Norwich bulletin., 1914-03-09
The Fruit of
 Selfish Lives
ARE PRODUCTIVE OF HAY WOODS AND TANNENBAUMS
SPEECH BY PROF. TAFT
Indifference and Cynioism Handicaps to Religion and Education-"Pamp- cred Darlings" of Little Service.

New Haven, Conn.,, March S.-"The things we must fight hardest in col lege life and in the religion and edu- catlon Of strength, is indifference and cynfctsm," said former President Will liam Howard Taft in addressing the closing session of the Religious Edu- cation association tonight in Wool sey hall at Yale. The topic was The College and the New Social Order During the course of his address, MT. Tart criticised strongly the Industrial workers of the World but said 1t was because Of the cynical satisfaction of those who don't care,'' that arguments for the Haywoods and Tannenbaurns are furnished.
 The Argument for the Agitators.
 Give me misdirected fervor. wild theories lacking in sanity, extreme er- ror if only the sincere spirit of Be- ngious and social service is alive and militant" he said, because the hard experience of practical results will temper this into useful activity later on But nothing can overcome the snug contentment and cynical satis- faction of those who don't care and whose selfish lives dry up the springs Of the spirit of human brotherhood and kill the gratitude of the blessings of God They in their attitude furnish the argument for the Haywoods and the Tannenbaums. Let us be glad that their number is not increa sing"
 MT. Taft said: We do not promote human progress toward an ideal by losing all our common sense and san 1ty in the contemplation of one part of the whole picture. The hysteria. and misguided enthusiasm aroused by real wrongs and a lack of the sense of proportion in regard to their pos sible remedy" he said. "manifests it. self in hunting a scapegoat for the sinner, and the lazy and shiftless, in the injustice of our social system. It 1 results in such informing and signi- | hcant exhibitions as We have had from | the Industrial Workers of the World | with their motto No God, No Flag, [ No Country and their impuaenJ, law i less, selfish and unjust demands that 1 are based on the proposal that society | owes them a living, whether they made ] effort and labor or not
 Where Ministers Fail.
 l The ministers of religion do not 1 help their auditors who fail to keep | clearly in mind the necessity that all 1 men have duties as well as rights; that 1 all men must exercise seIf-restraint and self-sacrifice and beneVolence and 1 generosity. and they make neither for social nor religious progress when they preach doctrines that arouse in those who have not merely the selfish desire ! to take from those that have and who encourage the resentment and harsh feeling of class against class, by fail 1 ing to dwell on the whole picture of human society, rather than on a single | part of it''
 Now I would be very much dtsap- 1 pointed he said, If anything I have said should be interpreted to mean | that l am not in favor of real social reform, and am not very hopeful that I much is to be done in this direction. It is most encouraging to note the | earnest investigation of the suffering In society, the study of problems of | sociology, the systematic effort to pro-
 mote the health and comfort of the ] congested population. Speed the suc- | cess of all such work.
 Tho New Social Order.
 The new social order" said MT. Taft, If 1t is to be Q permanent con- | diion, making for real advance in hu- man progress and happiness, must | conform to natural economic law and
 be consistent with the possibilities and
 the fratlties of human nature, and
 their practical betterment"
 Other speakers were President w
 H. F, Faunce of Brown university and
 Rabbi stephen s. Wise of the Free Synagogue, New York President
 Faunee said that in looking backward | nrty years there had been three dis
 tihet lines of advance in colleges
 frafa mere discipline te eufture-the 1 development of social responsibility:
 and the advance from a monarchy te
 q democracy in college government.
 Tempered DarliHgs Tn College.
 Rabbi Wise said there are tee man,
 college men who seem to imagine tflat
 It is their ehiefest duty ts be apelo-
 gfsts far "the phenomena of neral dis.
 orderly What service can college
 laen ever render the social erGier," hs
 asked, "as long as they drag aa theil
 way through coliese-thase who peith.
 CT tail nor spin, but are petted an( 1 pampered darlings?''
 la the ferces of corrupt government
 he said there had been found within
 the past generation almost as man,
 recruits from the colleges, as arrayet
 themselves under the banner of goo,
 government.