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THE LIBRARY 01 
 
 CONGRESS 
 SERIAL RECORD 
 
 44 
 
 
 
 THE 
 
 ^' 
 
 Social forum. 
 
 DEVOTED TO PRESENT DAY PROBLEMS 
 
 
 S 
 
 
 In This Number 
 
 American 
 
 Imperialism 
 
 —BY- 
 PROF. GEO: D. HERRON, "^ 
 
 OF IOWA COLLEGE. 
 
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 Current Pous ^ -^ "^lu 
 Book Cbougbts ^ ^ ^ 
 
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Ck Social Jmm 
 
 In the next few numbers will contain : 
 rian the Creator. 
 
 By PROF. HERRON. 
 
 riunicipal Ideals. 
 
 By PROF HERRON. 
 
 A New Social Proofram : Are We Readv for It ? 
 
 Independence Day, from the Standpoint of 
 Christian Sociology. 
 
 Observations of A Christian Citizen. 
 
 Reforni or Regeneration, Which ? 
 
 The Regenerated Commonwealth : Is It 
 Practicable ? 
 
 The Initiative and Referendum. 
 
 Public Ownership of Public Utilities. 
 
 A New Trust: The Federation of Social Reforms. 
 
 Present Day Problemsjn the Light of the 
 Teachings of Jesus. 
 
 Trusts ^s Factors in Social Reform. 
 
^be Social jforum- 
 
 June 1, 1899. Vol. I. No. 1. 
 
 Published Monthly, under the auspices of The National Christian Citizen- 
 eHiP League, Room 822, Association Building, Chicago. 
 
 Edwin D. Wheelock, President. 
 
 John W. Leonard, Editor. 
 Frederick G. Strickland, Associate Editor. 
 
 AMERICAN inPERlALISn : 
 
 AN ADDRESS, 
 
 Delivered April 12, 18''9, by Professor^G^EOROE^ J). Heuron, of Iowa College, 
 
 in the Noonday Lecture Course of The National Christian 
 
 Citizenship League. 
 
 Senator Hoar's searching analysis of the Philippine ques- 
 tion makes a fitting text for Prof. Herron's indictment 
 of "American Imperialism," with which this number of The 
 Social Forum opens. Prof. Herron spoke to an audience 
 that nearly filled the whole auditorium of the Chicago Central 
 Music Hall, a place with a seating capacity of more than two 
 thousand. Throughout the delivery of this lecture this vast 
 audience, gathered in the business center of the Western 
 metropolis in the middle of a business day, hung upon the 
 speaker's words till the last syllable had been uttered, and 
 welcomed with discriminating applause, sometimes repeated 
 again and again and often reinforced with enthusiastic cheer- 
 ing, the profound religious and patriotic principles which he 
 enunciated with such eloquence and applied with so much 
 courage. The accompanying stenographic report of the 
 lecture goes out, therefore, not only as Prof. Herron's ex- 
 pregsion of his own sentiments on imperialism, Init also as 
 his expression of the sentiments of the great gathering of 
 patriotic men and women who listened to its delivery. 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 No man during this whole discussion has successfully chal- 
 lenged, and no man will successfully challenge — 
 
 (1.) The affirmation that under the constitution of the United 
 States the acquisition of territory, as of other property is not a 
 constitutional end, but only a means to a constitutional end, 
 and that while the making of new states and providing national 
 defense are constitutional ends, so that we may acquire and 
 hold territory for those purposes, the governing of subject peo- 
 ples is not a constitutional end and that there is, therefore, no 
 warrant for acquiring and holding territory for that purpose. 
 
 (2.) That to leave our own country, to stand on a foreign soil, 
 is in violation of the warnings of our fathers and of the fare- 
 well address of Washington. 
 
 (3.) That there was never a tropical colony yet governed 
 with any tolerable success without a system of contract labor. 
 
 (4.) The trade advantages of the Philippine Islands, if there 
 be any, must be opened alike to all the world, and that our share 
 of them will never begin to pay the cost of sirbjecting them by 
 war or holding them in subjection in peace. 
 
 (5). That the military occupation of these tropical regions 
 must be kept at an immense cost, both to the souls and the 
 bodies of our soldiers. 
 
 (6.) That the declaration as to Cuba by the President and by 
 Congress applies with stronger force to the ease of the Philip- 
 pine Islands. 
 
 (7.) That Aguinaldo and his followers, before we began to 
 make war upon them, had conquered their own territory and 
 independence from Spain, with the exception of a single city, 
 and were getting ready to establish a free constitution. 
 
 (8.^ That while they are fighting for freedom and independ- 
 ence and the doctrines of our fathers, we are fighting for the 
 principle that one people may control and govern another in 
 in spite of its resistance and against its will. 
 
 (9.) That the language and argument of those who object 
 to this war are without change the language and argument of 
 Chatham, of Fox, of Burke, of Barre, of Camden, and of the 
 English and American Whigs; and the language and argument 
 of those who support it are the language and argument of 
 George III., of Lord North, of Mansfield, of Wedderburn, and 
 of Johnson, and of the English and American Tories. 
 
 (10.) No orator or newspaper or preacher, being a supporter 
 of this policy of subjugation, dares repeat in speech or in print 
 any of the great utterances for freedom of Washington, of 
 Jefferson, of John Adams, of Abraham Lincoln, or of Charles 
 Sumner. 
 
 The question the American people are now considering, and 
 with which they are about to deal, is not a question of a day or 
 a year, or of an administration, or of a century. It is to affect 
 and largely determine the whole future of the country. We 
 can recover from a mistake in regard to other matters which 
 have interested or divided the people, however important or 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 serious. Tariffs and currency and revenue laws, even foreign 
 wars, all these, as Thomas Jefferson said, "are billows that 
 will pass under the ship." But if the Republic is to violate the 
 law of its being-, if it is to be converted into an empire, not only 
 the direction of the voyage is to be changed, but the chart and 
 the compass are to be thrown away. We have not as yet taken 
 the irrevocable step. Before it is taken, let the voice of the 
 whole people be heard.— Senator Hoar of Massachusetts. 
 
 Prafcssor Herron spoke (ts follows: 
 
 A few months ago, this nation had the master oppor- 
 tunity of the ages— the opportunity to initiate an altogether 
 new sort of international politics; the opportunity to become 
 a political messiah to the nations of the world. Never in 
 history was a nation falser to its opportunity; never has a 
 nation more shamefully and ignobly failed, and chosen 
 such darkness in the midst of the full shining of so 
 great a light. The best lessons of our history, the wisest 
 teachings and warnings of our fathers, even the common- 
 place traditions of our political platforms, have all been set 
 at naught. Through our government, we stood sacredly 
 pledged to a certain course of action before the nations of 
 the world. Without even sufficient sense of honor to feel 
 the shame of dishonor, that government has distinctly 
 violated every pledge, so that we today stand before the 
 nations as a nation perjured and shameless. 
 
 I cannot take time, here, to discuss preliminary prop- 
 ositions upon the subject of war. I can only say that the 
 subject is being investigated anew by every sympathetic 
 student of the social move'ment. We discover, and that dis- 
 covery cannot be hid, that every historic appeal to force 
 has brought back the tyrant in a new form. The Puritan 
 appeal to force in England brought the final triumph of the 
 English landlord, and the exclusion of the yeomanry, along 
 with the confiscation of Ireland. The French Revolution— 
 the most important event after the coming of Christ — brought 
 Napoleon. The American Revolution, beginning in the most 
 radical self-governing impulses of the people, issuetl iu a 
 
4 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 constitution which was half-avowedly a device to prevent 
 the people from governing themselves, and which is, today, 
 an instrument of tyranny and subversion in the hands of the 
 private corporations which have taken unto themselves the 
 entire government of the .United States — a government of 
 the people for private profit by a vast plutocratic and im- 
 personal tyranny. 
 
 I am opposed to war because the people are, in the 
 end, always enslaved in war. The appeal to force generally 
 results in the establishment of the tyranny of force. 
 
 I might say, furthermore, that I do not believe our war 
 with Spain was necessary. The Cubans could have obtained 
 their own freedom, if it had not been for the European 
 holders of Spanish bonds and their agents in America. If 
 we had recognized Cuban belligei'ancy, and opened oui ports 
 to all alike, the Cubans could have achieved their freedom 
 without the imperialism of American speculators. The war 
 was decided upon purely commercial grounds, so far as 
 official decision went. The commercial interests which 
 sought to prevent the war were finally overcome by the com- 
 mercial interests which sought to bring on the war for pri- 
 vate speculation. 
 
 But the war came on, and the people supposed it to be 
 a war for the liberation of Cuba. The young manhood of 
 the nation was moved by a spirit of chivalrous crusade, and 
 went to the front under the impulse of a deeply generous 
 ardor for liberty. ,The administration gave assurance to the 
 world, in opera bouffe conduct and language, that this was a 
 war for humanity; spectacular rhetoric was employed tP de- 
 clare that fact to the people. Annexation by force was de- 
 nounced as criminal aggression. We stood before the nations 
 solemnly pledged to disinterestedness; we stood covenanted 
 to the world, by pledges and assurances as solemn as any 
 nation ever gave. If we are represented by our govern- 
 ment, we today stand before the nations as a perjured 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 6 
 
 nation. Every pledge made by the official representatives 
 of this people has been broken; not one single thing that we 
 promised has been unqualifiedly fulfilled. 
 
 Do you know how the nations of Europe regard us? As 
 a people whose word cannot be trusted in anything. A few 
 months ago, I returned from a year and a half of travel in 
 Europe. On going among the peoples of different nations, 
 I found American honor to be a scandal and a by-word. I 
 can take you to one little provincial city in Europe, in which 
 whole families have been ruined, in which estates of centur-' 
 ies have been lost, through trusting Ihe "confidence men" 
 who are today the masters of American government and in- 
 dustry. It is true in Germany, and even in France, that an 
 American's word is no longer trusted; and we deserve the 
 shame that has been heaped upon us. 
 
 But now follow the course of this war, and follow it in its 
 development of violated pledges. This development is in itself 
 a revelation of what it means to betray a cause. From the 
 beginning until now, the war has been a continuous scandal 
 and commercial debauchery. We have little conception, and 
 probably the truth will never be known, of the hideous and 
 remorseless greed that has held sway behind the scenes, 
 which every investigating committee seeks to 'keep curtained. 
 The management of the Cuban War was merely a dress re- 
 hearsal of the great and tragic drama of greed that is being 
 played in every industrial center of America. Our sons 
 were not slain upon the field of battle ; no, but slain by the 
 hordes of speculators and politicians having army ' 'pulls"' 
 and contracts — American greed and commercial debauchery 
 ■slaying tens where the Spanish have slain one. 
 
 And*then again: The Cubans are not free. We have 
 driven out Spain, but the Secretary of War is proceeding to 
 divide up Cuba among stock speculators and corporate in- 
 terests. We have driven out medieval tyranny, and Amer- 
 ican exploitation has taken its place. And no one can read 
 
6 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 the newspapers that in any sense represent what is officially 
 going on, without knowing that there is not the slightest in- 
 tention on the part of the administration to set Cuba free. It 
 i3 a foregone conclusion, so far as the existing order of 
 things is concerned, that Cuba shall be annexed, and, if 
 necessary, civil strife induced in order that we may have 
 excuse for annexation. Annexation is the purpose and the 
 craft of the present moment. To keep what we can get and 
 get all we can is the policy of the government. 
 
 Now, it is absolutely certain that this administration 
 never had any policy or principles beyond pleasing its mas- 
 ters. Notwithstanding all the pious political cant of our 
 Chief Executive, notwithtsanding the pronunciamentoes 
 which are all inconsistent with each other, the policy of the 
 administration rises and falls with the interests of private 
 corporations. I do not for one moment doubt that the 
 President is a sincere man — a man who piously thinks that 
 the well-being of this nation consists in the government 
 being administered for private wealth. But the most dan- 
 gerous man in any crisis of the world is the well-meaning 
 man without principles — the weak man in the place of 
 power. The most dangerous man, in auy national situation, 
 is the well-meaning man who becomes characterless putty in 
 the hands of his masters. The administration that toler- 
 ates the monstrous spectacle of the present Secretary of 
 War, that appoints partisan boards to protect him, that ap- 
 points investigating committees to conceal his mismanage- 
 ment and wrong, that appoints investigating committees to 
 sacredly protect Chicago packing houses, that treats 
 them with a reverence that would signify that they are holy 
 places in American civilization, that administers punish- 
 ments of the sort given to General Egan, that looks on these 
 ghastliest scandals only to hide them from the people — that 
 administration cannot escape the stigma of disgrace and 
 shame that the future will put upon it. There will some 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 7 
 
 day come, in this nation, an avalanche of retributive opin- 
 ion that will show forth in all its hideousness the duplicity of 
 the present government. 
 
 I have here in my hand a letter from a prominent Eng. 
 lish lady which I think I will read to you upon this subject. 
 
 She says: 
 
 "Neither the public nor the press here represent the best 
 thought of the people in America or understand the thought 
 of PCngland. Anyone who reflects must see through this in- 
 iquitous war and its consequences. Americanism, instead 
 of being honored in England, is really a stench in the 
 nostrils of every man of decent standing in Europe. A baby 
 could see through the hj^pocrisy of England in seeking to 
 increase American imperialism, when social England never 
 despised America so much at heart as now, because of 
 America's submission to this hypocrisy." 
 
 But it is to the Philippine Ishmds we must turn when 
 the question of Imperialism is raised. What did we find in 
 those islands? A people who had, for a long time, indeed 
 through many generations, struggled for liberty. We found 
 a patriot leader who stands high in the estimation of Europe, 
 leading a people who had almost secured their liberties, 
 and practically had the possession of the island of 
 Luzon, except Manila. The exiled Filipino patriots we in- 
 vited to return. They returned and helped us to conquer 
 the Spaniard. We invited them to renew their struggle up- 
 on the expectation that we would gain for them their 
 
 liberty. 
 
 Tlieir congress met. We have been talking much about 
 their inability to govern themselves ; but in their congress 
 were seventeen graduates of European universities, and men 
 of the highest skill and diplomacy. That congress adopted 
 a provisional government that was far in advance of the 
 provisional government adopted during the revolutionary 
 war in America. They were as politically developed, rela- 
 tively speaking, as our fathers were in their struggles 
 through the revolutionary war. The Filipinos are not sav- 
 
8 THE SOCIAL FORYM. 
 
 ages, on the whole, but a worthy people, simple, truthful, 
 and easily governed ; a people who have shown the begin- 
 nings of a worthy national life. 
 
 Now, what have we done? First of all, we have shame- 
 fully and persistently misrepresented the Filipinos to the 
 people of America, as man after man who has independently 
 gone among them and studied their character has testified. 
 The press reports and the government censors of the news, 
 in every possible way, give the worst and most untruthful 
 impression that can be given to the world. 
 
 Second. After having taken them into our confidence, 
 after having sought .their co-operation in the expectation of 
 their liberty, we outrageously denied their commissioners a 
 hearing at Paris ; we treated their commissioner in America 
 in such a manner that he had practically to flee for his life. 
 The commissioners of the Filipinos have been refused any 
 hearing as to their future.' ^x^e attitude of this government 
 toward the envoys of a people struggling for liberty is as out- 
 rao-eous and infamous, as tyrannical, as treasonable to human 
 life, as anything in modern political history. In other 
 words, we gained the confidence of this people either upon 
 absolutely false pretenses, or else we have been most ignobly 
 false to the confidence we invited. We have utterly, so far 
 as our government relations go, betrayed the people of the 
 Philippine Islands. 
 
 What more? We are killing them now. It is said that 
 we have killed more Filipinos in three months than the 
 Spanish killed in three centuries. Whether that be true or 
 not, it certainly is true that we have been guilty of brutal- 
 ities that will probably not come to light very soon. In the 
 battle of Manila, scores of women, with bows and arrows in^ 
 their hands, were found dead beside their husbands, fathers, 
 brothers and sons. We in America — The America of Jeffer- 
 son and Lincoln — are oflScially rejoicing over a victory gained 
 in part through shooting down women who were seeking for 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 9 
 
 nothing except the chance to be free*. Here is a private who 
 writes: 
 
 " The slaughter was just awful. Dewey was throwing 
 shells into the insurgent camp, killing hundreds at a time. 
 Our boys stood there, ten hours straight shooting before 
 they could move the natives an inch; finally we got them on 
 the run and kept them going. There were regiments whose 
 officers could do nothing with the men; they couldn't stop 
 when 'they got the insurgents on the run ; our men burned 
 and destroyed everything they came across. The Utah bat- 
 tery and the 14th regulars had dead Filipinos piled up so 
 
 high that they used the bodies for breastworks The 
 
 Minnesota men are just crazy to get out on the firing line. . . 
 We have them so scared in the city that they are afraid to 
 come out of their houses. For a time they would brush up 
 against you, but now they get off the walk. We are search- 
 ing most all of them, and when we tell them to stop they 
 at once throw up their hands, for if they make the least 
 move we shoot them dow^ '-';" '^^s. "' The march through 
 the Philippines, the corresponclents of European papers tell 
 us, has been one of merciless devastation; as our armies 
 marched through Luzon Island, they left a wilderness behind 
 them.. A manager and nurse of the Red Cross Society 
 writes as follows: 
 
 "I never saw such an execution in my life, and hope 
 never to see such sights as met me on all sides as our little 
 corps passed over the field, dressing wounded — legs and arms 
 nearly '^ • '' lied, total decapitation, horrible wounds in 
 chesta aJid al)domens, showing the determination of our 
 soldiers to kill every native in sight. The Filipinos did stand 
 their ground heroically, contesting every inch, but proved 
 themselves unable to stand the deadly fire of our well-trained 
 and eager boys in blue. I countedseventy-nine dead natives 
 in one small field and learn that on the other side of the river 
 their bodies were stacked up for breastworks." Well may 
 Senator Hoar say: 
 
 ' ' The blood of the slaughtered Filipinos, the blood and 
 the wasted health and life of our own soldiers are upon the 
 heads of those who have undertaken to buy a people in the 
 market like sheep, or to treat them as lawful prize and booty 
 of war, to impose a government on them without their con- 
 sent, and to trample under foot not only the people of the 
 
10 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 Philippine Islands, but the principles upon which the Amer- 
 ican Republic itself rests." 
 
 But the mere matter of being killed is nothing. There 
 is something immeasurably worse than ten million deaths by 
 murder ; and that is, to have one's liberty destroyed. The Amer- 
 ican Government is remorselessly enlisted in destroying the 
 sacredest thing that can ever be touched upon this earth — 
 the liberty of a people seeking to express themselves in free- 
 dom and self-government. The America of Lincoln and 
 Jefferson, of Phillips and Garrison, moved by gigantic com- 
 mercial interests, is striking at the heart of a people who are 
 in the first dawn of national liberty. 
 
 We have raised the question of self-government. We say 
 the Filipinos are incapable of self-government, and that we 
 are ordained to establish government for them and over them. 
 Let us think of that in several lights. Here is a statement 
 of the Rev. Herbert Bigelojv, of Cincinnati, which emphasizes 
 what I want to say further on: 
 
 ' <Our right to control the Filipinos is no better than Spain's 
 right, unless might makes right. If Spain committed a 
 crime in shooting Rizal, then, before God, we are criminals. 
 The fact that we believe ourselves able to govern the islands 
 better than Spain, or better than the people themselves, does 
 not change the moral status of the question a hair's breadth. 
 If the conqueror is justified in conquering because he has 
 implicit faith in himself, then there never was an unrighteous 
 war. If national conceit, backed up by superior force, is 
 sufficient justification for a war of conquest, then there is no 
 such thing as right in this world and no safety whatever for 
 any man's liberty who has not the power to defend it by 
 brute strength. If our right to shoot down Filipinos is to 
 be sustained by the necessities of trade and our own good 
 opinion of ourselves, then our patriotism is only a maudlin 
 sentiment and our Christian professions are a shameless 
 mockery." And there is something more I want to read to 
 you, from Professor James of Harvard: 
 
 ' 'We are now openly engaged in crushing out the sacredest 
 thing in this great human world — the attempt of a people 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 11 
 
 long enslaved to attain to the possession of itself, to organ- 
 ize lis laws and government, to be free to follow its internal 
 destinies according to its own ideals. War, said Moltke, 
 aims at destruction, and at nothing else. And splendidly 
 are we carrying out war's ideals. We are destroying the 
 lives of these islanders by the thousand, their villages and 
 their cities ; for surely it is we who are solely responsible for 
 all the incidental burnings that our operations entail. But 
 these destructions are the smallest part of our sins. We are 
 destroying down to the root every germ of a healthy national 
 life in these unfortunate people, and we are surely helping 
 to destroy, for one generation at least, their faith in God and 
 man. No life shall you have, we say, except as a gift from 
 our philanthropy after your unconditional submission to our 
 
 will." 
 
 ******* 
 
 "The issue is perfectly plain at last. We are cold- 
 bloodedly, wantonly and abominably destroying the soul of a 
 people who never did us an atom of harm in their lives. It 
 is bald, brutal piracy, impossible to dish up any longer in 
 the cold pot-grease of President McKinley's cant at the 
 recent Boston banquet — siyely as shamefully evasive a 
 speech, considering the right of the public to know definite 
 facts, as can often have fallen even from a professional 
 politician's lips. The worst of our imperialists is that 
 they do not themselves know where sincerity ends and in- 
 sincerity begins. Their state of consciousness is so new, so 
 mixed of primitively human passions and, in political circles, 
 of calculations that are anything but primitively human; so 
 at variance, moreover, with their former mental habits; and 
 so empty of definite data and contents ; that they face vari- 
 ous ways at once, and their portrait-* should be taken with 
 a squint. One reads the president's speech with a strange 
 feeling as if the very words were squinting on the page." 
 
 But when we are talking about the ability of those people 
 to govern themselves, when we are saying that they are not 
 of[ual to the pure institutions of which our vulgar official proc- 
 lamations speak, why not turn to other countries? There 
 is Turkey. Now, Turkey is nothing like as capable of self- 
 government as the Filipinos : why not set up the beneficent 
 authority of our government in Turkey? It is claimed by 
 
12 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 some that France is not capable of self-government: why 
 not set up our government in France? It is declared that 
 Russia is incapable of self-government: let us send our 
 armies and fleets to set up the blessings of our self-govern- 
 ment in Russia. 
 
 But, let me ask you, have we proved ourselves capable 
 of self-government? Is the thing you have in America today 
 self-government? Is this order of things, by which every 
 sacred national trust, liy which the whole institution of gov- 
 ernment has passed into the hands of private corporations — 
 is this self-government? 
 
 And, mark you, the very ones who are saying the Fil- 
 ipinos are not capable of self-government are the ones who 
 are today saying, in pulpit and press and upon public 
 occasions, that you are not capable of self-government. And 
 if the corporate interests have their way, and deny self-gov- 
 ernment to the people of the Pearl of the Seas and in Cuba; 
 if you follow blindly in that ruthless slaughter of liberty 
 at its birth, then your turn will come. And, furthermore, 
 this is the premeditated, deliberate purpose. The masters 
 who, in the interests of their markets, are destroying the 
 children of liberty across the seas, are the masters who are 
 taking away self-government from you ; the masters who are 
 taking possession of your press, pulpit and parties, and who 
 are declaring openly that the idea of self-government and 
 universal suffrage is an impracticable dream after all. And 
 if the spirit of our fathers, if our inheritance from the past, 
 is st> asleep in us that we submit to this crime of the centur- 
 ies, we deserve to lose what liberty remains. 
 
 And what of the ghastly talk that has gone up from the 
 pulpit of this country— God forgive us!— about necessary 
 expansion in order to carry to island peoples the gospel of 
 Christ! Here is an extract from an address by the Rev. Dr. 
 John P. Brushingham, given at a meeting of clergymen in 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 13 
 
 this city, which is a mild specimen of the blood-thirsty war 
 teaching of the pulpit: 
 
 "When Captain Gridley of the good ship Olympia fired 
 that first gun at Cavite by permission and order of the great 
 Admiral, May 1, 1898, it was heard around the world and be- 
 came both a revelation and a prophecy. When the brave 
 Dewey had destroyed the Spanish fleet there was placed upon 
 the shoulders of our American commonwealth a new burden 
 of responsibility, and there was opened up before it a wide 
 door of opportunity to give the blessings of a modern form 
 of government and Anglo-Saxon civilization to islands 
 hitherto considered to be at the ends of the earth. I hear 
 in the distant echo of Dewey's guns a prophecy that, under 
 Grod and baptized by the Divine Spirit, we are equal to the 
 responsibility of this great pro^^dential opening. " Here is 
 another — and we are getting our ideas about the gospel 
 strangely illustrated in these days. Dr. Wayland Hoyt 
 of Philadelphia says: 
 
 "Christ is the solution for the diflSculty regarding na- 
 tional expansion. There never was a more manifest provi- 
 dence than the waving of Old Glory over the Philippines. 
 The only thing we can do is to thrash the natives until they 
 understand who we are. I believe every bullet sent, every 
 cannon shot, every flag waved, means righteousness. When 
 we have conquered anarchy, then is the time to send the 
 Christ there." 
 
 Now, men, if anything could ten thousand times over 
 justify the criticism I have made upon the attitude of the 
 pulpit toward modern problems, nothing could do it so well 
 as the hideous and blood-thirsty things that have been said 
 in American Protestant pulpits during the past year. It is 
 enough to make a man turn in shame from entering a 
 Protestant church threshold. Behold the Protestant pulpit 
 — and if any of you here are Protestant clergymen, God help 
 you to lay the spectacle to your heart! — behold the Pro- 
 testant pulpit advocating the carrying of what it calls the 
 gospel of the Sermon on the Mount, carrying the love of the 
 slain Christ from whose side poured the sacrificial blood that 
 redeem, the world, at the point of brutal and remorse- 
 less massacre! What a strange revelation of the gos- 
 
14 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 pel as it is understood by the church! Pray, where can we 
 turn to find the gospel more brutally misunderstood than in 
 the pulpit — the pulpit that proposes to send "the blessings 
 of our Christianity and of our civilization" to the peoples 
 across the seas? 
 
 Shall we send to them the blessed condition of the thou- 
 sands who spend their lives in mines for two hundred dol- 
 lars a year? Shall we send to them the blessings of the men 
 and women who toil in the 900 sweat-shops of this city of 
 Chicago? Shall we send to them the blessings of a civiliza- 
 tion which enables private corporations to openly and inso- 
 lently govern seventy millions of people for private profit? 
 May God deliver the islanders of the sea from our civiliza- 
 tion! And it ought to be the day and night prayer of 
 everyone who bears the name of the lowly Christ — the 
 Christ who put into this world the ideas and ideals that have 
 been the foe and the destruction of every tyrann}^ — that the 
 islands of the sea shall be delivered from the -hideous devil- 
 worship which these pulpits preach as Christianity. 
 
 There was no need of this confiict, even after we had 
 taken possession of the Philippines. If we had been decent 
 with the envoys of this people, if we had given them some 
 satisfactory word, if we had even told them what we in- 
 tended to do, the conflict would have been avoided. But 
 the conflict came because the administration of this nation 
 is the bureau of plutocratic interests, and dared not show its 
 hand to the public. There is one sole purpose behind im- 
 perialism and expansion, and that sole purpose is commer- 
 cial speculation. Having destroyed the purchasing power 
 of the people here in America — the power of the ^,^..ple to 
 buy what they produce — the large corporations now seek 
 markets abroad; they seek contract-slavery; they seek an 
 inferior labor market; th^ seek not only to take possession 
 of wcakrr nations for markets, but to establish an order of 
 things wiiif h sh:ul send the sons of this nation, at the peo- 
 ple's expense, to ^ otect them in their exploitation. 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 15 
 
 No friend of labor or of liberty will for one moment do 
 anything but protest against American Imperialism. Im- 
 perialism is but a part of the modern industrial problem. 
 Do not be deceived by it; for it is the corporate or pluto- 
 cratic program by which, if you consent to the enslavement 
 of the Filipinos, you will fasten the yoke of economic servi- 
 tude upon yourselves. Senator Hoar was right when he said 
 it meant the death knell of the Kepublic. All imperialisms, 
 from the dawn of oriental despotisms down through the 
 days when England began to reap fortunes and destroy 
 countless millions of lives in India, have rested upon greed. 
 Caesar was the chief of police of Roman corporate greed. 
 India is today sucked dry of its life by English commer- 
 cial greed. All tyranny rests upon greed. American Im- 
 perialism is merely the carrying out of the program of greed 
 by which the holders of stocks and bonds purpose to indus- 
 trially subject the world — the bond-holders and stockhold- 
 ers who are today the emperors of the emperors and their 
 empires. 
 
 We had, I said, a matchless opportunity. "What might 
 we have done if we had been honorable, if we had, even 
 after having gone into this war, liberated the peoples of the 
 islands and said to them: "Now you are free; we will help 
 you; we will give you self-government; work out j^our own 
 problems ; fulfill your own life ; we will keep the nations of 
 the world from 5'ou; but you are free?" We could 
 have been the father of new nations — nations born to liberty 
 and hope. But we have followed, to the shame of our chil- 
 dren, a course of national infamy. There is but one atone- 
 ment xui our infamy, and that is to quit our present course, 
 to retreat from this wickedness. Let there be such a 
 public demand that for once, at least, the people shall be 
 heard, even by the brutal master of our President — the 
 master who ought to be wearing the convict's stripes, but 
 whose money bought senatorial robes instead. To retreat 
 
 '4i' . * 
 
16 ' TliE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 would take infinitely greater courage than to persist in 
 wrong. But, for all times to come, such a retreat would 
 set a lesson in national moral magnificence. 
 
 But you say that "we must be patriotic. " I want to say 
 a word about that. Do you know that what you call patriot- 
 ism is mostly the platform of basest treason? I The patriot- 
 ism that today supports this government in shooting down 
 men and women struggling for liberty is the patriotism that 
 spoke in Caiaphas and the Sanhedrim, and that nailed Jesus 
 to the cross. The patriotism that today supports this gov- 
 ernment in killing men and women struggling for liberty, is 
 the patriotism that supported King Charles in England. The 
 patriotism that supports this government in the massacre of 
 a people and their libierty, is the patriotism that made Wash- 
 ington a rebel. The patriotism that supports this govern- 
 ment in its course of perjury and treason 1o peoples across 
 the seas, is the patriotism that dragged William Lloyd Gar- 
 rison through the streets of Boston with a rope around his 
 neck. Every great public treason masquerades under the 
 hypocricy of patriotism. Every existing wrong order seeks 
 to brand with treason the lovers of liberty. In all ages, 
 patriotism so-called has been the last refuge of usurped and 
 special privileges. 
 
 Gentlemen,^ some of us see your game. The men who 
 always cry, "treason," at every free expression of opinion, 
 are themselves the traitors who are destroying the nation for 
 private profit. The men who today cry, "anarchy," are the 
 corporate anarchists that have overthrown the liberties of 
 the nation. The men who, in all history, cry for law and 
 order are the tyrants who massacre human life and defy 
 every law of God and man. Cit is the traitor — and 3'ou can 
 brand him at once as a traitor — who dares, in this nation, to 
 say that a man is a traitor because he expresses a protest 
 against public wrong. 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 17 
 
 4 
 
 I yield to no man in love of my country. But I love 
 my country, my fellow-citizens, to*much to be silent while 
 step by step, stealth by stealth, fraudulent effort by fraud- 
 ulent effort, the liberties of the people are being stolen away J 
 while the life and hope and self-government of the people 
 are being ground in the industrial mill; while the peoples of 
 the islands of the seas are betrayed and massacred in order 
 that you may be still further betrayed and economically 
 massacred. I . love my country and my fellow-citizens too 
 much to be silent and complacent about the monstrous 
 wrongs that are destroying human life the world over. I 
 could be untrue to you in no other way so much as by being 
 silent concerning these wrongs. It would be better for you, 
 it would be better for me, to give ten thousand lives rather 
 than to be silent about the awful wrongs that are culminat- 
 ing in the destiojction of the nation, if they are not remedied. 
 It is time that we have done — and we will have done! — with 
 this flagrant and arrogant hypocrisy that cries, "patriotism," 
 whenever its tyranny and debauchery are attacked. 
 
 Surely, there must be left in this nation, in the great 
 common heart and life of this people, enough of the spirit 
 of the Pilgrims, who crossed the seas in order tliat they might 
 be free to live their own lives ; enough of the spirit of the 
 Huguenots, who laid down their lives rather than live under 
 lies ; enough of the spirit of the New England fathers, who 
 gathered in those mass meetings which Mr. Leckey calls 
 "riots and mobs;" enough of the spirit of Jefferson and 
 Phillips and Garrison and Sumner and Lincoln ; enough of 
 our inheritance of liberty, of moral honesty, of spiritual re- 
 serve, to declare to our government that this massacre of 
 men and women struggling for liberty shall come to an end. 
 For you and me to consent to it is to betray our fathers, 
 betray the Christ who died to set all peoples free, and 
 betray every man who has risen up to speak the word of 
 freedom to his people. There must be in this great city by 
 
18 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 the inland sea enough of God and manhood, enough of dis- 
 interestedness, to arise in mighty moral revolt and command 
 our rulers to say to the Filipinos: "You are free; we are 
 your friends; we are not your enemies; you are not rebels; 
 our people shall not exploit you; go in peace; take our 
 blessing as a nation ; take our protection ; forgive our shame 
 and treason ; and suffer us to wipe out our shame in serv- 
 ice for liberty's sake." 
 
 ' ' I believe the things that Christian Socialism stands for, 
 and, were I not ' teetotally' occupied, would go into the 
 movement heart and soul, as indeed I have done in public 
 utterances for many years. 0, that I were young again, 
 and it should have my life! It is God's way out of the 
 wilderness and into the Promised Land. It is the very mar- 
 row and fatness of Christ's Gospel. It is Christanity 
 applied. " Frances,^,_Willard. 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 19 
 
 FOREWORD. 
 
 To those who are immersed in the growing move- 
 ment for the regeneration of social and national ideals 
 upon the foundation of mutuality and brotherhood it will 
 not be necessary to apologize for "The Social Forum." 
 To all such it is well known that, except in a desultory 
 and fragmentary way, the ordinary channels of publicity 
 are closed to the message of the men who are doing the 
 most for the newer and better social day. 
 
 In the first place, therefore, it is proposed to give in 
 each number of "The Social Forum" an extended article 
 upon some subject of present interest, the first of these 
 (which will be found in this number) being the Central 
 Music Hall Lecture of Professor George D. Herron, of 
 Iowa College, upon the subject of "American Imperial- 
 ism." The next issue will contain another lecture 
 by the same eminent thinker, upon the topic of "Man 
 the Creator." The leading feature in each succeed- 
 ing number will, in like manner, be from some mas- 
 ter hand upon some topic of vital and present day in- 
 terest. 
 
 The general contents of "The Social Forum" will 
 include news, notes and comments upon current events 
 as they affect social or national life; reviews and notices 
 of books, old and new, bearing upon social, political and 
 rehgious questions; and articles touching upon local, 
 national and world-wide movements as they aid or retard 
 the social culmination which is the ideal of every altru- 
 istic soul— that day of universal brotherhood which some 
 look forward to as the Social Commonwealth, some as 
 the Millennium, and others as the Kingdom of God. 
 
 The discussions of "The Social Forum" will be broad 
 
20 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 enough to cover all the larger questions of political, mu- 
 nicipal and industrial concern. The editorial point of 
 view which will be assumed will necessarily be radical, 
 because based upon a conviction that the fundamental 
 principles of the present political, ecclesiastical, industrial 
 and social order are commercialism, greed and selfish- 
 ness, and that these have their fruition in every kind of 
 pohtical, social and individual wrong and injustice. 
 
 The discussions therefore will be directed against ex- 
 isting conditions and systems rather than against the 
 individuals who represent them, and in favor of radical 
 rather than mere surface reforms. They will stand for 
 a real republic and real democracy in which the people 
 shall rule; for a real commonwealth in which the things 
 which make wealth shall be common to all; for a real 
 Christianity in which the Golden Rule of mutual and 
 loving service shall be the guiding principle, a Christian- 
 ity ungyved by man-made formulas or denominational 
 conventions. 
 
 Wjiile The Social Forum will strive to be a faithful 
 fighter against the wrongs and iniquities of the existing 
 order, it will not lack for optimistic incitements to better 
 initiatives and higher ideals, believing that the leaven of 
 a new time and a regenerated world is so actively at work 
 that the day of redemption can not be far ofT. 
 
 The Social Forum comes practically unheralded and 
 in humble guise. Whether it shall grow and prosper is 
 a matter which its readers must decide for it. As Lincoln 
 said about another matter: 'Tf they like this sort of thing 
 it is the very sort of thing they will like." 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 31 
 
 EDITORIAL. 
 
 However obnoxious the present administration may- 
 be to the mind and conscience of reformers, it is at least 
 useful in the same way that the temperance lecturer util- 
 ized a besotted companion whom he carried around the 
 country with him as a "horrid example." For instance, 
 those who believe that the responsible heads of depart- 
 ments should be elected by the people and be subject to 
 recall by them, can point with confidence to Alger. What 
 would not the people do with him, if they could only get 
 at him by means of the ballot? 
 
 * * * 
 
 There are others, not only in the National muster-roll 
 of tax-eating incompetents or worse, but also scattered 
 around among the pay-roll worthies of the several states. 
 There's Tanner, of Illinois, for instance. I have really 
 become afraid to speak his name to Republicans in the 
 northern part of the state, because I find -the mere men- 
 tion provocative of profanity of the most appalling lu- 
 ridity. 
 
 * * =!= 
 
 Not only are the forces of reform being furnished 
 with arguments by the political powers that be, but they 
 are being even more strongly armed by the acts of the 
 real masters — the industrial and commercial lords who 
 own practically all the politicians, large and small, from 
 the White House to the smallest municipal office. The 
 poor service, the extortions and the insolence of the men 
 who control the street railways, their^ grasping efiforts 
 to secure a perpetuity of tenure for their franchises, tlic 
 corrupting of officials, the defiance of law and disregard 
 of authority which they display, are all adding to the 
 force of the argument for municipal ownership. 
 
23 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 The Utter lawlessness of street railway corporations 
 has been strongly displayed in Chicago, where, in spite 
 of an ordinance requiring the companies to place fenders 
 on the cars, they have made little efifort to comply with it 
 and still go on maiming and murdering people because 
 of the parsimony which causes them to neglect these safe- 
 guards. 
 
 * * * 
 
 It is still more strongly shown in the developments 
 in the courts, where the fact that juries are habitually 
 bribed to find for the companies in damage suits has been 
 made apparent. By the spiriting^ away of the corrupt 
 bailiff who was the go-between in the bribery processes 
 by which the traction companies benefited, the criminals 
 have escaped legal conviction, but quite enough has been 
 shown to make certain the fact that these nefarious cor- 
 porations are habitually engaged in poisoning the springs 
 
 of justice at the fountain head. 
 
 * * * 
 
 As a matter of fact, the various transportation and in- 
 dustrial combines and monopolies live and move and 
 have their being as a result of their power to influence or 
 corrupt officials and break the law. Formerly, when a 
 company was formed to make any article it was usual 
 to choose for the head of the concern either a man who 
 knew the practical details of the business from end to 
 end, or else a man who had special ability in the finan- 
 cial management of large enterprises. But in these days 
 we have changed all that. The men who are now chosen, 
 at salaries equalling or exceeding that paid the President 
 of the United States, to be at the head of the new style 
 of combine, are lawyers who, as the faithful servitors of 
 corporations, have shown their ability to override the 
 law, or to "persuade" legislators to change it. 
 
 During several years past the fact that laws have no 
 binding force against trusts and monopolies has over and 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 23 
 
 over again been demonstrated. There are laws in plenty 
 to be enforced against the poor, the friendless and the 
 moneyless man. Even the Federal law against trust ; 
 (which has over and over again been declared to be i.i- 
 operative against those whom it was ostensibly passed 
 to restrain) was found strong enough and valid enough 
 to send Debs to jail by the injunction route. But neither 
 that nor any other enactment, State or Federal, is potent 
 enough to prevent the Standard Oil Company from burn- 
 ing its books and refusing to testify, or to compel the 
 sugar trust magnates to answer the questions of a Senate 
 investigating committee. Anti-blacklist laws against 
 railway companies, anti-canteen law^s to keep the rum- 
 power from wrecking the bodies and souls of the young 
 lads who have gone to the front to fight the country's 
 battles, anti-truck-store laws for the protection of min- 
 ers — in fact all laws whatever that are passed to curb the 
 rapacity or soulless inhumanity of the lords of industry — 
 are ground to impalpable powder when they come be- 
 tween the upper and nether millstones of a corporation 
 judge on the bench and a corporation lawyer at the bar. 
 
 * * * 
 
 There are many people who have the spirit of reform 
 in their hearts, but are yet in the darkness of total blind- 
 ness as to the remedy. They see laws knocked over like 
 a child's house of cards, and yet they clamor for more 
 laws ; just as the child, whose card-house .is overturned 
 by a breath, will rebuild the structure upon a new plan 
 more top-heavy and unstable than before. 
 
 * * * 
 
 What is wanted is power for the people to make their 
 own laws; to enact by operation of the initiative and 
 referendum such laws as they desire, and to make all 
 such laws final and irrevocable except by a like exercise 
 of the sovereign will — putting it beyond the power of any 
 
24 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 corporation hireling who may happen to be on the bench 
 to abrogate any enactment which bears the fiat of the 
 people's direct mandate. 
 
 As the people would thus have direct control over 
 their laws, so also they should have immediate supervis- 
 • ion over all officers, executive, legislative and judicial. 
 These officers could be elected without any definite ten- 
 ure, so that the people could leave a faithful agent at his 
 post as long as they desired to have him, without the 
 turmoil of constantty recurring electoral struggles. On 
 the other hand, the electorate should have the right to 
 recall any president, governor, judge, sheriff, constable, 
 legislator, senator or other officer whom they judged to 
 be corrupt, incompetent or unrepresentative. Then the 
 power would be in the people's hands and the true theory 
 of democratic government "of the people, by the people 
 and for the people" would be in operation for the first 
 time in this country. 
 
 >H * >l« 
 
 A New York paper publishes interviews with promi- 
 nent politicians on the subject of trusts. Senator Depew 
 declared that the Republican party would put into its 
 next platform a plank declaring against all trusts. Mean- 
 while the present Republican administration (like the last 
 Democratic one) has been busily engaged in fostering 
 trusts by declaring that the law can not touch them. 
 * * * 
 
 As a matter of fact the trust is a part of the inevitable 
 evolution of industry. The competitive system has 
 proved a failure and must give way to a collective system. 
 The fault of the trust is that it is an attempt to escape 
 the evils of competition and secure the advantages of 
 consolidation for the benefit of a few individuals. Soon 
 the trusts will begin to consolidate with each other until 
 there are only two or three of them. When they get to 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 25 
 
 that pitch of completeness the people will doubtless re- 
 sume their own, and take the trusts over as the common 
 property of the nation. 
 
 The academic relations of the Oil Trust are widening, 
 and one of the tentacles of the octopus (Archbold by 
 name) has secured a firm clutch on Syracuse University. 
 As a result Professor John Rogers Commons, professor 
 of sociology, who had been guilty of lese majeste in 
 daring to raise his voice against trusts in general, and 
 the oil trust in particular, was dismissed from the faculty 
 at the request of Alagnate Archbold, made through a 
 complaisant and subservient chancellor. Thus the "di- 
 vine right" of the "business interests" to academic as well 
 as economic mastery in this country has been again vin- 
 dicated. Incidentally, Syracuse University has lost the 
 ablest member of its faculty. In the old days they stoned 
 the prophets. Now they throttle them. 
 
 I said that Professor Commons was "dismissed," but 
 the phrase needs a glossarial explanation. The usual 
 procedure is to ask for the '"resignation" of the black- 
 listed offender. But in the present case the trustees re- 
 ported that they did not have sufficient funds to continue 
 the chair of sociology. Which was a neat, if cowardly, 
 way of doing the job. 
 
 * * * 
 
 From many directions rumblings are heard along the 
 line of the academic horizon, and there are forecasters 
 who predict further thunderbolts from the financial 
 Joves who control various collegiate institutions. They 
 are not all Standard Oil universities and colleges at 
 which the misguided educators have arrayed themselves, 
 Ajax-Hke, against the capitalistic lightning. Other mo- 
 nopoly interests have learned the Standard-Oil trick, and 
 as there are few collegiate institutions where corporation 
 
26 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 influence is not potent, it behooves professors of econom- 
 ics, sociology and the Hke to learn to pipe monopoly's 
 tune, or prepare for the worst. 
 
 The late Roswell Pettibone Flower was the sturdiest 
 of all defenders of the trusts — indeed, the only man who 
 painted them in tints entirely roseate. These modern 
 combinations do not lack defenders, but the ablest of 
 them are apologetic m tone, admitting defects, but de- 
 claring the trusts a necessity of progress. Not so Flower, 
 who deemed the trusts good things in and for them- 
 selves. His "advice to young men" was unique. "Quit 
 throwing stones at the trusts," he said, "and get into 
 'em." Which reminds me of the remark attributed to an 
 English noblewoman who had just had read to her a par- 
 agraph about a family dying of starvation. "Foolish peo- 
 ple!" exclaimed her ladyship, "why, I would sooner eat 
 bread and cheese than starve!" 
 * * * 
 
 The Kingdom, that faithful tribune of righteousness, 
 has been compelled to cease publication. It had pub- 
 lished an expose of the methods by which the School- 
 Book Trust is debauching and corrupting common 
 school administrations throughout the country. The trust 
 sued for damages, charging libel. The Kingdom proved 
 the truth of its charges in six out of seven of the specific 
 instances of corruption it had charged against the trust. 
 Because of the absence of a witness it was unable to spe- 
 cifically prove the seventh at that time; nor did the trust 
 prove that it had been libeled by that charge. The judge, 
 with a degree of friendliness not uncommon in the amen- 
 ities between the bench and the trusts, ordered a verdict 
 to be rendered against The Kingdom. The judgment 
 was for $7,500, and under it a voice, which had been 
 strong and steadfast in its advocacy of social righteous- 
 ness, was stilled at the behest of one of the most shame- 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 27 
 
 less and unscrupulous of our numerous monopolistic 
 
 conspiracies. 
 
 * * * 
 
 It is easy to stifle a voice, but in God's providence it 
 is not possible to destroy a message, if that message be a 
 true one. The destruction of The Kingdom is a loss to 
 the cause it so well represented, but the principles for 
 which The Kingdom stood are eternal and will find no 
 lack of devoted men to advocate them, to suflfer for them 
 and, if need be, to die for them and the Master whose 
 they are, until they have their fruition in the full-come 
 Kingdom of God. 
 
 >|: * * 
 
 It is the aim of The Social Forum to stand for all that 
 The Kingdom stood for. The methods of stating and 
 handling the questions discussed may not be the same 
 as those of the older publication; but now that The King- 
 dom is no more, its friends may find its message contin- 
 ued in this publication, although the voice in which it is 
 delivered may at first seem to be an unfamiliar one. 
 * * * 
 
 The voice will at least be a bold and honest one, speak- 
 ing truth as it conceives the truth to be; respectful to 
 every opinion that looks forward to a betterment of hu- 
 manity and tolerant of every programme which tries to 
 point the way to the reign of brotherhood and the day- 
 break of social regeneration, whether it be that of the 
 single-taxer, the constructive socialist, the advocate of 
 equal suffrage, or the man who sees all of these and 
 other reforms as a necessary part of applied Christianity. 
 
 The preponderance of the question of imperialism in 
 the present number of The Social Forum" naturally arises 
 from the way in which that question is at this moment 
 forced upon the attention of every man who thinks. But 
 
28 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 those who follow our course will find us equally in earnest 
 in connection with other reforms, including the stepping- 
 stone of the initiative and referendum, the public owner- 
 ship and operation of all public utilities, direct election 
 of all pubhc officers, with power to recall them, and all 
 other reforms as they may come within reach, which shall 
 tend to realize the ideal of a perfect brotherhood among 
 
 men. 
 
 ^ ^ ^ 
 
 The Rev. DeLoss M. Tompkins, D. D., in an address 
 to the Methodist ministers of Chicago May 8, truly said 
 that no nation was less prepared to undertake the gov- 
 ernment of colonies than our own. He might have gone 
 farther and said that it is impossible for this country to 
 rob another of its liberties and retain its own. For with 
 what measure we mete, even so it shall be meted to us. 
 That is sound gospel, and it is the undeviatingly true 
 lesson of all history. The relation between sov\'ing and 
 reaping is apparent upon every historical page. Sow ag- 
 gression, reap militarism; sow militarism, reap imperial- 
 ism; sow imperialism, reap serfdom for the masses of 
 
 the people. 
 
 * * * 
 
 The careful observer will note that few representative 
 working-men have been found to take the side of im- 
 perialism in the present agitation. Which shov/s their 
 good sense. It would be but a short time after the sub- 
 jugation of the Philippines before the cheap labor of the 
 islands, with its Asiatic standard of living, would be im- 
 ported by the corporations to do their work at less than 
 half the present wage-scale. It has been found meas- 
 urably possible to prevent the importation of Chinese 
 laborers by exclusion acts — but such acts could not, of 
 course, be enforced against the people of a territory of 
 the United States, such as it is proposed to make of the 
 Philippines, and the 10,000,000 inhabitants of those is- 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. - 29 
 
 lands would be a perfect reservoir of cheap labor for the 
 industrial lords to draw upon. 
 
 ^ * ^ 
 We hear of a good many ministers who are voicing 
 approval of the American war of aggression in the Phil- 
 ippines, but so far I have not noted that any pf them 
 has found any authority for their position in the sayings 
 of the Savior of men, whose followers they profess to be. 
 When I hear of the daily murder of men, women and 
 children for no other reason than that they aspire to 
 freedom I am often impressed with that most momentous 
 of all of the sayings of Jesus: "Inasmuch as ye have done 
 it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, ye have 
 
 done it unto Me." 
 
 * * * 
 
 The claim that the Filipinos are not fit for and do npt 
 want self-government, that Aguinaldo does not represent 
 them, and that they need to be under strong control, 
 has a familiar sound. It used to be claimed that the 
 negro did not want freedom, indeed it would be cruelty 
 to them as well as dangerous to the public peace to set 
 them free. The present contention about the Filipinos 
 is the same old argument adapted to modern conditions. 
 
 * ^: * 
 
 I have read the speeches of the "LoyaUst" meeting at 
 the Chicago Auditorium, I have read scores of editorials 
 in secular and "religious" papers, I have read the delight- 
 ful symposium of opinions of the editors composing the 
 Society for the Suppression of News— yclept The As- 
 sociated Press— published in the Chicago Times-Herald 
 of May 17, but I have found no argument in favor of the 
 present policy of aggression in the Philippines except the 
 robber argument that (as one of the aforesaid editors 
 brutally but frankly expressed it) "it is the duty of the 
 United States to keep all it has and get all it can." Some 
 of the advocates of "expansion" or imperialism disguise 
 
30 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 their arguments with flowery verbiage, but they all 
 amount to the same thing. Burglars, or hyenas, or hogs 
 could subscribe to the ethics of the imperialistic argu- 
 ment, which, plainly stated, is, that might makes right. 
 
 THE CASE OF ATKINSON. 
 
 The imperialistic tendencies of the times are being 
 each day emphasized by a more flagrant and open avowal 
 of the purpose of this administration to sweep away every 
 barrier in the way to a complete and unmitigated despot- 
 ism. 
 
 We have boasted of our free press, and while it has 
 been known that the utterances of the daily papers, the 
 magazines and other media of information have been 
 purchased or throttled by the cajoleries or threats of 
 dominant and rampant commercialism, it was at least 
 thought that any person who had an opinion on any po- 
 litical, religious or social subject could, if he chose, turn 
 pamphleteer and give his thoughts such circulation as his 
 means to pay for printing and postage could procure. 
 
 But even this refuge is no longer left to the dis- 
 gruntled. The administration has assumed the role of 
 censor not only in the military camps of the Philippines, 
 but even in the literary and liberty-loving city of Boston, 
 under the shadow of Bunker Hill, and in the neighbor- 
 hood of that harbor where the patriots (or anti-loyalists) 
 of that city, with eleutheromaniac ardor, sent the obnox- 
 ious tea to steep in the adjacent waters. 
 
 Edward Atkinson, who long since became known as 
 a pamphleteer of copious fecundity, ventured to give an 
 opinion of the Philippine invasion which did not accord 
 with that of McKinley, or Alger, or PTanna, or some oth- 
 er of the present political bosses, and to put that opinion 
 into print. Thereupon the bosses aforesaid decided to 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 31 
 
 refuse to Mr. Atkinson the use of the mails for the cir- 
 culation of his pamphlets. 
 
 The excuse made is that the pamphlets were "treason- 
 able." If that were true, it was the unquestioned duty 
 of the administration to have Mr. Atkinson arrested and 
 tried for so grave a charge. But the government knew 
 no such a charge could be sustained, and the refusal of 
 the mails to Mr. Atkinson is a bold assumption of the 
 right of the bosses to use the mails to suppress criticism 
 upon their blunders, crimes and misdeeds. The prece- 
 dent will be further used, and it will take but a short time, 
 unless the people make their disapproval of such tyranny 
 emphatic, before differences of opinion upon other polit- 
 ical questions — the currency, for instance, or the tariff, 
 will be made excuse for refusing the mails — for it is as 
 easy to characterize these as treason as it is any other 
 opinions — if we once admit the theory that the ipse dixit 
 of the administration is all that is required to decide what 
 is or is not treasonable. 
 
 "GOLDEN RULE JONES." 
 
 The re-election of Samuel M. Jones as mayor of To- 
 ledo is very significant. Mr. Jones has made himself 
 famous as the "Golden-Rule Mayor," and as the cham- 
 pion of the people against predatory corporations. Of 
 course this made him distasteful to the Republican ma- 
 chine, for Mr. Jones had been elected as a RepubUcan, 
 and the politicians found little personal profit in that kind 
 of a mayor. Therefore they refused him another term 
 and nominated a candidate who suited them better. The 
 Democrats and Prohibitionists also put up candidates. 
 Mr. Jones was brought out as an independent candidate, 
 running on his record and a platform of municipal own- 
 ership and the Golden Rule. The press fulminated and 
 
32 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 the pulpit thundered against a man and a programme so 
 revolutionary, and the "better classes," so-called, joined 
 the assault. But, as was tlie case with the Author of the 
 Golden Rule, "the common people heard him gladly" — 
 the result being that Jones received many more votes 
 than all of the other three candidates put together. 
 
 The after-results are plaguing the politicians greatly. 
 Many admirers of Mr. Jones are thinking of making him 
 a candidate for governor, and there was some talk of se- 
 curing for him the Republican nomination. But Senator 
 Hanna, who holds the Republican party of Ohio in the 
 hollow of his hand, hastened to veto any such revolu- 
 tionary proposition, stating that no man of Mr. Jones' 
 principles could get a State nomination. 
 
 The saying was reported to Jones. "Well," said he, 
 "that settles it, for I can not change my principles. Here 
 I am, and here I stick." So that if it is to be Governor 
 Jones instead of Mayor Jones it will have to be in an in- 
 dependent campaign again, under the Golden Rule ban- 
 ner. There are those who say that Jones could win in 
 this larger arena. Speed the day! 
 
 The cheering feature is the ease with which Mr. Jones 
 won. It shows that there is a love of righteousness 
 abroad amongthe common people and that one in whom 
 they have confidence needs no more specific platform 
 than .the Golden Rule. 
 
 Blessings on Jones! May his tribe increase! 
 
 THE TERMINOLOGY OF IMPERIALISM. 
 
 In connection with -the present unholy war of con- 
 quest and spoliation, waged in the name of progress and 
 Christianity by the present administration against the 
 Filipinos, who are fighting for their liberties, there have 
 been introduced some startling and unwonted uses of 
 English words. 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 33 
 
 First of these is tlie word '•rebel." The head-hnes 
 of the censored dispatches use this word ahnost invari- 
 ably. Now, a "rebel" (according to the Century Diction- 
 ary) is "one who makes war upon the government of his 
 country from political motives," and the Filipinos are no 
 more rebels in endeavoring to repel our invading armies 
 than w^ould be the inhabitants of Mexico or Turkey or 
 France if we should make a similar vandal descent upon 
 their countries. 
 
 "Benevolent assimilation" is another new euphemism 
 which, in view of the number of dead and amount of loot 
 recorded in the public and private accounts of the pro- 
 gress of our armies, is full of grim irony. It is best de- 
 fined for common appreciation by substituting the word 
 "murderous" for "benevolent" and "theft" for "assimila- 
 tion." But then those engaged in nefarious practices 
 always like to have their guilt concealed by phraseology. 
 So the influential shop-lifter is a "kleptomaniac" and the 
 wealthy gambler a "speculator." Says honest Pistol: 
 " 'Convey,' the wise it call; 'steal!' foh; a fico for the 
 phrase!" 
 
 In like manner the "white man's burden" of Kipling 
 has been used as expressing a duty of the white man to 
 "carry the blessings of civilization and Christianity to 
 the Filipinos if we have to kill half of them in order to 
 do it." as one of the military advocates of imperialism 
 has expressed it. 
 
 More recent tendencies in the imperialistic termin- 
 ology relate to the division of opinion at home in regard 
 to the Philippine invasion. Those who oppose the con- 
 tinuance of war find themselves branded as "traitors" by 
 the imperialistic press, while those who favor further 
 bloodshed are ranked as "loyalists." In one view of it 
 the latter is not a bad characterization. In our own 
 Revolutionary War those who stood for the divine right 
 of George III. to rule this land called themselves "loyal- 
 
t 
 
 34 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 ists," and were eloquent in their denunciation of the doc- 
 trine of the "consent of the governed" as the basis of 
 just governmental powers. These "loyalists" of 1899 
 have the same arguments against the Filipino patriots 
 which the loyalists of 1776 used against the American 
 patriots of that day, who were also declared to be in- 
 capable of self-government and sure to lapse into anarchy 
 if their "treasonable rebellion" against King George 
 should succeed. 
 
 JUSTICE CONTROLLED BY COMMER- 
 CIALISM. 
 
 Commercialism has so strong a hold on the tribunals 
 and ministers of public justice that the decisions of 
 courts, officials and investigating boards are no longer a 
 matter of anxiety. In almost every given case it is as 
 easy to say what the report or decision will be at the be- 
 ginning as at the end of the investigation. 
 
 The recent beef inquiry is a case in point. It was 
 known beforehand that it would end in liberal coatings 
 of judicial whitewash. The murderous wickedness of 
 serving to our soldiers as a ration the squeezed-out pulp 
 of beef from which the nutriment had been expressed in 
 the form of beef extract, was shown to be the regular 
 practice, but no punishment resulted to those who had 
 thus deliberately dealt out death by starvation to the 
 flag's defenders. 
 
 Equally well it might have been known that the anti- 
 canteen law of Congress would be nullified as soon as 
 the attorney-general could get at it, for the interests on 
 one side were the brewers and the whisky trust, on the 
 other side only ethical and religious influences. Of course 
 the commercial interests won. So the work of wrecking 
 souls and making drunkards goes on. It is said that an 
 appeal will be made to Mr. McKinley to use his authority 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 35 
 
 as commander-in-chief to stop the soul-destroying traffic, 
 but the chief will be found just as ready to befriend the 
 liquor combine as was his subordinate. ^ 
 
 The attorney-general has also rendered a service to 
 the combines by refusing to still carry on the pretense of 
 prosecuting them and by declaring that the industrial 
 trusts are only amenable to State laws. As most of the 
 State courts have held that they can do nothing with 
 these combines because their legality is a matter of Fed- 
 eral cognizance, it will be seen that the law, as it is ad- 
 ministered, is as handy as the old colored man's coon 
 trap, of which its owner said: "Dish yer's de bandies' 
 trap in de worl'— it cotches 'em a-comin' an' it cotches 
 'em a-gwine." 
 
 These "are only a few isolated cases of the practical 
 control of all judicial functions by those who violate the 
 law in the name of the "business interests." And the 
 most tragic feature of the matter is that the public is 
 getting so used to that sort of thing that it does not even 
 arouse itself sufficiently to protest. 
 
 RELIGION, ECONOMICS, POLITICS. 
 
 All people who think have agreed for some time upon 
 the negative proposition that the present social order is 
 not right. Even men who do not think have somehow 
 felt that this is true. 
 
 The first to grasp the situation was the wily profes- 
 sional politician, and his calamity howl made a very great 
 stir, but somehow his proposed remedies did not win the 
 confidence of the people. 
 
 Then came the economists, each with a theory that 
 would change the social order and set the world right. 
 But while these quarreled among themselves, the people 
 wagged their heads and passed on. 
 
 Now come Herron, Gladden, Bliss, and Wilson, who 
 speak not as politicians or economists, but as teachers 
 
36 ^THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 of Christianity, Lo! the people listen, many of them 
 long since estranged from the church, and the great 
 social movement, as a conscious movement of human- 
 ity, has fairly^ begun. 
 
 In the natural order, therefore, first comes the new 
 religious impulse; not really new, for this was the im- 
 pulse that carried Jesus in triumph to the cross. But 
 new for to-day, because in our yesterdays we saw this 
 truth but dimly. 
 
 This divine impulse in the human breast leads men 
 to re-examine their relations and inter-relations, es- 
 pecially those which exist through the possession and 
 use of things. So out from the new religious impulse 
 comes a new economics, and the minds of men are 
 filled wath the ideal of the co-operative commonwealth, 
 which Jesus for his own time called the kingdom of 
 God. 
 
 When the people are universally held by this vision, 
 their new ideal must discover a common means of ex- 
 pression and realization. This is the new politics (in 
 order to the new state) which is scarcely begun — that 
 politico-economics termed Socialism. 
 
 I know that I will be told that socialism is not a sen- 
 timent; that it is the coming evolution or revolution 
 which can be demonstrated by science, and in no man- 
 ner depends upon religion for its coming. True, but 
 there is socialism and socialism. It is not possible for 
 us to have a choice between democracy in the sources 
 and means of production on the one hand and some 
 other social order on the other. But it is ours to choose 
 either a military socialism which comes as a grim ne- 
 cessity through class hatred, or a socialism which is 
 founded on brotherhood and allows to the individual 
 all that freedom which is dictated by the heart of love. 
 
 This latter and preferable consummation can come 
 only as we follow the natural order, religion, economics, 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 37 
 
 politics. Herein lies the greatest opportunity and 
 therefore the greatest duty that ever faced the religious 
 teachers of any age. The present cowardly or hesitating 
 attitude of the average Christian minister or teacher is 
 the tragedy of the present hour. 
 
 The man who stands for the truth which this article 
 tries to state? finds himself between the proverbial two 
 fires. The religionist will tell him that he is foisting 
 socialism upon religion ; the socialist will tell him that he 
 is foisting religion upon socialism. The fact is that the 
 only true economic and political outcome of Christi- 
 anity is socialism. Apply Christianity (and how can it 
 exist unapplied) to capitalism, and socialism is the only 
 result, a result which must come, because truth is mighty 
 and must prevail. As the application of the ethics of 
 Jesus to monarchial tyranny resulted in democratic gov- 
 ernment, so the further application of Christian ethics to 
 our modern development of industrial tyrannv will result 
 in economic democracy, that is, socialism. 
 
 Which will you choose, military socialism, out of which 
 the race by another cycle of progress must develop its 
 brotherhood of freedom, or Christian socialism, where 
 the one law is love and the one service is love. 
 
 Understand me: socialism must come, even in order 
 that the human race may progress, for capitalism can 
 carry it no farther. But whether this coming revolu- 
 tion be the final social travail of the human race depends 
 upon whether in our transition we act like Christians or 
 pagans. FRED'K G. STRICKLAND. 
 
 A BUSINESS TALK. 
 
 You are interested in the message of "The Social 
 Forum." It is a prophecy of the better day coming. 
 The time to help is now. 
 
 First, you should order extra copies of this number. 
 
38 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 Dr. Herron's lecture is the strongest presentation of the 
 PhiHppine question yet deHvered. More and more this 
 is' the burning question of the hour. 
 
 Per doz 40 cts. 
 
 Per 100 $ 2.50. 
 
 Per 1,000 '. . 20 . 00. 
 
 Second, you should send the entire series to your 
 friends (outside of Chicago) for six months. Agitation 
 is the watchword. 
 
 50 cts. per month will send 20 copies per month. 
 
 $ i.oo " " " " 40 " 
 
 5.00 " " " • " 200 " 
 
 20.00 " " " " 1,000 " 
 
 50.00 " " " " 3.000 " 
 
 Single copies, 5 cents. 
 
 Single subscription, 50 cents per year. 
 
 Single subscription (in Chicago), 60 cents per year. 
 
 Address, 
 
 THE SOCIAL FORUM, 
 
 822 Association Building, Chicago. 
 
 BOOK THOUGHTS. 
 
 The United States Department of Labor is doing 
 some very good work along the line of furnishing statis- 
 tics on subjects of current inquiry. The January Bulletin 
 contained an important compilation upon the Condition 
 of Railway Labor in Europe, while the March number 
 had a 128-page article on Pawnbroking in Europe. Both 
 of these are statistical productions of great merit and use- 
 fulness for reference in connection with the subjects ex- 
 pressed in their titles. 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 39 
 
 It is the intention of The Social Forum to make the 
 discussion of books a prominent feature. The dissemina- 
 tion of good Hterature upon sociological and economic 
 subjects is bound to be the principal factor in bringing 
 about the better day to which the vision of the reformer 
 is directed, and with this view it is proposed to discuss 
 the books, new and old, bearing upon these and related 
 topics. 
 
 "Pauperizing the Rich," a handsome volume of 426 
 pages, just issued, has attracted my attention too late for 
 personal reading before the issue of The Cocial Forum 
 goes to press. I have looked into it sufficiently, how- 
 ever, to discover that it is worth reading. I hope to give 
 the book critical notice in the next issue. Meanwhile, 
 Mr. George A. Schilling, whose work as Secretary of the 
 Illinois Labor Commission during the years 1893-7 com- 
 mends him to the favor of all who have their social eyes 
 open, has read the book, and has favored The Social 
 Forum with some thoughts which his perusal of it has 
 evoked. 
 
 BETWEEN C/ESAR AND JESUS. 
 
 Among those who are the working missionaries of 
 social regeneration are included, most fortunately, men 
 of scholarship and erudition, men of personal and spirit- 
 ual powder, men of high ability and higher purpose, of 
 noble soul impelled by the most exalted ideals. 
 
 Of these the one who is making the most profound 
 impress (both with friends and foes) is Prof. George D. 
 Herron, of Iowa College, whose previous books have all 
 met wide recognition as classics in Christian Sociology, 
 but whose latest work,— "Between Caesar and Jesus,"— 
 takes a place among the literature of the social move- 
 ment of the day at once unique and momentous. 
 
40 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 The book contains eight lectures, originally delivered 
 at Willard Hall, Chicago, in the late autumn of 1898, and 
 repeated in the months. of February and March, 1899, 
 at Central Music Hall in the same city, both of these 
 courses being under the auspices of the National Chris- 
 tian Citizenship League. The large audiences which 
 these lectures attracted, the enthusiasm they evoked, and 
 the lasting impression which they left in many minds, 
 all show the strength of the message which Dr. Herron 
 delivered, and that these lectures, as platform deliver- 
 ances, were decidedly successful. 
 
 But it is not every lecture series which, after having 
 been delivered to pleased and impressed audiences, can 
 stand the crucial test of printing and binding and success- 
 fully face the critical perusal and study of the philosophic 
 inquirer. It was my pleasure — one which will always 
 hold a favored place in my memory — to hear these lec- 
 tures as they were originally delivered, and also to hear 
 some of them repeated. Since they have appeared in 
 book form, I have read them through twice — and por- 
 tions of the book several times — with the result that I 
 am even more strongly impressed with it in the book 
 than I was with the spoken lectures.: for the matter and 
 manner of this volume are both admirably adapted to 
 critical and deliberate perusal. 
 
 First, as to the style. The reader who delights in 
 literature as literature — whose taste has been formed by 
 the best models during the plastic period of literary 
 gustation — will be deeply gratified by the thoroughly 
 literary form in which the thoughts here given utterance 
 find their expression in the well-chosen word, the well- 
 rounded phrase — rythmic and stately without being at 
 any time either redundant or stilted. 
 
 But it is the matter rather than the form of the book, 
 the outpoured soul rather than the words which consti- 
 tute its conduit, which now interest us. The general sub- 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 41 
 
 ject is the relation of the Christian conscience to the 
 existing social system. In effect the book is an exhaus- 
 tive survey of that system as it affects the present and 
 future of the human race, and it applies to the existing 
 conditions the teachings of Jesus — as shown in His 
 words and concrete example. 
 
 It would be impossible to follow the argument of the 
 book in any review of it. Briefly, the statement is made 
 in the first lecture of the ethical tragedy of the social 
 problem — which involves a daily sacrifice on the part of 
 a Christian man of "the right to do right; the right to 
 obey an enlightened conscience; the right to earn 
 his living in such a way as to help the living of every 
 other man; the right to live a guiltless life." The second 
 lecture relates to the "Social Sacrifice of Conscience,'-' 
 which makes the only Christian innocence in a world of 
 wrong the sacrifice of one's life in bearing away that 
 wrong, and proceeds to show the need for a religious 
 initiative which shall enlighten the yet untaught Chris- 
 tian conscience, and mobilize the spiritual forces of Chris- 
 tendom for the economic redemption. The third lecture 
 deals with the question of "Public Resources and Spirit- 
 ual Liberty," and contains a mbst cogently stated plea 
 for the public ownership of the sources and means of pro- 
 duction as the sole basis of spiritual liberty and the sole 
 answer to the Social question. This leads up to the dis- 
 cussion, in the fourth lecture, of "The Relation of Chris- 
 tian Doctrine to Private Property," the direct teaching 
 of Christ and the custom of the early Church being 
 shown to be essentially communistic in their establishing 
 of i)ractical human equality in all sorts of resources. The 
 fifth chapter is on "The Conflict of Christ with Civiliza- 
 tion," showing the fundamental antagonism between ex"- 
 isting ciyilization and the teachings of Jesus. Even 
 stronger is the, sixth lecture, which deals with "The Con- 
 flict of Christ with Christianity," and in which the pres- 
 
42 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 ent attitude of the Church is shown to be in direct vari- 
 ance with the teachings of Jesus. This lecture has been 
 wildly attacked, but the reader who does not find in it an 
 ideal worth striving for and a broadly optimistic vision 
 of social redemption lacks either spiritual insight or criti- 
 cal faculty. The seventh lecture deals with "Industrial 
 Facts and Social Ideals," applying the standards of 
 Jesus to these problems of the hour, while the last one 
 is on "The Mctory of Failure," and shows that through 
 the sacrifice and failure of the individual idealist human 
 emancipation may be expected to come, and at this cli- 
 max the book closes with a vision of the final conquest 
 of Love and Liberty. 
 
 The book is radiant with thoughts that breathe and 
 multiply, with ideals that tend to the opening of eyes that 
 are blinded to the reality of the connection between the 
 existing social question and the teachings of Jesus, thus 
 at the same time spiritualizing the task of social redemp- 
 tion and giving concrete substance to the gospel — a 
 gospel divested of its theological formulas and the eccle- 
 siastical machinery which clogs its forward movement, 
 and set free for the social redemption of the world, 
 
 (Between Csesar and Jesus — By George D. Herron; 
 pp. 278, i2mo. ; cloth 75 cents, paper 40 cents. The 
 Social Forum.) 
 
 LIVE QUESTIONS. 
 
 A volume made up of the speeches, w-ritings and of- 
 ficial papers of a man wdio has been out in the light of 
 public scrutiny for a decade and a half must necessarily 
 derive its value from the personality of the man, and 
 his qualities as a leader. A voice may be eloquent upon 
 themes of current interest, but if it be butthe mere echo 
 of conventional opinion it will be only a voice, and noth- 
 
THE SOCIAL. FORUM. 
 
 43 
 
 ing else, and its cadences will die away with an echo-like 
 rapidity. When, however, the voice is that of a leader, 
 its constructive force continues to be felt so long as the 
 issues to which it addresses itself retain their vitahty. ^^ 
 The large book bearing the title of '•Live Questions," 
 by John P. Altgeld, possesses the rare merit of being the 
 work of a man in whom the qualities' of leadership are 
 especially emphasized. The book comprises his papers, 
 speeches and interviews; also his messages to the Legis- 
 lature of Illinois, and a statement of the facts which in- 
 fluenced his course as Governor on several famous occa- 
 sions. In the book may be found expressions upon every 
 political question which has come up for solution or dis- 
 cussion, for Mr. Ahgeld has been in the forefront of 
 everv fight in which a principle has been at stake. As 
 it is' chronologically arranged, the book is interesting 
 as a psychological study of a man who, actuated through- 
 out by the highest ideals of liberty, was at first content 
 with the discussion of much needed improvements in 
 our penal machinery, but grew and grew in statesman- 
 like stature until we find him, in the later pages of the 
 book, leading in the larger conflict for the widest liberty 
 of the whole people through the medium of the mitiative 
 and referendum, the municipal ownership of public utili- 
 ties and the other means and instrumentalities for a liber- 
 ated national and communal life. 
 
 It is, of course, impossible, in a short review, to enu- 
 merate the contents of a book of a thousand pages cov- 
 ering every public question which has arisen in the past 
 decade. It mav, however, be said, that here is a well- 
 stocked armory of facts and arguments in which, what- 
 ever the issue involved, a bold stand is taken m behal 
 of liberty, for equalitv of opportunity for the masses of 
 the people, and for the highest ideals of social and na- 
 tional life. It is especially strong upon the money 
 question, and in the several speeches dealing with that 
 
44 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 subject which are included in the volume may be found 
 the most perfect presentation of the case against the 
 gold standard, both historically and economically con- 
 sidered. 
 
 The question of the trusts and combinations receives 
 equally thoughtful treatment, and in several of the papers 
 are to be found true characterizations of these forms of 
 monopoly, while still more attention is given to those 
 reforms which, by restoring power to the people, will 
 bring about the downfall of these and all other conspira- 
 cies against the public welfare. 
 
 Yet, strong as is the voice which here speaks for all 
 of the reforms that are vital to the people, the highest 
 patriotism and the most perfect sanity pervades the sug- 
 gestions as to remedies. This will be made clear by a 
 brief extract from Governor Altgeld's Brooklyn speech 
 of July 5, 1897: 
 
 "You hear men say in light speech that we must have 
 reform or revolution. My friends, in this land revolution 
 can offer no hope to the toiler. It simply means more 
 cruelty, more police and more military. It means a bru- 
 tal despotism with more flunkeyism and snobbery at the 
 top and more misery at the bottom. Let us move along 
 the line of evolution. Let the plant of justice break 
 through the crust by natural processes. We have peace- 
 able remedies in our hands; all we need is courage to 
 apply them." 
 
 In dealing with the various questions he discusses^ 
 Mr. Altgeld shows a boldness and directness which give 
 the force of undeviating sincerity to his utterances. H 
 has his own way of handling an argument: but it is al- 
 ways a logical way, and one which appeals to the mind 
 by its frank common sense. 
 
 The student of political and social questions will need 
 this book as a part of his equipment. No man in public 
 life in this country has done more to impress his per- 
 
 e 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM. 45 
 
 sonal opinions upon the common thought of the nation 
 than has Governor Ahgeld. This is because he is a 
 constructive man who has many of the larger quahties 
 of statesmanship, and who does not need to wait for 
 some other man to speak before deciding what to say on 
 any subject affecting the welfare of the people. 
 
 (Live Questions — By John P. Altgeld, pp. 1009; 
 $2.50. Geo. S. Bowen & Son, Unity Bldg., Chicago.) 
 
 RICH AND POOR PAUPERS. 
 
 "Pauperizing the Rich," by Alfred J. Ferris, is a pre- 
 sentation of the subject of pauperism from the standpoint 
 of one who seeks industrial equity as the basis of our 
 social life. "The purpose of the book," says the author, 
 "is to investigate the World's Charitable List." But, 
 unlike the average writer on this theme, who only rails 
 about the degradation of the poor, as the recipients of 
 alms, Mr. Ferris exposes the pauperized rich, "w'ho reap 
 where they do not sow." By his definition he makes 
 "the World's Charitable List include all who receive for 
 their own benefit the fruit of others' labor," and then 
 devotes 426 pages to the demonstration of this propo- 
 sition. 
 
 This book will certainly make very interesting read- 
 ing to the whole brood of millionaire paupers who have 
 secured their colossal fortunes by plundering the public 
 through legal privileges of whatever kind or character, 
 and then seek to enshrine their names in a glorified im- 
 mortality with their fellow men, by doling out a portion 
 of their "swag" in so-called philanthropic work. 
 
 This is why Rockefeller, who, with all the heartless 
 cruelty of a savage, crushed the life out of his "competi- 
 tors, has endowed a university, while Charles T. Yerkes 
 donates $500,000 for a telescope to the same institution, 
 
46 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 SO that the attention of the citizens of Chicago may be 
 diverted from the streets to the moon. 
 
 I would advise the author to send a copy of his book 
 to that renowned pauper of Homestead fame, Mr. Car- 
 negie, who has recently withdrawn from business and 
 has announced that he proposes to spend his immense 
 fortune, while he yet lives, for the public good ; for, says. 
 he, "to die rich is to die disgraced." 
 
 Why "die disgraced/' unless it was acquired by dis- 
 graceful methods and under conditions that were dis- 
 honorable and unjust? Somehow his statement forces 
 the conclusion that he feels he has soiled his hands, 
 dwarfed and mutilated his soul in its acquisition, and that 
 he seeks to make some kind of restitution before he dies 
 in ways that will win him public approbation. 
 
 But public approbation is a transient thing, and un- 
 less one builds for the centuries upon the rock of equal 
 justice to all he may find that the approbation of to-day 
 becomes the execration of to-morrow. 
 
 If Carnegie could read this book and fall in line with 
 its spirit, he could become a mighty force in that world- 
 wide movement which seeks to liberate mankind from 
 the thralldom of industrial bondage that degrades both 
 rich and poor. What the world needs is the gospel of 
 self-help, self-reliance and personal responsibility. This 
 can only be developed by the overthrow of special privi- 
 leges and the inauguration of an industrial system in 
 which eacii and all shall have free access to the bounties, 
 of nature and shall participate, on equal terms, in the 
 ever increasing industrial advancement of their time. It 
 is not necessary to subscribe to all the author says in 
 order to appreciate a reading of this book. It covers- 
 an important field in the discussion of sociological prob- 
 lems and is destined, in my judgment, to exert a wide 
 influence over the minds of men. 
 
 GEO. A. SCHILLING. 
 
THE SOCIAL FORUM, 47 
 
 ORGANIZED FOR THE KINGDOM. 
 
 The Christian Citizenship League, Its Aims and Its 
 j\lessage. 
 
 Rightly understood the Gospel is pre-eminently so- 
 cial; the teachings of Jesus are not merely individual- 
 istic, but are largely taken up with illustrations of a 
 perfect order of human society, which he calls the King- 
 dom of Heaven, and in which the double law of love is 
 manifested by all the economic, social, political and in- 
 dustrial functions of the world. The great growth of this 
 conception of the Gospel is most encouraging. 
 
 For five years The National Christian Citizenship 
 League has stood for the application of the teachings of 
 Jesus to all human affairs. 
 
 Believing that the religion of Christ means far more 
 than much of what is called the "Christian religion," the 
 League has stood for the Christianity which is real. 
 
 Conceiving citizenship to include not simply a man's 
 politics, but the whole round of his life, it has stood for a 
 citizenship which in all departments of life fulfills the 
 ideal of Jesus. 
 
 Believing, therefore, that the message of The Social 
 Forum, if widely distributed, will* do much to hasten the 
 time when the teachings of Jesus shall be made to rule 
 in all human affairs, the League invokes the co-operation 
 of all who hope and labor for that better day. 
 
 EDWIN D. WHEELOCK, 
 
 President. 
 
48 THE SOCIAL FORUM. 
 
 A SELECTED LIST OF SOCIOLOGICAL 
 BOOKS. 
 
 Adams, Brooks — 
 
 Law of Civilization and Decay $2.00 
 
 Altgeld, John P.— 
 
 Live Questions, pp. 1009; cloth 2.50 
 
 Anonymous — 
 
 Communism — By a Capitalist i .00 
 
 Bellamy, Edward — 
 
 Looking Backward i -oo 
 
 Equality i-^S 
 
 Blum & Alexander — 
 
 Who Lies? i -OO 
 
 Blatchford, R.— 
 
 Merrie England 10 
 
 Bliss, Rev. W. D. P.— 
 
 Encyclopaedia of Social Reform 7 . 50 
 
 Besant and Rice — 
 
 All Sorts and Conditions of Men 25 
 
 Bemis, Prof. Edward W. — 
 
 (With Prof. John R. Commons and others.) 
 Municipal Monopolies 2 .00 
 
 Carpenter, Edward — 
 
 Civilization, its Cause and Cure i -OO 
 
 England's Ideal i -0° 
 
 Commons, Prof John R.— 
 
 The Distribution of Wealth i • 50 
 
 Social Reform and the Church 75 
 
 Ely, Prof. Richard T.— 
 
 Problems of To-day • • i • 5^ 
 
 Social Aspects of Christianity 9° 
 
 Modern French and German Socialism 75 
 
LATEST SOCIALIST BOOKS. 
 
 The ethics of Sociaiisjit are identical with the ethics of Christianity. 
 
 The Pure Causeway 
 
 By Evelyn Harvey Roberts. A strong per- 
 sonal appeal to all who call themselves Chris- 
 tians. The author shows beyond a doubt that 
 the religion of Jesus means a new social order 
 in which wealth and poverty can no longer 
 exist together. Mrs. Roberts is a pupil of 
 Prof. George D. Herron, and this book is pub- 
 lished with his personal endorsement. Cloth, 
 Ji.oo; paper, 50 cents. 
 
 Only a Woman 
 
 By Rudolph Leonhart, A. M., well known as 
 a frequent contributor to the Coming Nation 
 and other socialist journals. The latest social- 
 ist novel, full of incident and interest. Paper, 
 255 pages, 25 cents. 
 
 Woman \il Social Problem 
 
 By May Wood Simons. Shows that equality 
 for women can and wnll come only through 
 socialism. Paper, 5 cents. 
 
 Socialism 
 
 What it is and what it seeks to accomplish. 
 Newly translated from theGerman of Wilhelm 
 LiEBKNECHT, One of the most prominent Euro- 
 pean leaders of Social Democracy. Paper, 10 
 cents. 
 
 Ahead of the Hounds 
 
 By Lydia Platt Richards. A story of i8qq, 
 full of thrilling incidents. It tells how a col- 
 lege graduate set out to walk from Michigan 
 to California and what he learned on the way. 
 It throws a strong light on the fugitive slave 
 laws of our waKe system, the tramp laws. 
 Cloth, $1.00; paper, 50 cents. 
 
 Uncle Sam in Business 
 
 By Daniel Bond. Brief and simple, but orig- 
 inal and important. Shows how Uncle Sam 
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 about industrial freedom at once, and without 
 the use of force. "Merrie England" shows 
 what the people want. "Uncle Sam in Busi- 
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 cents. 
 
 The Outlook for the Artisan 
 
 and his Art. By J. Pickering Putnam, of 
 the Boston Society of Architects. The author 
 shows how the coming change, from the profit 
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 art into his daily work to an extent that the 
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 is at Hand. By Dr. C. W. Wooldridge. 
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THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK OF THE DAY. 
 
 
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