Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1917-09-22

nc mas discovered the cause of all injus-
tice and can tell how to remove IT,"
Yes, | know" said Priscilla; "he advo-
Gates the abolition Of private ownership
of property"
He wants something like state social
ism," 1 continued. His book is the story
of the injustice from which the coal min.
ers suffer. II is written about the great
coal strike in Colorado I'm 1914. Al.
though 1t is in the form of a novel it is a
propagandist document, so constructed
as to make the picture of life among the
miners as depressing as possible 1t ts
full OF special pleading. He says that
every incident in it Is based on a similar
occurrence in the mining region, and
that every character OF Importance is a
portrait of an actual person. Yet with
all the unfairness Of it the book is worth
while. Whether the disgraceful condi.
tions in the Colorado coal regions arise
from the evils of private ownership or
not there is no disputing their existence
The surest way to cure them is to make
them public, for the more we know about
social injustice the more emphaticallv
will we demand social justice. SInclai,
has done a public service by reminding
those of us who live in comfort that the
workers in a great industry in some parts
OF the country are living in conditions
that should not be tolerated a moment in
free country"
Il think we are all agreed on that"
said the clergyman.
Fortunately we are" said l. And
there are many reasonable men who are
agreed on the most practicable way for
improving conditions. They do not think
IT necessary for a social and economic
revolution to precede reform. The laws
we already have would make matters
much better il they were enforced, and as
soon as there is public sentiment which
demands their enforcement the condi.
tons will begin to improve. Bertrand
Russell, however, holds with Sinclair that
society is organized on a radically wrong
economic basis. If we change the organ.
ization, he says we could abolish abject
! poverty in twenty years and allow the
widest freedom to the individual to work
much or little as he chooses. II is a
J beautiful dream, based on the fallacy
that the moral and intellectual habits Of
men are dependent on their social insti.
| tutions."
There is a great deal Of truth in what
he says" said Priscilla. 81 would not ad.
init II to be a fallacy."
II do not like to dispute a lady" said l.,
but I think that your uncle will agree
| with me that there must be some inward
| change in q man before the eXternals of
| his life are made better. We talk about
the effect OF democracy upon the develop.
ment of America, and compare this coun.
| try with backward Russia. But you must
| know that there was democracy in the
minds and purposes of the revolutionary
| fathers before II became embalmed in
| their political institutions. Mr.. Russell's
essays are interesting because they show
| how far a man who detaches himself from
| the great facts OF life and from the great
| forces that move men can wander
astray. Why, he says that no man can
have more than he needs without taking
| 1t from some man who has less. He
would have the State take charge of GER
tain activities and place the management
I of every industry in the hands OF the
workers in it, thinking thereby to bring
about a fairer distribution Of wealth and
| greater content and comfort. He would
abolish all interest and all rent and re-
move all incentives 10 industry"
But rent and interest are robbery"
insisted Priscilla.
Are they?" I asked. IT have heard
that stated before. but have been told
| by some economists that interest is
merely the wages Of stored up labor pre-
served for use in emergencies. and that
| rent is interest for n, labor preserved in
another form. If the wage system is rob-
berry then perhaps you might say that
these other things are robbery also. But
the wage system, which is the product of
centuries Of evolution, is working pretty
| well, save in exceptional cases. And
where 1t does not work the trouble is due
more to the workers than to the system.
| We may find n better way for we have
not yet arrived at perfection. So I like
to read such books as Sinclair's and Rus
sells in the hope of finding light"
"I gather you have not found much in
them," Doctor McFabre remarked.
"I regret to say that 1 did not" ad.
mitted. II did find something suggestive
in Anderson's book, however. 1t starts.
like Sinclairs novel, in a coal.mining viii
lage. Its hero is the son Of a miner who
goes to Chicago, where he conceives the
idea that IL some one could unite the