
fruits of his labors. The product of labor
belongs to those who participate in the
making of it," Dr. Abbott said. Earnings
should be equally divided among capital
lists. directors and laborers. The real
labor question is how to effect an equitable
division. l do not attempt to answer that
question tonight, except to say that social
ism is not the answer"
DR.. Abbott divided his subject into four
general questions:
What is a proper subject of property?
How can property be honestly acquired?
What are the rights of property? What
are proper limitations on those rights?'
Our country has, during the last hum
dred years, been undergoing a process of
education on the subject of property" the
speaker explained. The anti-slavery con-
fiict leading up to the civil war taught
the lesson that man is not a proper SUBJ
ject of property-that no man can own
another. man.
During the civil war our government
instituted policy of giving away land
for homesteads. About the same time
the states and cities presented valuable
land and franchises to the railroads. which
are now in control of the highways OF
the nation. The alarming figures con-
corning the waste OF 1OTeSlS has lIHpc11tu
our national government to institute the
policy of reserving forests and mining
lands In the future. and even to buy back
some of the forest lands given away.
How the people may get control of nat
ura! products. which. under a rightly
ordered system of society would belong
to them. without doing injustice to those
who have been allowed to become prop
erty owners-that is our land problem.
I'm the beginning of the nineteenth GEN.
fury lotteries were sanctioned by law and
used for the endowment of educational,
and religious institutions.
The gambling spirit has grown with the
growth of the nation. When gambling
extends to corn, cotton railroad and min
ing stocks the whole community is af-
fected. No man has right to take his
neighbors property, whatever the device
by which he does IL, without giving him a |
fair equivalent for 1t.
I'm the complicated system of the pres
ent day nearly all of our industries are
corporate industries. If a man made q a,
shoe years ago the shoe was his. II three
combine to make shoes. the capitalist, who