Los Angeles herald., 1910-01-31
SEES HOPE FOR
FUTURE IN IDEALS
UNITARIAN DEFENDS MEN AT
HEAD OF BIG TRUSTS
CALLS MERcILESS ENERGY A
PERVERTED lDEALISM
Believes That Time and Change with
Growing Culture Will Blot
Out the Present
Evils

In his sermon on standards of Art
and Religion" at the First Unitarian
church yesterday morning the pastor,
Rev. e. Stanton Hodgin, said:
'srrhe criticism most persistently di-
rected against America is to the effect
that we have no idealism-that we are
wholly sordid and the scramble for
wealth crowds down and destroys
everything else. l believe that under
meath and inspiring all this rage for
wealth is a genuine idealism that Will
in time issue in Il higher life than
anything Europe can produce. The
thing that has put our captains Of
industry W, re they are today, leaders
in every activity and that makes them
such a menace. is not their sordldnesS
but their idealism. The artist begins
his picture; it grows as he works; he
sees constantly greater possibilities in
it; he carries it with him In his mind
wherever he goes. 1t is his life This
picture suggests to him another and
greater one and the only thing that
can take him away from the first one
is the call of a second and he is thus
drawn forever on 1y his idealism-by
his artistic passion. Can you persuade
that man that 1t is time for him to
stop-to throw away his brush and
paint no more, to spend the remainder
of his days in the leisure enjoyment OF
what he has achieved? Not if he is a
frue artist. AS ideal forever calls him
back to his studio. He must follow H.
1t is his only joy.
fThere is as much opportunity for
idealism and artistic passion IN rall-
road system or in a great business en-
terprise as in a picture. 1t grows un-
der the promoters hand as the picture
does under the artists brush. II is
81, iaE~n O n
calls for something more and calls for
il more imperatively once a man real
ICES that he has power to build success
fully and the passion draws him on
and on and he can no more quit than
the artist can lay down his brush.
1.-THE artist in the intensity of his
passion is frequently thoughtless and
careless of the rights and interests OF
others and sacrifices them in the most
heartless manner. Much of the ap-
parent ruthlessness of our captains OF
Industry in crushing out competition
and stamping out whatever gets IN
their way is due to this same cause
They are so intense in their purpose
to complete and round out their sys-
tenn that anything that opposes them
IS relentlessly destroyed
1T is not sordidness nor viciousness,
but is a perverted idealism. This it
for the future. Once the ethical and
spiritual element can be sufficiently in
1eeted into this ideal it will become the
greatest of all forces for good. Amerl-
cans are really the least sordid of peo-
Dle They are the least given to the
boarding propensity. They care little
for money for its own sake. They
readily respond to benevolent and phil
-anthropic appeals. 1t is because our
hean Tins far OCPuDiP0
so exclusively with material achieve
ment that it appears sordid. There is
nothing so easily remedied as the evils
of misdirected idealism. The passion
for material achievement may speedily
pass over to a passion for social ser
vice We can see this change taking
place under our eyes today. Never be
fore has there been so much earnest
effort put both in the cause of jus
tice and in the endeavOr to make life
worth while to all sorts and conditions
of people Our captains of industry
are responding to the new enthusiasm
as well as the old.
1.-THE passion for material achieve
ment is still dominant, they push on
in the rounding out of their schemes,
crushing everything that opposes them
with relentless energy. but at the same
time they are spending their millions
in altruistic services in fostering the
higher idealism through educational
and cultural channels OF course it Is
easy to say that these philanthrCpies
are simply hush money, attempts to
purchase immunity and respectabilfty.
Tt would be much nearer the truth to
see in it this double idealism, and to
confidently expect the nobler idealism
to soon triumph and the reign of a
better day be at hand"