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About The Wealth makers of the world. (Lincoln, Nebraska) 1894-1896 | View Entire Issue (May 2, 1895)
VOL. VL SO MOVES THE WORLD. "We sleep an wake and sleep, bat all thing moye; The Bun flies forward to bis brother Bun ; The dark Earth follows, wheeled In her ellipse; And human thlnm, returning on themselres. More onward, leading up the golden year." Allison o! Iowa ia a candidate for the , presidency. Japan will yield nothing to Russia, France and Germany. Kentucky Populists will hold their state convention May 15. . The striking Cincinnati cloak-makers have Becured an advance of 25 percent in wages. Weavers to the' number of 2,000 are out on strike at Olney ville, and 9,000 more are indirectly affected. Senator Blackburn of Kentucky has declared himself unqualifiedly for the free coinage of silver at 16 to 1. Silver, to the extent of 450,000 ounces and 5,000 Mexican dollars, was shipped to Europe by steamship Etruria last Saturday. Peace reigns at Pullman. The Duke's edicts to "Get off the earth" are being carried into effect by the sheriff in many cases where tenants' are back on rent tribute to the great lord of the land. The Chicago Times-Herald has been nought by a Republican and will cross the imaginary line between the two old parties without any strain at all on the consciences of its editors, or the loss of any perceptible percentage of its sub ecribers. A unicycle has been invented by Mr. E. N. Higley of Somersworth N. H. It is not yet perfected, but has been ridden, and speedily and safely. The machine is seven feet three inches high and the rider sits within the wheel circumference, a forty-two inch inner circle containing the saddle. The motive power is supplied by a series of chain gears attached to fric tion pullies which revolve in the inner : circle. , - - - - - ' - ' Oat Of The Houso Of Bondage Editor Wealth Makers: When the Israelites were led by the to and of the Almighty out of Egyptian slavery, the promised land might have been reached in a few months, instead of forty years wandering in the wilderness. Jod had delivered them, made them free men, and straightway, with the inex plicable perversity of human nature, they forsook his leadership and lusted after and followed strange gods. The multiplied disasters that overtook them was the result. The new Declaration of Independence contained in "The Omaha Platform" led ns out of political bondage; shall we fol low our grand emancipator, or Buffer some ten cent politician to lead us into the brushwood to worship his silver calf, or any other "sawed off joss?" Shall we? C. H. King. Plutocracy Unspeakable We clip from a New York letter in the State Journal of Monday the following ) description of the delegation of the rich of that city who live for nothing but to gratify their pride. They place no moral restraint upon their desires and go out side of nature, Oscar Wilde like, when ever a new sensation is within reach. History is simply repeating itself. New York will probably have its own horror unspeakable before many weeks have gone by. The Roman shameless ness of plutocracy is conceded to trans cend anything recorded of the Catullan age. Even women in New York speak to busts of Oscar Wilde endearingly, and from the sheer enervation of luxury take refuge from satiety itself in a new sensa tion. Degradation has become a cult and vice a god. Anthony Comstock, the one man who has played the part Cato in this Roman cesspool, is the archenemy whom profli gacy has picked out to make a lesson of. , He is dogged and hounded, ridiculed and threatened. He has even been approach ed with offers of money provided he would abate his hostilities. To all these diatribes he has been adamant. He is now the object of an open conspiracy to bring him into disrepute. In truth, the Sybarites he aims at may well tremble. Their infamy is equaled only by their culture. Their disgrace would be as great as their fortunes. We hear the weirdest tales of imported orgies, of midnight madnesses, of deeds from which the devil would shrink. And were it not all made bo gorgeous by the cir cumstantiality of the details, one would seem to be reading Tiberius and Sejanus. The vice rages like a prairie ffre through fortunes and physiques until every new invalid who flies from New York leaves in his wake a slime of slan der. - Hope For The Workers Couldn't some of the scientific men de vise ome way that a laboring man could live without eating? It would become very popular just now. Scranton Ga zette. Bean Soup Atkinson has come very near doing it, and since the development of the sawdust bread industry it is hoped that its promoters will effect some kind of combination with him and secure his oven to bake the bread in. If this can be done the labor problem will begin to approach a scientific solution. Topeka Advocate. , A aCHOOL OF THE KINGDOM A Bummer Conference to Consider The Question: Can we Have a Political Revival of Chrletl v anltv? To be held at Iowa College, Qrinnell, Iowa, June 26 July 3, 1895. Under the auspices of the department of Applied Christianity there will be held at Iowa College, beginning the morning of the 26th of June and closing the evening of the 3d of July, a Summer Conference for studying the ways and forces by which the kingdom of God is to be realized in political institutions, in a Christian order of society. The central theme of this summer meeting can best be stated as an inquiry: Can we have a political revival of Christianity in our nation? As was stated last year, this School of the Kingdom, or Summer Conference diff ers from the popular summer assembly It also differs from thatwhich is common ly understood by a summer school. In the technical sense it is not a school but a conference. It aims to biing together only such as are deeply and righteously interested, or are seeking to be interested in the study and solution of social and political problems in the light of the gospel of Christ. It offers and would have no other attraction than the best thought and divine message of a group of earnest men whose lives are dedicated to procuring for society the righteous ness of the kingdom of God. The school means to attract only serious men and women, who are willing to give strict and faithful attention to the lectures and conferences. The brevity of time, eight days, and the number and import ance of the themes discussed, demand purpose and concentration from those who attend. It is the idea of its con ductors that this conference be a school of the social disciples of Jesus. It is their hope that many will come together who believe that Jesus is the Redeemer of society and of the nation. It is planned that ample opportunity will be given at the conference for general inquiries, ques tions, discussions and prayers, in which all present are to participate. The Principal of the School would ask the privilege of stating its object in a quotation from a recent writing: "As the peril and strain of our national social situation increases, we are more clearly seeing that it is God himself who must save civilization and our nation. Except the Lord build the new social structure we labor in vain to build it. Nothing else than a great political re vival of the religion of Christ, a pro found recuperation of the church which bears his name, can solve the American problem of society. By nothing but prayer and fasting, issuing in repentance and the honest parpose to put the teach ings of Christ into political, institutional and industrial practice, will the social demons be cast out. I Bee no other hope for our nation, no other redemption for society, than a religious revival such as the world has never known, that shall enthrone Christ in our national ideals, and give men thecommon will and power to put the Christ life into social practice. "The faith that God through Christ will save society will not paralyze our reform activities, nor weaken our sense of social responsibility, nor shake our readiness to be offered in behalf of our brothers, but will divinely energize us to the most strenuous activity, and inspire us to the holiest sacrifice. Our faith thatGodhim self will purge our political iniquity and effect our social salvation will, and noth ing else can, make wise and mighty our social reforms, and change the vision of the kingdom of heaven on earth into fact. Civilization is founded upon what people believe concerning God and human life, and is built by what people feel. Social progress is but the deepening inbreathing of God, renewing thecommon life. Every new development of society has been but the manifestation of a purified religious faith and increased religious feeling. Really, our social conflict, like all the conflicts gone, is a holy war between those who believe in God, and those who do not; between those who have faith in the right, and those who put their trust in the wrong; between those who believe in the law and power of sacrifice, and those who believein the power of lawand selfishness. The revival of the faith of those who believe in the right that God has revealed in Christ in the rational salvation fur which we wait. "A truly scientific interpretation of history will give a place not yet given to the great religious revivals, and discern in them the formative influence of pro gress. "We are only scientific when we look to the increased apprehension of spiritual forces, to the revival of faith and quick ening of the religious feeling, for the re making of society. And we speak with the historic spirit, in strict accord with the actual facts, when we say that society is to be saved through a great revival of the religion of Jesus Christ, who is today the social ideal of the world. Through yielding to the personal touch and power of the life forces in Christ, will the forces of our civilization" be regenerated and harmonized-'! To all who would unite in a week of LINCOLN, NEB., THURSDAY, MAY 1, 1895. tody and prayer, to the end that God's Kingdom may come and his will be done through Jesus Christ an urgent invito tionis given to attend this Summer School of Applied Christianity. I. THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION. Archdeacon Charles James Wood, of Pennsylvania, will preach the annual Sunday morningsermon before theSchool and give a course of lectures upon "The Christian Religion." Rev. Burt Estes Howard, of Los Ange les, Cala., will preach the annual Sunday evening sermon before the School upon a related theme. , .THE CHRISTIAN KINGDOM. President George A. Gates, of ' Iowa College, will give a course of lectures up on "The Christian Kingdom." President W. F. Slocum, of Colorado College, will also give two addresses upon related themes. Mr. George Howard Gibson, Editor of The Wealth Makers, Lincoln, Neb., will give an address entitled "A Christian Corporation." in. THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Rev. J. H. Ecob, of Albany, N. Y., will give a series of addresses upon the need ed reformation and unification of the Christian Church. Professor Graham Taylor, of Chicago Theological Semiuary, will lecture upon the relation of the Church to the problem of the city and to civic regeneration. IV. THE CHRISTIAN STATE, Professor George D. Herron, of Iowa College, will give a course of lectures np on this theme, which will be both an ein bodimentand development of the themes discussed in his recent book upon that subject. Professor Jesse Macy, of Iowa College, will give a course of lectures upon "Chris tian Politics." This is the course which Professor Macy is to deliver later in the Summer before the Pennsylvania Univer sity Summer School of Politics. V. THE CHRISTIAN CITY. Professor John R. Commons, of Indiana University, will deliver acourseof lectures on municipal reform. , Mr. S. H. Hadley, Superintendent of the Jerry McAuley Mission, Water Street, New York City, will give a eeries of ad dresses on city evangelization, dealing especially with the rescue work which has been bo marvellously carried on for these many years under the direction of Jerry McAuley and himself. Rev. A. C. Clark, of Omaha, Neb., who built up the famous Rescue Mission of Omaha, will give a series of addresses up on related themes. VI. THE EVANGELISM OF. THE KINGDOM. Rev. B. Fay Mills, the Evangelist, whose recent meetings in Portland, Maine, and other eastern cities have been the most remarkable in power and results of any evangelistic work of late years of any in our country, will give a series of addresses upon this theme. VII. CHRISTIAN CHARITIES. Mr. Edward M.Nealley, LL. B., of Bur lington, Iowa, will give a course of lect ures on the subject of the relation of scientific charities to Christianity. VIII. IN GENERAL. A number of brief addresses and plat form meetings, together with various conferences, will be held during the ses sion. The lectures and conferences will be held in the college chapel, where the work of each day will begin with chapel wor ship at nine o'clock. There will be no charge for attendance at this School of the Kingdom. At the evening meeting of each day an offering will be taken to defray the incidental ex penses of the school. Board can be ob tained at low rates in the various board ing houses, owing to the college vaca. tion. To accommodate those who wish to attend, a committee of students from the Department of Applied Christianity will secure board and room for those who send in their names to the chairman of the committee, Mr. W. R. Raymond, to whom all communications concerning such matters should be addressed. It is urgent that engagements for board and rooms be made as early as possible, both because there will be some limitation as to the number who can be accommodated, and because all the time of those attending will be needed for at tention to the work of the school. Those engaging places before coming will be assigned and receive cards, directing them to their homes when arriving. All inquiries regarding the school should be directed to the Principal, from whom they will receive prompt attention either from his own hand or that of his co-workers. George D. Herron, George A. Gates, , Principal. President of Iowa College. What Are Your Wages Now? Are they sufficient to enable you to lay up something for the future? If they are jot, wouldn't it be wise for you to go where you can get(good wages and a chance to buy a permanent home for yourself and family? You can get a little pamphlet that will tell you where yrtu can get good wages and a home, by writing to Fred'k. Abbot, Land Com missioner, W, C. R. R., Milwaukee, Wis. CO-OPERATION THE LAW I.;'-. - There- Can Be Ho Bala&oing of Contend I ing Individual Interests COMPETITION BEING DISCARDED Professor Herron Asserts That We Must Recognise The Law of Co-operation Everywhere The Organizing Principle of Society The following lecture by Prof. George D. Her on In one of a aeries of four reported from sten graph notes taken down In the class room for Thi Wiiltb Maeem. They are Informal lect nree delivered extempore. Two proceeding lect ure were ou Wealth and Co-operation, The problem of co-operation in society is manifestly the supreme problem of re organization. It is the most perplexing because of social conditions. In fact it is the social problem how to co-operate the various economic forces and various activities, how to unify them bo that they shall all converge, yet in such away as to provide for the fullest, most abun dant needs of the individual how to do that in snch a way as to bring justice to the individual. As a matter of fact no body expects justice of this order of so ciety. Those who contend for the law of competition no longer expect a just or der of society. They abandon the idea that anything like justice can be procured. They do not see but that there will be a few rich men in power always. Those who contend for the present organization of society, give up the hope of social or der and social peace. They contend that the best we can do is to restrain and modify wickedness and cruelty. But we face today the utter inadequacy of indi vidualism, the utter failure of the pure individualistic conception of ownership. We all acknowledge that it has failed. Some contend that there cannot be any thing better, just as the theologian con tends that we have reached the end of all truth. We do not dare to reckon with the forces of unselfishness for want of faith in industrial co-operation. The most conservative political elements in sist ou reckoning with the most irreligious motives. If we take away thepossibility of collecting material things we have an nihilated the motive for labor, they say. There is no ground in nature for the thought that the highest motive we can put before men is self-interest. We have reckoned with selfishness; selfishness has failed us. We have reckoned with self interest; self-interest has failed us. We have reckoned with competition; compe tition has failed us. Every tendency of competition is to annihilate competition to the interest of the few. These forces have proved devastating. They have proved failures, yet we dare not reckon with the divinest instinct of human life. We are afraid to take our chances with that which is noblest, that which ia best and highest in human nature. We even religiously refuse to try human life. So long as we have that theory of human society so long we can have nothing but war, strife, injustice and tailure. We must recognize the law of co-operation everywhere. The co-operative forces of nature prevail. We do recognize the principle in Borne places, for instance in a house of worship. We can say that the church belongs to no individual. We can have no education without cooperation. There is no private ownership of public schools. We are recognizing the co-operative principle, beginning to realize that unless it is introduced into every sphere of life we are still in anarchy. If the co operative force is the inherent force of life it must be every where. Weare constant ly denying the application of that princi ple, but the world has developed simply through the co-operative principle. It is the organizing principle of human life. The public school belongs to everybody. The church belongs to every one in it. The college, in a sense, belongs to every one who is related to it, to each student. The co-operative principle is the organ izing principle of society. The change from an absolute to a limited monarchy, the change from a monarchical to a democratic form of government, is an increased application of the co-operative principle. Monopolies are teaching us great lessons which the people will take advantage of. We have certain schemes which are helpful now. All of these are educational, they tench us certain lessons, but they cannot solve the problem of co operation in society. They are limited. They depend upon mere individualistic good will. We caunot organize society by some other principle. If profit-sharing is the best way, then men in society will individually lenrn the lesson. If a government by the people is good in politics, it is good in industry. We can not limit the principle. We can never come at it by taking another in its stead. The division of the prqducts of labor will never procure justice. The labor movement must huh to be a mere move ment for rights. Can there be such a di vision of the products of labor as we sometimes think of? How do we know? The man who mines coal ia the depths of the earth may render just as much to society as the man who administers the affairs of state. The man who is brake man ou a railway, if we could come to a better analysis of society, is sometimes as useful to society as he who preaches the gospel; the servant who cooks In the kitchen as the woman who teaches in a college. I believe the principle is true. I do not think we can ultimately arrive at any other principle. Every man who contributes his life to the well being of society, who does all the work In the world that he is capable of doing, is en titled to as much from society as any other man. I do not believe that it lies in the nature of things that any one man who works, who contributes all that is in him, should have less than another. I believe it is a wholly degraded conception of a man which insists that because he is a United States senator, or doctor, or anything else, that he must have more from society than others. The reward of life does not consist in material things. The man ought to And in that contribu tion, in that power to serve, his highest reward. If one has ability at all, even the least ability, then that ability to serve, itself, is the very highest reward that anyone can have. In any moral teaching it would be so. Any other con ception is immoral and degrading to our human nature. It is a materialistic con ception of our human nature that makes it otherwise, which thinks of the forces of society as being merely animal forces, of the rewards as simply material rewards. Why did Jesus work? For the joy that was set before him. You will understand from no other standpoint than the stand point of Jesus. It was the joy that was set before him of making his whole life a contribution, the joy of having something to give, the joy of giving his life, the high est reward of any life, the highest reward that comes to human nature. If a man discovers that by some wit he has more organizing force, or intellectual force than others and he thinks that therefore he is entitled to get more, he has debased his human nature that which was given from God for the good of the world. He takes it and uses it simply for material ends. There can be no such thingasadivision of benefits or the products of labor. The law of societr is that the benefits of hu man labor will tend more and more to belong to all men, to be shared, in cer tain sense, in common. All men built up the church. Now every family has the benefit of that church. It belongs to all and every man gets the benefit, so each man has a better church than if he went off and tried to have a church of his own Education is the common property of the world. In Europe it is so in art. The great pictures belong to the state. The greatest gallery in the world is in Dresden. The greatest pictures of the world have been gathered there in Dresden. How did that come about? Because the state it self has become the owner, the patron of art. The finest pictures in the world are there, the property of the people. Every peasant can go to see the best pictures in the world. Thecityhasalsodeveloped music. The best music is in Dresden. The state owns it. In the employ of the state itself are some five thousand musi cians. Five hundred of them are of the very highest class, the rest of them are called in for special service. The best music is centered there year by year. There is the state theatre, most splendid ly equipped, in itself a work of art. The best music to be heard in the world can be heard in private boxes, the highest f 1.37. 1,200 seats are to be had for 12 cents each, better than any of the seats you would pay two or three dollars for here in America. The working classes there can hear the very highest music. The very best is provided for. There, too, are the pictures of Murillo, Angelo. They belong to all the people. No one home, no one man, could owp all this. How is that music possible? How is the church possible? N6w the tendency of society will be in that direction more and more. These things that are now ex clusively enjoyed by the few shall be en joyed by all. Art is, in one sense, the product of the labor of every peasant. No man has any more right to it than another. In Europe the peasant families, in wooden shoes, canying their children, know something, understand something, of art. There will l- no division on that sort of basis. 1 su-pect that the tene ment house system in the cities of Great Britain will finally belong to the munici palities themselves. It is only through co-operation that we can ever reach that Eoint where all the products of labor will e equally received, the benefits equally enjoyed, by all. The co-operative principle is the or ganizing force of society. Ultimately, all the people can be benefitted by the great natural monopolies. You have often beard men say that the world owes every man a living. There is a profound sense in which that is true, and every man owes the world his life in any right world, in any righteocial organization. Ultimate ly, we can preserve the home only in this way. Ultimately, any principle that will organize humnn life must make it a joy, a privilege, for a man to contribute to the common good his life and all that is in him. It is not what he can get but what he can give. All that he is, will be long to every man. All men will be ab solutely responsible for seeing that every man lives the highest possible life, with some true sense of social morality. The idea of life in which we think we can go in NO. 47 and array ourselves as mere social beasts of prey I It is not true. The scrambling, the plunder, that has cursed the world Is degrading, utterly demoralizing. It must end. That philosophy has been ia the world too long. It ia accursed. Christ came into the world to overturn it and he is doing it. Making one's life the largest possible gift to the common good is the true incentive, the true motive for life. The divine conception of the world is as the arena of sacrifice, of service, of co-operation, each individual ability given to the common good. These principles that have dominated us will sometime in the future look as horrible as cannibalism looks to ns now. We are to live, we are to co-operate, for the common good of all. There will be no dispute about how much each man has. There will be no dispute about how much wit each man has. Men will not be driven from their homes the way they are now driven from home, family, labor. Instead of strife there will be a co-operative principle, the organizing principle of the kingdom of God. We may fight it in our idle, silly way, in our moral frivolity, but we are fighting against the stars in their course. 1 Concerning Those Resolutions Osceola, Neb., April 20, '95. Editor Wealth Makers: Thinking it proper to bring your request concerning the Bryant resolutions before the Alliance, we did so, and our Alliance of twenty members passed resolutions endorsing the Omaha platform in full, and declared themselves against a "one plank" platform, whatever the origin. R. A. Calkins, C. E. Jones, Secretary. President. Bellwood, Neb., Mar. 29, '95, Editor Wealth Makers: We are pleased with the stand you have taken on every issue, and hope you may continue in the good work. Also like to see the different letters from the workers on the line, and expressing their faith in the Omaha platform and its future, Be lieving it a sure cure for our present panics and ills if not misconstrued and wrongly managed. I am yours truly, ' G. S. Enoard. Webster County Populists all Bight Red Cloud, Neb., April 23, 1895. Editor Wealth Makers: The Populists of Webster county, as far as I have been able to ascertain, are heartily in favor of the Omaha platform. We tried to reform the old parties till w got tired of the job; then we formed a new one; and to ask ns now, after all we have accomplished and have two million voters, to give up our platform and fuse with the Democrats or free silver, comes rather late in the day. Who gives us the assurance that we would be much better off if such a combi nation were successful, and free silver should carry the day? . As long as the trusts and monopolies are on top and the banks have the same facilities to concentrate the money, they would get hold of it whether the circula tion per capita were $ 50 or $ 5. Let the volume of money be ever so large we will get none of it unless we have something to buy it with. What is to hinder those men that can corner the money and make it scarce, when our crops are ready for market, in order to get them cheap, to do so after we have free coinage of silver? We will get permanent relief only when the governmeut owns the railroads and when we have government banks where we can get money at a small rate of interest. Under these circumstances it would be worse than foolish for us to give up the Omaha platform that de mands legislation on these lines and take up with something very much less im portant. It is much better to stick to our principles, even if victory does not come so soon, than to win next year on a compromise. If the demands in the Omaha platform cannnot beenacted into luw it is a comparatively unimportant matter to the rank and file of the Popu; lists who holds the offices or by what party name the office holders are called. If our leaders are true they will carry the flag of Populism forward in the middle of the road; if not, we will find new ones. Our first plank in the platform might be explained in fewer words and leave out the sub-treasury plank, something like this: First, We demand free and unlimited coinage of silver and gold at the present ratio of 16 to 1, also a national currency safe and sound, issued by the general government only, a full legal tender for all debts public and private, and that without the use of banking corporations, a just, equitable and efficient means of distribution direct to the people; also by payments in discharge of its obligations for public improvements. Second, We demand a graduated in come tax, and hence we demand that all ' state and national revenues shall be limited to the necessary expenses of the government economically and honestly ly administered. Third, We demand that postal saving banks be established by the government for the safe deposit of the earnings of the people and the facilitation of exchange. Transportation as it is in the platform. Land as in the platform. ( Continued on 5th page.)