THE RACE PROBLEM. 319 All the evils inflicted on barbarous nations, by the so-called civilized, will end as did the slave trade and chattel slavery, will end because of the coming in of true enlightenment-the omnipotence of public opinion and ripening of the public mind. The public opinion of Christendom will end oppression the world over. Russia must yield to the moral sentiment of the Christian world and cease to persecute the Jews and America cease to persecute the blacks. What has ailed the world hitherto? A nominal acceptance of Christianity and continuance of Pagan practices in the dealings of Christian nations with each other and with heathendom, after the of Ancient Greece and Rome. Now the world is getting All monopoly will end. The white and the black will be manner better. friends will help one another. The white people south and north will help the blacks to reach the same plane of enlightenment as they themselves occupy. Schools will be established for the education of all We will seek other's good. All and each will have an equal children. voice in government, male and female, white and black. Love will produce no friction. which may do most for the other's good, which shall give up most for the common welfare. The strife between man and man will be to see From Savagery mankind have risen: 'twas Progress led them forth To triumph over matter and to conquer all the earth; The mountains they have leveled down; the hills they have brought low; The law is: "They shall conquer still, shall vanquish every foe." That he who tames the elements and yokes them to his cars, Will ta me his savage passions too, and put an end to wars. No going back; but onward still-right onward in their course; Yea on Most Subtile are ideas, friend; though subtile they are strong! and on forever, and omnipotent their force. The evils that cannot be borne will soon be thrown aside, YE 241ST LESSON. Old Books and Old Creeds. The older the more highly prized, not that old books are ever read, as a rule, or old creeds have any meaing to the people today, no difference what the subject-matter of book or creed, or whether the purchaser can read either or not, they being in Greek or Latin or German or Spanish, etc. A book of the first edition ever printed in Germany would bring thousands of dollars-the same of old coins, old garments, pieces of mummy cloth, and mummies themselves. Who would patch up or change the curios in any way? No one. They are "have beens." The idea that creeds ought to be doctored in the present day is preposterous. All creedism is dead and mummified. There isn't a book of science of a century ago of any title, that is read today, except as a curiosity. And there is not a religious doctrine of one hundred years ago, preached now. The thought of today is not the thought of yesterday. The moral code is not the same. Do Christian men sell on the auction block their own sons and daughters born of slave mothers today? Morally we are better than we were then. Religiously we have advanced. And we know that in all respects we have reached a higher plane of enlightenment and Christianity. What ought we do with the past? Ignore it as fundamental. "Look forward and not back, up and not down, lend a hand"—that is a creed that never will be outgrown. "I am a Unitarian," says one. "I am a Trinitarian," says another. That is all gone by. "I am a Twentieth Century Christian," says a third. But what is truth? Why, God is truth. Who by searching can find out God? Nobody. The Infinite cannot be circumscribed, pictured, photographed or a statue or image made of Him. We learn more and more about space. Its substance we call ether. Suns and worlds belong to space. Of God, we speak of His attributes. We say, "He is love and truth." What do we know of love and truth? We know that the more we have of them the better we are off.. Is there love between differing sects of religion? Very little; but more today than formerly. The more of love the more of God is in their makeup. The Trinitarian has the same love for the Unitarian that the Jew had for the Samaritan. So of all sects for one another where a formal creed is made the criterion of religion. But the creed is about to let go and drop off like a leech when full. And nothing has sucked more blood than creed. It is accursed. It is barbarity-savagery. It has been a greater curse than strong drink. But both are doomed to go by the board and right soon. They are the blight of the human soul, as consumption of the human body. There will yet be found a specific for consumption. The specific for creed is oblivion. We do not believe as the fathers believed. Why do we not? It is because the fathers had not the same light that we have, both literally and figuratively speaking. They burned fish oil and tallow-dips. We are lighted with electricity. Transportation with them was by ox teams. They reaped with the sickle, plowed with wooden mould board plows, threshed with the flail, wrote with quill pens and could, as a rule, barely read and write. We are further advanced in knowledge than they were. And their beliefs were as crude, in many respects, as are the beliefs of the dwellers in the kraals of South Africa. What kind of ships had they? Sail ships. What kind of dwellings? Log. How navigate rivers? In flatboats. And all these changes, too, since ye old schoolmaster of ye olden time can remember. We might as well go back to their ways in all things as in religion. But must we give up the Bible they revered? Not at all. It is a precious heirloom. Of course Semitism is obsolete. Yet the Old Testament is pervaded by a philosophy--the learning of Egyptian priests, LABOR'S ENTHRONEMENT. 321 which, according to Josephus and the Alexandrian church-fathers, is of transcendent worth, allegorically presented the eclectic wisdom of Hindu and Persian sages as well as Egyptian. But the "grain of mustard seed," "the lump of leaven," that the New Testament stands for is the one thing of value above all else that has come down to us from the thinkers of Greece and of antiquity. What is that one thing of value? It is the deification of love. It is precious beyond all art, all literature, the summum bonum of philosophical truth— eternal as God Almighty. YE 242D LESSON. Labor's Enthronement. Let every man do his part in the Garden of God. Let that be the first demand of labor. Let nothing be bestowed on any able-bodied man that he has not by his own industry earned-be the second demand of labor. Let society be so systematized that each must do his share of work, be the third demand of labor. Let no man be questionedin regard to his labor in the past-be the fourth demand of labor. Let whatever exists be accounted as "paid for" no debt due, and no account unsatisfied when the bells ring the new year in and ring the old year No looking backward and let the presumption always be that every man has done his part and if not the community alone is respon out. sible. alone, The individual must not be called to account; but the officials whose business it is to keep all labor employed. If the potter One vessel to honor and another to dishonor, blame not the The maker of the vessel is alone responsible. So must we place all responsibility where it belongs, viz., on society. make vessel. Here then, is the predominant idea in the new social order, the irre8ponsibility of the individual. The individual must be free. He must not be punished. He must not be held accountable for the conditions; but the conditions must be held accountable for him. main This is the thought. And this is the truth. Conditions are the all in all of human life as of all life. The ice-period extinguished life in the temperate and arctic zones. The tropics are all life. Heat, sunlight, rain, But artificial conditions fruitful soil, healthful climate these are natural conditions all for the existence and well being of sentient life. are as important for the good or evil of humanity as are natural conNature has done everything for the good of Ireland and ditions. Egypt, and man has done everything for their blight. ment that is the evil factor. Bad govern He that plans and succeeds in setting up good social conditions is the saviour of men. That was what Jesus Christ had in view. It was to establish an ideal kingdom here on earth, the epitome of the world to come. It was set up. It flourished for four hundred years, history again revived. us; but was finally suppressed by Pagan power. It has never been But it will be. I look to see the Sermon on the Mount tells men become the fundamental constitution of the United States of the World. Then will all things be common and distribution will be made to all piness. The task I have set myself to do is to present a true picture of the better day. If I could write as did the blind Milton in his be an epic far transcending Homer's "Iliad," or Virgil's "Aeneid" in sublimity. I know that Milton's great soul anticipated what he so according as every man has need, of the essentials of life and hap ng numbers-what a "Paradise Regained" it would be! It would glowin ably and plenty to all the families of men. day bless the globe. Truth will conquer error, and right will conquer advocated a glorious commonwealth that would give freedom That commonwealth will one wrong. the end. The "good old cause" of the Roundheads will triumph in What a consummation to be the heirs of the great thoughts of Milton and Vane! To be moved by the glorious enthusiasm of Hampden and Cromwell! These thoughts and this enthusiasm are a power more potent for good than all the discoveries in science. See the millions lifted up exalted to the seventh heaven, singing hymns of freedom. Those hymns are Milton's. See those millions rushing to battle for humanity. They are Cromwell's Ironsides, chanting psalms of David. No power of darkness can stand against them. Oh, the time is near when the hearts of men will be lifted up to God and Freedom. The word of the day will be: "God, our strength," the same as of the Roundheads at Naseby. Yes, a commonwealth will soon be established in which there will be no poor and no rich-but all well-to-do, in which man will be regarded and property disregarded. Now man is disregarded and property alone regarded. The rights of men are put down in the dust and the rights of property exalted to the skies. But no one will suffer wrong-nothing will be done that is not according to justice. It was not right that men and women and children were sold as chattels. That wrong was put down in blood. But there are yet many wrongs. They must be also put down. How? By concerted action on the part of the toilers peaceably. Let us not think that the enemy will be easily overcome-that he will surrender without being forced into the last ditch. He is unscrupulous. He will shed blood. He regards not the lives of the people more than he regards their rights. But the movement of the people will be so overwhelming that the foe will have to hide his head. He will have to yield. YE 243D LESSON. Old Issues Obsolete. We have reached the period in the history of progress when the issues of the past have become obsolete and new issues have come forward to be grappled with and satisfactorily settled. The paramount question of the present hour is industrial. How may labor be employed remuneratively, is the issue. Shall the workers be coerced and held to their tasks by forceful measures of "conspiracy laws," the over-awing presence of regulars, armed guards, constables and sheriffs and the motive of hunger and nakedness-wages being held down to the line of bare subsistence while at work and starvation or vagrancy when idle; or shall the government intervene to guarantee civil service in all branches of industry and a just and equitable wage scale. that shall amount to practical co-operation. To any discerning mind it is clear and transparent that slavery of the toilers is no longer practicable that the world has gone by that era, and has reached the era of co-operative production. Its inauguration is only a question of a few days not only in America, but everywhere the world over. The question before us now is that of reconstruction, the old order having been set aside, outgrown and no longer tolerable-a new order must be established instead. And no half-way expedients will be satisfactory. We must change the labor system fundamentally, radically, completely. Private capital must cease entirely to employ labor, I repeatedly insist. All production must be democratically controlled, and all autocracy must be put an end to. The state must become a co-operative society of equals and all property common. Each must be afforded equal opportunities and equal facilities for intellectual, moral and financial advancement and all artificial advantages of the few over the many must be done away-i. e., interest, rent and "profitable investments" of money. No investment must be profitable except the investment of physical and mental energy. Since in the nature of things it is impossible for all THE GOLDEN FUTURE. 323 the able-bodied to be relieved from the necessity of labor it must be made impossible, in the fitness of things, for any of the able-bodied to be relieved from that necessity. Since natural wealth, because of its perishable quality, cannot be "handed down to posterity," no artificial substitute for "natural wealth" shall be permitted to exist to be handed down-enabling its recipients to escape the natural obligation to earn their living by labor. In a word all money excepting labor certificate and certificates of deposit of labor products must be abolished, as well as all promissory notes, bonds and mortgages collectible by law. I see clearly that a great conflict such as never before shook the world is about to begin for 1. Land limitation. 2. Common ownership of the tools of production. 3. The abolition of all money but labor checks and certificates of deposit of products placed in the common depots of exchange. Employment will be furnished by the state to all the unemployed. The wheels of industry will be set in motion by state help. The state will make provision for the conversion of all the raw material into the finished product as well as for the creation of the raw product— will quit building warships and purchasing guns and munitions of war and go to building homes and factories. And instead of distributing provisions to armies of soldiers the state will distribute them to armies of peaceful citizens, employed in "promoting the common welfare." YE 243D LESSON. The Golden Future, Today is a day of transition, not for America alone, but for the whole world. All is change. The new new in one line alone, but in every line. supplants the old. Not the Nothing remains unchanged This brings discomfort for a while. Many suffer. are enriched. Millionaires and even billionaires are evolved. is being born. Pain accompanies birth, but a new life begins. well; for a better day is dawning. A battle is on but many (alle or unchanging. A few Good All is gorically speaking) are killed, many more wounded, but look for improved conditions to result. better institutions will take the place of the old and effete-better than ever were known before. No slavery; no poverty; no social evil; finished in culture, devotees of the natural, worshippers of beauty, loving little children, benevolent, happy, scorning the useless, having all will one day have homes as alike as the cells of the honey-comb -all people and all peoples one family, no hovels, no slums, no whitechapels. The artificial is dying out; the natural is coming in. Crystallization is in progress. New and ideal Word with homes like the Japanese, not great castles, but cottages. And The universally spoken will be "no more than is beneficial; away Superfluities; show us how to make our lives useful." Yes, wants few, and holding out a helping hand to black and white alike, seeing no difference and saying, "he is my brother; she is my sister; I am the servant of all." The rich man (rich in common sense) will be he who prefers an tent to a castle. Why so? Because the air of the open tent is What will be sought after as the most valuable of all wealth pure air and pure food that make the best blood. Washington, open purer. are when asked by his host in Jersey City, before he crossed over to New York to be sworn in as first President of the United States, what delihe preferred for his supper, replied: "Mush and milk." It is a great delicacy, truly, for it assures good blood. He is a fool who cacy |