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not if it be because I shall soon leave this earth
and the rays that are already reaching me from
below the horizon have disturbed my sight, but
I believe our world is about to begin to realize
the words, 'Love one another without, however,
heing concerned whether a man or a God uttered
them. The spiritual movement which one recog
nizes on all sides, and which so many naive and
amljitious men expect to be able to direct, will r.e
absolutely humanitarian. Mankind, which does
nothing moderately, is about to be seized with a
frenzy, a madness of love. This will not, of
course, happen smoothly or all at once; it will
involve misunderstandings even sanguinary ones
perchance so trained and so accustomed have we
been to hatred, even by those, sometimes, whose
mission was to teach us to love one another. But
it is evident that this great law of brotherhood
must be accomplished some day, and I am con
vinced that the time is commencing when our de
sire for its accomplishment will become irre
sistible." Since Dumas thus discerned the early rays
of the morning hundreds of books have been writ
ten upon the same theme, and thousands have
imparted to others a gleam of the truth that has
warmed their own hearts. And no one, perhaps,
has contributed more largely to the awakening
than the great philosopher of Russia, whose con
fidence in the law of love is so great that he is
willing to- trust it unarmed and undefended to
conquer the armies of the world. Love, Tolstoy
thinks, needs not even sling or pebble to over
come the Goliath of evil.
Who is wise enough to mark by metes and
bounds the limits of this awakening? The meth
ods employed today in business are not always
Christian they are sometimes not only unchris
tian but inhuman. Those who conscientiously
attempt to apply the law of love in their dealings
with others must, with increasing emphasis, con
demn every form of acquisition which does not
rest upon a service commensurate with the re
ward. Leaving out gifts and inheritances, there
is no true basis for the calculation of compensa
tion except that which would enable each indi
vidual to draw "from society In exact proportion
as he contributes to society. A gift can only be
defended as payment for service already rendered,
or payment in advance for service to be rendered,
and the same is true of an inheritance. "Whatever
statute law may say, the moral law imposes an
obligation which no one can conscientiously ignore
and that law requires that much shall be given
by those who receive much.
In saying that compensation should be in
proportion to service, I do not mean to say that
this law defines all of the individual's obligations.
While it is the duty of the government to see to
it that each member of society shall receive from
society in proportion as he contributes to its wel
fare, there is over and beyond this a moral ob
ligation on the part of each one to regard him
self as a steward. To illustrate: The man who
with his muscle or his brain can render a service
to society ten times as valuable as another man's
service should receive a reward ten times as
great as the other, but this does not mean that
he can uso that reward, when received, according
to his fancy. While the state may give him a
quit-claim deed to his compensation, he must
still consider his relation to those less fortunate,
and, from his abundance assist, as far as possible,
thosoj who are in need. These two laws do not
conflict. They are rather parallel laws, one guid
ing within the sphere of state activity, the other
controlling in the sphere which liej outside.
It is sufficient at this time to note the effect
of the application of the first law the law of re
wards. It will lead each individual to scrutinize
his own conducl in order that he may himself con
form to this law, not asking how far he can
trangress the law without violating a statute but
anxious to avoid even "the appearance of evil;"
and, second, it will lead each individual to so
discharge the responsibilitiesxof citizenship as to
make statute law conform, as nearly as wisdom
can deviso, to this basic principle. Of the two
tho individual duty Is not only the primary one
but tho more powerful one. Just as more evil
Is restrained today by conscience than by legis
lation, so in the awakening to which we look for
ward tho application of moral principles to indus
try and to commerce will have a more potent in-
fluenco than any written regulations that may be
prescribed by state or national authority.
Take the case of speculation, It has been
found difficult (although it is not impossible) to
so frame a law as to exclude gambling upon the
market or stock exchange without disturbing
, legitimats transactions; but no one can confuse In
his own mind the difference between buying
wheat or oats or corn because he has Immediate
, need for thorn or is In position to store them for
The Commoner.
future use, and the purchase for speculative pur
poses of grain which he does not expect to re
ceive, or the sale for speculative purposes of grain
which he does not expect to deliver. And yet it
is the ignoring of this distinction that has caused
the undermining of so many characters, the ruin
of so many fortunes, and the wreck of so many
lives. In like manner the individual, when his
ideals lead him to measure life by the contribu
tion which he makes to the sum of human good
rather than by the money which he can collect,
finds no difficulty in distinguishing between a
purchase of stocks or bonds for investment and
marginal trading, which is but another name for
betting on the market fluctuations.
It is now a difficult thing to so adjust the
tax laws as to make each one bear his fair share
of the burdens of the government, and to so
administer the law as to reduce inequality in tax
ation to a minimum, but the individual who not
only follows his conscience but seeks to enlighten
it, will neither bribe legislators into the enactment
of unequal laws nor corrupt the assessor for the
purpose of securing an unfair exemption No bill
of discovery or ferret-like investigation can un
cover as much property as the conscience can
find. It would be difficult to overestimate the
amount of injustice which would be corrected
by a tax system, or a combination of tax systems,
which would compel each, citizen to contribute to
the support of the government in proportion to
the benefits received by him from the govern
ment, and the conscience leads the way in the
attempt to devise, as well as in the attempt to
enforce, such systems.
At the risic of irritating those who have so
frequently (not to say exultantly) buried the
money question, it may without impropriety be
suggested that even in the selection of a finan
cial system and in the enactment of monetary
laws conscience is a better guide than a self
interest which ignores the rights of others.
Whether a rising dollar is better for the man with
money and fixed investments, or whether a fall
ing dollar is good for the debtor, ought to be
subordinated to the question, "What system will
best preserve the parity between money and
property, and reduce to a minimum the fluctua
tions, not merely of the metals as compared with
each other, but of the measure of value as com
pared with that which it is to measure."
Even imperialism is not beyond the sphere" of
conscience. Our relations with the Filipino are
not so different from our relations with each other
as to compel us to invent a new theory of govern
ment, or to apply principles antagonistic to the
conceptions of government which prevail at home.
The man who has a selfish interest to serve may
delude himself with the belief that he can mingle
philanthrophy and five per cent and still be en
tirely fair, but the man who conscientiously tries
to obey the commandment "Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself," never confuses the doctrine
of sacrifice for others with the doctrine that leads
us to saprifice others for ourselves. Not only do
nations sometimes permit commercialism to out
weigh conscience, but even a church may some
times put the advancement of its particular form
of worship before the propagation of Christian
principles; and for this sin an enlightened con
science offers a more effective remedy than legisla
tion can furnish.
But just now our nation is dealing with cer
tain domestic problems in which the quickening
of the individual conscience must play an import
ant part. We are passing through strange times
Some men who on Simday betake themselves to
church, join in religious exercises, and listen to
the interpretation of the Scriptures, spend the
remaining days of the week in reaping where they
have not sown, in organizing schemes for the
swindling of their fellows, in debauching voters
city councils, legislatures, and government offi
cials, and in extorting unearned tribute from those
who are compelled to deal with them. On Sun
day they partake of tho bread which symbolizes
the broken body of the Man of Galilee, and of
the wine that symbolizes the shedding of His
blood, while during the week they cruelly break
' hinniLhveS ft VlGir fell0WS dBd innocent
blood by methods more refined, but not less de
structive, than the methods of the murderer.
h nl MarWuJm' in "a Poem "The Man with
the Hoe," presents interrogatories that have
pricked the consciences of thousands, and toda?
many, when they contemplate some brutalized
specimen of the race, are asking themselves as
they never did before: wubwves as
"Who made him dead to rapture and despair
A thing that grieves not and that never hopes?"
And even those who have not actively participat
ed in the wrong-doing recognize that to them also
is addressed the poet's question-
--- ' .VOLUME 5, NUMBER 22 '
"How will you ever straighten up this shair.
Touch it again with immortality; '
Give back the upward looking and 'the light'
Rebuild in it the music and the dream'"
Municipal ownership will remove much of th
temptation that has filled our city go eminent
with boodling and compelled the people to ml
high prices for the use of their own property but
even municipal ownership can not go as far as
the conscience can in restoring honesty In city
government and in eliminating graft.
The president has recommended legislation
which will place railroad rate-making under the
supervision of public officers. Success to his
efforts in this direction! But the necessity lor
conscience becomes the greater in proportion as
the temptations to wrongdoing increase (and '
temptations increase as greater power is placed
in the hands of officials), and while we seek to
make rates reasonable and to prevent those forms
of discrimination which can be, detected, we may
well hope for the advent of a business conscience
which will make railroad managers spurn as
wrong the -issue of fictitious stock, and regard as
immoral the running of a railroad with an eye
single to the advancement of their own personal
and pecuniary interests.
The trust question is receiving an increasing
share of public attention, but no legislation, how
ever stringent, can prove so powerful a protection
to the public as a conscience which will lead its
possessor to look upon the private monopolies
which now infest the industrial highways as he
looks upon the thief who lurks by the roadside
and pounces upon the hapless traveler who passes
by. And who can distinguish a moral difference
between the conduct of the man who, comfortably
seated in a richly furnished office, exacts an un
reasonable price for a necessary of life merely
because monopoly enables him to extort that price,
and the conduct of the brigand who, at the muz
zle of a revolver, demands your money or your
life?
In no question now before the country is the
conscience destined to play a more important
part than in the labor question. Does the em
ployer give to his employe a fair share of the
joint product? Does the employe render to the
employer the service that is due? These two
questions embrace all that lies between the capi
talist and the laborer. Had conscience done its
work well there would- be little need of labor laws.
It is a sad commentary upon, tho blind selfish
ness of man that laws must be enacted to pro
tect children from excessive toil; to limit tho
hours of labor; to require safety appliances and
ir. other ways io protect the health, limb, and
life of those who earn their bread in the sweat
of the face. Nothing short of sympathy, founded
upon love and directed by conscience, can close
the gulf between the paymaster and the wage
earner. One of the most hopeful signs recently noted
is the protest made by a number of the Congre
gational ministers against the acceptance of le
Rockefeller contribution to the work of foreign
missions. Attention has been called to the fact
that this protest was commended more heartily
by the secular than by the religious papers.
While this may at first seem surprising, it must
be remembered that the editors of newspapers are
human, and that it is a human frailty to criticize
more readily those with whom we are not inti
mately connected than those who are near to us.
Iz is not unaccountable, therefore, that the papers
which have no direct responsibility for the ad
vancement of religious .ork should have been
more prompt to point out objections to the re
ceiving of such a donation. ' It must be remem
bered also .that the ministers and the editors
of the church papers are so zealous for the ad
vancement of religious work that they are some
times liable to allow the end to justify the means
more so than those less anxious for the ex
tension of Christian work. But making all pos
sible allowance for zeal, it is to be regretted that
in the Rockefeller controversy the religious papers
have set up a Jower ethical standard than many
of the papers entirely non-religious in character.
The protest, however, points to a grown,
revolt against the business methods which are
not only defying all moral law but in some In
stances ignoring the requirements of statute law.
It is evident that a powerful movement is at
work when men active .a the advancement 01
every form of Christian work will prefer to risK
a pause in the work rather than see the churcn
enter into an unholy alliance, with commercialism.
It is not only an illustration of the effect of con
science on conduct, but it is an evidence of a
growing. faith in the efficacy of an appeal to con
science. There was a time not many years ac
when Mr. Rockefeller's contributions were gW"'y
received and no questions asked. If the recem
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