The Washington herald., 1908-05-18
CRAVE PROBLEMS FOR NATION
Rev. Dr.. Van Sehaiek Discusses "Con-
servation of Human Resources"
Moral and Material Welfare of In
dtviduaIs Is Responsibility Rest
ing Upon the People, He Says.

Conservation Of human resources" a
theme affOrdlng opportunity TO cite the
whole people Of the nation 10 assumption
OF responsibility in the preservation and
Improvement Of the moral and material
welfare OF the workers in the fields and
mines and factory and shop. was the
subject chosen by Rev. John Van
Schaick. jr.. for his sermon yesterday
morning at the Church of Our Father
Devastating disease, especially tubercu-
losis; child labor. railway and mine
casualty, conditions Of employment, In
temperance were set forth by Mr. Van
Sehaick as national prOblems-evils de-
manding public remedy, not only through
enactment OF laws. but. also. through the
constant application OF q considerate
wisdom. Of control Of selfish pr0pensities,
and keen sympathy for fellow-humans
Mr.. Van Schaick said:
In z historic conference al the White
House great leaders have spoken ike the
prophets Of Dld and told OF the reckless
waste and the selfish exploitation os the
material gifts OF the good God. What
needs to be said to-day is that there is
reckless waste and selfish exploitation of
the spiritual as well as the material re-
sources Of our country
It is fortunate that We have in the
White House man who looks beyond
the needs and demands Of the present
hour. Il IS service Of the largest kind
that the President has rendered in calling
the governors and their experts TO Wash
ington. In the years to come every incl
dent and detail Of that conference viii be
cherished and all who participated re-
membered as among the makers OF our
history.
But back Of the problems there dis
cussed was another even more funda-
mental; back Of the economic. a human
and moral problem. In all the ad-
dresses It kept cropping out Both the
President and John Mitchell specifically
referred to il.
More important than mines are men
Weightier than the problems OF the soil
and forest are the problems OF those who
I'll the soil and use the forests.
II Is important TO save and use our
material resources. but it is more i'm
portant to save and use the human.
We have eighty or ninety millions Of.
people. They live in the city and In the
country They toll in fields and sweat
shops. They are educated I'm the school
and in the slum. They are black and
white, native and foreign, young and old.
and this country needs them al.
1t needs their strong bodies. What
ever Injuries or destroys the body and
lowers the standard Of efficiency is
problem for the nation.
II needs their active minds. Whatever
darkens the mind is a problem for the
nation.
1t needs their pure and courageous
souls. Whatever fetters or imprisons the
soul is q problem for the nation,
tuberculosis takes 10000 of our people
every year BY far the greater number
are attacked between the ages of twenty
and forty. when they might render their
strongest and best service to the country
Child labor strikes at the very fountain
head OF citizenship. Il takes children
who ought TO be in school and at play.
Ii dWarfs and defOTms their bodies. de-
prives them Of all chance for an adequate
education, exposes them to demoralizing
influences. and robs them of their herit-
age of growth and joy
THE saddest sight in Pennsylvania is
not the exhausted mine II is the ex-
hausted child, old before his time. weird.
weazened. blackened. neither young nor
old, neither brute nor human.
The saddest sight in the South is not
the sterile soil where the cotton is grown.
1t is the sterile mind where the cotton
is spun.
Not a subject Of such comment as the
conference at the White House. but a
matter OF as deep significance. is the tli-
berculosis bill passed by Congress and
the child labor bill passed BY the House
week ago. and pending now in the
Senate. In four years thirty-four States
have passed child labor laws, and the
national government ought not to fall
behind
It is a mighty thing to master a metal.
It is a mightier thing to save a soul.
Ten thousand people were killed last
year on our railroads. Eighty-slx thou
sand were injured. 1t is easy to blame
the corporations, but the responsibility in
part the people must share We have
taken that responsibility in part by pass
ing a law regulating the hours OF labor
of railroad employees.
But the remedy lies deeper down. We
need all that can be done by law, rigid
investigation, improved appliances, and
better men. But we need more the wis
dom and self-cOntroI of the public that
viii neither take unnecessary chances
nor permit others to take those that i'm
peril the safety Of the people
We need a higher appreciation of hui
man life. We need to feel the dignity
and worth of a soul. We must under
stand the awfulness Of murder by neglect. /
Jacob Riis once said: We can kill
a man with a tenement as surely as with
a gun.
I'VE can blow up a soul with whisky
as well as with dynamite.
We can poison with soothing syrup
as well as with stryehnine-
We can commit suicide with patent
medicines as well as with a rope.
Nothing that destroys the bodies of
our people Is unworthy Of our thought. !
Nothing that hinders their minds or souls
is a trifiing problem
% Ny people are destroyed for lack of
knowledge. BY precept and example, |
through law and the gospel, let US ex-
tend this knowledge and save our people |
for the service Of the republic"