The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-03-14

are open to men of different, and
even opposite opinions. The only
qualification for membership seems tC
be serious desire for change. This
is nothing new with which we, il
our day, are confronted. Sir Thomas
More, Chancellor of England in the
Reign of Henry the VIII, describing
the condition of things in that day
uses language which would admirably
fit into a modern socialistic address,
Thus he writes Therefore | must
say that, as / hope for mercy / can
have no notion of all other govern.
ments that l see or know.
THAN that they are a conspiracy OF
the rich who on pretense of manag,
ing the public, only pursue their pri-
vote ends, and devise all the way
and arts they can find out; first, that
they may without danger preserve
all that they have so ill acquired,
and then that they may engage the
poor to toll and labor for them at
as low rate as possible, and OPP
press them as much as they please.
And if they can but prevail to get
these contrivances established by the
show of public authority. which is
considered as the representative of
the whole people, then they are ac-
credited laws"
If the words of Sir Thomas More
were true, at a period so little re-
moved from feudalism, which was the
system of mitigated slavery that pre-
vailed in the middle ages, before the
time of trusts or great corporations,
no wonder that thinking men hest
cialist leaders when they say these
modern institutions are responsible
for the unhappy condition of the Ia
borer, and sole cause of the unequal
division of the worlds wealth. The
cry of discomfort that has, in all
ages, disturbed the peace of the
world is the plant of the reluctant
laborer condemned to eat his bread
in the sweat of his face"
Far be it from us to say or do
anything that might increase the la
borer's burden; but in the face of
facts traditional and historical we are
forced to admit that the cry is never
less audible than where relief is
",
never louder or more persistent than
where the disadvantages complained
Of are small and few. How often,
and how plainly does the constant
law of mans own nature, brought
down to the simple alternative of life
or death, prove this fact.
Frequently inexperienced friends
look upon the silent resignation that
comes to patients, WIN they have
given up hope, as . of improved
condition; while the skilled physician
anxiously awaits increased irritable
ity, as the only hopeful evidence of
their recovery. To show the defects
in a remedy it is not necessary to
prove that no evil exists. We freely
admit that the laborers, of our day,
are entitled to more consideration
and better compensation from their
employers than they are receiving,
either here or in other countries.
''We live in a period of great pro-
gress marked by brilliant civilization.
1t is, also, democratic age when all
men profess to believe in equality
and liberty. In our own land, at
least, thanks to universal suffrage
the laborer is. in accordance with
the theory of the government under
which he lives, a sovereign.
'No wonder from this exalted posi-
tiOn he refuses to listen to those
who would try to teach him con-
tentment by comparing his present
condition with the misery of the past.
Emulation an inherent quality OF
mans nature, stimulates him to eff
fort, tells him he is no longer sur
rounded by poverty and wretched-
ness and unit in a barbarious So
ciety: but stands in the midst of
boundless wealth and great refine
ment and with insistence he de-
mands a share of the good things
that abound The ambition is laud-
tanning it is justifiable.
''The rapid growth of socialism dur
ing the last decade is neither an ar
gument of its popularity, nor an evil
dence of it's value, as remedy for
the real or imaginary evils, it pro-
poses to remove, because it has no
well defined principle of action upon
which the members are required to
agree. The only qualification for ad.
mission to it's ranks appears to be
dissatisfaction with present condi-
TONS
"The moral progress of the modern
world has resulted in creating wild
er sympathy for the afflicted. Not
only individuals, but society itself,
leavened by this principle of right
eousness shows desire to help the
poor. to assist the weak and wronged,
to obtain what an unselfish public con-
cedes is their right. This, in part, at
least, is the result of the teaching,
an example of Christ Himself who
came to preach the Gospel to the
poor, to heal the infrm and bring
relief to the overburdened. A large
number of socialists, it is true, are
atheists and materialists. The first
denies place to the providence of
God in human affairs. The second
vainly think to satisfy the mind by
physical comforts Nevertheless, their
earnest effort to discover some means
whereby justice may be done to the
people, whereby poverty and misery,
and their resulting vice and crime,
may be wiped from the face of the
earth, is in intimate harmony with
the gentle and loving spirit of Him
who passed no sorrow by.
Enlightened minds readily con-
cede the superiority of our ciyiliza-
tiops to that Of al preceedins cen,