The daily sentinel., 1912-01-23

without its overthrowal, by which
the injustices that now exist and are
a blot on our civilization would be
made impossible and advantas ses mre-
tied and healthy would be freely en-
joyed.
The present social order with its
competitive system is not in itself
essentially evil, as some teach The |
evil is in the heart of the man and
this causes him TO abuse his fellows
and practice injustice and dishonesty.
A change in the system would not
prevent these abuses or the introduc-
ton of others quite as serious under
some different social order. The real /
remedy is not so much in the system
as in the people who make and oper-
ate the system. The remedy must /
be applied on two lines, but principal /
ly on the first. These lines are: |
First, MORAL as applied to the peo- |
pie themselves.
Second, GOVERNMENTAL as ap- |
piled to the present system.
Let us then take up the moral rem |
edy as applied to the people themsel-
yes.
In a conversation once held by the |
writer with the late Mr.. Laurance |
Gronlund, the glaring fallacy of the
sOcialistic program was made very
manifest Mr. Gronlund held, as he
has done in his published works, that
the one thing to be done was TO
, change our system and having done
that by the adoption of socialism, the
whole problem would then solve it.
self. He said: 1t is utterly impos-
sible for men to be honest and treat
others fairly under the present com
petitive system" The fatal fault
with this statement is that il is not
true. There are thousands of men
who are engaged at the very center
of our system and reaching to its ut
most limits, thus testing its every
phase, who ARE honest and deal fair
ly with other people. They demon
strate the untruth of the above con-
tention
That there are peculiar and trying
| temptations besetting men under the
present competitive system is not to
be denied but that is every where
Characteristic of world with a devil
ir it. If the socialistic plan were on,
the devil would somehow manage to
get into it and then temptations
would be rife again. The evils that
socialism complains of are after all
not so much evils of the system as
evils of the people. Socialism pro-
poses to apply its cure at the wrong
place. It must be applied to the peo-
pie. With the right kind of people,
there would not be very much wrong
with our present system. With the
wrong kind OF people, any system
would fail to operate successfully.
! n,
her disposition TO find fault with the
churches and in measure to antago-
rize the churches with her Sunday
meetings, her practical discounting
of religion as the GREAT factor in
the work to be done, writes her own
foredoom of failure. The Churches
Of Christ by keeping strictly to their
mission of reconstruction of charac-
ter are aiming directly at the heart
of all of the trouble. Let socialism
drop her overweaning political am
btions and her clanish policy of
working exclusively by herself and
let her join with the Christian forces
in the moral and religious redemption
of men and she will take the most
direct course toward the end she
seeks. Every time she works on this
policy, as she did in the recent pro-
hibitory campaign in this city, her
standing is greatly advanced in the
minds of the thinking and moral ele-
ments of the rest of society. The
world is now ripe for a great social
service movement that shall ground
itself in a deep moral conviction and
purpose to redeem men from sin by
the grace OF Jesus Christ and thus
fit them for a citizenship that shall
be honest, fair, kind and generous.
Every program that, like socialism,
leaves this out is only temporizing
with the problem. Mean time, the
Christian churches must adhere to
their work without in any way dis
torting or minifyng the gospel of
Christ and they will prove the might
} lest factor in producing condition
of society in which humanity shall be-
come a great and true brotherhood.
We will now take up briefly the
second line of remedial work, the gov
ernmental as applied TO the present
system. Do not understand me as
holding that the present system is
perfect, My contention would Tbe
rather that the present system is the
best of which We have any knowledge
but should have provided further
safeguards and amendments as shall
be deemed wise for the purpose of
1 spt-raprf