THE REAL PURPOSE OF LIFE. 309 devilishness-disciples of Satan, that they now are, would have made the capital city of Iowa worthy to be known as an educational center, a college city. They own what the law declares "nuisances"- -more than three-fourths of all of this character of places in the city-the buildings I mean-sources of immense revenue to them. And the influence of these two rich men is such that the daily press is silenced and dare not speak against colossal evils. Of their fault theaters are open on Sundays in the city and vaudeville shows in the parks that withdraw the young away from the influence of moral and religious instructors and instructions as far as we have them outside of the New Testament and of the home and the school. It may be in brief said truly that these rich men have made of the city a veritable hell of drunkenness, debauchery, murder and suicide for gain. Of course there are others that know nothing else but to exploit the Gentile world, employing women and girls as clerks and "operatives" in stores and factories at wages that compel them to sell their honor and virtue for bread to keep them and their poor dependents from starvation. And there are "Christian" merchants leading church members, that do the same thing, and who would drive every other man out of business and into bankruptcy if they could; and there are those who would monopolize every source of livelihood-for what end? Madness! He is mad, be he Jew or Gentile, who has an income suf ficient more. chanic, for the needs of his home and family and still reaches after Why does any man of common sense, lawyer, merchant, mebusiness man in any line toiler, farmer-any human being, fool away precious time gathering and piling up what he has not a shadow of use for? What should we do? of time that the necessities of life compel. have We should regret the loss any aim or purpose in life that is not altruistic that has not Manhood and beast the betterment of society in view as a finality. hood Ought not to be one and the same thing. But at present the actions and aims of almost all men rise not an inch above the beastial plane -above the promptings of instinct. There is no sense or reason in one's reaching and reaching for dollars that he has not a purpose to devote to the common good. Why does one man want to displace al other men in business-set up in the same city a score of groceries or stores, or establish a great department business in America, Europe and on the Pacific Isles, as did Marshall Field? He dies and leaves it did Alexander the Great leave the world he had conquered. all, as Now, if it can be shown that the common welfare is enhanced by becoming rich and no one wronged in the acquirement of riches Seldom may this be shown), then is his enrichment justifiable. But every one ought to one's (but The rights of one and all are alike the same. be as 10 One think of himself (his private interests) more highly than he earnest as was John Brown in devotion to righting wrongs. "Let Ought or any true disciple of Jesus thought. to think" that is to say, more highly than Jesus or St. Paul YE 233D LESSON. The Real Purpose of Life. Place your hand over your heart. You feel its beating. That began months before you breathed the air of heaven. The end of life comes only With "heart failure." We speak of the heart literally and figura- tively. It must the heart fails literally or figuratively, death literally or figuratively intervenes. The heart beats literally for the individual; figuratively for others. The heart is vital and it requires supreme care. be supplied with pure blood that returning oxygenized from the lungs is pumped by the heart through the arterial veins into every part of the body, like the great waterworks-engines force water through the underground water pipes into every house of the city. How long will the heart continue its wonderful work? That is the care of each person. What is the real purpose of life? It is to look to the welfare of the heart, both literally and figuratively. Its figurative welfare is no less important than its literal. We cannot live without companionship. The heart has all to do with this. In childhood there is no choice. Who our parents may be, black or white, good or bad, falls to us by accident. But there is for us hope for the future under conditions most unfavorable; for a little circumstance may bring one up to the highest honors from the most unpromising conditions; instance Andrew Johnson's career and Booker T. Washington's. Both were born in abject poverty. Johnson was never sent to school at all, and when twenty-one years of age he could neither read nor write. He arose to the position of President of the United States. He was a tailor by trade. But the wrong to his heart, both literally and figuratively, by the drink habit-but for this one dreadful thing, his name would be little less splendid than is Lincoln's. Johnson was a patriot. Drink alone was his eclipse. It is the ruin of every one who gives way to it. It is the greatest of all evils. It is the heart destroyer. The history of Booker T. Washington shows what a noble purpose ends in. There is no excuse for life-failure, given health and hope and a lofty ideal. There can be no failure when these are joined with persever ance. But back of the heart there must be brain. The boy or man who takes up with the tobacco or the liquor habit lacks brain quality. He is a fool in the most essential sense. If a boy does not know that either habit is ruinous to his manhood he has been misinstructed and misled by bad companionship and bad example. But a mature man, in this day, cannot plead any excuse. He is only an imbecile-too weak to leave off the bad habits acquired in youth, or of too little sense to think rightly. We have reached a period in the world's history when man breeding should occupy as much care and attention as does hog breeding. One addicted to either habit cares not for himself as much as for a hog. A mature man entering a drink hell or smoking a pipe or cigar on the street is heartless, as well as brainless. I care not if he be the President of the United States and the Generalessimo of her armies. He is not a true patriot or a true lover of his kind though his name be U. S. Grant or William McKinley. It is more vital to the welfare of our country for each to set a good enam ple before the young than it is to die fighting on the battlefield for her or to fill the Presidential chair. The general or President may do more harm by bad example of intemperance than good in winning great battles or ruling well the nation. The personal character of each is of greater consequence to the common weal than is any condition of politics or war or peace. We would better be ruled by a tyrant-king than be an intemperate people like the English speaking race is to-day. Uprightness is better than all else. But the exploiters of labor would rather see the people demoralized by drink and cursed as we are by the nicotine habit than otherwise. It enables them to do nefarious deeds without let or hindrance. The man who will brow-beat his employes into signing petitions for saloons, that he may make his thousands by letting buildings for liquor joints, and who violates the laws of the state and every tenet of decency, humanity and patriotism by letting rooms for immoral purposes-that man is only an avaracious money-getter; but he is a savage-he is of the worst class of mankind-an enemy to society-an enemy to mankind, a ghoul, an outlaw, a villian. He is a worse man-more harmful to society, state and nation than any other kind of traitor can be. Yea, Benedict Arnold of old, as written down in history, is a calendared saint in comparison with him. THE CHRISTIAN "SEGREGATION" OF MAGDALENES 311 YE 234TH LESSON. The Christian "Segregation" of Magdalenes. It is either essential to our Christian civilization that one hundred, yea, double and treble and quadruple that number of young women pay license tax of ten dollars each month, or more to this city, for the privilege of police protection, while they corrupt the young manhood, or it is not. If it is essential that this condition of society be kept up, ought not the young girls that for "public necessity" throw away their lives in this manner, rather be paid a subsidy by the city for filling this terrible need of "Christian civilization"- -a sacrifice to the god of evil of all that is holy, just and good? And if essential to the well being of our regular army, as is claimed (ana, too, the liquor canteen), then let these, our fair daughters, be enlisted by the governfor this "necessary service" (as are our brave sons enlisted, to fight and put down strikes), and be paid and pensioned like the solWe see on the statute book of the state a law declaring it a felony with penitentiary penalty for a woman to keep a house of the "disorderly" kind; and for a man to "let a house for an immoral pura fine of three hundred dollars or six months in the county jail. We howl about Reed Smoot and plurality of wives! But in this city of colleges the capital city of Iowa-we tolerate and declare to be "essential to Christian civilization" (graft) a far worse condition than Brigham Young or Mohammed were ever accused of upholding. ment diers. pose' We hear about "segregation." But who dare brave the three hundred dollars fine or six months in jail for every room rented the "Scarlet women?" An awful predicament for our city and our "ChrisCivilization" to be placed in! Must the city furnish, gratis, a Whitechapel for segregation purposes? A dreadful dilemma! and, Several thousand dollars a month lost of graft if not furnished; tian too, and for it is graft since it is illegal to nullify state laws in accepting this "hush money." Then one great object of keeping up city government a police force is, it appears, to protect felony, and vice, and nuisances (saloons are, legally, nuisances) for the sake of a mulct bribe-trampling on the laws in furtherance of "Christian civilibation"-Sodom outdone! tax I mounted Pegasus one day; To Sodom rode away, man I found her "fathers," daft, of course, For "franchise" stealing pay, man; I found her army of police (Protectors of her * man And guardians of her "Roads to Hell.") Attending to their chores, man. Rotten is our "Christian civilization"-more than is the civilization of Isla "But all the cities of Christian lands litense the social evil," does reader say? Then if Christian society not only tolerates but up the holds this evil, let the poor girls, victims, martyrs of our "Christian civilization," I repeat (rather than as now blackmailed and mulet taxed), be paid and pensioned, as are our boys in khaki (for war is an accursed evil). Yes, the social evil is as essential to "Christian civilization" as are liquor hells, gambling hells, tobacconist dens or "regulars." What may be done with the young women so fallen? They may be saved. "fell Not one is positively bad. They were unfortunate. They among thieves." See now the priest pass by in pride: The Levite on the other side Who is the tender-hearted man? Who is the Good Samaritan? 312 SOCIALISM, EVOLUTIONARY AND REVOLUTIONARY. Say 'tis the State-the Commonwealth- They deserve our love. Far greater their misfortune than was that of the victims of earthquake and fire in California, and more worthy of public sympathy. But we extend no hand to save them. We give them no hope. We trample them deeper and deeper into the mire. It is said that a packing house in Chicago made canned meats of the flesh of men that fell into the boiling vats. We do worse by our unfortunate daughters that fall into our graft vats in the whitechapels exploited by the city grafters. Let all the money (according to Chief Jones, amounting today to $1,000 a month, better say $5,000 to include graft and blackmail), exacted of unfortunate girls, and the fines of men found in disorderly houses in all $1,000,000 at least, since the foundation of the city, be devoted to helping the unfortunates out of the mire. It is rightfully theirs. A hospital for drunkards the state has built at no little cost and not out of fines drunkards have paid. They are ever an expense to the state. Let a grand Christian home of refinement, learning and remunerative employment, elevating and congenial to them, be built for our abandoned daughters, robbed of hope by a mistake. Let this be done for them speedily-opening our hearts to them as we have done ever to the victims of earthquake, fire and cyclone. Let them be sheltered lovingly in this home until received again under the parental roof as was the prodigal son. YE 235TH LESSON. Socialism, Evolutionary and Revolutionary. Socialism is of two kinds (1) evolutionary socialism and (2) revolutionary socialism. Evolutionary socialism is advancing on the world with gigantic strides. The great majority of the people of Europe, of America, Australia, and of New Zealand are evolutionary socialists. They control in many cities of Scotland and England. They are dominant in Australia, Canada and New Zealand. And on the United States they have a mighty hold. Our public, free school system and our postoffice system are the most conspicuous realizations of their hold on society here. But step by step public ownership of public utilities is coming in. And co-operative buying and selling and exchanging and producing products-especially among farmers-we see constantly gaining ground in the east and in the west, in the north and in the south. The evolutionary movement is in accord with nature as well as with wisdom, right reason and common sense. It alone can succeed. It alone is practicable. Revolutionary socialism does not take advantage of opportunities of, by degrees, gaining ground. It is a propaganda. Its advocates would build up an exclusive sect-followers of Carl Marx-holding aloof from co-operative action with others not of their guild, awaiting the anticipated period when a great majority of voters shall have reached the same belief with themselves; then the co-operative commonwealth will be set up in a day, like the expeted coming in of the kingdom of God. As the French revolution came, a sudden visitation will the social regeneration descend upon the world they think. Yes, this sudden coming of a new order may take place, as of birth, the period of gestation being gone by. But the child will not be full grown when born. And we may as well expect to learn the art of swimming by studying books as to reach the ideal government in the same way or become a blacksmith, jeweler, carpenter or bricklayer by reading works on these trades, or a sailor or a soldier or an oarsman or a base ball player in that way. There is more in practice than in precept. A trade or profession is reached step by step. AMERICANISM AND SOCIALISM. 313 But does the reader say: "Our fathers set up an ideal commonwealth all at once." No; the Commonwealth of Oliver Cromwell came first a constitutional government. But, in the midst of adverse conditions, it proved impracticable, so that Cromwell became a dictator. But the true and the real model was the English Constitution, unwritten of course; but our fathers put it in writing. Our governments, national and state, are the outgrowth of evolution. A theorist (John Locke) prepared a system of government for the Carolinas. But it was not practicable. It failed, as did the overconfident theorists of the French revolution fail in their plans of government for France. Traditional habits of thought and of action are a powerful hindrance to advancement. Brick by brick the great structure is built. Piece by piece the house is put together. How long has it taken, and how minds and hands have done a part, to construct the great printing press of today? So must the perfect commonwealth be constructed. The ideal precedes the real. But never is the first ideal conformed to in every particular in the final construction. Improvements will be made. many It was once believed that God made the world and all the things therein as a joiner builds a house. All living things appeared at the first in perfection-man and woman, the cattle, the beasts of the jungle, the trees of the forest-all as perfect in form and mature as we see them now. But science tells a different story of the Creation. The primordial cell was the beginning of life of plant and animal. It has taken millions of years to build all living things of the cell, as the house is made of bricks. The primordial cell is all there is now, when We find the unit of the living fixture. The fixture is a bundle of cells. All living things are aggregations of cells. built up of single cells of human experience. When completed it will comprise the aggregation of millions of experiences, as the great printing press is not the invention of one, but of thousands of minds. which will proceed the co-operative commonwealth. That is evolution from YE 236TH LESSON. Americanism and Socialism. Americanism (Christian Socialism) grew out of the declaration of American independence and the New Testament. is, of European socialism course, an European product. It was evolved from the brains of German philosophers. It is well suited to Germany, and may be to England, as communism is to France and anarchism to Russia. ricanism is of the farm and workship. Socialists speak of the Amer "proletariat." That order belongs to France-not to our America here. This reduce our people to It is the work of the ig is a land of equals, and the attempt to classes is unpatriotic and un-American. norant. The American people rule America-rich and poor, and the rich are only the sons and daughters of poor men. Riches are tem porary; the American people are eternal. They are one, and so will they remain to the end of time. Caste or class is out of place here. Americanism is what is demanded by public necessity in America. Public necessity makes itself known automatically. It requires no philosophy to discover it. It is on the house top. It is known and read of all men. and the initiative and the referendum. America demands these. "This is not socialism," the socialists say. Very well, what is it? American Now what does America demand? Public ownership ism. How will we reach these ends? By evolution. Socialists say they can reach the rule of the "proletariat" only by revolution. That is Russian. It is not American. If we lived in Russia we would |