CHAPTER VII.

Misunderstandings.

"I

As I paused Dr. Peters said, Mr. Dinsmore, I have been very much impressed by my personal experience and also by the very remarkable discussion we have held. I am anxious to learn, and I shall do my part toward the solution of the terrible problem that stares organized society in the face. And yet I cannot understand that attitude of hostility to the church-and I use that term broadly-of organized labor." deny that organized labor as a body is hostile to the church, i. e., to religion," said I. "There be criminations and recriminations, apparently from both bodies, but it is more apparent than real, it is not the authoritative voice of organized religion nor of organized labor that thus makes for hostility; it is rather the voice of the fakes, the shallow thinkers or the timid ones in both bodies. There be fakes in the pulpit, I have met and talked with them, men to whom their sacred calling is but a profession, a mere matter of dollars and cents, who are not honest in their utterances, who would espouse the labor platform, if it paid better. There be shallow men in pulpits, as shallow as a mud puddle, so shallow that their utterances on vital questions of economics cause amusement to some, sorrow to others, and unhappily drives from the pew some who are unable to differentiate between the church and the individual. There be timid men in pulpits so nervous, timid, childish, that the questions of the day seem to terrorize them, but the pulpit has no monopoly of fakes, shallow men or timid men. There be the same characters in organized labor, labor fakes, very similar to the pulpit fakes, in the labor movement as a business just as long as it pays, or until an opportunity presents itself to 'land a bigger pile,' they are with labor, but how often do we see such men become the tool of the corporations or the political machine when it pays? There

be shallow men in organized labor unable to
see the length of their arm, clinging to the
childish methods, the slavish ideas that im-
ply 'that labor is a poor, miserable thing,
of necessity living simply by permission of
the gentry. Those are the 'mud-puddle'
leaders who are afraid to permit discussion
upon living, burning questions, who are so
scared at the word 'politics'; and then there
be the timid men afraid to call their soul
their own, afraid to think; those are the
men who give color to the idea that or-
ganized labor and religion are at variance.
No doubt gentlemen, you are shocked at my
vastness
plain speaking, but the
of the
problem demands it, and to you Dr. Peters,
I wish to say my criticism of the pulpit is
not the assertion of a sceptic, nay, I speak
as a Christian, it is because I most earnest-
ly believe in God, the moral law, and the
life to come, that I am a radical. Convince
me that this life is all

"That man wakes from sleep within the womb
Cries, laughs, and moans,

And then sleeps forever in the tomb.'

And then I shall cease my work as a radical, a reformer, for if this life were all, I would end it; if this life is all, it is a curse, a nightmare, but I know it is not all.

"To live as live the grass and the autumnal grain
Born of the sun and sod and fertilizing rain
And pass away like these, at scythe and sickles' call
And leave no trace behind, can this be all?'

Nay! He that takes that attitude, destroys the very heart's cry of labor, justice! There is no cry of justice between the rocks, the crawling snake, the vulture and the beast. Deny God and immortality and I deny to any man or set of men, call them church, lodge, government or labor union, the right to say nay to me in anything. If men are but beasts then he alone is wise whose motto in life is:

'He shall take who has the power
And he shall keep, who can.'

Aye, from that standpoint all talk of right or wrong is the veriest drivel and the much denounced Plutocrat is the only wise man. There be men in pulpits today, Protestant, Catholic and Hebrew alike, who are doing giant's work in the solution of the social problem and those men in addition to their task of bringing light to their associates, are hampered and retarded by the utterances of many men in organized labor. It is a case of misunderstanding.

Up in a great city in the northwest resides a giant churchman and sturdy American whose ringing words I remember as he spoke to a great gathering of his associate clergymen. He said, "The need of the world, the need of the church today as never before, is for men who see farther, rise higher, act more boldly than others * * Discoveries and inventions have opened to us a new material world, social and political conditions have been transformed 'There

*

is discord between the age and the church * * The interests of society and religion suffer, while misunderstanding and separation exist * * The fault lies with the age and the church or rather with the spokesmen of the age and of the church. Age and church rightly apprehended are in no manner at war * I am not afraid to say that men in the church during this century have made the mistake of being too slow to understand the new age, too slow to extend toward it the conciliatory hand of friendship * This is an age of social battling for justice to all men, for the right of all men to live in frugal comfort, becoming rational creatures, to all of whom birth into the world gives title to a sufficiency of the things of this world * * Church men of late have so locked up their teachings in temple and seminary, that when the same teachings appear in active evolution upon the broad sea of humanity, they do not recognize them, they even fear and disown them." These are the words of one of the ablest, most devout churchmen in the republic, and in his church and in all the religious bodies, we find many Protestant ministers, Catholic priests, Jewish rabbis, doing their share of the giant task to bring about a clear understanding between the church and the age, but they are hampered by shallowpates in organized labor just as are the earnest labor union men hampered by the shallowpates in the pulpits. But the work goes on. It must go on. A solution must be found or this civilization of the boasted twentieth century will go down in a night of horror compared to which the French Revolution was but a passing cloud. How damnable, how degrading, is the greed

of wealth? To what depths will they sink? How they will degrade their fellowmen and

women.

"I was down in Delaware a few years ago, a young man friend of mine, a decorative painter in the employ of the Harlan & Hollingsworth Car Building Company, secured a permit for me to go through the works, in order, as he said, 'I might see how the tariff fattened, land-grabbing plutocracy were robbing men and degrading women.' By heavens, it made my blood boil, some one hundred young women were working in the car shops as painters; their Own brothers, fathers, lovers, who had served apprenticeship to the business, walking the streets in idleness and these young women, the future wives and mothers of the coming generations, working in that atmosphere, laden with the fumes of lead, varnish and turpentine, climbing up on scaffolding inside and outside of cars, at times working almost over the very heads of dozens of coarse, vulgar spoken men, the air filled with profane, vulgar and obscene language, the regulations as to the common decencies of life so coarse, that even a man of refinement felt embarassed. Consider the effects on those young women. What must the result be to their progeny? And the proprietors, oh! they were, of course, 'Eminent Financiers,' 'Leading Citizens,' 'Sound Money Men,' and great advocates of 'A Protective Tariff' all, of course, for the bɛnefit of labor.' And now, my friends, you men in business, the law, the newspaper office and the pulpit, I pray you take these lessons home."

Jack Dinsmore ceased speaking. I had sat spell-bound listening as he spoke, the earnestness and enthusiasm of the man seemed to permeate the very air in my room in the Continental Hotel. I arose, grasped him by the hand, saying, “Jack, you have removed many cobwebs from my brain, but tell me what did your auditors say." "My dear boy, the seed took root," said Jack Dinsmore. The first to speak was Oscar Warner, the manufacturer. He struck the mahogany table with his fist as he said, "By Heavens, gentlemen, a great light dawns upon me. I now understand the motive power that actuates those men of affairs, men of independent fortune, of whom we read at times who have taken up the Single Tax. I confess that at first I thought they were daft, but in my business relations with them, I find them the same shrewd, level-headed business men they were before they took up the Single Tax question, and then I am ashamed to say I concluded they

were simply notoriety hunters, but now 1 see. I begin to feel it myself. It is the mighty power of a great truth and as sure as my name is Oscar Warner, my time, my means, my brains, and influence shall be exerted for the spread of this great truth."

And the next to speak was Congressman Judson. He said: "I endorse every word you say Warner. I served in Congress with several Single Tax men. I never could understand their zeal for the Single Tax. I know it now, and for the future, I shall labor for it."

And then spoke editor Baxter saying: "And I endorse the words of both of you. I now see why it was that Henry George for years gave his splendid abilities as a journalist to the Single Tax when he could have reaped a golden harvest and political honors by entering the service of the organs of special privilege. From this day I shall do my part in the mighty work before us."

And then the Rev. Dr. Peters arose, the tears stood in his eyes, he shook my hand warmly, saying; "The preacher and D. D. has learned a lesson from the layman, the commercial traveler. I endorse the words of our friends here, and now I know why such men as the Rev. Edward McGlynnGod rest his honest soul-and many other clergymen, Catholic, Protestant and Hebrew, have been so earnest in the Single Tax movement. I find that the Single Tax, of which I have often sneeringly spoken as a 'patent remedy' and a school of 'rainbow chasing' is really a great moral movement, that it calls on all men to live in harmony with the laws of God and nature. Yes, from henceforth, I shall labor for the Single Tax and in so doing, I shall feel that I am doing the work of the Master."

Jack Dinsmore lit a fresh cigar, leaned back in his chair and said, "Now, my boy, I have told you my story, here lies the way

CHICAGO

out. I belong to the 'Drummers' Single Tax League,' wherever I go I scatter the seed,

I always remember Whittier's lines:
'Never yet, grain of truth was vainly set

In the world's wide fallow
After hands shall care the seed
After hands from hill and mead

Shall reap the harvest's yellow.'

Will the Single Tax come in my time?

I don't know, I hope so, but it matters little; I shall know it in the beyond if I shall have passed away, for I know this life is but the vestibule of the life beyond. How shall the Single Tax come? I don't know. AS that splendid American, great Democrat, and true servant of God, Henry George has said: 'It can come and will come, if men do their duty, as peaceful as the song of the lark on a summer's morning, but come it will-if need be-if men neglect their duty, accompanied by the crash of musketry and the roll of the drums of war."

Jack Dinsmore remained silent for a moment and then said, "And if it shall come through horrors and desolation, at all events, we who do our part, who have tried for years to awake the public conscience, will have no guilt on us." Jack Dinsmore looked at his watch and said, "Do you know we have been talking five hours. Come, old boy, take supper with me and then see me off from Broad Street Station. I go to Baltimore on the Washington Express, leaving here at 1:45 a. m."

We dined together, walked over to Broad Street Station and as the "crier" in the station called out, "Washington Express" first stop Wilmington-gate No. 7." I walked to the gate with him, he grasped my hand saying, "Good bye, old boy, be good, brace up, and work for the Single Tax."

He passed through the gate, the train pulled out and though the great depot was crowded, I felt very much alone."

A

T THE close of the series of articles on the "Economics of Moses" it was stated that Jesus, realizing the hopelessness of curing economic ills by the mere letter of law, sought the solution of the vexed economic problem with which Moses struggled by giving to the world a spiritualized ideal of economic life.

The burden of the articles on the "Economics of Jesus" must therefore be to show what this ideal is. This task may be best performed by giving in the first article its structure as derived from the teachings of Jesus and his first disciples, and in the second its function as derived from the history of attempts made to put it into practice.

This ideal has two distinct phases-the psychological and the sociological.

The psychological principle is found in the emphasis which Jesus placed upon Life, making no distinction between existence here and hereafter. Under the Mosaic dispensation there is but little record of consideration of any continuation of Life beyond the earth period. The limited conception of Life of the earlier times resulted in a low estimate of its value and possibilities. More importance was given to the pleasure of the hour and the material means of producing such pleasure than to the preservation of Life or the means of developing its fullness. Life, therefore, by most minds, was considered of less importance than body, food, raiment or houses.

As evidence of this we note that Life was often sacrificed by the individual to secure these material things even when their acquisition was not necessary to existence; the law prescribed the death penalty freely for interference with supposed rights in these material things; and the lives of great masses of people considered the less fortunate were sacrificed for the pleasure of those considered the more fortunate.

There was but little conception of life as being a force greater than all material things, with power to control all such things, making them a means of its fuller and larger expression, or going on its way entirely independent of all visible adjuncts.

The economic laws of Moses grew out of the material conception of Life and were a laudable effort in the direction of regulat

ing the ownership of the material things pertaining to life by external force, on the assumption that the life itself was beyond the possibility of being regulated so as to regulate from within the material things related to it. In the then state of development of the race that assumption was tenable; and the Mosaic system was probably the best that could be devised for its time.

Jesus assumed, whether correctly or not need not here be considered, that the time had come for at least the announcement of the dominant power of Life.

The following are some of the evidences of the emphasis placed by him on Life without in any respect discounting or depreciating the body or material things, as was the custom of the Ascetic Jews and the Stoic Greeks:

"I am come that they might have Life and that they might have it more abundantly."-John, 10:10.

"As the Father hath Life in Himself, (independent of material things), so hath He given to the Son to have life in himself." -John, 5:26.

"Therefore I say unto you be not anxious (R. V.) for your life what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for the body what ye shall put on. Is not the Life more than meat and the body more than raiment?"-Matthew, 6:25.

"I am the way, the truth and the Life." -John, 14:6.

The clear meaning of the propositions quoted, stripped of all theological traditions, is that it is possible for the individual to so develop the life "in himself" which is possessed by all "sons of God," that we shall be able to control directly or indirectly all of the material things necessary for the proper development of his Life for this or any other world.

Otherwise it is not true that the Life is more-greater, more powerful-than the meat as the body is more-greater, more powerful than the raiment.

A few strong individuals like the Nazarene Himself may be able to develop this conquering Life "in himself" with but little or no help from his fellow-men; but without social cooperation on a large plan the development of this psychic power in the mass of mankind must be delayed indef