Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1913-04-01
asliseellausous Rsaaing
THE MILLENNIUM COMING
Burdette Tells Why He Believes II 10
on Its WAY,

on lts Way.
81 do not expect to see poverty elm
mated from this earth of plenty in my
generation. l believe the happy years
Of perfect life and government are
coming by and by. The millennium has
been on the way for many, many CEN
turtles, and every year brings II little
nearer" says Robert ]. Burdette in the
| Los Angeles Times. 1.-The apostles
would have ben so happy, their hearts
would have broken with rapture could
they have beheld and dwelt in world
so good and kindly and generous and
brotherly as the one of which we are
citizens. But don't suppose any per-
son observed the change from day to
day. The shortest day in the year was
December 81. But don't believe you
noticed that the twenty-second was a
minute longer. Poverty will starve to
death by and by. But that is a slow
death
Poverty is not wholly bad, as
principle, and as q condition Is the
'paedagogus' that drives us to work
the most Of us. A few days ago rich
young man up in San Francisco shot
his young wife dead as she sat at her
dinner and Immediately killed himself.
1t is a great pity that he hadn't begun
with himself. One of his relatives
speaking Of the tragedy, said of the
murderer: He was rich; he didn't
have to work. which explained much.
Had the young man been holding
down a $60-a-month job. sobriety had
probably been compulsory.
"The wealth Of the United States Is
$3.50. 600, 100000. Let that soak into
your comprehension for a couple Of
minutes. I say minutes because you
couldn't comprehend it any more
clearly II you meditated over 1t Tor
hundred years. To get some sort of
an idea Of what billion is, just con-
template that only little more than
1000, 100000 minutes have run through
old Times hour-glass since the birth
of Christ. Now II you have some sort
Of sense Of a billion, just think again
that the wealth Of the United States Is
$3.50, ,000, 100000. And then fix in your
mind that the entire population Of the
earth is 1,500.000,000 Of human beings.
We've got enough property here In
the United States to go around, with
out calling on the other wealthy ma
I'VE ought to be able to abolish
poverty, If people thought It a really
wise thing to do. .
Somehow or other, we seem to
have become addicted to poverty. 1t
Is one Of the hardest things in the
world to convince q man that poverty
is such a crying evil that 1t demands
his cooperation to secure its elimtna-
ton. A preacher has to fairly agonize
when he calls for offerings for the
poor. And then. out Of a million dol
lar congregation he Is mighty lucky to
get hundred-do collection. Mighty
lucky. People don't want to abolish
poverty.
Poverty is not a crime; 1t Is not an
immortality; 1t Is not a disgrace; 1t Is
not always misfortune, nor Is 1t vir-
tue. Men and religious orders have
taken upon themselves vows Of pow
erty. They were good and holy and
useful az they were, not because of
their poverty, but in spite Of 1t.
Il certainly do believe In the ulti:
come with the destruction OF other
disagreeable things in world that is
going to be made new some day. But
we can't destroy poverty by specifi-
cally organizing to eliminate that while
we keep q few other things that seem
pleasant to us. Poverty will go out
when we quit all our multifarious
meannesses. When we quit stealing,
and lying, and cheating, and loafing,
and envying, and backbiting and COW
citing, and fighting, and Reno-ing, and
afflnitizing, and dynamitng, and a
whole lot Of other sorts Of deViltry
which we are all of us more or less In
clined to, in one way or In another;
then we may be more ready to get rid
Of poverty.
Il rather think that poverty will be
the last thing to go. Because 1t isn't
an unmixed evil, as these vices are,
and 1t certainly has its place of use
fulness in the human economy.
$50 long as men hate and fear pow
erty so fiercely and bitterly that they
are willing to abolish 1t even II they
have to steal the money to do 1t with,
so long poverty Is going to abide with
us.
There are two men mentioned in
the New Testament who were emf
nently successful in the crusade to
abolish poverty in their own families.
One Of them was fool and the. other
was in hell.
Now suppose we could so success
fully abolish poverty from this earth
Of plenty that every man In the world
would be as rich as either Of those two
men-would that make the world
any better?
well, then?"