The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1912-03-16
CURRENT COMMENT
Men or Things?

Surely no thoughtful observer of current Is
sues that have any lasting Importance can
fail to see that behind them all is one supreme.
persistent and fundamental question That
question. 1t may be said In simple language
concerns the dignity. the innate and intrinsic
dignity and value OF the person. OF the human
being, without respect to the udventitious and
external conditions of his life. 1t Is great. a
wonderfully great issue. Bthnd up In 1t are
the liberties of the individual, the fate of de-
mocracy and the future progress of the race
Rightly interpreted. every important. vital
question of general significance, whether 1t be
social. religious political, which now occupies
public attention. involves, in form
other this simple and elemental problem.
In religion the problem Is brought into view
by the claims and encroachments of pricscraft.
We are not now dealing with any particular
body of religious people We are thinking and
writing more broadly Priestcraft may be often
present in essense where the form or
longer exists On the other hand. It's form may
persist long after Its power to tyranntze has
been greatly reduced. But wherever it APP
pears and however. whether In form in
sence, It is a foe OF human liberty and a sworn
enemy TO democracy. 1t Is a form of privilege.
Under IT'S domination groups ef- men are sepa-
rated from their fellows. invested with peculiar
authority, clothed with immunity and suffered
after their own fashion. to lord 1t over those
who not members OF their class We may
say in passing. though We are not nowdealing
; with that aspect of the matter. that there is no
deadlier foe to the spirit OF Jesus than this
mischievous error which has been engrafted by
the unhoIy ambition of men upon the simplicity
of the New Testament.
In social life this same question projects
itself and finds expression in the purely arti-
fetal distinctions which obtain and which de-
termine almost absolutely the qualification Of
society Caste, II s true does not obtain In
our Occidental life as II does In largo sections
OF tho Orient that Is, II does not manifest itself
IN the fixed and unalterahle forms which have
wthered and paralyzed great divisions Of the
human Yet to extent, which are
reluctant to acknowledge, the same principle.
negation OF principle. which underlies the
formal laws OF caste in India compels Its too
compliant slaves 10 obey It in our own social
organization. In other words. for all practical
purposes maintain in society that the real
value Of the man is in the accident of BIRTH
in the temporary possession acquisition of
fortune. in word in the mere external,
casional and temporary circumstances of his
life.
More familiar to us, more pressing more pa,-
pabie, more practical. s the form which this
, same question takes as between the worth and
dignity of the person and the privileges and
immunites which grow out OF the abundance
OF the things which he possesses or Is able
to control It is a curious situation which fronts
us in these latter days. The right to hold and
to use property is a primary human right. IL
would seem to enter into the very foundation Of
our social organization. Even the soca,.s,.
who quarrel with the present organization Of
human society. in their attacks property
rights go only so far to advocate community
ownership OF tho means Of production and re-
tain in their program place for new >uaY
ownership Of all other property. Yet. in the
development and progress OF humanity, II has
come to pass that this primary human right is
set over against other human rights, such as
the right of liberty. of equality before the law
or even handed justice. At this very hour the
struggle between this human right and other
human rights proceeds, had almost said
everywhere the face Of the earth and as
sumes nowhere form more acute, more sig
nffcant, more tremendous In all Its significance
and implications than II does in our own land
The reason for this Is not far to seek When
property was mostly In land. the owner OF the
land was lord and the tenant IL not a
chattel slave, serf bound to tn , soil and
class. in this condition OF things. were not al
ways free to combine and the very conditions
OF their lives promoted certain degree OF
independency by which, in the long run, the
serfs profited
Along with the tremendously importan,
scientif1c discoveries which signaiized the pasr
century, there came new opportunities for de-
veloping and exploiting natural resources a
new and unreasonable impulse was given to
manufactures, mining and commerce. and sud
denly. In a few decades pernonaE -prope-ty, &C.
ouired an overwhelming relative Importance
This form of property more mobile could
be more easily organized and directed and with
this tremendous change In our civilization came
the crisis which. as view the public life Of
our people, has been steady growing more poig-
nant and which involves at the bottom the
single and supreme issue between. the value
and dignity OF the human SOUL on the one
hand and the privileges and rights Of things
on the other. Religious Her aid