The Falls City tribune., 1910-09-09
TIL QUIET HOUR


The SOrdid Order Of EXpi0iters.
Did you have one when you were a child They were red
aud yellow; with loose jointed legs and arms. When you pulled
the string the legs and arms were ierEed into all kinds Of grotesqo
positions, and you laughed at its antics. 1t was only a jumping
jack, and you made it go through its motions merely for your en-
tertainment and amusement without having any other interest in
II. There was no harm i'll that, The red and yellow wooden
monkey was not affected by it for veal or woe.
= = = = \ s. i
But there is a difference when you come to adopt the jump,
ing jack method and attitude in your dealings with real people.
There is a word which admirably expresses this method Of
dealing with others-the word Exploit. . The dictionary says:
To exploit others is to utilize II employ them in our own
selfish schemes, to bring out for ones own advantage without re-
gard to rights or right.
our ends and in whose welfare we have no further interests.
1t is a sort of blasphemy against human nature, this ignoring
of others claims upon us; this smothering of every suggestion OF
brotheriness and ferow-feeling, and using them a mere tools, of
value so long as they can advance our selfish ends, and after that
discarding them as S much worn out machinery ready for the junk
pile.
Over again all this sordd adoption of the jumping jack
theory of our relation to others, the great philosopher Kant LAID
down the rule:
Always treat humanity, whether in yourself or another, as
a person, and never as a thing
Whatever may be the special relation in which men happen
to stand; employer and employee merchant and customer; leader
and follower, it must always be remembered that there is a still
higher relation between them-they are brothers, and where the
claims of the two relationships Threaten to conflict, the latter
must be recognized as supreme
No man has the right merely to use other men. Climbers who
reach their money or ambitions goal by tramplng upon human
souls are Is truly bloodstained as are the brutal plantation own
ers of southern Mexico in their slaughter of their Yaqui slaves.
Just here is to be found the essence of the strongest argument
against the saloon business.
1t is inevitably a soul-traffh, more truly than was that of
the old Arab slaves. 1t goes up in the scale Of prosperity only
as souls go down in the scale of humanity. 1t thrves on ruin. 1t
no more surely requires crushed apples to make cider than it re-
auires churshed lives to make saloon profits. 1t treats men as
things to be exploited, as jumping jacks to perform their fanhs-
tic antics. to crafty others whims. 1t ignores completely the high
er NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. and rruShpS all of the humanity ont of men
for the sake of cash.
And just here also is to be found the explanation of most
of the troubles of modern big business
Every employer-whdher it be in the case of mistress and
maid in the home, or Of the great corporation whose working force
numbers thousands-who is intent only upon securing the max
imum service in return for the minimum wages-or, for that
matter, in return for liberal wages-and who ignores the fact that
the hands and feet that serve him are but the physical equip
ment of an immortal soul, and that the soul Of a sister or
brother violates the higher code which Christ has set up, and
inevitably precipitates all the social troubles that follow.
Using gold watches to drive in railway spikes is the faintest
shadow of a parallel to using immortal souls to make millions
without any recognition Of the higher relation in which we stand
TO those souls. The employer Of men who think Of them only as
hands never as souls-is as truly a pirate in spirit as was
Captain Kidd. To look upon the wageearners whose service is
swelling your fortune merely as paving blocks on your pathway
to Easy st, and to ignore the human obligations, your relation
to them entails upon you, is to break all ten commandments at
once. No orthodoxy in theology can save such a man from the
hell to which his heterodoxy in social ethics will consign him
Men and women, endowed for everlasting existence, are not
jumping jacks made to dance to the tune of others whims; but
comrades on the pathway to Immortality whose progress toward
the blessed goal you are under Clrst-fixed bonds to help - and
not to hinder.
One phase of the prevalent exploiting of humanity is some
time. found in the psychology gore oseed theories of the modern
business world.
| picked up a rather pretentious volume OF advertising recent
y IN which this theory was worked out to the limit. Summarized