LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 
 
 Cliap. Copyright No. 
 
 Slielf..tiB-l7l.7 
 P- lb 
 
 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED; 
 
 
 OR. 
 
 LET US ALL DIVIDE UP AND START EVEN. 
 
 BY 
 
 %^, 
 
 ■s-U 
 
 O 
 
 J. A. CONWELL. 
 
 Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 
 
 ^1 — Jesus Christ. 
 
 But they shall sit every man under his vine and 
 under his fig-tree ; and none shall make them afraid. 
 
 — The Lord. 
 
 (Cop3rright, igoo, by C. M. George.) 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 
 57 Rose Street. 
 
61399 
 
 l,itai?«try of Congrree* 
 "^VM C 'J Pits HeceivEO 
 
 OCT 15 1900 
 
 Cc(>yrpW entry 
 
 OCT 24 1 900 
 
Personal letters to The Author of this book may be addressed td 
 57 Rose Street, New York. 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. p^GK 
 
 Introductory — The Philosophy of a Divide-up and Start-even 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 What a Divide-up and Start-even Would Involve 33 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 How Could It Be Done ? 41 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 Would It Be Honest to Divide Up ? 55 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 It Has Been Done 73 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 Are We Prepared for a Divide-up ? 83 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 Would the Country Be Benefited ? 91 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 To Divide-up Would Give the Young a Chance 105 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 Business Affairs Could be Recast and Renovated 119 
 
IV Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER X. PAGB 
 
 The Moral and Social Influence 133 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 Present Political Issues 149 
 
 CHAPTER Xn 
 A Livide-up as a Political Issue 187 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 A Divide-up and Natural Inequalities 203 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 Social Advantages of a Divide-up 209 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 A Divide-up and Christian Citizenship 231 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 Is It Our Duty?.. 237 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 A DIVISION of our national wealth among all the people, 
 as a political measure, must be regarded as an entirely 
 new featut-e in American politics. A variety of remedies 
 for existing evils and conditions has been proposed by 
 political economists and championed by political parties, 
 but a divide-up and start-even has not been one of them. 
 
 The measure will not impress the mind favorably at 
 first thought. It appears too far-reaching, too difficult, 
 too revolutionary. But when the subject is carefully and 
 deeply studied these impressions vanish, and the adoption 
 of the measure appears not only possible, but practicable 
 and wise. In magnitude it is no greater than the nation. 
 In its scope it is no farther-reaching than the claims and 
 interests of citizenship and family life. 
 
 That a political question should embrace every section 
 of the country and place equal privileges within reach of 
 every individual is a paramount merit. To make a prop- 
 aganda of sectional issues or to thrust into political life 
 those things which benefit merely a few can only be pro- 
 ductive of evil. Genuine statesmanship can consider 
 nothing less than the interests of all the people. 
 
 A divide-up and start-even may be revolutionary, but 
 this is no reason why it should not be adopted. The 
 world owes untold obligations to revolutionary measures. 
 It requires a great issue to arouse mankind to action. 
 Reforms are almost sure of defeat. History is crowded 
 with dead reforms that expired through lack of support, 
 but revolutions have made history. The lesser measures 
 fail to secure the following that is essential to success. 
 
 America is rapidly making a new history. Neither the 
 experiences of its own past career nor the example of other 
 nations can point out our future pathway, Our higher 
 
7i PREFACE. 
 
 civilization and unrivaled progress demand the adoption 
 of new and extraordinary factors in government. While 
 these facts are true when applied to human affairs in 
 general, they are specially true when applied to financial 
 inequalities among the people. Nothing but a tremen- 
 dous force can uproot long-established customs and deep- 
 seated conditions, no matter how unjust or oppressive 
 they may be. 
 
 Concentrated wealth and diffused poverty has become 
 a national characteristic. The condition is so pro- 
 nounced that the border line of danger has been crossed. 
 That plutocracy and poverty, with their attendant evils, 
 shall become the dominant issue in politics in the near 
 future is inevitable. Nothing less than an equitable divi- 
 sion of all property among all the people will meet exist- 
 ing requirements. It is the quickest, the easiest, and the 
 fairest remedy for the evils that beset us. Wealth is too 
 strong and aggressive to submit, and poverty is too weak 
 and apathetic to respond, to ordinary remedies. 
 
 This book is the result of a long and systematic course 
 of study among men. Our national conditions and cus- 
 toms, including the political, financial, industrial, and 
 social situation, have been carefully considered. Thou- 
 sands of miles have been traveled, and the farm and the 
 store, the mine and the mill, the church and the school, 
 the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the educated 
 and the ignorant, the high and the low — people and things 
 as they are — have been severally and collectively studied. 
 History, while its fabric was being woven in the complex 
 loom of activity, rather than books, has been the chief 
 source of investigation. As Luther said at the Diet of 
 Worms, ^'Hier stehe ich; ich Jcann nicht anders'' so it 
 can be claimed that what is here written has been penned 
 under the full assurance of its wisdom and truth. Con- 
 viction and not sentiment here seeks expression. 
 
 The principles involved in a general divide-up and start- 
 even have an authoritative history, and of the honesty 
 and fairness of the measure, if exigencies demand it, 
 there is not room for the remotest doubt. It was first 
 instituted in obedience to a direct command from God. 
 It is % conspicuous and distinguishing feature of Holy 
 
PBEFAGE. vii 
 
 Writ. It was practiced with more or less regularity by 
 a chosen people for seven centuries. These commands are 
 still preserved as a sacred and inspired message to men. If 
 not literally binding, they are of preeminent value for our 
 instruction. During the ages in which these laws were 
 obeyed the world reached its highest wisdom and enjoyed 
 its richest favors. Stretching over the destinies of the 
 Hebrew race and as enduring as the dome of heaven were 
 the promises of the Almighty; in its care were the sacred 
 oracles of divine law, and in the veins of its people flowed 
 the ancestral blood of the Messiah. Upon th'e strict ob- 
 servance of these laws did the prosperity and peace of the 
 people depend. History plainly teaches that the decline 
 of power and the misfortunes among the people of ancient 
 Canaan were a sure result when selfishness supplanted 
 equity and justice among the people. When the princi- 
 ples of equity were again established under the reign of 
 Christianity, dividing-up, in all its essential features, was 
 again practiced. And again do we learn from history 
 that the Dark Ages were the direct result of the triumph 
 of greed over the principles taught by the disciples. 
 
 That the teachings of this book will meet opposition is 
 inevitable. But adverse criticism is not conclusive evi- 
 dence that a doctrine is false or that a book is vicious. 
 If any thought or sentiment here expressed conflicts with 
 t' i highest type of patriotism, the best interests of the 
 nation, or the most critical rendering of divine teaching, 
 none could more profoundly regret it than the author. 
 Moreover, it has been the constant aim to be fair at every 
 point to both rich and poor, and it is hoped that the 
 volume will be found entirely free from everything that 
 need arouse a spirit of hatred or passion. 
 
 "With charity for all and malice toward none" has 
 been the spirit in which the book has been written. While 
 the study of the subject has profoundly impressed the 
 author with the imperative need of a divide-up and start- 
 even, yet at no time have feelings other than those of 
 genuine love for both rich and poor stirred his heart. 
 He who searches the book to feed fires of hatred toward 
 the rich will search in vain. He who reads it to find food 
 {or thought and ^n inspiration to patriotic political ser-? 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 vice, it is prayerfully and tearfully hoped, will not be 
 turned away empty. 
 
 There is cause in the state of our beloved country for 
 serious concern. Every man in the nation is responsi- 
 ble for, and is called upon to exercise, his best thought and 
 effort. We cannot all see alike. We cannot all agree. 
 But we can all be sincere in faith and loyal in action, 
 Out of our honest differences and inevitablv conflicting 
 opinions will come, in due time, the happy solution of 
 all questions upon which the peace and prosperity of our 
 country depend. 
 
 The book is not sent forth as an exhaustive treatise 
 upon the subject. Not only could almost every point 
 have been enlarged upon, but a legion of facts and 
 thoughts crowd about the subject for recognition. The 
 subject is boundless in its scope and its application is 
 almost without limit. Nothing but determined effort has 
 kept the book within its present compass. The theme 
 offers a rich field for study and thought. It is worthy 
 to engage the services of the best intellect and talent the 
 nation possesses. May many so endowed enlist in its 
 cause ! 
 
 THE AUTHOE. 
 
 September, 1900, 
 
PUBLISHERS' NOTE. 
 
 It is with special pleasure that the Publishers send forth 
 the present volume to the public. Widely as men may 
 differ in opinions regarding the teachi7igs set forth in the 
 booh, all must agree that it is a valuable contribution to 
 the political literature of the day. It is a signal illustration 
 of how political questions of the most advanced sort can be 
 discussed with a sweet temper and in a Christian spirit. 
 Existing parties are not even mentioned, and no man is 
 thrust with a single arrow. The booJc is a mine of infor- 
 mation. It is rich in thought. In suggestion it has, we 
 believe, no rival. Many of its paragraphs are gems of 
 truth and wisdom worthy of the widest circulation. Those 
 interested in political progress will find it an indispensable 
 companion and booh of reference. It is not the ventila- 
 tion of a hobby, but it is broad and comprehensive in its 
 scope. It is timely. It is wholesome and instructive. It 
 is forceful and inspiring. Its universal perusal could not 
 be other than a great uplift to the politics of the nation. 
 
 THE PUBLISHERSc 
 
"On earth peace, good-will toward men.** 
 
 My country, 'tis of thee. 
 Sweet land of liberty. 
 
 Of thee I sing: 
 Land where my fathers died. 
 Land of the pilgrim's pride, 
 ' From every mountain side 
 Let freedom ring. — Smith. 
 
 No man has come to true greatness who has not felt, in some 
 degree, that his life belongs to his race, and that what God 
 gives him He gives him for mankind. — Phillips Bbooks. 
 
 Prosperity is best secured when the medium-clas* income pre- 
 vails; when no citizen is so rich that he can buy others, and no 
 one so poor that he might be compelled to sell himself. — 
 
 EOUSSEAU. 
 
 We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are cre- 
 ated equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain 
 unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the 
 pursuit of happiness. — Declabation of Independence. 
 
 It is not to be assumed, as is done by most writers on this 
 subject, that the modern form of the distribution of wealth is 
 the final and perfect one; and that society, as it is now, is 
 substantially what it must be in ail coming ages, or what our 
 Lord contemplated in His future "Kingdom of Heaven." — C. 
 LoRiNG Brace. 
 
 Half the world is on the wrong scent in pursuit of happiness. 
 They think it consists in having and getting and in being served 
 by others. It consists in giving and serving others. "He that 
 would be great among you," said Christ, "let him remember 
 that there is but one way — it is more blessed, it is more happy, 
 to give than to receive." — ^Henry Drummond. 
 
 14 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY — THE PHILOSOPHY OF A DIVIDE-UP. 
 
 In considering the subject of a general divide-up of 
 the wealth of the United States among all the people and 
 allowing everybody to start even, it is to be decided, first, 
 whether or not the measure is a legitimate or essential 
 factor in popular government. Can the process of gov- 
 ernment operate in the broadest, fairest, and best 
 sense indefinitely without resort to it? Does the com- 
 mon good never require the adoption of such a measure? 
 Would a divide-up and start-even correct abuses and re- 
 move unjust conditions which will not yield to any other 
 influence? In a word, is it the only remedy for certain 
 evils which, in the course of human events, even under 
 the best form of government, are liable to fasten them- 
 selves upon a nation? 
 
 If a divide-up of property is never necessary; if other 
 measures will meet all requirements; if other available 
 remedies are less objectionable and more easily applied; 
 if the machinery of popular government is complete and 
 adequate without it, then the subject has no claims what- 
 ever to serious consideration. 
 
 But if it is necessary; if other measures fail to remove 
 unjust conditions and to remedy prevailing evils; if the 
 combined action of all other legitimate policies fails to 
 meet the demands of progress and civilization ; and if the 
 execution of a general divide-up will give to our laws and 
 efforts a sjrmmetry and completeness which they now lack, 
 then the measure is entitled to respect and should be 
 adopted. If it is the only cure, or even the best remedy, 
 lor certain inevitable andl otherwise incorrigible evils, it 
 
16 OUE NATI0N^8 NEED, 
 
 becomes a patriotic and sacred duty to resort to it and 
 thus secure the benefits and blessings which it alone can 
 bring. 
 
 If we closely examine the philosophy which underlies 
 the measure, we shall plainly see that it would counteract 
 certain morbid outgrowths of human nature that can be 
 reached in no other way. Dividing-up and the cancella- 
 tion of debts were not enjoined upon the government of 
 Israel forty centuries ago without a good reason. From 
 the councils of heaven it came forth as a vital part of the 
 most perfect plan to promote peace and prosperity among 
 a favored nation that divine wisdom could teach. 
 
 It was then an actual necessity. It aims at and effectu- 
 ally holds in reasonable check those traits in our make-up 
 — the essence of human nature — which are beyond the 
 control of law or even religion. No fact is more evident 
 or more universally admitted than that man's human 
 nature is his chief development, and that nothing so 
 quickly errs, nothing so often invades forbidden fields, 
 and nothing is so difficult to control; and at no time is 
 this human nature so erring, so intensely selfish, or so 
 heedless and uncontrollable as when running in the race 
 for wealth. 
 
 ISTo matter how thoroughly a people may be provided 
 with good laws, or how consistently they may obey the 
 precepts of religion, they will inevitably, as time passes 
 on, show a great diversity of achievement. Our inherent 
 force and talents exhibit marked extremes, and we oper- 
 ate in an endless variety of fields. Only time and the 
 full exercise of our energies are needed for extremes in 
 accomplishment, including the acquirement of wealth, to 
 ensue. Some will succeed, while others fail. Out of the 
 same materials some will build palaces and others hovels. 
 Some will grow rich, while others will become poor. 
 Some avocations tend toward wealth and others toward 
 its opposite. The same talent, or effort, or amuition may 
 lead to either financial extreme — success or failure. 
 The final result will be unnatural, undesirable, and un- 
 just conditions. Perhaps, after all, the actual ability of 
 man has less to do with financial success than many 
 thoughtful observers are apt to believe. 
 
"^ OXIR NATION'S NEED. 17 
 
 When extremes of wealth and poverty have grown so 
 pronounced as to become a menace to the public good, if 
 no other adequate remedy exists a divide-up is a neces- 
 sity. At such times it becomes not simply a philan- 
 thropic, but an economic measure. It might well be con- 
 sidered as the missing link in our political history, as the 
 lost art in the genius of government. 
 
 Viewed from a proper standpoint, a divide-up and 
 start-even at once becomes a subject of vital interest. 
 For there is every reason for believing that it would 
 largely settle the unsolved problems of the nations. The 
 momentous questions of modern times are those which 
 concern wealth and poverty, capital and labor. In the 
 midst of the extremes, which have grown so pronounced 
 and universal, the greatest statesmen of the world stand 
 apparently helpless. In the face of persistent discon- 
 tent, intense political agitation, and legislative considera- 
 tion, unjust inequalities and financial evils exist and con- 
 stantly increase. Subjected to all applied remedies, they 
 survive as the incurable political and social disease. 
 
 Inequalities, although natural and wholesome at first, 
 become actual evils through slow processes. Their in- 
 justice may exist and grow in a nation for generations 
 and not seriously disturb industry or society ; and to some 
 extent it will correct itself. But when a certain point is 
 reached; when the injustice becomes widespread and over- 
 powering; when its burdens begin to crush; when man 
 must bow to it and not simply endure ; when industry and 
 society lose their recuperative powers; when permanent 
 and organic lesions in the body financial, social, and 
 political have become fixed, then ordinary laws and or- 
 dinary remedies, no matter how vigilantly applied, become 
 noneffective and vain. At such times mankind is thrown 
 upon its own responsibility. The deeper qualities of soul 
 are stirred. Character is tempered in the furnace of 
 sacrifice. But in the struggle humanity triumphs and 
 lifts itself to a higher plane. The world has witnessed 
 many such struggles. It is God's way of making a foot- 
 print in human history. 
 
 As with an individual, so it is with a nation. For the 
 establishment of its own stability of character it is essen- 
 
18 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 tial that it occasionally undergo a test of its strength and 
 virtue. Pure gold is secured only through the applica- 
 tion of the purifying fire, and only through hotly con- 
 tested warfares between right and wrong, justice and 
 oppression, are the worthy principles of nations developed 
 and made secure. "Nations are benefited for ages," says 
 Carlyle, "by being thrown once into divine white heat 
 in this manner, and no nation that has not had such divine 
 paroxysms at any time is apt to come to much." It is 
 essential that every element, whether true or false, noble 
 or base, face the force of the storm — that all things be 
 shaken "that those things which cannot be shaken may 
 remain." 
 
 Conditions demanding the exercise of extraordinary 
 forces in government exist to-day. Current laws, no mat- 
 ter how impartial or how considerate they are of the 
 weak against the strong, fail to meet the requirements. 
 The demand for a special force in the realm of govern- 
 ment is heard and felt upon every side. The chief 
 need of this force is shown in the widespread prevalence 
 of concentrated wealth and diffused poverty. The need 
 and practicability of a general divide-up and start-even 
 are as clear to the unbiased mind as the need of rain 
 when the earth is parched by continued sunshine or the 
 need of bread when the people are starving with hunger. 
 
 When accorded the place it deserves among the issues 
 operating to promote the best welfare of the nation, a 
 divide-up becomes not only an honest and desirable 
 policy, but accords with wise statesmanship and sound 
 business principles. 
 
 A fact not to be misconstrued is: a divide-up would be 
 simply the application of a remedy and not the adoption 
 of a political system to rule or embarrass the future. It 
 is a cure for the present great national disease and the 
 evils growing out of it, and not the creation of a new 
 form of government. As a remedy it may be severe, but 
 its execution has no binding effect upon the future. 
 Medicine is often unpleasant in its taste and action, and 
 when the disease for which it is administered is cured 
 it is discontinued. When a nation takes up arms and 
 engages in warfare, it is not the intention that such action 
 
OJTB NATION^S NEED, 19 
 
 shall be perpetual. So it is with a divide-up of property. 
 There are doubtless unpleasant features surrounding it. 
 It would disturb the ease of many. It would thwart the 
 plans of not a few. Its virtue may be limited to actual 
 needs. Its operation should cease when normal condi- 
 tions were restored. It is not here even claimed that a 
 universal level of wealth among all the people is in itself 
 desirable. On the contrary, a reasonable diversity of owner- 
 ship is both wholesome and proper. To coerce the people 
 to such a universal level as a permanent state, through the 
 power of law, would be a doom rather than blessing. 
 But a universal level is absolutely safe and affords a 
 desirable starting-point from which natural and desir- 
 able diversities of wealth and action radiate. 
 
 If extremes of wealth and poverty need correcting, it 
 is deeply essential that only proper and effective remedies 
 be employed. By analyzing the various forces, issues, 
 and policies which have molded and are now shaping 
 public affairs, it is easily seen that to each belongs a 
 limited scope of usefulness, and that each has been a 
 blessing only when operating within its own legitimate 
 field. Warfare, legislation, religion, and social move- 
 ments have resulted in good only when filling their respec- 
 tive missions. War, the most conspicuous factor in his- 
 tory, has benefited mankind only when its aid was im- 
 perative to enthrone a righteous cause. Laws, although 
 they form the structure upon which society is founded 
 and are of varied application, lose their virtue and in- 
 flict an injury when they operate beyond their proper 
 sphere. Eeligion, the most sacred and potent force in the 
 world, has often become a cruel despotism by assuming 
 an authority it has no right to claim. 
 
 Legislators and statesmen have no plainer duty than 
 to see that these and every other worthy measure per- 
 form their proper mission. Within its own sphere, every 
 desirable element of force should be made to exercise its 
 full power. The nation is entitled to all the benefits that 
 can come from the harmonious cooperation of every- 
 thing that leads in the direction of the greatest good to 
 the greatest number. To secure such to the people is the 
 proper function of statesmanship. 
 
20 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 In the rapid evolutions of civilization, it is natural 
 that some forces, which served well a former age, should 
 lose their virtue, and that other factors rise to meet the 
 requirements of new occasions. But it is seldom safe 
 to lay aside the implements of past victories until we 
 possess the armor of new conquests. "Eternal vigilance 
 is the price of liberty." We can become independent of 
 war only by learning the arts of peace. No sooner are the 
 cruelties of superstition and ignorance overcome than the 
 conflicts against the vices of civilization must begin. 
 .When indifference and apathy have been aroused into 
 activity, tempted by morbid ambition, they soon become 
 giants of avarice and greed, to rule or ruin until, through 
 the power of justice, they are subdued. 
 
 It is important to learn what forces are involved in 
 present transitions. What elements of power suited to 
 the past have outlived their usefulness? 
 
 The chief of these is, unquestionably, war. 
 
 For forty centuries war has been a chief dependence 
 in times of great public controversies. Thousands of our 
 citizens believe that the differences existing between 
 capital and labor will eventually culminate in a resort to 
 arms. It is the impression that war purifies and strength- 
 ens a government ; that it makes business active and profit- 
 able ; that it removes a surplus of men, giving more room 
 and opportunity for those who survive ; and that, in addi- 
 tion to settling differences, it is an essential and economic 
 factor in progressive civilization. The evidences of the 
 past, to the average mind at least, encourage such opin- 
 ions. While war has been universally deplored, it has 
 been regarded as a necessary evil. 
 
 Nothing has been so fruitful of popular glory, nothing 
 so lavish in bestowing fame and renown as war. In- 
 delibly do we write the names of warriors in history, and 
 we adorn sacred niches with monuments to their memory. 
 
 But war is doomed. The prophecy that war shall cease, 
 let us hope, is being rapidly fulfilled. It has grown dis- 
 tasteful and is abhorred. "War is hell." It is con- 
 demned by public sentiment and by the popular heart. 
 Modem statesmen are rapidly ignoring its claims, and it 
 has ceased to be even considered in genuine reform. 
 
OUR I^ATION^S NEED, 21 
 
 The brutality of war, its cost in life and property, and 
 its antagonism to genuine progress render it peculiarly 
 repugnant to the world's present state of civilization. 
 The Czar of Eussia, who is at the head of the largest army 
 in the world, some time ago proposed a peace conference 
 of the nations of the earth. His appeal has not only 
 favorably impressed other rulers, but has sensibly touched 
 the hearts of all mankind. As an outgrowth of his efforts 
 was held the World's Peace Conference, every advance step 
 of which was hailed with universal approval and delight. 
 War has already burdened the nations of the earth by debt 
 to the verge of bankruptcy. Nothing has so impoverished 
 and weakened governments, many of which are hopelessly 
 involved. ^^Militarism,'' said Gladstone, "lies like a vam- 
 pire over Europe." Queen Victoria recently declared: 
 "Sooner than see my kingdom again resort to war, I 
 would pray God that I might die." Yet war has clouded 
 her declining years. War is not only inhuman and un- 
 christian, but, on account of improved armaments, all 
 humanity stands appalled at its future inevitable magni- 
 tude and power to destroy. 
 
 But it is a mistake to imagine that war will cease of 
 itself. Nor is it to be subdued by resolutions or inter- 
 national agreements. It will cease only when it is out- 
 grown. It is folly to believe that war can be abolished 
 unless more desirable and effective forces take its place 
 in our political system. It is a delusion to think that 
 when war is no more peace will be free. To be relieved 
 of its dangers and dread is to be clothed with new duties 
 and responsibilities. 
 
 A lesson well worth learning is that in the midst of ordi- 
 nary civilization, war is a law unto itself. It submits to 
 no force, heeds no counsel, obeys no command. War is 
 greater than nations, stronger than resolves, mightier than 
 human will. Power has ever been its willing vassal. 
 Governments have cowered before it like brutes before 
 their master. Heroes and patriots have vied with each 
 other in worshiping at its altars. Religion has been as 
 tinder to feed its crimson flames. Its carnage and blood, 
 its destruction and death only bring glory, dazzling to 
 the brain and inspiring to the heart of all mankind. 
 
22 OUR NATION'S NEED, 
 
 "Gentlemen may cry peace ! peace ! But there is no peace !" 
 exclaimed Patrick Henry, and his words will remain true 
 until war is outwitted and peace honestly and intelli- 
 gently won. "Give me liberty or give me death" has been 
 the invincible battle-cry of all the ages, and wherever 
 slavery, injustice or oppression abounds, its direful mut- 
 terings can be heard to-day. Channing has well said that 
 "war will never yield but to the principles of universal 
 justice and love." Suggestive and true are the words of 
 Whittier: 
 
 ^^ But dream not helm and harness 
 The sign of valor true; 
 Peace hath higher tests of manhood 
 Than battle ever knew/* 
 
 If war is the declining star in the political firmament, 
 what new elements of force are required to meet present 
 conditions and harmonize the conflicting interests of 
 progress? What is to characterize the new political 
 system ? 
 
 The answer to these questions suggests itself. A right- 
 eous and equitable adjustment of existing wrongs; just 
 laws; equal privileges and security to all; protection to 
 the home; religious and civil liberty; clean politics; pub- 
 lic honesty; private virtue; protection of the innocent 
 against the vicious and of the weak against the strong; 
 proper recognition of labor; equal rights to every one; 
 opportunities to the young; support to the -aged; relief 
 to the suffering and maintenance of the national honor. 
 These things must become tenets of faith in the realm of 
 citizenship. That these things become established verities 
 is the prayer of every loyal heart and the zealous aim ol 
 all true patriots. These things must in the future, more . 
 than they have in the past, characterize our political life 
 if the country is to survive and liberty prevail. 
 
 But citizenship is now being denied its political ideals. 
 A gigantic wrong usurps the popular will. This great 
 evil — the concentration of wealth and power in the hands 
 of the few and the diffusion of poverty and industrial 
 slavery among the many — ^is seen and felt everywhere. It 
 
OUR N'ATION^S NEED. 23 
 
 permeates every phase of life and has intrenched itself in 
 every form of society. American pluck and ambition, 
 spurred on by unprecedented success, has become an out- 
 law. Mankind, inspired by a new love, has turned to the 
 worship of Mammon; and mammonism has become the 
 octopus of modern civilization, menacing all that is essen- 
 tial to life and corrupting all that is precious to the heart. 
 
 Money has become a god and as such is the root of 
 all evil. Mammonism is the source of most of the misery, 
 crime, and perfidy — things which are constantly growing 
 more pronounced. It has filled our land with distrust 
 and discontent. Its unjust, cruel, and enslaving domin- 
 ion is a familiar subject at almost every American fireside. 
 
 As the outgrowth of the existing extremes of wealth 
 and poverty, a formidable array of evils has developed 
 and their endurance has become the nations' shame. 
 Labor is robbed of its just reward. Success is made 
 within reach of only a fev»^. Crushing competition pre- 
 vents normal enterprise. The ambitions of the young 
 are defeated and their opportunities destroyed. The poor 
 are made helpless and the aged dependent. The great 
 middle class in trade and enterprise is being wiped out. 
 Trusts and syndicates conspire against the people. 
 Bribery is practiced wholesale. The political boss is en- 
 throned. Elections are little else than a game of farce. 
 Legislation has become a commercial commodity. ISTo 
 business is too base and no practice too vile for human 
 greed. Vice and shame are staple commodities in the 
 markets of sin. The love of gold barters away the bodies 
 and blights the souls of the people. Nothing is more 
 truly remarkable than the way in which all the evils of 
 the present age converge toward a common center — and 
 that center is mammonism. 
 
 It is also remarkable how these curses prevail through- 
 out civilization. Mammonism is the besetting sin of 
 Christendom. Concentrated wealth and diffused poverty 
 are the dominating evil in almost every land. Empires, 
 kingdoms, and republics are alike facing the same formid- 
 able enemy. Mammonism is the central political prob- 
 lem and the chief barrier to progress everywhere. That 
 the curse universally prevails shows that the same weak 
 feature marks the career of all forms of government. 
 
24 OITB NATION'S NEED. 
 
 Proof is abundant that ordinary remedies completely 
 fail in conflicts against the powers of money. In the face 
 of all opposition, the curse of mammonism has constantly 
 grown and become more and more established. Systems 
 of law have proved a failure; organized forces have been 
 in vain. It has fortified itself against every opposition. 
 It has fattened upon war. It is the subtle tempter and 
 canker-worm in times of peace. 
 
 But there is a remedy that would destroy this universal 
 plague. A divide-up and start-even exactly meets the re- 
 quirements. It is the political, the social, and the re- 
 ligious issue of the world. Its practicability is not a 
 va^ue theory. It is not a far-fetched, mysterious scheme 
 that only a few can comprehend. Its results, if carried 
 out, are too plainly apparent to be mere speculation. As 
 an issue in politics it would represent every section and 
 interest. 
 
 As an illustration: it would not be difficult to appreci- 
 ate what a boom a divide-up and start-even would be to 
 the older nations. Take Great Britain and Ireland. For 
 more than a half century the people of these isles have 
 submitted to conditions unfair and infamous in the ex- 
 treme. Fifty years ago they supported 400,000 paupers, 
 and the number has constantly increased until at pres- 
 ent nearly 1,000,000 are receiving public help. The 
 population is a little over 37,000,000, and of these 8,000,- 
 000 are constantly on the verge of destitution and 20,000,- 
 000 are actually poor. On the other hand, one-half of 
 the national income flows into the pockets of 10,000 
 persons, and 30,000 capitalists, peers, and lords own 90 
 per cent, of the land. Over 90 per cent, of the people 
 own no land whatever. Legions are born in poverty, live 
 in penury, and are buried in the potter's field. During 
 these fifty years Great Britain and Ireland have produced 
 some of the greatest statesmen that ever lived. They have 
 been ruled by a sovereign who for private virtue and pub- 
 lic interest has seldom been equaled. And the loyalty of 
 the people has been unbounded. In the development of 
 those forces which pertain to material progress and in the 
 intelligence and enterprise of the people no nation has 
 more right to boast. But concentrated wealth and dif- 
 
UB NATION '8 NEED, 25 
 
 fused poverty hang like a plague over the people. Plu- 
 tocracy and poverty is the monumental curse of Great 
 Britain and Ireland to-day, and unless the people arise 
 and free themselves their condition is hopeless. For them 
 to live in submission means privation, oppression, squalor, 
 and dependence for themselves and their children. 
 
 If the earth and the fullness thereof is the Lord^s and 
 if all mankind are the children of a common Father, it 
 is dishonor to God and disloyalty to human brotherhood 
 not to rise up and, in the name of justice and humanity, 
 to demand a universal and equitable division of property 
 among all the people of these richly favored isles. 
 
 Yet what Great Britain and Ireland have done we are 
 doing. We are becoming plutocrats and paupers at a 
 rate without a precedent in all history. By continuing 
 our present policies of finance and business we shall 
 soon exhibit a condition similar in all its chief features 
 and, on account of our free form of government, far more 
 intolerable. Sordid conservation is already trying to rec- 
 oncile the laboring man and the masses to their lot. It 
 is being industriously taught that equality, prosperity, 
 and plenty, in the liberal sense, is an idle dream. Mam- 
 monism was never more vigilant in organizing and array- 
 ing itself against the interests of the people. If allowed 
 to continue it will eventually make poverty a hopeless 
 fate and riches a power invulnerable. 
 
 Nothing can he more apparent than the claims of a 
 divide-up of property as an issue in American politics. 
 To destroy the greatest evil or to enthrone the greatest 
 good to the greatest number should always be the first aim 
 in political action. 
 
 That concentrated wealth and diffused poverty exist 
 as the greatest curse in our nation is apparent to every 
 unbiased and thoughtful observer. It is not only the 
 greatest, but it is the parent evil, and other evils are its 
 offspring. It is of all curses the most world-wide. It 
 has no rival. No other evil is so established; none so 
 universal; none so defiant to law; none so destructive to 
 life and character; none so menacing to human liberty 
 and the life of the republic. It forms the source of con- 
 tention between capital and labor. It is the bane of so- 
 
26 OUR NATION'S NEED, 
 
 eiety, placing a gnlf between the classes and the masses. 
 It is the skeleton in the church whose presence God and 
 the angels forsake. It is the autocrat in businesSj killing 
 the weak and protecting the strong. It is the potent 
 danger behind the monopoly and trust. That it exists 
 in foreign countries to a greater degree than in our own 
 land, making wage-earning more abject and its slavery 
 more secure, is the vital point of the tariff issue. Its 
 power is the backbone of the money question. It is the 
 protecting wall of the liquor business. It is the cesspool 
 in which is drowned the character of men and the virtue 
 of women. It furnishes the sinews of w^ar in dirty poli- 
 tics. It is the sin of the bribe-giver and the shame of 
 the bribe-taker. It is the destruction of the rich and the 
 doom of the poor. 
 
 The Civil War opened up a new era in money-making. 
 Steadily and with increasing momentum great fortunes 
 have multiplied and become established. For three dec- 
 ades men have been drifting toward the two extremes 
 until a few possess a very large part — the very cream of 
 our nation^s wealth — and the majority of the people are 
 being crushed into poverty, industrial slavery, and hope- 
 less despair. 
 
 According to recent and trustworthy authorities upon 
 the subject, the concentration of wealth and the wide- 
 spread prevalence of poverty is appalling. The safety 
 limit has been crossed. 
 
 What are the facts? 
 
 One per cent, of the people own over 50 per cent, of 
 the wealth of the United States, and their possessions are 
 the most productive and profitable of which the nation can 
 boast. 
 
 Ninety-nine per cent, of the people own less than one- 
 half of the nation^ s wealth. 
 
 One family in a hundred, take the country over, own 
 more than the other ninety-nine families. In other words, 
 ten families in each 1,000 families could buy out the other 
 990 families and have something left. 
 
 Fifty per cent, of the people — over 6,000,000 families 
 — own practically nothing; only their clothes and a little 
 furniture. 
 
OUR NATION '8 NEED. 27 
 
 Millionaires are counted by thousands. Several for- 
 tunes, it is claimed, have passed beyond $100,000,000 each. 
 Seventy per cent, of the wealth of the entire nation is 
 controlled by 200,000 men. 
 
 One million men practically own the United States, 
 while a vast majority of the people are forced to struggle 
 for shelter and bread. The great middle class, so long 
 the strength and glory of the republic is being crowded 
 out. Prosperity is being limited to the few. 
 
 According to Dun's Review the number of failures in 
 May, 1900, was ^^not only the largest ever known in that 
 month since such records were made, but of eighty months 
 covered by these returns only six have shown such large 
 liabilities.^^ Of these 947 failures only one was a great 
 concern; the rest were all from the smaller or medium 
 class. Dun's Review further says that the amount in- 
 volved in failures for the first six months of 1900 was 
 more than double that of 1899. Prosperity increasing ! 
 Failures doubling! 
 
 Notwithstanding the fact that failures among the med- 
 ium-class enterprises doubled in one year, prosperity 
 among great concerns was never so great. Among the 
 beginners and middle class, competition and bankruptcy 
 were never such a scourge. Fatness and famine are be- 
 coming related counterparts in the realm of business. 
 "Wealth has grown not only powerful, but aggressive and 
 consuming. Poverty is becoming not only weak, but 
 indifferent and a willing prey. It is a new condition that 
 confronts the American people. Class distinctions, affect- 
 ing every phase of existence, that have cursed and crushed 
 empires and kingdoms are settling like a vampire upon 
 our own land and are devouring the life-blood of the 
 nation. This condition is becoming a fixed fact and 
 dominates and controls our social and financial system. 
 Its power is overwhelming. It ignores law. It defies 
 correction. It robs youth of opportunity and drives age 
 to penury. It is vice's alluring companion; it is virtue's 
 relentless foe. It blights character and religion. It 
 crushes hope and ambition. It petrifies the heart of the 
 rich and deadens the faith of the poor. It makes of 
 capital an unwilling tyrant and of labor a helpless slave. 
 
28 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 It has turned wholesome competition into a wild race for 
 supremacy. In the realm of business men are no longer 
 brothers, but antagonists in a conflict in which money, not 
 manhood, is the ruling force. The abnormal success of 
 the few has made money-making a passion. In the mad 
 rush for fortune we devour each other. In business we 
 have become cannibals — those with much eat up those 
 with little. As the small fish are swallowed by the mon- 
 ster, so it is that the small merchant and manufacturer 
 are swallowed by the great concern whose abundancce of 
 capital can control the market and maintain a monopoly. 
 The condition has become the nation^s scourge. In its 
 presence law is as tinder and legislators as clay to be 
 r *ded and manipulated at will. Its continuation means 
 an -aristocracy holding the nation^s wealth and a people 
 enslaved by poverty and fated to despair. Genuine patri- 
 otism can no longer deny its ravages nor ignore its pres- 
 ence. Justice, liberty, humanity, and the common herit- 
 ages of citizenship demand its overthrow. 
 
 That the accumulated 'powers of greed he destroyed is 
 imperative. Too long already has it crushed and cursed 
 mankind. The unjust conditions which prevail every- 
 where and which constantly grow more powerful and op- 
 pressive suggest but one remedy — a divide-up of all prop- 
 erty among all the people ; and when this is accomplished, 
 the enactment of such laws as will insure justice and fail 
 opportunities to all in the future. 
 
 The division of property among the people and the 
 cancellation of debt at proper intervals, as laws, for the 
 government of human affairs, have an authoritative 
 origin. The world seems to have forgotten that these 
 commands were given to mankind by God and stand in 
 the Bible beside the Ten Commandments. Viewed from 
 the proper standpoint, they are an essential part of a com- 
 plete governmental system. A division of property can- 
 not be regarded as other than God's law, and divine laws 
 are perfect in that they harmonize with each other. They 
 are all connected by vital relations. Whoever offends in 
 one point is guilty of all. To divide up is a part of a 
 complete circle. To ignore it is to break the circle and 
 confuse everything. 
 
OUB NATION'S NEED. 29 
 
 Furthermore, to divide up, like all divine commands, 
 is a natural law. It is a vital part of the natural law of 
 the political world. Its need is as visibly read in the 
 oppressions endured by an outraged society as is the 
 inspired language upon the sacred page. The literal 
 status of the original command is a question upon which 
 men may differ. To decide either way matters little. 
 
 But human nature remains the same. A special force 
 is still needed to maintain the normal equipoise. If a 
 divide-up would harmonize business and financial rela- 
 tions and create natural conditions, it cannot be safely set 
 aside and ignored. Freed from prejudice, it awakens the 
 deepest convictions of patriotism. Thus viewed, it be- 
 comes as much a duty as though God should again make 
 known His will, as He did from Sinai, and write a com- 
 mand to divide up all property and cancel all debts across 
 the dome of the heavens. 
 
 As a political issue, a divide-up and start-even need not 
 be a wrangle of hatreds between the rich and the poor. 
 Such a measure should be instituted, not that the rich 
 are loved less, but that justice and country are loved and 
 honored more. The hatred and calumny heaped upon 
 the rich are unwarranted, and show a covetous rather than 
 a patriotic spirit. There are very few who would not be 
 rich were it within their power. The rich are no worse 
 than the poor. The rich and the poor are perhaps equally 
 selfish. Many are rich because they are honorable and 
 upright — through habits of economy, industry, and per- 
 severance. There can never be a serious conflict exclu- 
 sively between the rich and the poor. Nor is it possible 
 to condemn either and exalt the other. "ISTeither wealth 
 nor poverty gives us any clew to character or furnishes us 
 a criterion by which we may measure the soul and judge 
 of the dimensions of the man himself.'^ Legions of men 
 are well-to-do, and even rich, because they deserve to be; 
 and legions are poor because they are conscientious and 
 unselfish. The lives of many men are one long self-sacri- 
 fice, like that of Professor Agassiz, who said: "I have no 
 time to make money." On the other hand, many are 
 rich and many are poor for reasons which are neither a 
 credit nor an honor, Kiches and poverty are pften a 
 
30 OUB NATION'S NEED. 
 
 matter of birth, of circumstances, of sheer luck, or the 
 lack of it. Indeed, wealth and poverty are so haphazard 
 and inconsistent in their dealings with mankind that their 
 regulation by a force more powerful than either is made 
 imperative. 
 
 To adopt the measure, therefore, would be the enthrone- 
 ment of a principle and not an issue between classes of 
 mankind. It should be adopted because it is an impera- 
 tive requirement' of a progressive and enlightened age, 
 and not as a sentiment. It should be carried out, not that 
 some might gain, but as a matter of straightforward busi- 
 ness; not because it would bless a part, but that it is 
 necessary for the good of all; not because it is rigfht, but 
 because nothing else will meet the present demands of 
 humanity and common justice. 
 
Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even 
 BO to them. — Christ. 
 
 And thou, my country, write it on my heart — 
 Thy sons are they who nobly take thy part; 
 Who dedicates his manhood at thy shrine, 
 Wherever born, is born a son of thine. — Van Dyke. 
 
 Our Government, by its organization, is necessarily identified 
 with the interests of the people; and it relies exclusively on 
 their attachment for its durability and support. — George 
 Bancroft. 
 
 Wealth, so far as it consists in comfortable shelter, and food, 
 and raiment for all mankind, in competence for every bodily 
 want and in abundance for every mental and spiritual need, 
 is so valuable, so precious, that if any earthly object should be 
 worthy of idolatry, this might be the idol. . . . But 
 wealth as the means of an idle or voluptuous life; wealth as a 
 fosterer of pride and the petrifier of the human heart; wealth 
 as the iron rod with which to beat the poor into submission to 
 its will — this is all the curses of Pandora concentrated into 
 one. — Horace Mann. 
 
 And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance 
 on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to 
 each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor. — 
 Declaration of Independence. 
 
 All tyranny begins with denial by men to their brothers of 
 the equal use of the gifts of a common Father. So to-day the 
 monopolist, the destroyer of liberty, like Cain, his ancient pro- 
 totype, conspires against his brothers, seeking to possess him- 
 self of the favors of God bestowed equally upon all. — Gov. 
 John D. Rodgers. 
 
 . . Gather the young . . . and teach them that their 
 country has appointed only one altar and one sacrifice for all 
 her sons; and that ambition and avarice must be slain on that 
 altar, for it is consecrated to humanity. — William H. Seward. 
 
 8^ 
 
OJIB NATION'S NEED. 33 
 
 CHAPTEK II. 
 
 WHAT A DIVIDE-UP AND STAKT-EVEN WOULD INVOLVE. 
 
 To DIVIDE up all the wealth of the United States among 
 the people would not only be a radical measure, but far- 
 reaching in its influence and results. At the same time, 
 it is not difficult to comprehend, with considerable 
 definiteness, what the undertaking would involve. 
 
 There is no reason why such a measure could not be 
 instituted and carried out peacefully, systematically, 
 honestly, and thoroughly. In these respects it would 
 radically differ from what is witnessed when new condi- 
 tions are accomplished as the results of war, with its 
 attendant bloodshed and devastation of property. A com- 
 plete and universal division could be made without shed- 
 ding a drop of blood, blighting a single life, or crush- 
 ing beyond repair a single home. 
 
 The difficulties which seem to interdict the measure 
 are imaginary rather than real. It is possible at any time 
 to ascertain with marked exactness the entire possessions 
 of the United States, and to learn of what materials this 
 wealth consists. We have repeatedly measured the extent 
 of our domain, counted the number of acres and farms 
 and homes, and estimated with expert care the wealth 
 and worth of mountain, mine, and forest. 
 
 It is a part of our governmental routine at proper in- 
 tervals to investigate the more interesting developments 
 of the nation and record them. Once in each decade 
 we place upon record the number of men, the number of 
 women, and the number of children. We learn what they 
 do to earn a livelihood, what they receive for their services, 
 and what constitutes their individual possessions, so far 
 as necessary to serve the purposes of public interests. We 
 learn much regarding the social standing, the religious 
 relations, and the industrial and business enterprise of 
 
34 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 the people. We learn how many persons are born each 
 year, how many get married, and how many die. Vv^e. 
 learn approximately how many are able-bodied and capable 
 of earning a living, and how many are defective and un- 
 able to support themselves. We know how many are en- 
 gaged in the various professions, trades, and other depart- 
 ments of enterprise. We learn the number of vocations 
 and their relation to each other. We know about how 
 much business the nation is doing, the kind and quantity of 
 goods we consume ourselves, how many we send to foreign 
 lands, and how many and what kind of goods we import 
 in return. We know the natural advantages of our coun- 
 try, its resources and productions, its rivers and harvests, 
 its enterprise and its varied possibilities. We know its 
 settled principles of government, the foundations upon 
 which it rests, and the constant and loyal devotion it de- 
 mands of its citizens. 
 
 The great magnitude of our country need not materially 
 add to the difficulties attending a division of property 
 among the people. It can be truthfully claimed that the 
 United States as a whole are more completely and ac- 
 curately epitomized and estimated than is possible with 
 any of its divisions or subdivisions. We are a unit rather 
 than a collection of units. Only as an inseparable union 
 do we hold supremacy or can our possessions be measured. 
 
 The nation as a whole is also more permanent than any 
 of its parts. Not only men, but inventions, vocations, 
 laws, professions, customs, and policies of government are 
 born, serve a period of usefulness, die, and pass into his- 
 tory. But the nation as a whole, as a concrete unit, sur- 
 vives and maintains a rapid development. 
 
 According to the abstract of the census of 1890, "the 
 total true valuation of all tangible property in the United 
 States exclusive of Alaska, at the census period of 1890, 
 amounted to $65,037,091,197, of which amount $39,544,- 
 544,333 represents the value of real estate and improve- 
 ments thereon, and $25,492,546,964 that of personal prop- 
 erty, including railroads, mines, and quarries." These 
 figures represent what would be a fair selling price at the 
 time the census was taken. 
 
 The population of the United States on June 1, 1890, 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 35 
 
 as shown by tKe general enumeration for the States and 
 organized Territories, was 62,622,250. This included 
 every person and all ages. 
 
 If the total wealth was $65,037,091,197 and the total 
 population 62,622,250, the per capita wealth of the nation 
 was, therefore, a little over $1,038. To this should be 
 added about $22 in money for each individual, which 
 would make $1,060 for each man, woman, and child at 
 the last census. 
 
 The increase of wealth of the United States from 1850 
 to 1890, a period of forty years, is as follows : 
 
 Value of real and personal property in 
 
 1850 $7,135,780,228 
 
 Value of real and personal property in 
 
 1860 16,159,616,068 
 
 Value of real and personal property in 
 
 1870 30,068,518,507 
 
 Value of real and personal property in 
 
 1880 4*^,642,000,000 
 
 Value of real and personal property in 
 
 1890 65,037,091,197 
 
 The above figures show a remarkable increase of wealth. 
 It is interesting to note that the increase in value of the 
 United States was threefold greater between 1880 and 
 1890 than the entire value of the nation in 1850. In 
 other words, the gain in wealth in America during the 
 first 350 years was not one-third as great as it was during 
 the years from 1880 to 1890. One year of modern prog- 
 ress adds more to the wealth of the nation than a century 
 did in its earlier history. 
 
 The per capita wealth for the past forty years, accord- 
 ing to official census reports, is as follows: 
 
 Per capita valuation in 1850 $308 
 
 « " '' 1860 614 
 
 « « « 1870 780 
 
 '' " « 1880 870 
 
 « « « 1890 1,038 
 
86 OVR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 If the same general increase that characterized the ten 
 years between 1880 and 1890 continues, at the end of the 
 present census decade (1900) the population will be about 
 77,000,000, the wealth will be over $92,000,000,000, and 
 the per capita wealth will be not far from $1,200. 
 
 If a divide-up of property were to take place it woul ''. 
 be accompanied by various incidental reforms and adjust- 
 ments which would change, to some extent, the total valua- 
 tion of our national possessions. 
 
 For instance : there has been for many years a growing 
 demand that the Government assume ownership of mines, 
 railroads, telegraph and telephone lines, and other national 
 monopolies. There is also a similar demand that munici- 
 palities and other public bodies assume the ownership of 
 various enterprises of a public nature, such as water-works, 
 light-plants, and street-railway lines, which are now 
 largely held by private interests. In the event of a divide- 
 up a large amount of land now unimproved, especially in 
 the Western States, would become public domain. 
 
 Again : there have grown up many schemes of enterprise 
 of a questionable character which injure society and de- 
 fraud the people and are an actual menace to the public 
 good. These could during a general divide-up be con- 
 demned and forbidden in the future, without embarrass- 
 ing those who now profit by them. 
 
 On the other hand, there is a large number of enter- 
 prises which represent great actual value, but escape being 
 properly considered in census reports. These would 
 greatly augment the total valuation of the wealth of the 
 nation as usually estimated. 
 
 If the changes made balanced each other, and in the 
 adjustment between public and private interests property 
 to the value of $15,000,000,000 (which must be considered 
 a liberal allowance) were transferred from the realm of 
 private property to public ownership, there would remain, 
 based upon the prospects for 1900, wealth to the value of 
 $77,000,000,000, or $1,000 in property for each man, 
 woman, and child in the nation. 
 
 It is evident, therefore, that if a general and universal 
 divide-up of property were made it would consist in the 
 Government, through the exercise of its inherent and 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 37 
 
 sovereign powers, assuming, for the time being, absolute 
 control of all property and wealth, and with the exception 
 of natural monopolies, which would become national. 
 State, county, and municipal possessions, making a fair, 
 impartial, and judicious division of the same among all 
 the people. And it is quite evident that the share of each 
 individual would consist of property the value of which 
 would not be far from $1,000. 
 
 A divide-up would not be honest, American, or even 
 possible unless it were made general, complete, and equi- 
 table. No matter what the race or color of a person be or 
 what the previous condition, if he or she is by birth or 
 adoption a legal subject or citizen, such an one, in all 
 fairness and justice, is entitled to an equal share. Were 
 favors shown, there are many reasons why they should 
 be given to those who apparently least deserve them. In 
 running a race it is the swiftest-footed that are handi- 
 capped. There are men who could start with nothing and 
 eventually surpass in achievement others who had much 
 to start with. An even division, "share and share alike" 
 so far as possible, and without favor or distinction, except 
 to conform to good judgment and discretion, would be the 
 only practical, wise, and just method to pursue. 
 
 Of course^ the discussion of the measure would give 
 rise to many perplexing questions. All great measures 
 do this. Some would oppose giving the same value to an 
 infant as to an adult; others would object to giving the 
 same amount to an ignorant and indifferent family with a 
 flock of unpromising children as to those more worthy 
 and highly cultured. Many would see in the wide range 
 of property values, running from the hovel to the palace, 
 apparent insurmountable difficulties in making an equal 
 division of property with fairness to all. A thousand 
 impossibilities would be seen by opposers. Some would 
 think that a graded apportionment should apply to chil- 
 dren. While it might not seem fair to include childhood 
 in an equal distribution, yet by doing so twenty-one years 
 would be given in which to solve those problems con- 
 nected with the rights and needs of oncoming generations. 
 While giving to the ignorant and indifferent an equal 
 share in a divide-up would cause much to be sacrificed, yet 
 
38 OUB NATION'S NEED, 
 
 the loss would be many times compensated for in the 
 aroused manhood and womanhood that would result. That 
 the existence of palaces and hovels would embarrass an 
 equal division of property, none can deny. For years 
 wealth has been tearing down and building larger, while 
 poverty has been shifting as best it could. The nation 
 has become a jumble of financial monstrosities. But these 
 extremes represent abuses in need of correction. Men 
 die every day in houses their children cannot afford to 
 keep up and occupy. When properly viewed, the very 
 things that seem to prohibit a divide-up are conditions 
 which a division of property, and it alone, will remedy 
 and cure. One of the astonishing features of our large 
 towns and cities now is the great number of dwelling 
 houses, intended for families of the middle class, stand- 
 ing empty, while there are not enough hovels and flats and 
 avenue palaces to meet the demand. If a leveling of 
 wealth filled up these medium-sized but vacant houses 
 and built more like them and emptied both extremes, it 
 would be a vast improvement over what now exists. 
 
 It would not only be a duty to make a thorough and 
 honest distribution of property, but to see that each allot- 
 ment were legally secured to the owner. If property to 
 the value of $1,000 represented each person's share, this 
 amount should be given to every man or woman of full 
 age, to be accepted by them and subject to their absolute 
 legal control. Every married couple would receive prop- 
 erty to the value of $2,000 and, in addition, the value of 
 $1,000 for each child in the family. Every orphan child 
 would receive, through a legally authorized guadianship, 
 the value of $1,000. 
 
 Defective, helpless, incapable persons, through special 
 provisions, should receive the benefit of their apportion- 
 ment. What would otherwise go directly to these persons 
 could be represented by substantial profit-producing in- 
 vestments, and the income therefrom to be used for their 
 support in such institutions as are essential to the best 
 welfare and comfort of those who, through physical or 
 mental defects, are rendered unfortunate. The shares of^ 
 all criminals in custody should be held in trust, and when 
 each has served his sentence and is set at liberty he should 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 39 
 
 receive his portion. There is also a considerable number 
 of persons who, although incapable of managing their own 
 affairs to good advantage, are nevertheless harmless and 
 useful members of society. The property of such persons 
 could also be in the form of well-secured and paying in- 
 vestments, and the income of the same, through duly 
 authorized guardianships used for their support. The 
 aged and infirm and invalid classes comprise a large num- 
 ber in the aggregate, and the same kind of investments 
 would be appropriate for them. All of these would 
 absorb no little property, and such wealth as large office 
 buildings and mammoth business blocks in towns and cities 
 could be appropriated in this way. 
 
 When the process of dividing-up had been completed 
 and the new order of things become effective, there is no 
 reason why a rapid adjustment of affairs would not follow. 
 It could scarcely be called a revolution. The people would 
 become so absorbed in their new environments and in the 
 future that they would forget the past. The blessings of 
 sunshine and rain would continue. Spring, summer, 
 autumn, and winter would follow each other the same as 
 now. But until some one should be dishonest or recreant 
 to his duty, there would not be a destitute man, woman, 
 or child in the United States — ^not one. Nor would there 
 be a rich person until riches had been earned — not one. 
 Every legitimate American would be worth property to the 
 value of $1,000, and the possessions of every family would 
 be wealth commensurate with its numbers. 
 
 Financially all would be upon an equitable basis. None 
 would be so independent as to live without labor or effort 
 of some kind. STone would be dependent entirely upon 
 toil for food and shelter. Those who are now rich, would 
 be shorn of the power that money can buy and would find 
 it necessary to become useful, and those who are now 
 enslaved to capital and humiliated by poverty would be 
 given what is the natural and legitimate birthright of 
 every man, woman, and child born upon America's beloved 
 and free soil — a visible chance to life, liberty, and the 
 pursuit of happiness. 
 
Moreover, the profit of the earth is for all. — Solomon". 
 
 Have love. Not love alone for one. 
 But man, as man, thy brother call; 
 
 And scatter, like the circling sun, 
 Thy charities on all. — Schiller. 
 
 When the struggle assumes the form of a contest with power 
 in all its subtlety or with undermining or corrupting wealth, 
 as it some time may, rather than with turbulence, sedition, or 
 upon aggression by the needy and desperate, it will be indis- 
 pensable to employ still greater diligence; to cherish earnest- 
 ness of purpose, resoluteness in conduct; to apply hard and con- 
 stant blows to real abuses, rather than milk-and-water remedies, 
 and encourage not only bold, free, and original thinking, but 
 determined action. — Levi Woodbury. 
 
 Vast tracts of our domain, not simply the public domain or 
 frontier, but in some of our nearer States, are passing into the 
 hands of wealthy foreigners. . . . This evil requires early 
 attention, and that Congress should, by law, restrain the acquisi- 
 tion of such tracts of land by aliens. Our policy should be 
 small farms worked by men who own them. — Benjamin Harri- 
 son. 
 
 And now, wealth, learning, statesmanship, law and religion, 
 as well as labor, are unceasingly seeking for settlement that 
 will be in accordance with the divine law, with the greatest 
 good to all ; and that will give prosperity to society, justice to 
 the individual, and stability to the state. — ^H. W. Cadman, 
 (Prize Essay). 
 
 ' The universal blunder of this world is in thinking that there 
 are certain persons put into the world to govern and certain 
 others to obey. Everybody is in the world to govern and 
 everybody to obey. There are no benefactors and no beneficiar- 
 ies in distinct classes. Every man is at once both benefactor 
 and beneficiary. — Phillips Brooks. 
 
 40 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 41 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 HOW COULD IT BE DONE? 
 
 Would it be possible to divide up and start even? 
 
 Yes. 
 
 The chief reason, no doubt, why the measure has not 
 been oftener discussed is because people imagine that it 
 would be impossible to carry it out. But it would not be 
 an extraordinarily difficult thing to do. There are other 
 measures now being pressed by political parties quite as 
 difficult to establish as a divide-up would be. 
 
 A nation, in some respects, has characteristics in com- 
 mon with the individual, and one of them is: it is easier 
 to undergo a wholesale reform than to reform in a single 
 spot. To correct a life is an easier matter than to abandon 
 a habit. To adopt a sweeping, radical change is not so 
 difficult as it is to uproot a single evil. Eevolutions have 
 made history, while the lap of time is filled with dead re- 
 forms. 
 
 There are many reasons why it would be easier to bring 
 to pass a divide-up of property among all the people thjn 
 it would be to materially change, as an isolated reform, 
 our financial system, to prohibit the liquor traffic, or bring 
 about the public ownership of railroads and other natural 
 monopolies. These things, desirable as they may be, lack 
 the essential motive power. Every defeated wrong in his- 
 tory shows that there was a great motive force that im- 
 pelled volunteers ' to storm its forts and invade the as- 
 sumed rights of its friends. Behind the proposition to 
 divide up and start even are the forfeited rights of 50,- 
 000,000 people. It would mean the restoration to these 
 people of $50,000,000,000 in property that justly belongs 
 to themx. It would mean business prosperity in the future 
 to the whole country. The question would possess both 
 the force of motive and the momentum of magnitude. 
 
42 OTIB NATIOI^'S NEED. 
 
 It would be a political question. In its scope it would 
 be local, state and national. It wonld of necessity oper- 
 ate through political channels supported by a platform 
 which proclaimed and advocated the principles involved. 
 It is the proper mission and legitimate function of a 
 political movement to embody some definite principle or 
 plan of action in its platform and to submit the same to 
 the people for adoption or rejection at the ballot-box. It 
 is the highest privilege of citizenship to express convic- 
 tions and desires regarding political policies on election 
 day, and a duty, no less exalted, is to give "absolute 
 acquiescence in the decisions of the majority," which Jef- 
 ferson has placed as one of the fixed stars in the bright 
 constellation of principles that illumine our national path- 
 way. So expressed and so voted upon it would establish, 
 beyond all controversy, the universally accepted but much- 
 abused doctrine that this is "a government of the people, 
 for the people, and by the people." 
 
 To carry out a divide-up and start-even would require 
 the election and installation into office of a majority of 
 the members of our national Congress pledged to the adop- 
 tion of the measure. Congress alone would have the right 
 to proceed. In its official aspects it would resemble a 
 civil war. Although no war would attend its operation, 
 from a governmental standpoint it would be a war meas- 
 ure. Except in the absence of the implements of warfare, 
 the two measures are identical. 
 
 War, in its intent and issues, "is governmental disci- 
 pline to protect the national life and to secure the guar- 
 anteed rights of the people." This is exactly the motive 
 and intent of a divide-up and start-even. 
 
 Men will diligently labor to invent more destructive 
 implements of warfare, and it should be no less a duty 
 to invent more effective implements of peace. When cor- 
 poral punishment is prohibited in school, discipline con- 
 tinues to rule; and when the bloodshed and wholesale de- 
 struction of war shall end, it is not to be expected that 
 governmental authority to exact justice among the people 
 shall cease. The fact that the Constitution invests Con- 
 gress with the "right to declare war" gives it the right to 
 9^c|aT§ popie other pae^sure that will^ better than i^ar^ 
 
OUB NATION'S NEED. 43 
 
 answer the purpose of some desirable end, although 
 powder and bullets, bayonets and swords are not em- 
 ployed to enforce its decrees. To deny Congress this right 
 would make of war the Ultima Thule of government and 
 forestall the advancement of civilization. 
 
 It would further resemble a war measure in the per- 
 formance of the task. It would require the services of 
 from 2,000,000 to 3,000,000 men in the various depart- 
 ments connected with the work. This vast army of men 
 would be under the direct jurisdiction of the Government. 
 It would require that every state, every county, and every 
 township, ward, or school district be organized. 
 
 Men of sterling character, good judgment, and unswerv- 
 ing integrity should be chosen to perform the task. Per- 
 sons specially familiar with each branch of industry, class 
 of property and commodities should inspect and adjust 
 any variation from a fair and uniform estimate that might 
 be found placed upon values. 
 
 It need not be a difficult matter to select the number of 
 men necessary to perform the task. Were Congress to 
 order an election to be held in every voting precinct in the 
 United States, to elect at least 10 per cent, of the citizens 
 in each, nearly 1,500,000 men would at once be legally 
 authorized to proceed with the work. 
 
 These locally elected committees could, in turn, elect 
 township, city, and county committees, and these in like 
 manner could elect state and national boards. These 
 various committees and boards could employ such helpers, 
 either professional, expert, or clerical, as would be neces- 
 sary to best perform the duties involved. In this manner 
 the task could be systematically and intelligently inaugu- 
 rated and thoroughly carried out. While the work would 
 be monumental in proportions, it need not be difficult in 
 execution. 
 
 One of the first and important things to be done would 
 be to fix the exact day and hour at which the new con- 
 ditions should become binding and in force. At least one 
 year from the commencement of proceedings should be al- 
 lowed in which to perform the details connected with the 
 ivork. 
 
 J^ the pieantim^ buiinesg^ labor^ §n4 the various iiidus^ 
 
44 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 tries and enterprises might continue jnst the same as if no 
 change were going to take place. Merchants should con- 
 tinue to buy and sell^ manufacturers should keep the 
 wheels of industry turning, the farmer plant and garner 
 his crops, and the artist and artisan, the editor and the 
 minister, the teacher and the servant should continue 
 their various dutes. Interference with the natural 
 processes of the various activities and industries might be 
 so avoided that the proceedings would escape all ordinary 
 observation. In the building of this new temple of lib- 
 erty the sound of the hammer need not be heard. 
 
 To insure every one absolute fairness, and in order to 
 counteract any dishonesty attending the measure, the com- 
 mittees might remain in force for one year following the 
 division and continue to hold full martial or military 
 powers. In this way all dishonesty or unjust advantages, 
 either acidental or willful, could be rectified. 
 
 A requirement of supreme importance would be to make 
 an accurate, thorough, and uniform appraisement of the 
 value of all the property, both personal and real, in the 
 United States. Definite and uniform rules _ and regula- 
 tions should apply to all sections of the country. Aside 
 from local committees, specially qualified persons, in suf- 
 ficient numbers to thoroughly cover the field, should travel 
 from place to place to insure uniformity and fairness to 
 all. Each branch of industry and each kind of merchan- 
 dise should be thus inspected by men familiar with the 
 line represented. 
 
 All persons would, of course, be required, under the 
 most stringent regulations, to give a full and complete 
 report of all belongings. All gold and silver coin would, 
 of necessity, be demanded and held by the Government 
 for the time being, and only paper money used until the 
 day officially set for the adoption of the new administra- 
 tion. All misrepresentation and fraud should be subject 
 to proper punishment. 
 
 An important matter would be to decide what individual 
 possessions would be exempt in making the appraisement. 
 Of course personal clothing would not be included, nor, 
 with rare exceptions, household furniture. Among those 
 things which YiovldL not as a rule be considered are tools 
 
OUB NATION'S NEED, 45 
 
 owned and used by carpenters and other mechanics in se- 
 curing a livelihood, instruments and libraries of profes- 
 sional men, farming implements and such live-stock as 
 are used exclusively for individual or family purposes, 
 and outfits generally which pertain to individual or family 
 employment. It would, however, be necessary to place a 
 reasonable limit to all such possessions and require obedi- 
 ence to such rules as would best insure fairness to all. 
 That the jewels and ornaments of many rich persons are 
 in themselves a fortune, and that the furnishings of some 
 households are of immense value, are facts not to be over- 
 looked and which would require special adjustment. 
 
 As a part of the programme, it would be required that 
 new dies be made for coin, and that all gold, silver, and 
 other metallic money be recoined at the mints. None of 
 our present coin would be used after the division took 
 place, and any coin now in use discovered after such 
 division, unless it came from a foreignsland, would belong 
 to the Grovernment. 
 
 An entirely new supply of paper money would also be 
 required, its use to begin simultaneously with the new 
 order of things. The paper money now in use might be 
 continued until the day upon which the new money should 
 come into use, when the present paper money would be- 
 come counterfeit, and any person trying to pass it would 
 be guilty of a crime. This would entirely prevent fraud 
 as far as paper money is concerned, and reduce dishon- 
 esty in the use of gold, silver, and small coins to a mini- 
 mum. To prevent fraud in the use of postage stamps and 
 postal cards, new designs could be printed, those now in 
 use to be worthless after the change took place. 
 
 In order to facilitate the distribution of property 
 among the people it could well be represented by printed 
 certificates. They should be uniform and specific in char- 
 acter. Those representing personal propert}^ might well 
 be placed at $25 and those representing real estate at $50 
 each. Upon the face of each certificate should be stated 
 specifically the exact property it represented. When the 
 division had been completed each person would be entitled 
 to the property his certificates called for, possession to take 
 effect upon the official day as named. 
 
46 OUB WATION'8 NEED. 
 
 To illustrate the advantage of issuing certificates: sup- 
 pose a family of four were assigned a business and a home, 
 or a farm, the value of which had been placed at $3,500. 
 This family would be entitled to $500 worth of certificates 
 calling for their face value in some other propert}^ But 
 suppose the business and home or farm were valued at 
 $4,500. Then some one else would be given the surplus 
 certificates and they would have a legal claim against the 
 property specified upon their face. In this way the cer- 
 tificates would facilitate the equalization of allotments, 
 and the holders of them would be expected to protect their 
 own interests after the division had been pronounced ef- 
 fective. The parties holding a majority of certificates 
 representing any particular property would be entitled to 
 a warranty deed for the same when presented to the coun- 
 ty clerk of the county in which it was located. And any 
 one holding less than a majority of certificates would be 
 entitled to an official first claim when presented to the 
 county clerk in the same way. In the case of certificates 
 representing large concerns, such as department stores or 
 manufacturing plants, they could be construed as so much 
 stock, according to the system now prevailing. 
 
 Another important duty would be to enumerate and 
 classify the people. For this purpose only men of known 
 integrity and good judgment should be chosen. Tkeir 
 duties would consist in numbering all the people within 
 the nation carefully and accurately, reporting the age, sex, 
 nativity, and occupation of each, and deciding whether, 
 by birth or adoption, each one were entitled to a share in 
 the nation's wealth. It would be required that profes- 
 sional aids decide concerning those incapable of managing 
 their own affairs. A uniform and reliable system should 
 be adopted providing each locality with responsible guar- 
 dianship over those who for any reason are incapable of 
 accepting and managing their allotments. And the same 
 system would apply to all children who are orphans or 
 who desire guardianship. And it should be the duty of 
 these committees to exclude all persons who are not genu- 
 ine legal Americans. 
 
 In the distribution of allotments, it is plainly apparent 
 th^t the grea,test wisdorp. and Justice filioiiM be shoTO? iThf 
 
OUB NATION'S NEED. 47 
 
 highest integrity and the best common sense would be re- 
 quired to measure up to the high level of duty here im- 
 perative. Those who now own a home, or a business, or 
 other property should, of course, be given an option upon 
 such as they possess and occupy. Those who labor in fac- 
 tories or in other places where wealth is invested should 
 be given an option on that to which they are devoting their 
 skill, time, and energy. While special conditions, circum- 
 stances, and personal adaptation should, in a measure, in- 
 fluence the distribution of property, the final and supreme 
 power to decide, in case of controversy, should be vested 
 entirely in those charged with the division, and not left to 
 the recipient. 
 
 Aside from the stupendous magnitude of the undertak- 
 ing there is nothing extraordinary about a divide-up and 
 start-even. The duties involved are not at all uncommon. 
 It is going on every day through orphans' courts. Such 
 duties are being fulfilled constantly in settling estates, in 
 the exchange of property, in collecting census statistics, 
 and in assessments made for taxes and for other purposes. 
 It might be claimed that once during each generation the 
 property of the country is subjected to such a change. The 
 entire process is susceptible of being executed in a manner 
 deserving the most implicit confidence. 
 
 It is to be observed that a divide-up simply compels a 
 general average. It takes the superabundance from the 
 few rich. It gives it to the many who now have little or 
 nothing. A large number of families would not materially 
 gain or lose. There is a large number of farmers, small 
 merchants, mechanics, professional men, and those en- 
 gaged in vocations where industry and economy are en- 
 couraged — who escape the slavery of wage servitude on the 
 one hand and the crushing effect of overgrown competition 
 on the other — who possess already a fair general average 
 of wealth. 
 
 The disparity of wealth is much greater in the cities 
 than in rural districts. The farmers of the country, as a 
 class, would gain by the measure. It would result in the 
 subdivision of many farms, especially of the "bonanza 
 farms" of the West. But to do this should be a part of our 
 organic law regardless of a divide-up of property^ in order 
 
48 OUR NATION' 8 NEED. 
 
 to give new recruits an opportunity. There ought to be a 
 limit to the amount of land that one person may own, and 
 such a law will necessarily at some time force itself into 
 adoption. 
 
 A uniform rule should apply to the size and value of 
 farms. When a farm should require dividing into two or 
 more allotments, or perhaps two farms into three allot- 
 ments by taking a portion from each, the present owners 
 should be given that part supplied with buildings, while 
 young men and young women should be given the unim- 
 proved portion. In sparsely settled sections, where large 
 tracts of land are held for speculation, it should revert to 
 the governm^ent or to the state in which it is located and 
 be held for future settlers. 
 
 The most revolutionary changes would take place in the 
 ownership and control of large manufacturing concerns 
 and business enterprises. V/hat is nov/ a manufacturing 
 plant worth $1,000,000 and employing 1,000 persons, but 
 owned by a corporation consisting of a few stockholders, 
 would become the property of a thousand men who do not 
 now own a dollar's worth of stock, but who do all the work. 
 The present stockholders would become fellow-members 
 with the rest. If a large store carries a stock of $100,000 
 and employs 100 clerks, these clerks would become the 
 proprietors, and the present owners would be placed upon 
 an equality with those now under them. 
 
 If the former owners of factories and stores were in 
 reality suited to fill official positions and manage business 
 acceptably, they would, in most instances, be chosen to con- 
 tinue in the capacity of managers. In most instances the 
 residences of the present owners and officials of large con- 
 cerns would doubtless be retained as a part of the plant, 
 and under the new order of things they would become the 
 "executive residence" and the residences of the chief of- 
 ficials, to be occupied by them during terms of office. 
 
 With the exception, therefore, that the management and 
 profits of these large concerns would be transferred to their 
 natural and legitimate owners — the workers — there would 
 not be many revolutionary changes. It would be the duty 
 of those employed in these large concerns, in anticipation 
 of the new order of things^ to organize and elect officers 
 
OVB NATION '8 NEED. 49 
 
 and make such arrangements as might be required to con- 
 tinue business without any interruption. 
 
 There is a great number of private residences in large 
 towns and cities that would, under the new order of things, 
 be entirely too expensive for private ownership. No private 
 individual could afford to live in them. These could, with 
 their chief contents, be reserved for public purposes, and 
 they would serve a real need under the new conditions, as 
 will be shown in a future chapter. All theaters, opera- 
 houses, public halls, club-houses, large hotels, and other 
 buildings used for social, educational, and amusement 
 purposes would cease to be private property. As a revolu- 
 tion would take place in the habits of men, the Govern- 
 ment would assume ownership of all distilleries and brew- 
 eries and of all materials connected with the license sys- 
 tem. While land in rural districts, if unappropriated, 
 wonild revert to the government or the state in which it 
 were located, that in incorporated cities and towns, except 
 such as would be needed for public purposes, such as post- 
 offices, etc., should become the property of the munici- 
 pality. 
 
 While it should be the endeavor to make a complete 
 division and give to every one at the time a proper allot- 
 ment of tangible property, yet there are numerous in- 
 stances where this would be difficult to carry out in a wise 
 and practicable manner. For instance, there are many 
 children and young people who belong to this class. To 
 meet such cases a government certificate could be issued 
 the same as bonds are now, to bear interest and to be pay- 
 able at legal age. Public debts of all kinds now amount 
 to over $2,000,000,000. This is equal to the share of over 
 2,000,000 persons in a divide-up, and the Government 
 could issue this amount, or even more, of such certificates 
 with perfect safety. A large share of them would be re- 
 deemed in land, the later appropriaton of which would 
 admit of better judgment than possible at the time the 
 division occurred. 
 
 While the vast army of men elected for the purpose 
 were appraising property, enumerating the people, and ar- 
 ranging for the distribution of wealth, the Government 
 should be coining and printing a new supply of money. 
 
50 OXIB NATION'S NEED. 
 
 In the meantime a perfect financial and banking system 
 shonld be adopted. Every bank, under a new and per- 
 fected banking law, should be provided with new money 
 sufficient to supply those within its official territory. At 
 least $50 for each adult and $25 for each minor should be 
 deposited in bank and officially assigned and apportioned 
 to each person individually, in addition to the $1,000 
 worth of property. This money should be subject to the 
 check of the persons to whom it was assigned or to the 
 check of their legal representatives. By this means every 
 man would have in bank, subject to his check upon the ar- 
 rival of the official day, the sum of $50, or $100 for him- 
 self and wife and $25 extra for each of his children. 
 
 The large increase of public ownership of natural 
 monopolies would call for a corresponding supply of 
 money as operating capital. To properly supply this need 
 would require not less than $1,000,000,000 in cash in ad- 
 dition to that given to individuals. It would be thrust 
 into circulation through the medium of public enter- 
 prises. By this method more than twice as much money 
 would at once be in actual circulation as there is at 
 present. 
 
 As an essential contingency of a divide-up,, it would 
 be incumbent upon the general Government to assume the 
 full payment of all debts that might be due to foreign na- 
 tions or to citizens of foreign nations. This is the only 
 debt that would survive in the United States. Our entire 
 foreign indebtedness, regardless of its nature, should be 
 paid in full. This does not apply, however, to speculative 
 investments by foreigners in this country. Our nation is 
 abundantly able to pay its honest debts, and every cent 
 due in foreign countries should be paid in lawful money, 
 full value. 
 
 Another contingency that would arise is to properly 
 acknowledge the just claims of those advanced in years. 
 All men over sixtj^-five and all women over fifty-five years 
 of age should be granted a pension. We would not, except 
 in a few instances, be under more obligations to the old 
 than we are now, but we would begin to be honest, and 
 the aged deserve a comfortable support. Besides, were aid 
 extended to the old, the most of them would quit the field 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 51 
 
 of enterprise, and this wonld greatly improve the advan- 
 tages of the young. It will be a happy condition to our 
 business and financial interests if it ever becomes a set- 
 tled policy for men to retire after a reasonable period of 
 service. By encouraging the young as new recruits, the 
 aged would justly merit an assurance of life's comforts 
 during their declining years, and the younger generations 
 could well afford to grant them. 
 
 It would also be just and proper that pensions be 
 granted, within certain limitations, to correspond with the 
 customs, habits, and past usefulness of those receiving 
 them. Various considerations determine the amount of 
 war pensions, and a parallel principle could, with equal 
 justice, apply to pensions granted on account of political 
 reforms in which no war occurred. After all, pensions 
 are not so burdensome as many imagine. They are a 
 tremendous factor in promoting the circulation of money. 
 To a certain extent they are a direct benefit to business 
 and general prosperity. 
 
 Before the day appointed upon which the new dispensa- 
 tion is to begin the entire task should be finished. The 
 new conditions should be welcomed as the will of a pa- 
 triotic people and as the supreme law of a sovereign na- 
 tion. 
 
 The arrival of the official day should find all prepared 
 for it. Each person should know exactly what is to be 
 his. No matter whether it be what is now a millionaire or 
 a pauper, a belle or a washerwoman, a college professor 
 or an ignorant occupant of an obscure hut, each person 
 should hold in his or her possession that which calls for 
 what is to be his or her legal property. The money of 
 each man, woman, and child should be in the bank of his 
 or her choice, and each should hold a deposit-book show- 
 ing the amount. The discrepancies in values in business 
 caused by depleting or increasing stock should be adjusted. 
 Every person should know what his plans and purposes 
 are for the future. The post-offices should have a supply 
 of newly prepared postage stamps and postal cards. All 
 the details of a divide-up being completed, it should be a 
 time of peace on earth and ffood-will toward men. 
 
 The day appointed is reached and passes slowly. The 
 
52 OVR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 hour arrives ! The clocks herald the moment ! A new 
 era dawns ! Every man^ woman, and child in the United 
 States is worth a respectable home. Every mortgage is 
 canceled. Every debt is forgiven. Every account-book is 
 swept clean. There is no starving childhood, no neglected 
 among the aged. Every man has money in the bank. 
 Prosperity dawns. A new freedom is born. The long- 
 prayed-for kingdom begins. Eejoicing echoes through the 
 hills and over the plains, and the land is filled with glad- 
 ness. The day of jubilee is at hand. 
 
Provide things honest in the sight of all men. — ^Paxjl. 
 
 But right is right, since God is God; 
 
 And right the day must win; 
 To doubt would be disloyalty, 
 
 To falter would be sin! — Fabee. 
 
 What do gentlemen mean by coming forward and declaring 
 against this Government? Why do they say that we ought 
 to limit its power and destroy its capacity for blessing the 
 people? Has philosophy suggested, has experience taught, that 
 such a government ought not to be intrusted with everything 
 necessary for the good of society? . . . when, in short, you 
 have rendered your system as perfect as human forms can be 
 — you must place confidence and you must give power. — 
 Alexander Hamilton. 
 
 Happy is that country, and only that country, where the 
 laws are not only just and equal, but supreme and irresistible, 
 where selfish interests and disorderly passions are curbed by 
 an arm to which they must submit. — Joseph Hopkinson. 
 
 Let us seek liberty and peace under the law, and, following 
 the pathway of our fathers, preserve the great legacy they have 
 committed to our keeping. — James A. Garfield. 
 
 It would seem to be a self-evident proposition that the price 
 of land, all other things being equal, is governed by the popu- 
 lation on the land, or near it. That is what makes property in 
 cities so valuable. It naturally follows from this that where 
 population increases rapidly prices should similarly advance. 
 And within certain limitations I believe this will be found the 
 case. — Ex-President Benjamin Harrison. 
 
 There is much to be said in favor of the right of the creator 
 of just wealth to leave it to whom he pleases, and much more 
 for its limitation. It is impossible to limit the natural gifts or 
 disabilities with which we are born, but it might be possible, 
 and without injustice, to restrict each one's individual share 
 of the world's wealth. — H. W. Cadman ($1,000 Prize Essay in 
 Cfiristian Unity ) . 
 
 Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society, 
 and any departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under 
 the suspicion of being no policy at all. — Burke. 
 
 54 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 55 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 WOULD IT BE HOIiTEST TO DIVIDE UP? 
 
 The very instant the question of dividing the wealth 
 of the nation among all the people enters the mind, it is 
 confronted with the inquiry, Would it be honest ? Were it 
 to become an issue in politics it wonld be heroically as- 
 sailed as infamy and repndiation. Perhaps nothing has 
 been more vehemently opposed than a divide-np would be. 
 Men would cry "fraud V^ "repudiation !" "rogues !" 
 "thieves V and pollute the air with opprobrium. But men 
 have always acted thus. The rich would proclaim "the 
 divine rights of ownership" and shout "thou shalt not 
 steal" until they were hoarse. But bold indictments have 
 always been hurled at progressive reform. And at no 
 time will men so strain at a gnat and swallow a camel as 
 when dealing out precepts upon honesty for their fellows 
 while practicing it to suit themselves. 
 
 Genuine honesty is not only a precious, but a pure 
 jewel. It admits of no adulteration. It cannot be imi- 
 tated. It is the basic principle of civilization. It is the 
 aim and the end of law. "Thou shalt not steal" is an 
 epitome of all the statute books of Christendom. 
 
 It is dishonest for one man to wilfully rob another of 
 the value of one cent. He who commits such an act is a 
 thief. Ko man or number of men, under the guise of any 
 pretext whatever, can claim the right to take the property 
 of another and appropriate it as their own. Lazarus, as 
 we understand the principles of honesty, had no right to 
 steal the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table; and 
 no man, although he may be working long hours at starva- 
 tion wages for the most crushing and soulless corporation, 
 can claim the right to swerve from the most rigid adher- 
 ence to the highest standards of integrity. No matter how 
 beneficent, how desirable, or how loudly vaunted a general 
 
56 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 divide-up might be, such a measure must be condemned 
 unless it be honest. That which costs honor is unworthy 
 the price, no matter what blessings it may bestow. 
 
 Moreover, honesty is an omnipotent principle. It^can- 
 not be contracted to a narrow compass. It has a mission 
 of its own; and while all must obey its precepts, it, in re- 
 turn, must reign universal. It is no respecter of persons. 
 It is the arbiter between right and wrong. "Thou shalt 
 not steal'^ is only a part of its legal code. Let us learn 
 that honesty strikes deep and reaches afar. Genuine hon- 
 esty does not sanction that which is unless it harmonizes 
 with that which ought to be. Eeal honesty never brands 
 patriotic effort as repudiation and infamy while Just resti- 
 tution, dead and forgotten, slumbers in its grave. 
 
 Our Grovernment was founded and is based upon these 
 broader and deeper principles of honesty. It was the in- 
 tent of our fathers to insure to all the people equality be- 
 fore the law and absolute liberty in the legitimate pursuits 
 of life. In admitting that this is a government "of the 
 people, for the people, and by the people,^^ we must also 
 admit that the people rule^ and that their interests in the 
 form of "a more perfect union^' are the legitimate and 
 highest aim of governmental action. While the people as 
 individuals make the laws, the people as a collective unit 
 are the law itself. The Constitution, sacred as it is, is 
 their instrument. "We, the people,^^ are the sovereign, 
 the supreme power, the ruling force. Thus constituted 
 and empowered, it is the sacred duty and should be the 
 honest purpose of the people to go forth from one degree 
 of progress to another until every home, so far as patriotic 
 devotion and just laws can favor, has been made happy 
 and every life has been assured its proper reward. 
 
 We have not yet been sufficiently schooled to be able to 
 judge what is exactly honest and what is not regarding 
 the ownership of property in a free country like ours. Our 
 Government is not a century and a quarter old. Time 
 enough has not yet elapsed to learn what laws are best in 
 relation to property. The nation is too young, even now, 
 to establish immutable statutes regarding individual pos- 
 sessions. These questions are a work that requires not 
 only profound wisdom, but time and lessons of experience. 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 57 
 
 If laws have existed which failed to protect the weak 
 from the strong and the good from the bad, and, in con- 
 sequence, unnatural diversities of wealth have resulted 
 that are manifestly unjust and vicious to the common 
 good, the only honest alternative is to remove these con- 
 ditions by a peaceful and equitable adjustment and sup- 
 plant the inefficient laws by those that will prevent, as far 
 as possible, vicious and unfair conditions from occurring 
 in the future. The most sincere statesmen sometimes pass 
 unwise laws, and what is a wholesome law at one time 
 may soon become a veritable loophole for the adroit ma- 
 nipulator. It is not only dishonesty, but political imbecil- 
 ity, to perpetuate laws that have proved impracticable or 
 that have ceased to be useful and have become a shield for 
 the avaricious, simply because they have come down to us 
 from the past. 
 
 And genuine honesty would go a step further : it would, 
 as far as possible, correct conditions resulting from the 
 existence of a bad law. The same facts would apply to the 
 lack of any laws at all where they should have been pro- 
 vided, and also to customs and practices in business and 
 enterprise which are inherently wrong, but which have 
 been sanctioned by popular endurance. 
 
 When an unjust condition exists it is an evidence that a 
 wrong has been committed, and honesty demands that 
 every wrong, if possible, be corrected. To claim that gov- 
 ernment has no right to correct accumulated injustice, in- 
 cluding the unjust possession of wealth, is to deny it the 
 privilege of correcting its own mistakes and shortcomings. 
 It at once makes of the people not masters of the present, 
 but slaves of the past. 
 
 Common honesty and national interests demand not 
 only radical and organic changes now, but will in the 
 future, no doubt, demand many changes in our funda- 
 mental laws and in our financial and industrial systems 
 before all the "unalienable rights" of posterity are so ex- 
 pressed and established as to defy the natural and capri- 
 cious events of time. 
 
 For several decades the desire iG grow rich has been 
 almost an outlaw in our country. Perhaps the world has 
 never witnessed such an unbridled stampede for the goal 
 
58 0^772 NATION' 8 NBED. 
 
 of gain. Our growth of wealth since the War of the Re- 
 bellion has been remarkable and without a parallel. The 
 war opened up a new financial era in our country. During 
 the past census decade the wealth of the United States 
 increased over $20,000^000^000. We are growing rich at 
 the rate of over $2,000,000,000 annually, or over $5,000,- 
 000 for every day in the year. But in the distribution of 
 this v/ealth Fortune has been as wild and reckless as 
 though she were to harness the winds to scatter her treas- 
 ures. 
 
 Admitting the most liberal construction to be placed 
 upon present conditions, the fact remains that they are ac- 
 cursedly wrong. The great middle class, which has made 
 American history conspicuously progressive and noble, is 
 not only being shadowed, but is threatened with extinction. 
 Says the editor of the Philadelphia Public Ledger: "Will 
 it go on until the independent middle class, on which the 
 stability of the country depends, is all wiped out, and the 
 population consists only of a few employers and a great 
 army of employed, with its inevitable and distressful fol- 
 lowing of unemployed ?'' 
 
 The false theory that "whatever is is right'' seems to 
 condone these unnatural conditions and the unjust freaks 
 of fortune which are sure to follow. The fact that "pos- 
 session is nine points of the law,'' although it lacks ten 
 points of being honest, is sufficient to subdue legions of 
 men into submission to tryanny even of the most despotic 
 kind. Human nature is so constructed that man never 
 bears and forbears so patiently as when he is himself the 
 victim. Slavery seldom visibly deplores its misery or shows 
 the essential courage to win its ov/n freedom. 
 
 It is only by long and intimate association that we have 
 become tolerant of conditions as they to-day exist. Sup- 
 pose our forefathers, instead of forming ^ republic, had 
 established a communism in the United States, and instead 
 of individual possession the wealth of the nation had been 
 held in common until the present time. And suppose the 
 people, weary of the monotony of communistic routine, 
 had decided to divide all property among the people and 
 establish individual ownership; that laws had been passed 
 to this effect and men appointed to carry them out by; 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 59 
 
 dividing the land, and houses, and goods, and money 
 among the people with the intention of establishing a re- 
 public. And suppose, after numbering the people and esti- 
 mating the wealth, it were found that there was $1,000 
 worth of property for each man, woman, and child. Now 
 suppose these men chosen to divide the property, instead 
 of dealing out pro rata were to give $100,000,000 worth 
 to each of several men, $50,000,000 each to a larger num- 
 ber, from $1,000,000 to $40,000,000 each to several thou- 
 sand, and then amuse themselves by distributing indefinite 
 amounts until about one-half of the people had been sup- 
 plied with something, and were to entirely ignore one- 
 half of the families of the nation, leaving millions of 
 people in poverty — giving fine mansions to men who never 
 built them, railroads to men who never worked a day, coal 
 mines to men who never saw one, oil fields to men who 
 never soiled their hands, immense factories to men who 
 never handled a tool, millions in mortgages to men who 
 never drove a nail or followed a plow, while the mechanics, 
 the miners, and the laborers who have built the houses, 
 constructed the railroads, developed the mines, sped the 
 wheels of industry, and turned the hills and valleys into 
 harvest fields were fated with ignoble poverty and bur- 
 dened with debt — doomed to a slavery from which to 
 aspire were to be branded an anarchist and in which to 
 falter or fail were to be stigmatized as a scapegoat. Who 
 would accept such a division of property as honest? A 
 righteous indignation would resent the insult. Yet this 
 condition exists to-day, and it has been brought about by 
 systems of law, by customs of business, by tolerated habits 
 of society, and almost as systematically as though it had 
 occurred under the direct control of governmental author- 
 ity. Its insidious growth and its subtile nature when 
 established make it endurable. 
 
 That the lives of some men are more comprehending 
 and useful than the lives of other men, and that they de- 
 serve and actually require more of this world's goods, is a 
 self-evident fact. There are degrees of civilization and of 
 culture widely apart. There is a vast difference between 
 the meager needs of a vast multitude low down in the 
 scale of life and the innumerable needs of those who have 
 
60 OUB NATION'S NEED, 
 
 climbed higher in civilization. There are manj factors 
 which enter into labor, and business, and social life which 
 forbid a general level. But these differences should be 
 met by compensation rather than by property. A divide- 
 up would not level the compensation of men, as we shall 
 see further on. Those who tower above their fellows in in- 
 tellect, in genius, in skill, and in abilities would then have 
 a vantage-ground they do not now possess. Fame, and 
 honor, and competency would be more easily reached, and 
 the present depressing struggle for bread would cease. 
 Genuine promotion is that which comes through the ap- 
 preciation of our fellow-men, and the power to promote 
 and elevate on the part of the people would be immensely 
 multiplied. The general level would be raised to its high- 
 est, and to climb from this level would have a meaning 
 and bestow an honor and a reward it now sadly lacks. 
 
 But there is a more concrete reason why a divide-up and 
 a start-even would be honest — because the people them- 
 selves, and not the property, are the real basis of wealth 
 and value. It is the current impression, quite universal, 
 that land, and houses, and goods, and machinery, and 
 stock, and material things measure the wealth of the na- 
 tion. This is an erroneous idea. Before land is occupied 
 or used, either actually or prospectively, it has no value. 
 As soon, however, as it begins to serve the purpose of 
 civilized man it becomes worth something. As the people 
 multiply, and improve, and replenish a section of country, 
 in a corresponding manner values increase. When for any 
 reason people decrease or lose interest and houses and 
 farms are vacated, values decline; and when a country 
 ceases to be the abode of mankind or to serve its purposes 
 it no longer has a value. It is the people, therefore, that 
 give value to property, and it is their intelligence and so- 
 cial qualities — their civilization — which regulate the gen- 
 eral level of that value. 
 
 If the population of the United States were to decrease 
 one-half, values of property would doubtless decrease ac- 
 cordingly. But if one-half the buildings were to be 
 destroyed by fire and no lives lost, the money value of the 
 nation would not correspondingly suffer. 
 
 If a farmer settles upon a tract of land in an unoc- 
 
OUR N'ATION'S NEED. 61 
 
 cupied section of the country, what was before a worthless 
 piece of ground becomes a farm with an intrinsic value at 
 once. If, at the same time, a tract of land adjoining the 
 farm is laid out for a prospective town, it at once becomes 
 of far greater value than the farm. If a thousand fam- 
 ilies settle upon the town site and build homes, and stores, 
 and schools, and churches, and public improvements, and 
 factories, and develop society, the land upon which the 
 town is built will become worth not far from a thousand 
 times as much as the farm. This law holds good whether 
 a few persons or many own the property. If this farmer 
 and those who compose the town are of a low order of 
 civilization, intrinsic values will be correspondingly low; 
 if they are highly cultured and thrifty, property values 
 will be correspondingly greater. And should it be discov- 
 ered that the location was so unhealthy that all the people 
 must either leave or perish, and on this account all the in- 
 habitants should migrate, no matter how grand and costly 
 the improvements might have been, both the town and the 
 farm would be worthless. 
 
 The principle that values center in the people rather 
 than in material things is well illustrated in cases of fire 
 and flood. If no lives are lost, intrinsic values do not 
 permanently suffer. When over 17,000 buildings were 
 burned at one time in Chicago, and when the heart of Bos- 
 ton was reduced to ashes, the conflagrations were consid- 
 ered great financial calamities. Yet both of these cities 
 are far more magnificent and valuable to-day than they 
 would have been if the fires had not occurred. 
 
 There are those who believe that if the American peo- 
 ple, with their present modern ideas, inventive genius, 
 and industry, could be transported back to the primal for- 
 ests, as in pilgrim days, and allowed to begin over again, 
 it would be a real blessing, as the new cities, and towns, 
 and homes, and improvements that would rapidly develop 
 would surpass in beauty and value those we now have. 
 
 Were it to be discovered that the planet Mars is a veri- 
 table unoccupied Garden of Eden, with mountains of pure 
 gold, rivers flowing in beds of silver, and a climate that 
 prohibited disease, it would be valueless. But should 
 aerial navigation be so perfected that mankind could be 
 
62 OUR NATION'S NEED 
 
 transported to its enchanting shores, its wealth would at 
 once become a tangible reality. 
 
 Intrinsic value must always have its basis in the people. 
 The laws which grow out of this principle are inexorable. 
 Property as a representative of value is only the visible 
 expression of human life and character. Without these 
 there can be no valuation whatever to property. It is the 
 people and the civilization which they possess that give 
 worth to wealth, and not property that gives wealth to the 
 people, as we so easily imagine. 
 
 The effect that civilization has upon the value of prop- 
 erty is shov/n by the increase of per capita values. The 
 per capita wealth of our nation has more than doubled in 
 fifty years. This is due to the fact that men and their 
 needs have increased. The vision has enlarged and the 
 means to gratify these multiplied needs have improved. 
 In other words, civilizing forces have doubled. What were 
 luxuries once and enjoyed by the few are now common 
 necessities. The desires, the ambitions, the "univeri?al 
 horizon'' of all, both rich and poor, have been immensely 
 extended. 
 
 Therefore, while the wealth of the nation is legally very 
 largely in the hands of the few, the real factor of wealth, 
 that which causes it to be wealth, is universally diffused. 
 He who owns more houses, or farms, or goods than he oc- 
 cupies or can use for his own purpose has in his possession 
 that which depends for its value upon the life and char- 
 acter of his neighbors. And every family of intelligence 
 and character, even if it has no legal claim to a single 
 dollar, represents a value not far from $1,000 for each of 
 its members ; and there is a value to property somewhere, 
 in some form, which is dependent upon the->existence of 
 this particular family. This value may radiate in a 
 thousand directions, but it is nevertheless real. These are 
 concrete facts that admit of no denial. The capitalist is, 
 of necessity, not so much a financier as he is the manipu- 
 lator of not only the brain and brawn, but of the life and 
 character of his fellow-men. 
 
 To divide up would not be instituting an unnatural or 
 unjust condition, but simply restoring value to the people. 
 It would be giving to each, as nearly as possible^ what al- 
 
OVB NATION'S NEED. 63 
 
 ready belongs to him. It would be in obedience to a law 
 concerning property and life as exact and immutable as 
 are the laws which guide the stars through the heavens. 
 
 Many would doubtless question the legality of a divide- 
 up of property. The measure would conflict with so much 
 that is regarded as fixed law, both written and unwritten, 
 that it would be looked upon by many as outlawry in its 
 worst form, while some would regard it as anarchy pure 
 and simple. It is to be remembered, however, that the 
 stability of our nation does not rest upon the permanency 
 of laws and customs, but upon the power behind those 
 laws and customs — ^upon the people who make them. 
 
 What decides the legality of a measure? The laws re- 
 lating to the measure in force at the particular time. And 
 few things are more subject to change than laws. One of 
 the chief functions of a government is to make and un- 
 make laws. In the two houses of Congress the various 
 states employ over 400 men to unmake old and useless 
 laws and enact new ones to take their places. In the 
 various states thousands of men are empowered with a 
 similar duty. To these might be added the law-makers of 
 counties, cities, and towns, swelling the number to a great 
 army. Perhaps nothing needs changing so often as law. 
 In the settlement of our country vast areas of land have 
 become territories, and in turn these territories have be- 
 come states; rural districts have become towns and towns 
 have grown into cities ; cow-paths have become roads, roads 
 have become streets, and these streets have become great 
 thoroughfares freighted with commerce and penetrated 
 by railroads and trolley lines. The new conditions de- 
 mand new laws. Statutes regarding the stage-coach will 
 not apply to the express train running sixty miles an hour. 
 As improved methods demand new laws to regulate them, 
 so it is that new conditions in the deeper and more organic 
 structure of our social and industrial life call for a change 
 in laws that are more fixed and fundamental in their 
 nature. 
 
 What was legal yesterday may be illegal to-day, and 
 what is illegal to-day may be lawful to-morrow. Statutes, 
 while they exist, are paramount, but they hold no dominion 
 over political policies. In courts of ;justice law, as ea- 
 
64 OTTB NATION'S NEED. 
 
 grafted -apon the statute-books, is supreme dictator, to be 
 obeyed to the letter, but in the operation of a political 
 policy it is simply as clay in the hands of the potter, to be 
 changed and fashioned at will. 
 
 A divide-up carried out through orderly processes would 
 not be anarcliy, but exactly the opposite. The word anarchy 
 has been so brandished against political efforts during 
 recent years that a true conception of the term no longer 
 exists. Denouncing all innovations as "anarchy^' has be- 
 come the pet growl of the financial lion whenever his lair 
 is disturbed. Anarchy consists in the utter disregard of 
 government. To oppose any law or condition and strive 
 toward something better is not anarchy. 
 
 The progress of the world depends to no small degree 
 upon governmental and social progress. Those who have 
 opposed obsolete and antiquated laws and customs in the 
 past might well be remembered as among the v/orld^s great- 
 est heroes. Those who have brought justice and progress 
 through the adoption of new laws and new customs may 
 well be considered as the world^s greatest benefactors. 
 Law, in its normal exercise, is subject to development and 
 growth. The real anarchist is not he who struggles to 
 promote the natural evolution of law, but the man who 
 champions a bad law because he profits by it and he who 
 antagonizes the advent of new laws because, as with the 
 Ephesian silversmiths, they threaten his financial interests. 
 
 There are some who might think a divide-up would be 
 unconstitutional and therefore dishonest. 
 
 The Constitution of the United States says : "'^or shall 
 private property be taken for public use without just com- 
 pensation.^^ During slavery human bodies were private 
 property, protected as such to the owner by the Consti- 
 tution and by the Supreme Court. It was claimed that 
 the slaves were worth $1,000,000,000 immediately before 
 the war. But they were all set at liberty without compen- 
 sation to the owners, and the clause in the Constitution re- 
 garding slavery has for a generation been a dead letter. 
 
 The object of the Constitution is "to establish justice'* 
 If in the course of human events it becomes necessary, in 
 order *^to establish justice," to divide up and start even 
 and cancel all debts, would it then be dishonest to do it ? 
 
OVR NATION'S NEED. 65 
 
 The object of the Constitution is "to secure domestic 
 tranquillity f' If a division of property among all the 
 people is required "to insure domestic tranquillity/' and 
 if the measure would bring plenty and contentment to 
 legions of American firesides, would it not be honest to 
 adopt it? 
 
 The object of the Constitution is "to provide for the 
 common defense.'" If the wisest statesmen, from Moses to 
 the present time, acknowledged that the ownership of prop- 
 erty is the best guarantee of the "common defense" and 
 if a divide-up will save our nation from impending de- 
 struction, toward which thousands believe it is hastening, 
 and insure peace, safety, and the establishment of a more 
 patriotic and devoted spirit, is it not only honesty^ but 
 wise statesmanship, to bring it to pass? 
 
 The object of the Constitution is "to promote the gen- 
 eral welfare.'' If "the general welfare'^ of the people has 
 been overwhelmed by selfish ambition and a divide-up will 
 bring back to the people the legitimate relations of citi- 
 zenship, would it not be honest to secure the benefit of it ? 
 
 The object of the Constitution is ''to secure the blessings 
 cf liberty to ourselves and our posterity."' If it be true 
 that liberty is becoming a misnomer and that slavery of a 
 most hopeless sort is taking its place, and that a divide-up 
 and start-even is the quickest, the surest, and the best 
 remedy to employ, do we not owe it to ourselves, our 
 homes, our children, and our posterity to demand that it 
 be applied? 
 
 Are we perpetuating the object and provisions of the 
 Constitution, either in spirit or letter, when we neglect to 
 adopt such measures as will best insure peace, justice, and 
 success to all classes of citizens ? 
 
 The Declaration of Independence is a herald in favor 
 of governmental progress. It proclaims sentiments in full 
 sympathy with the principles of a divide-up and start- 
 even. It says: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: 
 that all men are created equal ; that they are endowed by 
 their Creator with certain unalienable rights; and among 
 these are life, liberty, and ihe pursuit of happiness. That 
 to secure these rights governments are instituted among 
 men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the 
 
66 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 governed; that whenever any form of government becomes 
 destructive of these ends it is the right of the people to 
 alter or to abolish it, and to institute a new government, 
 laying its foundation on such principles and organizing 
 its powers in such form as to them shall seem most likely 
 to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, 
 will dictate that governments long established should not 
 be changed for light and transient causes; and accord- 
 ingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more 
 disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right 
 themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are ac- 
 customed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpa- 
 tions, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design 
 to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, 
 it is their duty, to throw off such government and to pro- 
 vide new guards for their future security/^ 
 
 This is, perhaps, the boldest statement in favor of politi- 
 cal reform ever written. And the principles involved are 
 opportune to-day. It is a matter of little difference 
 whether the injuries and usurpations come from a British 
 king or from concentrated wealth, or whether it be thir- 
 teen struggling colonies, with 3,000,000 pilgrims, plead- 
 ing for liberty, or from forty-five states and nearly four- 
 score millions of freemen pleading for justice. 
 
 Eegarding the power of the people over the Constitu- 
 tion, Hon. James G. Blaine said: ^'The American people 
 have rights which are anterior to and wholly independent 
 of the Constitution, and I affirm, moreover, that while that 
 precious instrument will continue to be, God grant for 
 these many generations, the rule of our civil administra- 
 tion, yet that over it and under it and outside of it and 
 above it there is engraven on the hearts of this people that 
 God-given right, that great precept of nature, ^Save thy- 
 self !^ " 
 
 The words of Lincoln also are fitting here. In one of 
 his great speeches, referring to those who drafted our 
 Declaration of Independence, he said: "They grasped 
 not only the whole race of men then living, but they 
 reached forward and seized upon the furthest posterity. 
 They erected a beacon to guide their children and chil- 
 dren's children and the countless myriads who should in- 
 
OUR NATION ^8 NEED. 67 
 
 habit tHe earth in other ages. Wise statesmen as they 
 were, they knew the tendency of prosperity to breed ty- 
 rants, and so they established these great self-evident 
 truths, that when in the distant future some men, some 
 faction, some interest should set up the doctrine that none 
 but rich men, or none but white men, or none but Anglo- 
 Saxon white men were entitled to *^life, liberty, and the 
 pursuit of happiness,^ their posterity might look up again 
 to the Declaration of Independence and take courage to 
 renew the battle which their fathers began, so that truth, 
 and justice, and mercy, and all the humane and Christian 
 virtues might not be extinguished from the land; so that 
 ho man should thereafter dare to limit and circumscribe 
 the principles on which the temple of liberty was being 
 built." 
 
 Moreover, honesty is not simply a negative, hut a posi- 
 tive virtue. It demands service rather than prohibits ac- 
 tion. It is consecrated to a mission. Unwearied and un- 
 dismayed, it is ever enlisted in a righteous warfare. It is 
 a part of its. mission to expose and to bring to naught all 
 mockeries and travesties that are wont to wear its robes. 
 Genuine honesty would correct every wrong, level every 
 mountain of ill-gotten wealth, smite every vicious law, and 
 establish justice and equity everywhere. 
 
 The claims of honesty are not met by simply establish- 
 ins^ the justice of a divide-up of property and the cancella- 
 tion of debts. The question that unfettered honesty 
 asks is : 
 
 ''Would it he honest not to divide up and start even?" 
 
 A fact in need of developing is that the- wrongs involved 
 in existing extremes of wealth and poverty cannot all be 
 charged against the rich. These wrongs are the fault of 
 both classes. There is a righteous medium from which the 
 poor as well as the rich have wandered. 
 
 We all condemn the greedy boy who ate not only his own 
 orange, but captured the candy of his little brother. But 
 if the young brother willingly submitted and sought some 
 obscure corner to devour a dry crust, he was not altogether 
 free from fault. The baby spirit in one child will awaken 
 the bully in another. The fear manifested by sheep will 
 arouse the savage in a dog. There is a pliant demeanor 
 which invites oppression. 
 
68 OTTR NATION ^8 NEED. 
 
 So it is that unwarranted willingness to submit and 
 serve on the part of the masses will create a corresponding 
 disposition to oppress and to profit among the more ag- 
 gressive and ambitious. The plutocrat is charged with op- 
 pressing the poor and turning men into tramps. It is 
 equally true that the indifference and apathy of the poor 
 make the plutocrat possible. Inequalities in wealth are as 
 much due to the careless forfeiture of inherent rights by 
 the many as they are to inordinate ambition among the 
 few. He who sells his birthright is as guilty as the one 
 that buys it. 
 
 We all abhor and condemn that despotism, which, en- 
 amored of ambition and lust, crushes the multitude into 
 obscurity and despair. Yet only less in degree is the guilt 
 of the multitude in allowing its inherited and natural 
 rights, its gifts of talent and energy, its hopes and desires, 
 its life, its all to be wasted as a sacrifice in such unholy 
 worship. While the one enkindles and fans the fires of 
 oppression and tyranny the other offers itself as fuel to 
 the flames. From the beginning the sin of the one has 
 been to make the earth a life-consuming perdition ; the sin 
 of the other has been a willingness to make this perdition 
 possible. 
 
 Mankind needs to culti^^^te self-respect. To properly 
 appreciate one's self is the basic principle of the Golden 
 Eule. "Thy neighbor as thyself' places self as a unit of 
 measure — the divine standard — of love and law. To for- 
 get or neglect self is to lose or lower the standard by which 
 we are to regard others. He who loses self-respect is apt to 
 forfeit the respect of his fellows. A well-poised self-re- 
 spect is a paramount need of the times. He who has no 
 regard for others is not without guilt, but he who respects 
 not himself insults his Creator. "Self-preservation is the 
 first law of nature'' and self-respect is the first law of God. 
 
 Were every one to become possessed of the God-intended 
 self-respect and love his neighbor accordingly, a divide-up 
 would not only appear honest and proper, but it would at 
 once stand forth as the overshadowing issue throughout 
 all Christendom. 
 
 Were the ministering evangels of divine truth to go out 
 among the people and fearlessly flood every fireside with 
 
OTIR NATION* 8 NEED. 69 
 
 its holy light, the adoption and execution of an equitable 
 distribution of property would soon ensue. "Go sell all 
 that thou hast and give to the poor" was a divine charge. 
 For eighteen centuries it has been taught that men should 
 be willing to obey the command. The time has come for 
 the willingness to ripen into fruit and become direct and 
 specific action. 
 
 To divide up and start even furnishes the only honest 
 ground for compromise between the rich and poor, the em- 
 ployers and the employed, the educated and the ignorant, 
 the strong and the weak, the prosperous and the un- 
 fortunate, the old and the young, "the classes and the 
 masses.^^ For the one side to grant less ignores the brother- 
 hood of man ; for the other side to demand less denies the 
 fatherhood of the Creator. It moreover provides the only 
 humane way in which to utilize, to the best advantage, the 
 fertile valleys and productive hills, the inexhaustible mines 
 and plenteous harvests, the busy industries and tireless 
 commerce, the boundless resources, the skill of hand and 
 genius of brain, and the unlimited possibilities of our in- 
 comparable and beloved country. To admit that a divide- 
 up and start-even would be a blessing to the people, and 
 at the same time claim that it would not be honest to adopt 
 it, is equal to declaring that the Golden Eule is a wise 
 precept, but that it would not be fair to put it into prac- 
 tice. 
 
 But the honesty of a divide-up and start-even, if exi- 
 gencies demand its adoption, is not open to denial. The 
 honesty of the measure was established over thirty cen- 
 turies ago. It was then ordained of God and sanctioned 
 by divine approval. 
 
 It to-day occupies a conspicuous place in Holy Writ. 
 No doctrine, no command, no teaching in the entire Bible 
 is more directly from God, more specific, or more fully de- 
 tailed than this. Explicit directions were given ^ as to how 
 a division of property was to be made, who were to do it, 
 and how often it was to be done. As a law it has never 
 been abrogated. As a principle its honesty and fairness 
 cannot be honorably or safely assailed. 
 
 That times have changed in thirty centuries is not here 
 denied. That a new dispensation has intervened is entire- 
 
70 OUn NATION'S NEED, 
 
 ly conceded. But honesty and truth are eternal and re- 
 main the same. When Love was enthroned it was not in- 
 tended that Law should die. "Love is the fulfilling of the 
 ^ law.^^ The Golden Eule is simply the "Law and the 
 Prophets" in a new garb. Through all the evolutions of 
 time human nature and human greed still survive. There 
 is no proof that either time, or changes, or the added 
 cycles of events have rendered a divide-up of property 
 among the people a useless and impracticable measure in 
 the affairs of men. The world may grow too good to need 
 the adoption of the measure ; may it never grow too bad to 
 profit by it. To fail to even consider it in the government 
 of a country inhabited by a free and enlightened people is 
 to ignore the teachings of divine truth. Not even to 
 think of it in considering the best welfare of a great re- 
 public where extremes of wealth and poverty are so pro- 
 nounced as to threaten the very foundations of the govern- 
 ment is a clear case of forgetting God. 
 
 Then let us conclude that a divide-up and start-even 
 would be honest with a Christian and patriotic spirit. For 
 who can claim by rightful inheritance the natural re- 
 sources of the nation more than those who make these re- 
 sources valuable — the people? Who can claim the products 
 and profits of the soil more than those who plow, and plant, 
 and cultivate, and reap? Who can claim the wealth and 
 increase of toil more than those who harden their hands 
 in mine and mill? To whom should money come more 
 easily, or who should be more independent or more certain 
 of abiding success than the toiling millions who, in high 
 and humble effort, make property valuable by their lives 
 I and character, and make that value profitable and precious 
 b}'' patriotic devotion around the American fireside? 
 
 In the temple of justice, before the tribunal of honesty, 
 let it be proclaimed that America belongs to her chosen 
 subjects, to her sons and daughters and adopted citizens. 
 That her wealth belongs to those who have served her 
 well and made her rich and great; to the fathers and 
 mothers who have builded her homes and protected her 
 children; to those in humble life who have patiently 
 earned what is hers and have made her what she is; to 
 those whose gifts and genius have made her a marvel of 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. Vl 
 
 greatness and a chief glory among the nations of the 
 earth; to those who have lived and labored to establish 
 and make permanent liberty, virtue, and peace in the 
 land. 
 
 These are the heirs and joint heirs to our national in- 
 heritance. They have richly earned it and honestly de- 
 clared it to be theirs. 
 
"And ye shall divide the land by lot for an inheritance among 
 your families." 
 
 What might be done? This might be done. 
 And more than this, my suffering brother — 
 
 More than the tongue 
 
 Ever said or sung, 
 If men were wise and loved each other. — Mackay. 
 
 It was from Judea that there arose the most persistent pro- 
 tests against inequality and the most ardent aspirations after 
 justice that have ever raised humanity out of the actual into 
 the ideal. We feel the effects still. Thence has come the 
 leaven of revolution which still moves the world. Job saw evil 
 triumphant and yet believed in justice. 
 
 Israel's prophets, while thundering against inequality, an- 
 nounced the good time coming. — emile de Laveleye. 
 
 The sacred right of property may become a menace to hu- 
 manity as great as the menace of the divine right of kings to 
 political liberty. — George D. Hereon. 
 
 All systems of society which favor the accumulation of 
 capital in a few hands; which oust the masses from the soil 
 which their forefathers possessed of old; which reduce them to 
 the state of serfs and day laborers, living on wages and alms; 
 which crush down with debt and in any wise degrade and 
 enslave them and deny them a permanent stake in the Common- 
 wealth, are contrary to the kingdom of God. — Charles Kings- 
 ley. 
 
 The strength of a nation, humanly speaking, consists not in 
 its population, or wealth, or knowledge, or in any other such 
 heartless and merely scientific elements, but in the number of 
 proprietors. Such, too, according to the most learned and wisest 
 of historians, was the opinion of antiquity. All ancient legis- 
 lators, and above all Moses, rested the result of their ordinances 
 for virtue, civil order, and good manners on securing landed 
 property, or at least the hereditary possession of land, to the 
 greatest possible number of citizens. — Charles J. Habs. 
 
 n 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 73 
 
 S^ CHAPTER V. 
 
 IT HAS BEEN" DONE. 
 
 In" its chief characteristics, a general divide-up of the 
 wealth of the United States would not be a new and un- 
 tried experience in the world. 
 
 When the children of Israel, led by Joshua and num- 
 bering over 2,000,000 people, crossed the Jordan into 
 Canaan, God had already commanded them, through the 
 great law-giver, Moses, to divide their land among all the 
 families. Men of character, representing every tribe, were 
 chosen to make the divisions, and in due time every 
 family of every tribe was given its share in the allotment. 
 "As the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel 
 did; and they divided the land,^' 
 
 Kot only was the land divided between them at the 
 start, each family receiving about twenty acres, but a 
 redivision was ordered to be made every fiftieth year. "In 
 the year of jubilee the field shall return unto him of whom 
 it was bought, even to him to whom the possession of land 
 did belong.'^ During the year of jubilee all lands which 
 had been alienated, with certain exceptions, were returned 
 to the families of those to whom they had been allotted in 
 the original distribution, and all bondmen of Hebrew 
 blood were liberated. 
 
 In addition to the divide-up of land, which took place 
 every fiftieth year, all debts were remitted and released 
 every seven years. "At the end of every seven years thou 
 shalt make a release." "And this is the manner of the 
 release: every creditor that lendeth aught unto his neigh- 
 bor shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbor 
 or his brother, because it is called the Lord^s release." 
 
 As in all divine commands, the poor were especially 
 provided for in the l^ws which God gave to rule HiQ 
 
74 OUR NATION'S NEED, 
 
 favored people. ^^If there be among you a poor man of 
 one of thy brethren within any of thy gates in the land 
 which the Lord thy God giveth thee, thon shalt not harden 
 thy heart nor shut thy hand from thy poor brother." 
 "But thou shalt open thy hand wide unto him, and thou 
 shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which 
 he wanteth." ^^Beware that there be not a thought in 
 thy wicked heart, saying. The seventh year, the year of 
 release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor 
 broth and thou givest him naught ; and he cry unto the 
 Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee." "Thou shalt 
 surely give him, and thy heart shall not be grieved when 
 thou givest unto him ; because that for this thing the Lord 
 thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that 
 thou puttest thy hand unto." "For the poor shall never 
 cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, 
 Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy brother, to thy 
 poor, and to thy needy in the land." During these times 
 no one, excepting under special circumstances, could give 
 a permanent title-deed to property, as the Lord had com- 
 manded; "The land shall not be sold forever, for the 
 land is mine." 
 
 The claim is made by some writers that the release of 
 debts every seven years, as commanded by the Lord to 
 Israel (Deut. xv.), did not mean the entire obliteration 
 of debts, but simply that no interest should be demanded 
 and that the debts should not be collected during the 
 seventh year. There are no conclusive reasons for this 
 theory. On the contrary, the object of the release and 
 the entire system of equality of which it was to form a 
 part imply that it was a com^plete and universal oblitera- 
 tion of debts. Even those who claim that the release 
 every seven years was only partial admit that the pro- 
 gramme of the jubilee at the fiftieth year included the 
 obliteration of all debts as well as a redivision of the 
 land. The jubilee was a veritable divide-up and start- 
 even, including the cancellation of all debts (Lev. xxv.). 
 In its application the family and family traditions were, 
 as far as possible, maintained; but the word "inheritance" 
 did not necessarily imply legal transmission from parents 
 to childreji m ¥§ imderstand it to-day, It iiicluded th^ 
 
OUR NATION '8 NEED. 75 
 
 donation of property to those who had nothing, yet whose 
 citizenship entitled them to an allotment. 
 
 It is to be remembered that while these commands were 
 given directly from Grod to His chosen race, they were 
 political rather than religious in their nature and applica- 
 tion. Says Dr. Smith in his "Bible Dictionary:" "The 
 jubilee is more immediately connected with the body 
 politic, and it was only as a member of the state that 
 each person concerned could participate in its provisions. 
 It was not distinguished by any prescribed religious ob- 
 servances peculiar to itself, like the rites of the Sabbath 
 da^ and of the sabbatical month. As far as legislation 
 could go, its provisions tended to restore that equality in 
 outward circumstances that was instituted in the first 
 settlement of the land by Joshua. The design of the 
 law was chiefly to ^naintain, and at proper intervals re- 
 store, a just and proper equilibrium in the various fami- 
 lies and tribes. It was to prevent the growth of an 
 oligarchy of landowners and the total impoverishment of 
 a portion of the people/' 
 
 Like all commands given to the people by Jehovah, 
 those regarding the readjustment of land every fifty years 
 and the cancellation of debts every seven years were only 
 partially obeyed. Yet upon their strict observance and 
 the observance of similar laws not only in spirit, but in 
 letter, depended divine protection and favor. These laws 
 were in force and obeyed with increasing faithfulness, 
 Jewish historians tell us, until the destruction of Solo- 
 mon's Temple, a period of over seven hundred years. 
 
 The first sin that called forth God's disfavor and Israel's 
 defeat in the land of Canaan was disobeying this very 
 law. When cunning and crafty Achan concealed in his 
 tent the silver coin and wedge of gold that should have 
 been placed in the public treasury, the Lord declared that 
 Achan and all he had should be burned with fire; and 
 it was not until he and his family, together with his cattle, 
 were not only stoned to death, but reduced to ashes, that 
 the favor of the Lord returned. 
 
 It is highly significant that this nation and its people, 
 its land and its laws^ were of God's own choosing, and 
 that of all the nation? of th§ mx^il it Qecupied a signa% 
 
76 OUn NATION' 8 NEED. 
 
 conspicuous and sacred place in human history. Among 
 its mighty men were Moses and Joshua, David and Solo- 
 mon, Isaiah and Daniel, and many others, great in their 
 chosen sphere; and in the veins of its people flowed the 
 blood of the promised Messiah. The records of its con- 
 quests in war and its achievements in peace, together 
 with the lives of its patriarchs, its prophets, its kings, 
 and its people as a race, have been given by inspiration 
 of God to us and to all time, and are "profitable for doc- 
 trine, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in 
 righteousness.^^ Whether these laws are in binding force 
 in the world at present may be an open question. Their 
 literal application in the present age is not here defended 
 or denied. This much is true: the code of ^-^ral and 
 civil law promulgated to this ancient people has been the 
 foundation of all the laws of civilized states ever since. 
 The moral code is considered in force and unalterable 
 "because it springs from the natural law engraved in the 
 human heart.^^ There are good grounds for believing that 
 the civil code continues in force because it, in like manner, 
 springs from the natural law engraved in human society. 
 They were not laws of rites and ceremonies which have 
 been abrogated. They were at that time essential. Their 
 authoritative source cannot be questioned. The greatest 
 jurists of all ages have maintained that no human statute 
 can stand that is not in harmony with the revealed laws 
 of God. This implies that human laws should aim to 
 imitate the divine law. God's laws are perfect because 
 they are natural, and they are natural because they are 
 complete. The laws of our nation can never be perfect 
 until they are also both natural and complete. If this 
 completeness depends upon the adoption of a divide-up 
 of property and the cancellation of debts, the divine com- 
 mand, on account of its natural fitness, if for no other 
 reason, is still in force. God's laws were not mxade to 
 be repealed. They end only in fulfillment. Omnipotent 
 wisdom has never yet opened a pathway or plan of action 
 for mankind that ended, except at the beginning of some- 
 thing better. 
 
 With the advent of the Christian era a radical system 
 qI dividing-up was again inaugurated, The early Chris- 
 
oun NATION '8 NEED, "ry 
 
 tians not only divided with each other, but they had all 
 things in common. "All that believed were together," 
 and their temporal interests were a unit. They "sold 
 their possessions and goods and parted them to all men 
 as every man had need/' "Neither was there any among 
 them that lacked; for as many as were possessed of land 
 or houses sold them and brought the price of them that 
 were sold." As had been done in the land of Canaan, 
 men were appointed to take care of the possessions and 
 distribute the same as each deserved or had need. 
 
 While it is not supposed that the selling of property 
 and giving the price into the common treasury was re- 
 quired by any expressed law, yet as a practice among the 
 early Christians it seems to have been quite universal. 
 When Zaccheus said, "Behold, Lord, the half of my goods 
 I give to the poor," the sacrifice met with divine approval ; 
 but to the rich young ruler Jesus said : "Yet lackest thou 
 one thing; sell all that thou hast and distribute unto the 
 poor." Whenever the word "distribute" occurs in the 
 New Testament, it is from a Greek word synonymous 
 with "all things in common." The extreme importance 
 attached to the principle of giving property was strik- 
 ingly illustrated in the case of Ananias and his wife, both 
 of whom fell dead before the altar when accused by Peter 
 of keeping back a part of their money. "It is remark- 
 able," says Dr. Pentecost, "that the first sin that God 
 signally punished upon the children of Israel after en- 
 tering Canaan was that of Achan, who coveted the wedge 
 of gold and the goodly Babylonish garment; while the 
 first sin He punished after the descent of the Holy 
 Spirit was that of Ananias and Sapphira, who kept back 
 part of the price of their possessions while pretending to 
 have given it all to the Lord." 
 
 It is also significant that among over 2,000,000 people 
 who participated in the division of property in Canaan, 
 only one family proved dishonest; and of the thousands 
 who were converted under the preaching of Peter and 
 the other apostles, only one family conspired to deceive. 
 As records of honesty perhaps there is no other parallel. 
 They are both striking evidences that when men are sub^ 
 
'J'8 OUB NATION'S NEED. 
 
 jected to fair and equitable conditions they will in return 
 prove honest and sincere. 
 
 The division of wealth among the people and the can- 
 cellation of debts were a part of the history of ancient 
 Greece, and it was these measures that made her great- 
 ness and glory possible. 
 
 When Lycnrgus, the wise Spartan lawgiver, became 
 ruler of Greece, he determined that "the constitution he 
 should establish should be the most excellent in all the 
 world.'' Among other reforms he made a new division 
 of land, for here he found great inequalities existing, as 
 there were many who had no lands and the wealth was 
 concentrated in the hands of a few. Being defeated in 
 the division of movable property, he stopped the cur- 
 rency of gold and silver as coin and permitted iron money 
 only, so that "to remove one or two hundred dollars in 
 money would require a yoke of oxen." 
 
 Greece, however, fell into the hands of hard masters, 
 and under the tyranny of Draco the rich again oppressed 
 th*^ poor and weak. Draco's laws, "written in blood, not 
 in ink," reduced the Commonwealth to a complete anarchy, 
 without law, or order, or system in the administration of 
 justice. 
 
 At this crisis Solon, the eminent Athenian and one of 
 the wise men of Greece, was made not simply archon, 
 but sole dictator and legislator. 
 
 Solon at once liberated the serfs from slavery, canceled 
 all debts, established an equitable system of taxation, 
 granted universal suffrage, required parents to impart a 
 means of livelihood to their children, stimulated industry, 
 and punished idleness. 
 
 Under the code of Solon, which freed the land of the 
 poor from all debts, Greece flourished as a model re- 
 public. She became renowned in the arts of peace and 
 war. Athens, her capital, had no poorhouses and no need 
 of them. Although Solon's political constitution was 
 finally repealed, his social code was allowed to stand. At 
 the end of the two centuries, in the age of Pericles, Grecian 
 civilization had become the highest and most cultured 
 the world had ever seen. Grecian architecture, sculpture, 
 paintings poetry^ science^ philosophy^ literature^ oratoryj 
 
OJIB NATION'S NEED. 79 
 
 and intellectual culture reached a development that has 
 no parallel. Her record of immortal men surpasses that 
 of any other nation of ancient times. Her people be- 
 came teachers, leaders, and colonizers everywhere. The 
 city of Miletus alone became the mother of 300 towns. 
 Grecian centers were established, and the customs and 
 language of the people were those of Greece. So uni- 
 versally true was this that when the Gospel was preached, 
 no matter whether addressed to Eoman, Grecian, or 
 Asiatic Christians, the Greek language could be used and 
 everywhere understood. 
 
 It might be reasonably claimed that the principles which 
 underlie a division of property are basic in the organic 
 construction of our Government at the present time. 
 
 If the Ten Commandments and the Golden Eule are 
 the basis of all the laws of Christendom, surely those which 
 pertain to a distribution of property and the cancellation 
 of debts must hold a vital relation to human affairs. The 
 Ten Commandments, given from Mount Sinai, are held 
 as sacredly binding now, and why should not laws con- 
 temporary with the Decalogue serve a purpose in the 
 present age? While none of these ancient laws, although 
 divinely given, may be literally binding to-day, the prin- 
 ciples, and to no small degree the conditions, which made 
 them opportune then, still prevail. If these contain an 
 essence that will remedy panics, oppressions, inequalities, 
 and discontent — leaven that will renovate our political, 
 industrial, and social life — they are exactly what every 
 true patriot is looking for. 
 
 It is worthy of note that while all great uplifts in his- 
 tory have not been secured through a division of property 
 among the people, they have resulted from forces of the 
 same general nature. !N"early all the worthy struggles 
 of mankind have been to secure justice, liberty, and 
 equality. How valiantly men have fought for equality 
 before the law, for equality in government, in religion and 
 opportunity! The oratory, the poetry, the music, the 
 valor, the heroism, and the soul-sympathy of all the 
 ages have been like so many invincible champions of '^thy 
 neighbor as thyself 
 
80 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 If the laws of Moses have lost some of their primal 
 directness man's responsibility toward his fellows has not 
 been lessened. The thunderings of Sinai are only a pre- 
 lude to the plain teachings on tlie mountain side of Hattin. 
 The laws of the entire world dwindle beside the heart 
 service and life devotion set np at Calvary. Says the 
 eminent scholar, William Howitt: "I will defy any one 
 to proceed far in the New Testament without coming 
 upon practices and commands of our Saviour that, if he 
 comprehend their true and practical import, will compel 
 him into a politician. . . . Will any man tell me 
 how we are to love our neighbors as ourselves if we see 
 them oppressed, made poor, made miserable, made igno- 
 rant and criminal by the measures of bad government, 
 and this not in individual cases, but by thousands and 
 tens of thousands, if we move neither hand nor foot to 
 help them? . . . The religion that is not prepared 
 to attack human evils at their root and to prevent them as 
 much as possible by destroying their causes has long ago been 
 pronounced to *^be a sounding brass and a tinkling cym- 
 bal.' ... In a word, Christianity is not merely a 
 religion of principles, hut of consequences ; and he who 
 does not dare to look these principles in the face and, 
 without fear of man or devil, of high or low, of unpopu- 
 larity or personal sacrifice, to carry these divine principles 
 boldly out to their full, direct, and legitimate consequences 
 — that man may talk of Christianity, but has yet to learn 
 what it is." 
 
 It has been well said that men do not make laws; they 
 only discover them. From Eden to the present the same 
 principles have been at the foundation of all human 
 achievements. Whatever originates life, w^hatever con- 
 structs, whatever plants and garners, germinates and 
 grows, lives and thrives, must work in harmony with the 
 divine order. Jesus in His teachings refers to the Mosaic 
 laws scores of times, and in the Sermon on the Mount 
 quotes from the very chapter which commands a divide- 
 up of property. It was He who said : "Think not that I 
 am come to destroy the law or the prophets j I mi uoi 
 CQjae to destroy^ but to fulfill/' 
 
And the common people heard Him gladly. — Mark. 
 
 While scourged by famine from a smiling land, 
 
 The mournful peasant leads his humble band, 
 
 And, while he sings, without one hand to save. 
 
 The country blooms — a garden and a grave. — Goldsmith. 
 
 By nature we nearly resemble one another; conditions separate 
 us very far. — Confucius. 
 
 We are living in an age in which the cause that espouses and 
 struggles to attain real justice and true freedom deserves the 
 earnest thought and best efforts of the men of our times.— 
 Samuel Gompeks. 
 
 An equal distribution of property is the foundation of the 
 republic. — Noah Webstee. 
 
 Many nations are guilty of the crime of permitting oppressive 
 laws and bad government to remain among them, by which the 
 poor are crushed and the lives of the innocent laid at the mercy 
 of wicked and arbitrary men. This is a national sin of the 
 deepest dye, as it involves most others. — Barbauld. 
 
 Self-distrust is the cause of most of our failures. In the 
 assurance of strength there is strength; and they are the weak- 
 est, however strong, who have no faith in themselves or their 
 powers. — Bovee. 
 
 If anything has been made certain by the economic revolu- 
 tion of the last twenty-five years, it is that society cannot 
 much longer get on upon the libertarian, competitive, go-as- 
 you-please system to which so many sensible persons seem ad- 
 dicted. The population of the great nations are becoming too 
 condensed for that. — E. B. Andrews. 
 
 82 
 
OUB NATION^a NEED, 83 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ARE WE PREPARED FOR A DIVIDE-UP? 
 
 Are the people of the United States prepared for a 
 divide-up and start-even? 
 
 Yes. 
 
 The success or failure of a measure which changes the 
 relations of men to their surroundings depends, to no 
 small degree, upon the people being prepared for it. 
 While a division of property would partake of the charac- 
 ter of a revolution, it would be a remarkably natural thing 
 to do. It would be in full accord with the rapidly in- 
 creasing democratic sentiments and practices of the times. 
 It would be in the direction in which are traveling our 
 social, industrial, and commercial affairs. It would bring 
 into harmony a legion of organized forces which have the 
 same general aim in view, but which, in their isolated 
 forms, are now antagonistic to each other. 
 
 Those who have watched with unbiased care the general 
 trend of business, political, social, and religious affairs in 
 the United States during recent years have witnessed 
 much that bespeaks radical reforms in all of these systems. 
 Advanced business methods, never before dreamed of, are 
 quickly developed; and they crowd conservative methods 
 to the wall. Bold political measures during recent years 
 obtain universal discussion, and even the most pronounced 
 social and economic doctrines are being studied as never 
 before. It is demanded that religion show a deeper love 
 and clearer faith if it is to lead mankind and illumine the 
 world. 
 
 As an outgrowth of natural and legitimate advancement, 
 mankind has to a remarkable degree developed mutual 
 and fraternal relations. These relations in their or- 
 ganized forms represent no small share of our total re- 
 sources and expenditures. And as human relations be- 
 
84 OXTR l^ATION'8 NEED. 
 
 come more complex, interests become more closely asso- 
 ciated, and the growth of mutual effort and cooperation 
 are inevitable. These public fraternities are great levei- 
 ers. When their influence dominates in the nation great 
 diversities among individuals will become intolerable. 
 
 The common-school system of the United States is 
 entirely mutual in its general feaiares. Our school sys- 
 tem is the highest compliment possible to financial and 
 social fraternity, because there is no higher trust than 
 the training and education of children. There are over 
 20,000,000 children of school age in our country, and 
 over two-thirds of them are enrolled as pupils in our public 
 schools. These millions of children, five days in each 
 week, for several months in each year, live in an environ- 
 ment which promotes the mutual spirit. They are taught 
 the same general curriculum in the same language. All 
 of them are taught to honor the flag, and all are expected 
 to learn that "all men are created equal; that they are 
 endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; 
 that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happi- 
 ness." Our common-school system incurs an outlay of 
 over $200,000,000, and over 400,000 persons are employed 
 as teachers. 
 
 Our postal system is also entirely mutual in its general 
 management. There are over 71,000 postmasters in the 
 United States, and with their subordinates and clerks they 
 compose a vast army of workers. About $100,000,000 are 
 annually expended in this department of our Government. 
 And it can be said in defense of governmental control and 
 ownership of great enterprises that no enterprise in our 
 nation is attended with such extensive detail and none is 
 executed with more ease and satisfaction to those being 
 served than the Post-Ofiice Department. 
 
 The growth and success of 'building and loan associations 
 show the natural demand for practical mutual interests in 
 financial operations. Although these are modern institu- 
 tions, nearly 6,000 associations are in existence. They are 
 located in almost every city and town, and have a member- 
 ship of nearly 2,000,000. Their combined assets amount 
 to over $450,000,000. Their profits have amounted to over 
 $80,000,000, and 400,000 homes have been built through 
 
OTTB NATION'S NEED. 85 
 
 their influence. Of building and loan associations Com-; 
 missioner Wright says: "They are semi-banking institu- 
 tions conducted by ordinary men not trained as bankers, 
 but yet have met with remarkably few losses." 
 
 The business of life insurance, which is still more or- 
 ganically mutual in design and purpose, has reached gigan- 
 tic proportions in the United States. According to recent 
 authentic statistcs there were in 1898 no less than 11,218-, 
 330 insurance policies in force in regular companies. These 
 policies amounted to the enormous sum of $6,825,037,770. 
 This is equal to more than one-fifteenth of the entire 
 wealth of the nation. The total income of these companies 
 for the year was $325,452,134 and the expenditures $222,- 
 518,788. The wealth which they represent in the form of 
 assets is enormous. The total assets of the regular pre- 
 mium companies is over $1,400,000,000. Over 75,000 men 
 are engaged in the life insurance business, and some of the 
 officials receive salaries equaling that of the chief executive 
 of the nation. 
 
 There are also a large number of assessment insurance 
 and fraternal societies which enjoy an immense patronage. 
 In 1897 these organizations had a membership of 4,039,- 
 062, representing an insurance of $7,799,428,000. Dur- 
 ing the year 978,234 new members were admitted and $95,- 
 932,964 was collected in assessments and $75,030,497 paid 
 out to policy holders. 
 
 The total amount of insurance of all kinds in force in 
 1898 reached the enormous sum of $14,125,578,072. This 
 is more than one-sixth of our national wealth. The pre- 
 miums for the year amounted to $339,280,913 and the 
 losses paid amounted to $165,718,804. 
 
 Bich benefit, accident, and benevolent societies, operated 
 upon a mutual basis, exist and flourish almost everywhere. 
 Their combined membership is over 5,000,000. Men are 
 easily found in any community whose income from socie- 
 ties to which they belong is greater when they are sick than 
 what they can possibly earn when well, and who are worth 
 far more in cash when they are dead than during their life- 
 time. It is to be inferred that all of this vast amount of 
 insurance is adjusted once during what might be consid- 
 ered as each succeeding generation. In the multitude of 
 
86 OUR NATION' 8 NEED. 
 
 details and in the general scope of the work it requires it 
 would scarcely be surpassed in a universal adjustment of 
 the entire wealth of the nation among all the people. 
 
 In addition to moneyed concerns, secret societies, fra- 
 ternal orders, trades and labor unions, and the endless 
 number of organized interests that are born and flourish 
 attest the growth of the social and cooperative spirit among 
 the American people. Almost every trade, business, and 
 profession has its organization, through which its mem- 
 bers secure mutual benefits of some kind. 
 
 Organized religious forces show the universal approval 
 of cooperative effort. Although divorced from the state 
 and dependent upon voluntary affiliations, the Church has 
 over 23,000,000 members, and it secures the friendly sup- 
 port of almost every one. While it is divided by creeds and 
 subdivided by special interests, yet as a whole it shows a 
 power for organization on the part of the people preemi- 
 nently remarkable, and a loyalty to mutual cooperation 
 that challenges every other form of effort. 
 
 Business methods are also following the same spirit. 
 Stock companies and corporations are rapidly supplanting 
 individual effort in business, by which means promiscuous 
 wealth is collected from many sources and operated as a 
 single unit. In this way a railroad, an express company, 
 a steamboat line, or gas, water, or manufacturing plant 
 may represent one, a score, or a hundred stockholders. 
 Mammoth department stores and gigantic business con- 
 cerns in many instances are aggregations of diversified in- 
 terests combined for mutual profit. Even the "trusts,'^ 
 "monopolies," "syndicates," and "combines," against which 
 so much has been said, are simply mutual agreements be- 
 tween concerns already great and powerful. These com- 
 binations, overwhelming in their magnitude, by being 
 owned by a few instead of the many are a morbid and un- 
 just perversion of a natural and wholesome desire among 
 men. 
 
 The great lesson to be learned from these cooperative 
 and mutual growths in our country is that they represent 
 a living, active, growing force that must be recognized. 
 They have come to stay. They illustrate the rapidly de- 
 veloping and inevitable course of human events. They are 
 
OUB NATION ^8 NEED. 87 
 
 a natural outgrowth of our republican form of government 
 and of the democratic spirit of our times. 
 
 The growth of the cooperative and mutual spirit among 
 the people shows development of civilization. Its inevi- 
 table demands are that all great interests become correlated 
 and subordinated to the common good. The success of 
 the common-school system or the postal system shows what 
 other similar interests should be and must eventually be- 
 come. The evidence that the people are prepared for a 
 recast of our financial and social conditions is overwhelm- 
 ing. 
 
 Everybody knows that recent progress has been amazing, 
 yet few seem to realize the direction in which progress is 
 traveling. All genuine progress is toward the ideal. Men 
 and affairs have simply become more natural. The real 
 need is that natural relations be restored or harmonized. 
 It cannot be expected that a new and improved civilization 
 will grow up without demanding increased possessions and 
 improved environments that all can enjoy. 
 
 The existence of widespread discontent and a sincere 
 desire for genuine reform is also a natural sequence of 
 actual progress. There is a patriotic demand that these 
 and other overgrown concerns cease to grow millionaires 
 and monopolies, and that they begin to elevate and profit 
 the masses upon whom they feed and flourish. We are in 
 spirit outgrowing the barbarism under which one class of 
 men builds railroads, or telegraph lines, or ships, or fac- 
 tories, or business blocks, and another class owns them ; un- 
 der which one class of men digs from the earth the nation's 
 coal supply or mineral supply and simply exists, while a 
 few manipulators revel in riches ; under which honest labor 
 collects oil from the earth and transports it over the coun- 
 try, through sunshine and rain, for a humble pittance, 
 while a few oil magnates outrival Croesus in wealth many 
 times over. 
 
 Never were men better prepared to become property 
 owners than in our country to-day. The belief that the 
 poor are incapable of taking care of property is entirelv 
 unfounded. While a few are improvident, of an over- 
 whelming majority, if placed under normal conditions, ex- 
 actly the opposite would be true. The poor are better 
 
88 OVR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 equipped by experience, by discipline, and by force of habit 
 to accept and wisely employ an average share of property 
 than the rich are to give np their wealth and live natural, 
 frugal lives. There is both truth and wisdom in the words 
 of Hazlitt : "Prosperity, is a great teacher ; adversity is a 
 greater. Possession pampers the mind; privation trains 
 and strengthens it." 
 
 There is not a spot in all our country, be it ever so ob- 
 scure and desolate, where a moderate possession of property 
 should not prove a blessing. The American idea of life, 
 its conception of freedom, and the home life in its influ- 
 ence upon citizenship are all, to a high degree, dependent 
 upon the individual ownership of property. Poverty, while 
 always to be deplored, in the presence of natural wealth, 
 intelligence, and developing Christian culture becomes a 
 crime. 
 
 Moreover, men have grown to love each other better than 
 their lives would indicate, better than conditions allow 
 them to amply express. There are legions of men, both 
 rich and poor, who profoundly desire to leave the world 
 better and happier than they found it. Within the breast 
 of many a rich man lucre and love wage a conflict, while 
 the conscience sincerely hopes that love will win. Men 
 have conceived a broader and nobler view of the world; 
 they have acquired a keener sympathy and a deeper concern 
 for humanity; and these things have become crystallized 
 as tenets of the popular faith. But amid the complexities 
 of modem enterprise mammonism, schooled in all the arts 
 of cunning, has conspired against the people. Their high- 
 est motives are being crushed and their best hopes are being 
 turned aside. 
 
 The people are prepared, through expectation, for a great 
 reform. The sun sets every day upon a larger number of 
 men who believe that the time has come for a great concert 
 of advance in public affairs. The conscience of the rich 
 is stricken ; the hearts of the poor are bleeding — the souFs 
 need of both is common justice. The people are both ready 
 and anxious to "adopt a policy more dignified and more 
 effective than leaving themselves to be kicked along the 
 path of reform by the recoil of their own vices." ^^J, 
 upon the question regarding what the changes shall be^ 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 89 
 
 what shall bring them to a successful issue, and to what 
 they will lead do men differ. 
 
 The masses, the millions of toilers have made for them- 
 selves a proud record. In the midst of injustice they have 
 been honest; in the midst of oppression they have been 
 loyal; in the midst of a mad rush for wealth and power 
 they have been patient. They have been faithful in their 
 humble sphere, and they deserve a higher trust. Their 
 legitimate heritage is property interests, business responsi- 
 bilities, and the material qualifications of full citizenship. 
 
 Our Government invites a new administration of public 
 affairs. It anticipates a common people with equal rights, 
 privileges, opportunities, and interests. The great body of 
 Americans, it was intended, should keep closely to a whole- 
 some common level. The nower and the dazzle of concen- 
 trated wealth are not in harmony with our free institu- 
 tions. These things breed revolt and not contentment in 
 a free land. 
 
 By patriotic service men are becoming fitted for a new 
 era. The best heart and brain are enlisted. Men who love 
 their country and honor its flag are rapidly becoming 
 enamored of humanity. The best manhood is seeking fel- 
 lowship of a great cause. From the pulpit, the platform, 
 and the sanctum come words of inspiration that echo over 
 our land. Men who love and long to live the Golden Eule 
 swell the ranks for a new warfare. It is safe to move on. 
 The ship of state was never so sure to ride the storm as in 
 present conflicts. The triumph of righteousness was never 
 so inevitable as in the struggle for a new and better life 
 now welling up from the hearts of the American people. 
 
There is that scattereth and yet increaseth ; and there is that 
 withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. — 
 Solomon. 
 
 " Wealth in the gross is death, but life diffused ; 
 As poison heals, in just proportion usedj 
 In heap, like ambergris, a stink it lies, 
 But, well dispersed, is incense to the skies." 
 
 Prosperity, if it mean anything at all, means the distribution 
 of wealth among the raany and over a large territory. It cer- 
 tainly does not mean the concentration of wealth and power in 
 a few hands and in a few large cities. — Chaungey M. Depew. 
 
 If I had never held command — if I had fallen — if all our 
 generals had fallen, there were ten thousand behind us who 
 would have done our work just as well. — U. S. Grant. 
 
 The conservative asks. What is? That higher question. What 
 ought to be? is above his capacity; and whenever he hears it 
 put he speaks of blasphemy and anarchy. . . . Not a corrup- 
 tion has been overturned, not an iniquity has been cloven down 
 in history, that has not fallen by the hands of progressive men 
 and died amid the general howl and lamentations of conserva- 
 tives. — Edward D. Baker. 
 
 If our American civilization is to endure and progress, we 
 must bring about a change in the distribution of wealth. If 
 conditions are such as to be beneficial to the small number and 
 injurious to society in general, those conditions should be 
 changed. 
 
 This is to be the battle of the future — concentrated wealth on 
 one hand, concentrated poverty on the other! If we desire to 
 prevent actual war between class and class, it is imperative that 
 a legal check at once be placed upon the growing power for evil 
 of aggregated wealth. — Robert N. Reeves. 
 
 The great American republic seems to be entering upon a new 
 era, in which it must solve a new problem — the reconciliation of 
 democracy with modern 'conditions of production. — Alexandeb 
 Johnson. 
 
 90 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED, 91 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 .WOULD THE COUKTEY BE BENEFITED? 
 
 A DIVIDE-UP and start-even would touch every phase of 
 life. That a legion of changes would take place and a 
 multitude of new forces be set in motion none can deny. 
 Individual conditions would undergo a revolution. We 
 should inhabit a new country. We should be placed in an 
 unprecedented environment. Ambition^ society, business, 
 and politics would radiate from new standpoints. The 
 transition would not be a dream, but a reality. 
 
 When the hour should arrive for the new order of things, 
 and the bells, declaring financial liberty, filled the land 
 with music, men, women, and children would set their 
 faces toward the future. The past would be forgotten. It 
 would be like the dawn of a new day. There would neither 
 be a rich family nor a poor family in the whole nation. 
 Every household and every man and woman would repre- 
 sent a substantial nucleus. Every one would possess some 
 thing to encourage him, and it would be possible for every 
 life to become wedded to its own. Heaven would kiss 
 mother earth. Men would see and hear anew. They would 
 love with a new joy. They would possess a new inspira- 
 tion. 
 
 The records of every county clerk and of every sheriff 
 would be wiped clean. No old judgments upon the musty 
 pages of public dockets would longer haunt and threaten 
 the unfortunate with their claims. The perdition of pov- 
 erty and the hell of debt would be destroyed. Every book 
 account and promissory note would be forgiven and the 
 borrower and the lender could begin afresh. Every debt 
 against school houses, churches, and colleges would be can- 
 celed. Bonds against towns, counties, and states would 
 become void and of no effect. Government coupons would 
 no longer be clipped by bondholders. Every debt of the 
 
92 OUR NATION' 8 NEED. 
 
 nation, excepting what is due in foreign lands, would be 
 buried in oblivion. One-fourth of the wealth of the na- 
 tion, now jeopardized by debt, would be freed. Billions in 
 value, and what is now hugged as the guarantee of gilt- 
 edged collateral, could be safely u^ed to kindle fires. 
 
 The Government would own the railroads, telegraphs 
 and telephone lines, the express carriage business, gold, sil- 
 ver, iron, copper, oil, and gas mines, and other natural 
 monopolies. It would also own all land not needed by the 
 people. The various states would own that which pertains 
 to the commonwealth, free from all incumbrances. Cities, 
 towns, and counties would own municipal railways, water- 
 works, electric and gas plants, and all buildings of a public 
 nature. Every old lawsuit would be settled, and every 
 wrangle and wrong over money and property equitably ad- 
 justed. 
 
 Taxes would be reduced to a minimum. If the Govern- 
 ment owned all natural monopolies and the states and 
 cities those things natural to commonwealths and munici- 
 palities, the public revenues would be enormous. The in- 
 come of railroads, mines, trolley lines, water and light 
 plants, and other public possessions, even if the people 
 were supplied at a low figure, would be very great. Tariffs 
 and licenses would no longer be necessary for the sake of 
 revenue. The Government could pay its own expenses and 
 maintain a liberal degree of public improvements without 
 collecting any taxes whatever from the people. 
 
 Moneyed interests now vested in mutual organizations 
 would cease, and all insurance policies upon life and prop- 
 erty, all interests in assessment societies and building and 
 loan associations would lapse, require a fresh contract, and 
 begin anew. All patents would expire. Fictitious values, 
 watered stocks, and skeleton fortunes would disappear. The 
 "money power'' as now existing would be destroyed, and 
 the "bulls" and "bears" forced into retirement. Wall 
 Street would be robbed of its market commodities. The 
 Stock Exchange would close, and it might well be preserved 
 as a museum — a Delphic Oracle at whose shrine thousands 
 of men sacrificed their all and about whose altars the 
 wealth of the nation once worshiped with devotion and 
 fear. Bradstreet and Dun would find it necessary to es- 
 
OUB NATION'S NEED. 93 
 
 tablish a new basis upon which to rate the world of busi- 
 ness. What now stands for the greatest wealth would then 
 also include the highest in character. The mistakes and 
 the misdeeds of past struggles, the greed and gain that 
 have fed and fattened upon flesh and blood, would be sub- 
 dued and undone. 
 
 Freed from these enslaving conditions, the people would 
 at once become normal consumers. The people would be 
 able to buy what they need and pay for it. It would be 
 an immediate specific for business depression and hard 
 times. All ordinary comforts and necessary commodities 
 would at once be within reach of every man's pocket-book. 
 Within ten days every producer in the nation, whether of 
 bread or clothing, furniture or playthings, building ma- 
 terials or literature, would be overwhelmed with orders. 
 The glut of goods that now stock the stores of merchants, 
 begging for buyers, would be cleaned out. There would 
 be a commercial famine. The United States would be the 
 greatest market the world has ever seen. 
 
 That a divide-up and start-even would cause a flood tide 
 in business admits of no controversy. If $50 for each 
 adult, $25 for each child, and working currency for public 
 enterprises were distributed evenly all over the country, it 
 would mean nearly $4,000,000,000 in cash in circulation. 
 The most of this money would go where it is sorely needed 
 and where it would prove a boon beyond conception. Le- 
 gions of people would be able to count dollars where they 
 are now forced to count cents. 
 
 Means of livelihood would be within reach of every one 
 and money would be active. 
 
 Confidence would be completely restored. Opportunity, 
 so long a byword and an outcast^ would knock at every- 
 body's door. 
 
 Hundreds of thousands of homes would be built, fur- 
 nished, and supported that are now impossible. Huts and 
 hovels would be torn down and replaced by respectable 
 dwellings. The rickety and scanty furniture that now dis- 
 graces too many households would be used for kindling 
 wood, and those things which conserve a higher civilization 
 would take its place. 
 
 The slum and overcrowded tenement districts to be 
 
94 OUR NATION^S NEED. 
 
 found in all large cities could be vacated and a bonfire 
 made of the rubbish — buildings, furniture, and filth— and 
 such localities turned into parks and playgrounds. The 
 legions of men, women, and children who now live in these 
 degrading and fated environments could build homes in 
 suburban and rural localities, where the air is pure and 
 room abundant. For a full century the farm and field 
 have been sending sons and daughters into the city, keep- 
 ing them alive by the constant addition of vital energy and 
 pure blood. This travel cityward has gone on until the 
 city has become a menace to health, success, and character 
 — a peril alike to man, woman, and child. The only spe- 
 cific remedy lies in getting back to the fields. 
 
 There no longer exists any reason why people should 
 overcrowd together as has been the custom. Modern meth- 
 ods of travel — the railroad, the trolley car, the bicycle — 
 have wonderfully minified distances and invite a revolu- 
 tion in the customs of city life. Business centers of cities, 
 with great sanitary and social profit, might be vacated as 
 places of residence, and more remote sections become the 
 dwelling-place of the people. 
 
 The ability to obtain has not kept pace with the growth 
 of desire. Education, the advent of new forms of com- 
 fort, contact with those who have more and better advan- 
 tages than we have, who secure what we are denied — ail 
 these increase desires; and the more enlightened we are, 
 unless our wants are increasingly supplied, the more surely 
 will discontent follow. But with home ownership and 
 other possibilities would come contentment and permanent 
 qualities of character. Around these newly inspired fire- 
 sides sweeter and friendlier affinities would be established. 
 
 Prosperity that is real, supported by a tangible faith in 
 the future, would at once take the place of panics, strikes, 
 idleness, and financial disaster. When normal conditions 
 of business and society were restored, men would become 
 more natural in habit and more correct in life. Schooled 
 in idleness and uncertainty, millions of people have re- 
 duced their expenditures to the most stringent minimum, 
 while millions of others have grown prodigal and indiffer- 
 ent. Business has long suffered those abominations always 
 accompanying eras of financial anxiety, wherein one class 
 
OUR NATION '8 NEED. 95 
 
 refrain from getting what they need and the other class 
 fail to pay for what they get. Purchases have for years 
 been indicative of unnatural circumstances. Cheap food, 
 cheap labor, cheap beer, and cheap tobacco overflow the 
 markets. Modern advertising is saturated with cheap quo- 
 tations, and the bargain store has had a heyday. People 
 live from hand to mouth and fritter away the pittance that 
 they earn. Modern life has become unstable, and legions 
 of families spend their lives migrating from one tenement 
 or town to another without any settled aim in life and 
 without any momentum to their ambition. More than 
 half of our population rent homes. Nearly 10,000,000 
 live under mortgaged roofs. The struggle to pay rent, and 
 interest, and taxes, and to make both ends meet fills mill- 
 ions of lives with discontent and threatening vicissitudes. 
 
 What mankind needs is a foundation for fresh hope. 
 Instead of being handicapped by mortgages and debts they 
 are unable to pay and by enslaving environments they can- 
 not escape, men need the clear blue sky of freedom under 
 which to work and win. The chance to begin in a small 
 way and grow needs to continually prevail. The first 
 rounds in the ladder of fame and fortune need replacing 
 so that beginners can gain foothold. Infinitely more im- 
 portant is it that the base of lifers ladder be set among the 
 humblest of men than that its top be crowned with a few 
 garlands of wealth and renown. 
 
 Were a divide-up to take place, the laboring man would 
 become a proprietor. If men were to become financially 
 interested in their own work, what is now a ^^trade" or a 
 succession of "jobs'^ would become the business of life. 
 
 It is becoming almost impossible to find a single article 
 made by those who had any interest in it as owners. Per- 
 sonal responsibility that is responsible has become almost 
 obsolete. 
 
 A more universal ownership is an imperative need of the 
 times. If a divide-up of property never takes place, laws 
 should be enacted whereby all workingmen be granted the 
 privilege of acquiring ownership, to a reasonable extent, in 
 that which requires their skill and handicraft. If it re- 
 quires the skill and labor of a hundred men to construct 
 a locomotive or a child^s toy, or to make a threshing ma- 
 
96 OUR liTATION'S NEED, 
 
 cliiiie, or a paper of pins, a hnndred men should be inter- 
 ested in these things during their manufacture as owners. 
 It should be a law that every concern of a permanent na- 
 ture and employing large numbers of workmen be required 
 to allow each of these workmen, after a proper term of 
 service, to purchase at a fair price capital stock to an 
 amount equal to that which his individual labor represents. 
 
 Wage-earners are entitled to such a law. When an en- 
 terprise or a factory or a store has grown so extensive as to 
 require the service of fifty or a hundred or a thousand men, 
 it is big enough for fifty, or a hundred, or a thousand men 
 to own ; and each workman therein in good standing should 
 have the legal right to become the owner of a fiftieth, a 
 hundredth, or a thousandth part of the capital stock, to 
 share in the profits, and to have a voice in the business 
 management. The adoption of such a law would open up 
 to workingmen an opportunity for development and 
 growth of which they are now entirely deprived. It would 
 make property and business subordinate to labor — the true 
 relation. Property and wealth are only commodities, but 
 labor is life. 
 
 For many years thoughtful statesmen and economists 
 have believed and taught that some measure should be 
 adopted whereby the individual ownership of land be lim- 
 ited to a certain number of acres, and that, so far as pos- 
 sible, ownership be confined to actual settlers or occupants. 
 For the same reasons, and with no less force, there is need 
 of a law to limit the ownership of factories, stores, and 
 other enterprises. When they grow beyond a certain size, 
 in magnitude or in employment of labor, individual rights 
 to exclusive ownership should cease. If wisely adjusted, 
 such a law need not destroy the wholesome and legitimate 
 ambition and enterprise of any one, yet it would gi^e free- 
 dom and opportunity to a legion of wage-earners now held 
 in industrial bondage. 
 
 That ownership of property become more diffused and 
 "Universal is the supreme need of the present age. Owner- 
 ship carries with it a power that is tremendous. There is 
 not only a close, but a vital relation existing between own- 
 ership and the highest forms of labor. There are, in con- 
 sequence, vital reasons why every farmer should own the 
 
OUJR NATION'S NEED. 97 
 
 land he occupies and cultivates; that every workingman 
 have a direct financial interest in that which he makes ; and 
 that every salesman, to some extent, own the goods he sells, 
 inspired by the responsibility which ownership alone can 
 bestow, land would be better appreciated and more pro- 
 ductive, and the business of the manufacturer and mer- 
 chant would be more systematic, reliable, and profitable. 
 
 When the supervision of land or other property passes 
 from the owner to that of tenant — when the direct respon- 
 sibilities and interests are severed — it almost invariably 
 begins to depreciate in value and in productiveness. There 
 are a legion of qualities in child-nature that only a parent 
 can properly understand and minister to, and in like man- 
 ner there are a legion of qualities inherent in property 
 which none but the owner can appreciate and fully utilize. 
 "He who wants a thing done right must do it himself is 
 not so much a hackneyed maxim as it is an inexorable law. 
 We are more interested in what is ours than any one else 
 can possibly be. It may be a duty to others, but it is our 
 life. The tenant is, of necessity, almost always poor. And 
 it is in most cases only a question of time when the land- 
 lord finds his property out of repair rnd impoverished and 
 a source of expense rather than revenue. And the same 
 laws and principles which apply to land and property gov- 
 ern commerce and manufacture. It cannot be other than 
 a constant menace and jeopardy to property and business 
 when it is required that they not only support the families 
 of those who do all the work, but in addition must support 
 an aristocracy, living in luxury, as a tribute to legal owner- 
 ship. It is a form of robbery to demand that property and 
 business furnish two livelihoods when they were intended 
 to furnish the requisites of only one. It would seem that 
 God has so ordained that when human liberty and human 
 effort reach their highest expression, every man will be- 
 come the free master of his own life and labor. As our 
 nation grows older and farming becomes more scientific, 
 and manufacture and trade, on account of competition and 
 inventive genius, require the employment of more progres- 
 sive methods, the adoption of closer relations than those 
 held by tenants and wage-earners will become imperative. 
 
 iThe evil effects of the long-continued divorce of owner- 
 
08 OTTit NATION'S NEED. 
 
 ship and labor are well illustrated by the condition of Ire- 
 land to-day. The land of Ireland is largely owned by 
 aliens, but tilled by tenants. Not only are the tenants 
 poverty-stricken, but many of the land owners are objects 
 of charity. One of the great benevolent organizations of 
 Great Britain has for its sole object the relief of English 
 women who own land in Ireland, but who, on account of 
 the demoralization of land profits, have been reduced to 
 absolute poverty.* 
 
 What a blessing it would be for all concerned if the 
 ruling powers of Great Britain were to cease struggling for 
 military dominion for a season and divide the land of Ire- 
 land into small farms and give it, unincumbered, to those 
 who now occupy it! How the Emerald Isle would bloom 
 and flourish anew and how Irish wit and wisdom would 
 baptize and bless afresh the rest of mankind ! 
 
 Yet these same conditions, accompanied by the inevita- 
 ble results, are becoming widespread in our own land. Our 
 houses are becoming owned by one class and occupied by 
 another. Our farms are becoming the property of land- 
 lords and cultivated by tenants. Business enterprise and 
 manufacture are becoming the investments of money kings 
 and manned by a multitude of industrial slaves. 
 
 So potent an influence is the ownership of property that 
 a wide difference inevitably exists between those who pos- 
 sess nroperty and those who do not. Riches and poverty 
 divide men into classes divergent and distinct. Man^s re- 
 lation to society, to law, to religion, and to every phase of 
 life is affected, to no small degree, by property ownership. 
 
 * The following advertisement, copied verbatim from the Pall Mall Magazine^ 
 one of the leading periodicals of Great Britain, explains itself. 
 
 IRISH DISTRESSED LADIES^ FUND. 
 Patron : Her Majesty the Queen. 
 
 Executive Committee : President, H. R. H. the Princess Louise, Marchioness 
 of Lome; Vice-President. Her Grace the Dowa.arer Dutchess of Marlborousrh; 
 Hon. Treasurer. H. H. Plevdell "Bouverie, Esq. ; Bankers, Messrs. Barclay Ran- 
 som & Co., 1 Pall Mall East, S. W.; Manageress Work Depot, Miss Campbell, 17 
 North Audley Street, W. ; Secretary, General W. M. Lees, 17 North Audley 
 Street, London, W. 
 
 The Committee appeal for funds for the relief of Ladies who depend for their 
 support on the proceeds of Irish property, but who, owina: to the depreciation in 
 value of land and the non-receipt of their rents, have been reduced to absolute 
 poverty. 
 
 Office and Work Depot, 17 North Audley Street, London, W. 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 90 
 
 The interests of the rich and poor can never be made a 
 unit. Laws cannot be exactly fair to both. Financial re- 
 sponsibility gives to man a standing and credit that neither 
 character, skill, nor any other force can supply. All busi- 
 ness rests upon a financial basis, and of necessity tangible 
 possession must form the standard by which men are rated 
 in the business world. In a thousand ways ownership of 
 property is a passport to success and usefulness from which 
 the propertyless are entirely debarred. No wholesome so- 
 cial condition can possibly exist until each life becomes 
 wedded to some financial entity that it can call its own. 
 Advocate financial irregularities as they now exist, if we 
 will, submit to them if we must, the fact remains that the 
 condition is a constant menace to the common good. 
 
 Financial differences when justly created and held in 
 reasonable check strengthen the social order, but when al- 
 lowed unlimited sway and power they invite social chaos. 
 Those who represent wealth get more than their share of 
 experience and become giants and monstrosities, while 
 those who have nothing are denied the higher forms of ex- 
 ercise and become pygmies. The successful are being con- 
 stantly inspired to renewed vigor, while the unsuccessful 
 are tempted to give up in despair. Through the influence 
 of wealth upon one side and poverty upon the other, men 
 become separated socially, religiously, and industrially. 
 The one class become leaders, the other followers; one be- 
 come proprietors, the other wage-earners ; one masters, the 
 other servants; one landlords, the other tenants. One 
 class grows, the other becomes blighted and dwarfed; one 
 becomes strong, the other weak; one keeps interested and 
 wide-awake, the other grows indifferent and apathetic. One 
 class becomes as the mighty oaks of the forest whose roots 
 are deeply sunk into the earth, their summits kissing the 
 sunshine and defying the storm, while the other class Be- 
 comes as the bramble and scrub that struggle for existence 
 in the shade and dampness below. Men may consider such! 
 conditions natural, but justice declares it a crime; the 
 apologist may call it progress, but God pronounces it per- 
 dition. 
 
 When these conditions become fixed, as they are in Amer- 
 ica to-day, there may be a remedy other than a division of 
 
 tof 
 
100 OUR STATION'S NBEB. 
 
 property, but if so it is as yet undiscovered. Not only ou]* 
 own land, but the people of all the earth are waiting and 
 longing for some way out of the thraldom of concentrated 
 riches and diffused poverty. All over the earth mankind 
 is divided into the classes and the masses — one dying of 
 luxury and indolence, the other of ignorance and vice. To 
 try to reconcile mankind to such an infamous portion is 
 a crime. It is as much a duty to preach discontent among 
 the people and lead them to a happier and better condi- 
 tion when they are dying through the blighting effects of 
 wealth and poverty as it is to preach conviction and re- 
 pentance to a sin-cursed world. When a remedy is known, 
 it is as much a sin not to proclaim it as it would be to 
 withhold the Gospel of light from the realm of spiritual 
 darkness. Indeed, these things are a part of religion. The 
 reason why Christianity does not progress faster is because 
 we ignore its forerunning requirements — ^the "way'^ is not 
 prepared. 
 
 If individual ownership were to become universal among 
 those who are now journeymen and irresponsible wage- 
 earners, an incalculable impetus would be given to handi- 
 craft. It would tend to establish character and raise the 
 standard of citizenship, and the public would be infinitely 
 better served. Kot only are those who work entitled to the 
 privilege of ownership, but the people have a right to ex- 
 pect that what they purchase shall be produced under the 
 best possible conditions. When men become owners as well 
 as workers, manufactured goods and merchandise with a 
 quality based upon personal honor will flood our markets. 
 Industry, skill, and genius will then experience a new 
 birth. The best in man will be aroused. Business will 
 take to itself a soul. Men cannot render their best efforts 
 unless the highest power of mind and will are called into 
 action. The Golden Rule in business cannot be obeyed, 
 nor can the highest achievements in service be attained, 
 until every man is the master architect of his own fortune. 
 If a factory, or store, or mill were operated by a hundred 
 men, each one of whom were part owner, not only a hun- 
 dred pairs of hands would toil, but the brain of a hundred 
 individuals would think and plan, and a hundred families 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 101 
 
 would be financially related and interested; all of which, 
 beyond controversy, is necessary to secure the best service. 
 
 With confidence permanently established, an abundance 
 of money in circulation, v/ork for everybody, and every 
 home a nucleus of wealth for larger growth, an era of un- 
 precedented prosperity would be at hand. Compensation 
 would not only be assured, but it would increase. Values 
 would rise. Profits would be stable. Legions of marriages 
 would take place. The natural channels of development 
 and progress would be opened. Work would be abundant. 
 The supply of workers would run short. The indolent 
 and improvident would be forced into service. Tramps 
 and industrial vagabonds would be shamed into action. 
 Complaints about hard times, the misery of the poor, the 
 extravagances of the rich, the slavery of labor, and the op- 
 pressions of capital would cease. Everybody could afford 
 good clothes. The excuses of the unfortunate and of the 
 derelict would no longer prevail. The God-intended goal 
 of mankind would be within reach. 
 
 The sweet grace of charity, now so much abused, would 
 fi.nd its normal sphere. Drunkenness would become an in- 
 tolerable outrage. Begging would be a crime. Laziness, 
 stupidity, and worthlessness would become transparent 
 faults. Pessimism could well go out of business. Every- 
 body could buy what they need and pay cash. The credit 
 system, that abomination of modern business, could be 
 wiped out. Doctors^ bills could be paid. New customs of 
 business and rules of society could be adopted. The rich 
 would cease to kill themselves through indolence and lux- 
 ury, and the poor to die through overwork and the lack of 
 necessaries. 
 
 Eeligion and morality would reap a rich harvest. Pa- 
 triotism would become enthroned and politics purified. 
 Merit, and not money, would elevate men into office, and 
 wholesale bribery would be impossible. Crime would be 
 reduced to a minimum. Civilization, science, education, 
 art, invention, and progress would center in the United 
 States. 
 
 A divide-up would inaugurate a practical age. Men 
 would become independent. There would need be no more 
 slaves, either social, industrial, or political. The honest 
 
10^ OUR NATIOI^'S NEED. 
 
 convictions and the sincere opinions of men would no 
 longer cower within the breast. 
 
 No matter what might be said of the result of other 
 measures, the effects of a divide-up and start-even are not 
 a conjecture. As an issue in the nation it is more than a 
 theory. It is human nature under the domination of com- 
 mon sense. It is not the vague illusion of a dream, but 
 the tangible application of cold facts. In its scope as an 
 issue it would cover the entire country. It would give no 
 man an advantage over another, nor would it forget a 
 single person, no matter how obscure or helpless. 
 
 It would be a measure the adoption of which would lift 
 our national character to the highest plane possible in the 
 present age of history. "Trust the people," said the im- 
 mortal Wendell Phillips — "the wise and the ignorant, the 
 good and the bad — with the greatest questions, and in the 
 end you will educate the race. At the same time you se- 
 cure, not perfect institutions, not necessarily good oneSj 
 but the best institutions possible while human nature is the 
 basis and the only material to build with." 
 
Hear this, O ye fhat swallow up the needy, even to make the 
 poor of the land fail. ... In that day shall the fair virgins 
 and young men faint for thirst. — Amos. 
 
 Woe, then, to all who grind 
 
 Their brethren of a common Father down! 
 To all who plunder from the immortal mind 
 
 Its bright and glorious crown! — Whittieb. 
 
 The man who kindles the fire on the hearthstone of an honest 
 and righteous home burns the best incense to liberty. — Henry 
 W. Grady. 
 
 For a child to be born to a life of poverty; to have to strug- 
 gle for its bread almost from the cradle; to be doomed through 
 youth and manhood to such a round of unremunerative employ- 
 ment that age finds him without any resource from starvation 
 except the precarious gleanings of the street or the cold com- 
 munity charity of the poorhouse; to pass from birth to death, 
 as millions do, engaged all the time in a sharp fight with his 
 fellows for the bare necessaries of existence, is an unfair con- 
 dition for which there is and must be a remedy. — H. W. Cadman. 
 
 Until the immortal and God-like capacities of every human 
 being that comes into the world are deemed more worthy, are 
 watched more tenderly, than any other thing, no dynasty of men 
 or form of government can stand or shall stand upon the face 
 of the earth; and the force or the fraud which would seek to 
 uphold them shall be but fetters of flax to bind the flame. — 
 Horace Mann. 
 
 Marriage establishes a relation of affections and interests 
 which can in no other way be made to exist between two human 
 beings. It creates the domestic fireside. It gives origin to the 
 sacred relation of husband and wife, parent and child, brother 
 and sister, and those endearing relations which arise from them. 
 Strike out from the life of man all the hopes, interests, and 
 motives which grow out of this relation, and what were left 
 but a cheerless, a desolate, and a merely brutal existence? — 
 Daniel Wise. 
 
 104 
 
OUB NATION'S NEED. 105 
 
 CHAPTEE YIIL 
 
 A DIVIDE-UP WOULD GIVE THE YOUNG A CHANCE. 
 
 A GREAT many useless and silly things have been said 
 and written to young people. Enough advice is wasted 
 every year over young men and young women to operate 
 a millennium. 
 
 Fathers and mothers buy books which portray in seraphic 
 language the lives of such men as Washington, Webster, 
 Lincoln, Clay, Garfield, Franklin, Edison, Peabody, and 
 others, and take them home and say: "Here, my son, I 
 have brought you a nice book which gives the life of a good 
 and great man. Bead it carefully and profit by its teach- 
 ings, and when you grow up I hope you will be a great 
 man too." There is much truth in Longfellow's familiar 
 verse : 
 
 ^'^Lives of great men all remind us 
 We can malce our lives sublime. 
 And, departing, leave behind us 
 
 Footprints on the sands of time."' 
 
 This is beautiful sentiment, and all books illustrative 
 of great lives are useful, but they are exceedingly limited 
 in their application. They all lack a vital element — the 
 inspiring force for present occasions. Not one man in a 
 million can be a Washington, a Franklin, or a ISfapoleon. 
 To study biographical history is both instructive and use- 
 ful, but to turn the records of the ages and study the lives 
 of heroes and their achievements for a whole year does not 
 profit a young man so much as it does for him to catch a 
 glimpse of his own mission and its highest possibilities for 
 a single moment, or for him to draw off his coat, roll up 
 his sleeves, and dig and strive toward those possibilities for 
 a single day. 
 
 Every child born upon American soil is entitled to three 
 things: a good birth, a good training, and a fair oppor- 
 
106 OUR NATION'S NEED, 
 
 tunity. But American parenthood has lost and ceased to 
 convey its natural heritage. Through the deadening in- 
 fluence of custom parenthood has become willing to throw 
 one chance of success among a hundred of its sons and 
 watch, with apparent satisfaction and composure, the 
 scramble for the prize, laying the trophies of fame and 
 fortune at the feet of him wha wins, but turning with cold 
 forgetfulness from the ninety-and-nine unfortunates who 
 must subsist upon the bitter herbs of defeat and despair. 
 
 There are not far from 10,000,000 young men in the 
 United States between the ages of eighteen and thirty. 
 Every one of them was born for a purpose. They have the 
 God-given right to demand that ten million opportunities 
 be made a possibility. These opportunities should not be 
 a deception or a dream, to lure to servitude and ruin, but 
 there should be in each an assured livelihood and a fair 
 measure of success. It should mean not only good food, 
 good clothing, and comfortable shelter, but a home with all 
 the endearment of the fireside, respectable social environ- 
 ments such as encourage good citizenship, and reasonable 
 prospects for old age. 
 
 Of the 10,000,000 young mxcn in our nation, a large per- 
 centage are constantly looking for something to do. A 
 much larger number have been forced to forsake their own 
 inclinations, bury their natural talents, and accept such 
 means of livelihood as they could secure. Very few are 
 given opportunity to choose their lifers work and enter 
 upon it without being crippled through the domination of 
 the money power. Nearly all of them are employed by 
 others as wage-earners, only a small percentage becoming 
 their own masters. 
 
 As beginners, young men find almost every trade, busi- 
 ness, and profession greatly overcrowded. There are too 
 many mechanics, too many laborers, too many farmers, too 
 many merchants, too many doctors, too many lawyers, too 
 many everything. The time when young men could select 
 a calling in harmony with their natural bent, enter upon 
 its attending duties, settle down, build a home, establish a 
 reputation among men, and live and prosper and finally 
 retire and enjoy the fruits of energy and usefulness seems 
 to have passed. 
 
OUR NATION'a NEED, 107 
 
 To bring up children as is becoming the American cus- 
 tom, and when they have grown to maturity- send them out 
 wholesale into the world where conditions are such that all 
 are severely tested and only a few can possibly succeed, is 
 a species of political and social barbarism in as great need 
 of correction as was the heathenism that gave its offspring 
 as food to the monsters in the river Ganges. 
 
 Were a divide-up of property made, the circumstances 
 and opportunities of the young would undergo a revolu- 
 tion. Every young man in the nation would be worth 
 $1,000. Every young woman would be worth an equal 
 amount. Put together, the two amounts would make a 
 very respectable beginning for a newly married couple. 
 
 There are at present about 500,000 marriages annually 
 in the United States, while over 800,000 young couples ar- 
 rive at a marriageable age. There are over 3,000,000 
 young men in the nation who would like to get married. 
 The chief reason why they do not is because they cannot 
 afford it. They cannot support wives. Their prospects 
 will not justify the venture. It is as natural for a young 
 man to fall in love and marry as it is for a woman, and to 
 be defeated by circumstances is a direct blow to the highest, 
 noblest, and best in manhood. 
 
 If a divide-up should bring to young men faith in them- 
 selves, an assurance of their ability to support wives and 
 families, and a substantial trust in the future, there would 
 be 2,000,000 more marriages within two .years than will 
 otherwise occur. No result of genuine and established 
 prosperity is more plainly foreseen. 
 
 It is not generally appreciated to what extent business 
 conditions affect matrimony. Nothing else so regulates 
 the number of marriages like good or hard times. In a 
 recent article entitled "The American GirFs Chances of 
 Matrimony,^^ in the Ladies* Home Journal (March, 1899), 
 Prof. D. R. McAnally states that in good times the num- 
 ber of marriages has gone up to 26 per 1,000, while during 
 hard times it has gone down to 15 per 1,000, which shows, 
 as he says, "a tremendous rise or falling off^' due entirely 
 to existing prosperity or the lack of it. To claim that the 
 improved conditions incident to a divide-up of property 
 would cause at least 2,000,000 marriages in two years more 
 
108 OUR NATION'S NEED, 
 
 than will otherwise occur is placing the number, based 
 upon actual experience, below rather than above well- 
 founded indications. 
 
 A signally important fact is that the young men and 
 young women who avoid marriage on account of lack of 
 prospects are, as a rule, those whose marriage would mean 
 much to society. It is the careful, the cautious, and the 
 thoughtful of both sexes who avoid matrimony unless its 
 responsibilities can be fairly and faithfully met. Few are 
 the parents who will willingly give a daughter in wedlock 
 when nothing is visible but poverty and privation. In the 
 midst of such blighted prospects as inevitably prevail un- 
 der our present industrial conditions, it is those who re- 
 gard the marriage relations the most sacred, its duties the 
 most binding, and its issues the most vital and precious 
 that naturally avoid it and live unnatural lives in celibacy. 
 Some one has said that society should organize itself and 
 prohibit improvident marriages for its own protection. For 
 reasons infinitely more rational should these millions, 
 whose manhood and womanhood are fated through the 
 domination of greed, organize and as one solid force de- 
 mand that they be no longer doomed to celibate exile. Every 
 young man and every young woman in the nation should 
 become consecrated to the cause. It would be a conquest 
 over which the Shekinah of heaven would rest and a vic- 
 tory over which the angels would rejoice. 
 
 These 2,000,000 marriages would mean 2,000,000 homes, 
 with all that ownership and fair prospects insure. Each 
 one of these homes would be a nucleus for enlargement 
 and radiation, and of far greater contributing value than 
 where marriage means, as it too often does now, simply 
 two souls joining in a struggle against adversity and the 
 caprice of perverted enterprise. 
 
 The marriages which now take place would also mean 
 far more than they at present do or otherwse will. The re- 
 vival of business that would result from marriages alone 
 Tinder the improved conditions of a divide-up would pro- 
 duce an unparalleled revolution in manufacture and trade. 
 Every woodman and miller, brick maker and plasterer, 
 surveyor and architect, carpenter and builder, painter and 
 decorator, would be overwhelmed with work. Every man.^ 
 
OUB NATION'8 NEED. 109 
 
 Tifactory of furniture, carpets, stoves, tinware, glassware, 
 silverware, bridal goods, chinaware, sewing rnachineSj 
 clothing, dry goods, cooking utensils, household goods, 
 tools for workmen and machinery to make — every work- 
 man of every craft and every mill of every kind in the 
 United States, working night and day, could not supply 
 the demand. Genuine prosperity would come. Natural 
 progress would take place. The divine order of things 
 would begin to operate. It would be God's way of build- 
 ing a nation. It is the home and the home life of the 
 people which keep men and machinery busy. Preemi- 
 nently is this true. It is the family life — civilization 
 wedded to its affections and ideals — which supports the 
 farm, the store, the factory, the school, the Church, and 
 the professional man. When a young man and young 
 woman marry and establish a fireside, they at once become 
 a factor in the community which is created in no other 
 way. 
 
 A divide-up and start-even would, if carried out in its 
 true spirit, dower all young women. This would be a 
 measure exceedingly desirable and one that should prevail 
 everywhere. Its moral and social effect would be incal- 
 culable. Our civilization will not get far removed from 
 barbarism until young women, when they arrive at mar- 
 riageable age, are given a respectable dowry. For young 
 girls to be forced out into the world moneyless and friend- 
 less, as thousands are in our rich and beautiful land, is as 
 disgraceful as it is wicked. In the land of Canaan women 
 possessed a dowry. Of them Solomon said: "Every wise 
 woman buildeth her house." A desirable and just condi- 
 tion would be where a young woman should bring a home 
 and a young man a vocation and a business to the marriage 
 altar. 
 
 If a divide-up and start-even were to cause 2,000,000 
 marriages more than will otherwise occur, the effect upon 
 business would be tremendous. 
 
 In the following list an approximation of the expendi- 
 tures of 2,000,000 married couples for ten years is given. 
 Some couples would spend more and some less, but the 
 general average here implied is within reasonable bounds. 
 It is supposed that each man and woman owned $1,000 
 at the start and that they lived during financial prosperity: 
 
110 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 BUSIIfESS CAUSED IE TEN YEARS BY 2,000,000 MARRIAGES. 
 
 2,000,000 men invest $1,000 each in 
 
 business $2,000,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 engagement rings at $10. . . 20,000,000 
 
 4,000,000 wedding outfits at $50 200,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 wives invest in homes 
 
 $1,500 each ($1,000 cash, $500 in 
 
 Building and Loan Association) . 2,000,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 wedding fees at $10 20,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 weddings at $20 40,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 suits of furniture at $50.. 100,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 bedroom suits at $40 80,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 bedroom suits at $20 40,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 sitting-room suits at $25.. 50,000,000 
 
 100,000,000 yards of carpet at 60 cents. 60,000,000 
 
 100,000,000 yards of carpet at 40 cents. 40,000,000 
 
 40,000,000 yards of oil cloth at 50 cents 20,000,000 
 
 4,000,000 rugs at $2 8,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 parlor stoves at $15 30,000,000 
 
 4,000,000 beds at $12 48,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 collections of bric-a-brac, 
 
 etc., at $20 40,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 clocks at $10 20,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 building and loan, princi- 
 pal and interest 1,120,000,000 
 
 1,000,000 bicycles at $25 25,000,000 
 
 6,000,000 mirrors at $4 24,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 dining tables at $10 , 20,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 table outfits at $25 50,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 sets of tinware, etc., at $5. . 10,000,000 
 
 5,000,000 baby outfits at $10 50,000,000 
 
 1,500,000 baby carriages at $6 9,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 tax bills— ten years— $100 
 
 each 200,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 gold and silver ware at $20. 40,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 doctors' bills— $100 each... 200,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 medicine bills— $25 each... 50,000,000 
 2^000,000 contributions— church and 
 
 benevolence ....,, , , 1,200,000,000 
 
TIB NA TION'8 NEED. HI 
 
 2,000,000 amusements — ten years — 
 
 $12.50 per year 250,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 family Bibles at $8 16,000,000 
 
 Newspapers, magazines, books, etc... 300,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 building and loan stock. . . . 300,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 insurance, societies, etc 300,000,000 
 
 100,000 pianos at $300 30,000,000 
 
 300;000 organs at $80 25,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 grocery bills— $100 per year 2,000,000,000 
 2,000,000 Christmas supplies — ten 
 
 years 300,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 incidentals, pin-money for 
 
 wife, pocket-money for husband 
 
 and children, clothing, hats, bon- 
 nets, shoes, dry goods, sundries, 
 
 fancy goods, pictures, photos, 
 
 car fare, repairs and general 
 
 expenses ■ 4,300,000,000 
 
 Cash on hand, same as at the beginning. 
 
 4,000,000 adults at $50 each 200,000,000 
 
 5,000,000 children at $25 each .. 125,000,000 
 
 Total for ten years $16,000,000,000 
 
 The property and income of these 2,000,000 families 
 during the ten years are represented as follows: The in- 
 come of each is placed at $600 per annum, a very low esti- 
 mate for a period of marked business activity such as would 
 follow a divide-up and start-even. 
 
 PROPERTY AND USTCOME POR TEiq- TEARS. 
 
 2,000,000 men started with $1,000 
 
 each $2,000,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 women started with $1,000 
 
 each 2,000,000,000 
 
 Income of each family $600 per year. . $12,000,000,000 
 
 Total $16,000,000,000 
 
 At the end of ten years the value of their property maj; 
 J)e fairly estimated as follows i 
 
lia OUR NATION '8 NEED. 
 
 VALUE OF PROPERTY AT END OF TEN YEARS. 
 
 2,000,000 homes, original cost $3,000,000,000 
 
 Increase in value 1,000,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 businesses, farms, etc., cost.. 2,000,000,000 
 
 Increase in value 2,000,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 lots of furniture, etc. (less 
 
 than cost) 500,000,000 
 
 Insurance, building and loan, and 
 
 other interests 500,000,000 
 
 Total possessions of 2,000,000 families 
 
 (9,000,000 persons) $9,000,000,000 
 
 Following the same principle that would exist in a gen- 
 eral divide, the property would be represented as follows : 
 
 REPRESENTATION OF PROPERTY AT END OF TEN YEARS. 
 
 2,000,000 husbands, $1,000 each $2,000,000,000 
 
 2,000,000 wives, $1,000 each 2,000,000,000 
 
 5,000,000 children, $1,000 each 5,000,000,000 
 
 Total $9,000,000,000 
 
 In addition to the above, if each adult and each child 
 represented the original allotment in cash the families 
 would have $325,000,000 cash in bank. 
 
 If the foregoing average were maintained, these 2,000,- 
 000 families would, during ten years, cause the circulation 
 of $12,000,000,000. Supposing that these expenditures 
 passed through three hands aside from the producer, it 
 would comprise a total business of $36,000,000,000. If 
 profits amounted to 20 per cent, the business would sup- 
 port over 1,000,000 families. These figures, are not over- 
 drawn, and if our manufacturing and commercial interests 
 were commensurate with the unlimited resources of the 
 country they would be more than realized. If the essential 
 reform were adopted to produce the .opportunities^ the 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 113 
 
 marriages would take place and the subsequent develop- 
 ments would surely follow. 
 
 These 2,000,000 young men are now not only unable to 
 get married, but they must struggle to earn a living. In- 
 stead of becoming husbands and fathers, they are indus- 
 trial slaves and are forced to eke out an unnatural exist- 
 ence. They are being forced to accept whatever offers. 
 Their environments are, in the main, vicious. Legions of 
 them, in consequence, grow clandestine in morals and dis- 
 sipated in habits. Thousands of them are a menace rather 
 than a help to the nation. They have been robbed of their 
 birthright, and thus, shorn of prospects and ambition, they 
 complacently surrender to the cruel terms of fate. 
 
 An additional fact is that of the 5,000,000 marriages 
 that will occur anyhow during the next ten years, a great 
 majority of them would be made under circumstances in- 
 finitely more favorable if a divide-up should take place. 
 
 From a business standpoint, the same facts that apply 
 to those who cannot m^arry will also apply with much force 
 to the multitudes of those who will enter matrimony. Un- 
 der present conditions a large share of these marriages 
 mean very little to business. In too many cases it is sim- 
 ply another struggle instead of a home; another failure 
 instead of another success. 
 
 A still further consideration is that there are a legion of 
 young couples and a legion not so young already married, 
 but who are wrestling with poverty and the vicissitudes of 
 wage-earning, who would start afresh under the new and 
 improved conditions. A good percentage of the 12,000,000 
 families in the nation would recast their domestic and so- 
 cial life. Growing childhood would also breathe a new 
 atmosphere and experience a new hope. 
 
 These 2,000,000 extra marriages, in connection with the 
 improved circumstances and consuming power of those 
 who are married, would cause a complete revolution in the 
 industrial and business world. 
 
 Young women and girls would leave factory, store, and 
 office. The sweet charms of womanly virtue would no 
 longer be sacrificed upon the altars of mammonism. Wo- 
 manhood would seek its true realm — the home and the 
 fireside. 
 
114 OUR NATION'8 NEED. 
 
 There would also be a revolution in the training of chil- 
 dren. As marriage would become the natural event of 
 maturing womanhood, girls would be trained in the duties 
 and arts of home life rather than to venture amid the sharp 
 rivalries of the store and the degrading duties of the fac- 
 tory and shop. Trained in the handicraft of the home, 
 they would bring to the embrace of the lover and to the 
 marriage altar the accomplishments becoming a wife and 
 the sweet modesty and affection of their mothers, instead 
 of that strange mixture of mockeries now far too common. 
 
 From factory and store, from school-room and office thus 
 made vacant and short of help, would come an unprece- 
 dented demand for men. Every idle man, young or old, 
 would be absorbed. Millions of men would be needed to 
 meet the new demand. The supply would be entirely in- 
 adequate. Every man who is now accepting some subter- 
 fuge at starvation wages could find investment for his 
 capital and honorable employment both for hands and 
 brain. 
 
 The 1,000,000 men who are now engaged in or em- 
 ployed by the liquor business, killing their fellows and 
 damning themselves, could abandon their accursed voca- 
 tion and find a business both elevating and profitable. 
 And even all of these would not satisfy the demand for 
 men. The call for workers would cross the seas. The 
 best mechanics and the best intellects of the world would 
 find America a choice field in which to live and labor. 
 
 These marriages will take place and these changes 
 will exist when our sons and daughters are given the op- 
 portunities which belong to them. The growth of the 
 nation and of the people here suggested is a natural one. 
 How infinitely better it would be to thus utilize our 
 young manhood at home than to send it to suffer and 
 die in a war of conquest. That our national lawmakers 
 have totally ignored the subject shows that genuine 
 statesmanship has ceased to exist. Man clings to noth- 
 ing as he does to home, and nothing will give skill to his 
 hand and temper his soul more surely than to become a 
 husband and father. The noblest and most precious in 
 the human heart seldom finds expression unless en- 
 shrined around the family fireside. 
 
OUn NATION'S NEED, 115 
 
 Various measures may bring prosperity for a season, 
 but unless the avenues to success and usefulness are kept 
 open to new recruits and to the young stagnation will in- 
 evitably follow. In the young are vested the welfare and 
 destiny of a people. When they are properly trained 
 and given their legitimate birthright honor and plenty 
 will be theirs, and the nation in their hands will be safe 
 while the promises of God endure. 
 
 The question naturally imposes itself: 7s it the duty 
 of the young manhood of the nation to compel a divide- 
 up and start-even'^ 
 
 To develop an issue involving the readjustment of 
 over $50,000,000,000 in property would stand without a 
 parallel in all history; and surely it is a serious matter 
 for the younger generation of voters to wield a weapon 
 so powerful and far-reaching as this. But it is to be re- 
 membered that young men represent the inherent 
 strength and vital force of the nation. They have al- 
 ways been the willing factor in the conquests of war, 
 and it is for them to be the impelling force in the tri- 
 umphs of peace. 
 
 If a divide-up and start-even is practicable, desirable, 
 and just, it is the imperative duty of young men to free- 
 ly enlist in behalf of the measure and loyally follow it 
 to success. They alone possess the essential force. To 
 them the magnitude of the cause only makee it a more 
 sacred trust. 
 
 About 1,000,000 young men assume the privileges of 
 citizenship each year. That upon them are imposed 
 tremendous responsibilities admits of no denial. These 
 young men are strong not only in physical and moral 
 force, but in political power. Their political strength is 
 one of their chief talents; to use this talent is one of 
 their first and highest duties. If political corruption 
 can be destroyed, it is their duty to destroy it. If indus- 
 try is enslaved, it is their duty to give it liberty. If 
 wealth and poverty require equalizing, it is their duty 
 to bring it about. For them to remain indifferent is to 
 ignore a sacred duty. For them to refuse to enlist is to 
 commit a sin. 
 
 There the in our country nearly 6,000,000 voters 
 
116 OVR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 under thirty years of age, and a decided majority of our 
 citizens are under forty. These millions of men are in the 
 full vigor of manhood^s prime. In a manner, challenging 
 every other consideration, they have claims upon the 
 natural resources of the country. Young men are not re- 
 sponsible for their birth, their training, or their inherited 
 environments. But they are responsible to the full extent 
 of their power for the correction of unjust conditions and 
 for the overthrow of existing evils, be they financial, social, 
 or political. 
 
 It is also the duty of young men and those in the prime 
 of life to honestly provide and wisely plan for their families 
 and their posterity. They possess the absolute and unde- 
 niable right to demand that no unjust force or usurping 
 power interpose between the people in common and a fair 
 share of those advantages and comforts with which our coun- 
 try so richly abounds. Present conditions and customs have 
 grown to be a direct and constant conspiracy against the 
 young and beginner generally. An oligarchy, powerful, 
 aggressive, and desperate, usurps the natural rights of all, 
 and the young more than any other class are the sufferers. 
 In the warring rivalries of business the great majority of 
 young men are little more than contrabands — industrial 
 commodities submissively cowering to the kings and mag- 
 nates of enterprise. Legions of men never even so much 
 as dream of their God-intended birthright. They grow 
 old struggling against fate, striving against the inevitable, 
 and go down to the grave hoping in the face of doom. In 
 justice to themselves and to their kin and kind, it is the 
 duty of young men to demand a readjustment of the na- 
 tion's possessions. For them to ignore their duty is a 
 public crime. For them to falter or lose courage is to dis- 
 honor and forsake the flag. 
 
 But it is not through personal interest that the needful 
 motive force will come to the younger generations of citi- 
 zens. Deeply as they may desire to better their own con- 
 dition or secure their individual rights, they would not act 
 or stand firm for these alone. It is unselfish devotion, sin- 
 cere patriotism, and love of justice — the wedding of the 
 heart to a righteous cause — that arouse the younger forces 
 to activity and service. Deeply as these millions of voters 
 
OUR NATION^ 8 NEED. 117 
 
 desire to better their condition, still more profoundly do 
 they desire a happier lot for the country of their birth. 
 While they are patiently waiting for the advent of a new 
 era, they stand ready to volunteer in behalf of a genuinely 
 beneficent issue, no matter what sacrifice it may require. 
 All they need is wise leadership and the inspiring evi- 
 dences of humanity's cause. 
 
 Profoundly true, also, is it that in the midst of grave 
 responsibilities none are more loyal than the young. Even 
 in times of national crises none are so unflinching and 
 brave. Their patriotism and loyalty are always the pro- 
 tecting bulwark and the redeeming power in the hour of 
 peril. 
 
Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. — Paul. 
 
 " O clear-eyed Faith and Patience, thou 
 
 So calm and strong! 
 Lend strength to weakness, teach us how 
 The sleepless eyes of God look through 
 
 This night of wrong." — Whittieb. 
 
 Half of the cruelty in the world is the direct result of stupid 
 incapacity to put one's self in the other man's place. — John 
 
 FiSKE. 
 
 Just laws are no restraint upon the freedom of the good, for 
 the good man desires nothing which a just law will interfere 
 with. — Froude. 
 
 Poverty is a prolific source of thriftlessness, intemperance, 
 vice, and crime. When no ray of hope lights up the future, 
 demoralization soon follows. — W. W. Eoss. 
 
 I do not call that state of society progressive where moral 
 and spiritual truths are forgotten or disregarded in the triumphs 
 of a brilliant material life. — John Lord. 
 
 It is not often that great accumulations of wealth do any- 
 body good. They usually spoil the happiness of two genera- 
 tions — one in the getting and one in the spending. — J. G. Hol- 
 land. 
 
 It seems to me a great truth, that human things cannot stand 
 on selfishness, mechanical utilities, economics, and law courts; 
 that if there be not a religious element in the relations of men, 
 such relations are miserable and doomed to ruin. — Carlyle. 
 
 For myself, twenty-one years of study and observation have 
 convinced me that poverty is the prime cause of intemperance, 
 and that misery is the mother and hereditary appetite the father 
 of the drink hallucination. — Frances Willaed. 
 
 118 
 
UR iVTi TION '8 NEED, 119 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 BUSINESS AFFAIRS COULD BE KECAST AND RENOVATED. 
 
 Business is in need of a general honse-cleaning. So is 
 the realm of industry. Nothing could prove more whole- 
 some than to subject our whole system of enterprise to a 
 complete renovation and pruning. 
 
 There are some kinds of business which need to be up- 
 rooted and prohibited forever. There are many enslaving 
 features connected with both business and industry^ due 
 to abnormal conditions, intense rivalries, and other causes 
 which need readjusting. Under the present strain of com- 
 petition multitudes of men do things, in business and in 
 labor, which their manhood would indignantly spurn under 
 more favorable conditions. Men, both rich and poor, are 
 to-day serving hard task-masters. Money has become king ; 
 and, like all heartless despots, it is tyrannical and cruel. 
 It wields the scepter of power over the business man and 
 manufacturer and demands that they bow the neck or quit 
 the field; it stands over the laboring man and mechanic 
 and demands that they bow the knee or starve. 
 
 No matter what philosophical ideas we may have con- 
 ceived regarding mankind, it is blessed with much that is 
 intrinsically good and aspiring. Man was made perfect. 
 His original and normal nature is pure and good ; and al- 
 though warped and scarred by sin, he is crawling and 
 climbing upward, however slowly it may be, toward an 
 earthly Eden. 
 
 Men do not sell liquor because they want to do so ; nor 
 do they drink it from genuine choice. Men do not work on 
 Sunday because they prefer labor to rest. Men do not live 
 in idleness and indolence and ignorance because they pre- 
 fer these things to industry and thrift and intelligence. 
 Kot thousands, but millions, of men are doing things that 
 their consciences and better sense condemn, because they 
 feel forced to do them. 
 
120 OUR NATION '8 NEED. 
 
 There are multitudes of men in the liquor business who 
 would be as glad to get out of it as the most rabid temper- 
 ance reformer would be to see the whole license system 
 destroyed. If manufacturers and dealers in liquor could 
 abandon their vocations without great financial loss and 
 find a business more ennobling and respectable and equally 
 remunerative, the most of them would gladly do so. That 
 they do not seek a more desirable business in these times 
 of extremely limited opportunity is not surprising. 
 
 The secret of correct living is in avoiding temptation ; it 
 is only the rare conscience that can stand erect in the midst 
 of it. It does not appear that saloon keepers are very dif- 
 ferent from other people. Most of them at heart are hon- 
 orable men. They inwardly deplore their calling, but their 
 invested interests and their dismantling associations hold 
 them firmly grasped. The business of liquor-selling is 
 almost as destructive to the will and as alienating to the 
 life as the drink habit itself. It is quite as impossible to 
 prevent men from selling liquor when they have once be- 
 gun it as it is to prohibit drunkenness when the habit of 
 drinking has been formed. 
 
 During a divide-up of the property of the United States 
 among all the people the entire business of the manufac- 
 ture and sale of alcoholic liquors as a beverage could he 
 abandoned and forever condemned without loss to any one. 
 Financially the loss need not be felt. 
 
 By recognizing the fact that it is the people who give 
 the nation a money value, and not business and stores and 
 manufactories, it is easily seen that a whole branch of 
 business, no matter how large, when that business is not a 
 necessary part of civilization, can be dispensed with and 
 no decrease in values occur. If an injurious business 
 were thus eradicated values would actually increase. 
 
 The manufacture and sale of alcoholic liquors as a bev- 
 erage as carried on in our country is a gigantic curse. 
 That it deserves to be destroyed is the sincere belief of an 
 overwhelming majority of the people. For many years a 
 widespread effort has been made to arouse public senti- 
 ment upon the subject. Forces — religious, political, social, 
 fraternal, and educational — representing a large ^hare of 
 the best manhood and womanhood in the nation are organ- 
 
UB NA TION 'S NEED. 121 
 
 ized and for years have diligently labored to curtail the 
 drink habit and prevent the sale of intoxicants among the 
 people. But the results have been disappointing. The 
 traffic not only survives, but continues with increasing 
 magnitude. 
 
 There are many reason why these efforts, strong and 
 sincere as they are, have accomplished so little. Immense 
 wealth is invested in the liquor traffic. It gives employ- 
 ment to nearly 1,000,000 persons. The annual business 
 done amounts to over $1,000,000,000. It is exceptionally 
 profitable. Those who buy liquor are among the most 
 persistent and consistent customers in the world. It fur- 
 nishes a chief source of revenue to support the Govern- 
 ment. Through the avenue of license it helps to school 
 our children, to pay our taxes, and make business for the 
 politician. It is a unit of force — a dominating power — 
 in politics, while its enemies are divided and confused. 
 
 To prohibit the manufacture and sale of liquors as a 
 beverage, as matters now stand is well-nigh impossible. As 
 a single issue in politics it is at a great disadvantage. If 
 carried out, the majority of those engaged in the business 
 would be reduced to poverty. If turned out into the world, 
 with other lines of business greatly overcrowded, the most 
 of them would find it next to impossible to earn a living. 
 True it is that $1,000,000,000 annually spent in the 
 saloons would be turned into legitimate channels, and that 
 other kinds of business would enormously improve; but 
 the fact remains that it would be a great sacrifice to the 
 liquor interests, a loss which, to the end, will be desperate- 
 ly and bitterly opposed. 
 
 But during a divide-up of property the whole liquor 
 business could be cast aside, and all those engaged in it 
 provided for as thoroughly as though it had been retained. 
 Every person and every family would receive an allotment. 
 The improved business conditions would insure a prosper- 
 ous livelihood to all, and the social relations of liquor 
 dealers and their families would be infinitely improved. 
 There is no reason why the liquor men, who usually op- 
 pose moral reforms, should not, through self-interest, view 
 with favor and work and vote to secure the destruction of 
 their business if its overthrow should be accompanied by 
 
122 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 the compensating overtures involved in a "universal division 
 of property. 
 
 The liquor interests of the United States are rapidly be- 
 coming absorbed by foreign capital, and a large majority 
 of saloon keepers and bartenders would be better off 
 financially, socially, and industrially after a divide-up 
 had taken place than they are now. Considered from 
 every standpoint, perhaps no class of persons would be 
 greater gainers than liquor sellers, saloon keepers, and bar- 
 tenders. 
 
 Another enterprise in need of legal subjection or uproot- 
 ing entirely is the secret or patent medicine business. Dur- 
 ing a divide-up of property all existing patents and copy- 
 rights would expire. Then every secret in the manufacture 
 of medicine would be made known. Opportunity would 
 exist for a long-needed reform regarding secret nostrums 
 in medicine, in food products, and other useful commodi- 
 ties. Few things need correcting so much. While many 
 of these highly advertised articles possess genuine merit, 
 the fact remains that the people are being swindled upon 
 every side. Many secret medicines are worthless, others 
 create a habit for drugs that enslave, and not a few are 
 positively harmful. Their use costs the American people 
 hundreds of millions in money every year. That their 
 sale goes on unrestricted by intelligent oversight is a pub- 
 lic reproach. Viewed in the proper light, the patent medi- 
 cine business is more in need of legal restriction than the 
 liquor business. Our entire system of medicine, including 
 allied enterprises, needs revolutionizing. Properly con- 
 ducted, the transformation could be systematically and 
 thoroughly done. Suppose such a reform, cost fifty or even 
 a hundred millions in money: it would be money well 
 spent. Congress might appoint a national commission com- 
 posed of one physician and one pharmacist in each county 
 in the United States to perform the task. Every fact in 
 medicine and every secret in manufacture could be sub- 
 mitted to this committee. Lists of questions could be pre- 
 pared regarding every remedy and every disease, and these 
 lists submitted for replies to every physician and druggist 
 in the nation. In this way a consensus of opinion of the 
 entire medical fraternity might be secured and the real 
 
OUn NATION ^8 NEED. 123 
 
 value of every remedy and the best remedies for every dis- 
 ease made known. A new system of medicine would thus 
 be evolved, based upon actual and up-to-date experience, 
 representing every section of the nation and every school 
 of medicine. 
 
 The investigation would include not only every drug, 
 but every formula and secret medicine. The good could be 
 retained and in the future compounded by any druggist, 
 and the worthless and injurious condemned and cast aside. 
 If ^^Soothing Syrup,'^ "Castoria,'' or "Celery Compound'^ 
 are the best for the purpose that can be devised, they would 
 find an official place among medicinal compounds and be 
 kept for sale at all drug stores in any quantity at a much 
 less price than they now cost. If they are injurious and 
 worthless the people would find it out. A new Pharma- 
 copoeia and Dispensatory would follow, giving official 
 recognition of the best of everything in the form of medi- 
 cine. Any druggist could prepare any medicine. The 
 best combinations would be known. Every physician would 
 have the entire field of medicine open before him, and he 
 could prescribe exactly the article best indicated. In short, 
 the stock of medicines in drug stores would conform to 
 the new official standards, and embrace every desirable 
 medical agent. Under the new order of things prepara- 
 tions could be officially examined by public experts and a 
 standard of purity guaranteed which is impossible so long 
 as secret remedies are used. 
 
 The secret feature of the medicine business is unscien- 
 tific and can well be abandoned. If there exists a specific 
 for any disease, it is a moral crime for any man to con- 
 ceal the fact. Laws which protect such secrets are inde- 
 fensible. Yet about 75 per cent, of the medicine used in 
 this nation is of a proprietary nature. Thousands of 
 remedies are advertised with an extravagance simply as- 
 tounding. Perhaps more people are frightened into sick- 
 ness by reading advertisements than are cured by the 
 remedies they laud so highly. In no other realm are so 
 many schemes launched forth. ISTowhere else is fraud so 
 rampant. Let a secret medicine meet success, and soon it 
 has imitations a dozen deep. The shelves of the drug store 
 groan through their multiplication. Nostrums of a pro- 
 
124 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 fessional kind so bewilder the physician that the practice 
 of medicine is losing the technical range it once enjoyed. 
 Pharmaceutical manufacturers flood physicians' offices with 
 samples of their semi-secret compounds, and a large part 
 of the medicines prescribed by doctors is in reality secret 
 or patent medicines. Their knowledge of them at best is 
 imperfect and obscure. 
 
 The injustice and injuries of the secret medicine busi- 
 ness have never been fully appreciated. Their almost uni- 
 versal use is to be greatly deplored, as much harm in- 
 evitably results. On account of them the usefulness of 
 physicians is greatly handicapped. They are expensive. 
 They have almost ceased to be a profit to the druggist. 
 Their use is never scientific and conduces to ignorance and 
 imaginary results. With certain exceptions they are recom- 
 mended far beyond the range of their actual merits. Their 
 advertisements disfigure almost every highway and land- 
 scape. They trespass with cunning solicitation over the 
 threshold of almost every physician's ofiice. In newspaper, 
 in almanac, circular, and booklet, and in language im- 
 moral, untruthful, yet beguiling, they invade almost every 
 fireside. No war is here waged against the sale of medicine 
 in any form. The aim is simply to force the business to 
 yield to present needs and the common interests of all. 
 The secrecy, the deception, the evils connected with the 
 business should be suppressed. The composition and work- 
 ing formula should be required upon every package offered 
 for sale. The health and lives of the people are too 
 precious to be sacrificed for the sake of greed at the ex- 
 pense of the honorable name of medicine. 
 
 When the use of medicine shall thus be reduced to a true 
 science and its practical application to a system, a new 
 era in therapeutics and hygiene would open up before us. 
 The prevention of disease would, more than now, become 
 the chief aim of the physician. Institutions would rapidly 
 multiply for the treatment of defects of the body and 
 mind. Contagious diseases would be driven out by isola- 
 tion. Homes would exist where those affected with can- 
 cer, tuberculosis, and other loathsome maladies could be 
 cared for and isolated from the public at large. Some of 
 the diseases of modern times are greater scourges than 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 125 
 
 war. Their eradication should be of paramount concern. 
 When sanitation rises to its proper level, the physician, 
 rather than the lawyer, will become the consulting author- 
 ity in municipal and public affairs. 
 
 Under an organized system measures which promote or 
 insure the healthful development of the race could easily 
 be adopted. Infinitely more than what is possible now, 
 laws, and that still more potent factor, a wholesome public 
 sentiment, would restrain unwise marriages. In a multi- 
 tude of ways the national physique would be promoted and 
 improved. Health, strength, and beauty would become a 
 national characteristic, and the physical nature, now so 
 neglected, would acquire its wonted perfection and become 
 a chief element of the glory and symmetry of future 
 progress. 
 
 The manufacture and sale of tobacco might also he re- 
 stricted to the narrowest limits. The manufacture and sale 
 of cigarettes could weU be prohibited entirely. The sale of 
 tobacco in any form to children should be prohibited by 
 stringent laws. The evil effects of tobacco upon growing 
 boys are disastrous. No measure could be more salutary 
 in results than to entirely prevent its use among all per- 
 sons under legal adult age. No conviction regarding so- 
 ciety is growing more rapidly or becoming more deeply 
 established than that the use of tobacco among the young 
 threatens the deterioration of the race. When used by such 
 it tends to dwarf the body, sap the intellect, and undermine 
 the moral nature. 
 
 What is true regarding the use of liquor applies also to 
 the use of tobacco. Men do not smoke and chew because 
 they actually desire to do so; it is through the enslaving 
 force of habit. The majority of those addicted to its use 
 regret that they ever learned it. Its greatest enemies may 
 be found among its most hopeless victims. But so long 
 as the sight of it, its smoke and its smell invade and satu- 
 rate their pathway they are its slaves. Were an election 
 to be held to decide whether or not all tobacco should be 
 destroyed and its growth prohibited forever, and only those 
 who use it be allowed to vote, there are reasons for believ- 
 ing that the weed would be condemned by a veritable 
 Waterloo. But victims of an evil habit, like slaves to otheE 
 
126 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 things, seldom voluntarily rebel; yet when once set free 
 they profoundly rejoice in their liberty. 
 
 During a divide-up of property all gambling devices 
 could he collected and destroyed and their use in the future 
 prohibited. Under present conditions nothing but the most 
 flagrant and transparent fraud is amenable to the law. 
 The struggle for bread is so intense that if a man can find 
 a subsistence and feed and shelter his family, a marked 
 degree of crookedness is allowed and condoned. Actual 
 frauds, if quasi-plausible, can exist and flourish upon 
 every side, with no one to molest or make afraid. It is 
 not true, however, that the people like to be humbugged. 
 But it is true that the vast majority of the people are hon- 
 est, and being upright themselves they believe everybody 
 else so; and their credulity exposes them to the cunning 
 schemes of the impostor. 
 
 During a divide-up pernicious literature could he easily 
 confiscated and hurned. We are becoming a rival of France 
 in vile literature, and the looseness of our laws is becom- 
 ing a reproach before the world. The sickening details of 
 crime and the illustrated horrors of blood-and-thunder 
 stories, circulated, aye, sown over the country broadcast, 
 are a crime against young manhood and morals that will 
 surely reap a disastrous harvest unless the iniquity be sup- 
 pressed. Hundreds of tons of such literature are sent out 
 every year and read with an interest that is unbounded. 
 To stop this poisonous assault upon developing minds is a 
 duty that cannot be safely ignored. 
 
 A divide-up and start-even wouldj more than any other 
 measure settle the Sunday rest question. When men be- 
 come their own masters Sunday work will largely cease. 
 When they become more impressed with responsibility 
 Sunday desecration will greatly diminish. Exceedingly 
 few are the men who work on Sunday through choice. 
 Perhaps there is not one. The fact that hundreds of thou- 
 sands of men work Sundays simply shows the despotism of 
 capital over labor. Sabbath desecration, about which so 
 much is said, is not so much the result of willfulness as it 
 2s of debilitating environments for six days and demoral- 
 izing temptation on the seventh. Sunday will be kept 
 .when its proper observance is made easj;, and a large share 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 127 
 
 of mankind will never keep it otherwise. Men are apt to 
 regard laws which enforce moral principles as tyrannical, 
 and they will revolt until the legal commands visibly con- 
 sort with the people's best interests, when they will yield 
 and obey with filial devotion. The Sunday newspapers, 
 the Sunday trains, and other financial operations on Sun- 
 day are not in response to a genu.ine demand. Were the 
 people to become their own masters and able to otherwise 
 afford recreation and entertainment, Sunday enterprise 
 would be reduced to a trifle. 
 
 A divide-up of property would entirely reconcile capital 
 and labor. They would become a unit. Strikes and lock- 
 outs would be made impossible. Some of the gravest ques- 
 tions asking for settlement pertain to capital and labor. 
 Many vital differences exist between employers and the 
 employed, and new phases almost daily complicate the 
 labor problem. 
 
 Under our present system improved machinery is be- 
 coming a formidable rival of wage-earning labor.. While 
 labor-saving machinery favors civilization, it is a source 
 of constant anxiety to those whose handicraft it threatens 
 to supplant. It is claimed that enough labor-saving ma- 
 chinery is invented each year to supplant about 300,000 
 workmen if put into use. ''Labor-saving machinery versus 
 the laboring man'' has already become one of the very 
 greatest questions to be solved. Franklin, himself a great 
 inventor, prophesied that in time there would not be over 
 five hours' work daily for men on account of labor-saving 
 devices. To settle this question right new power must be 
 given the laboring man. He must have a voice where he is 
 now dumb. Inventions should bless all, not a few; and 
 above all they should benefit those whose muscle they sup- 
 plant and whose toil they make more productive and easy. 
 But such is not now the result. Too often they mean more 
 wealth to capital and enforced idleness and poverty to the 
 laborer. 
 
 The remedy for questions involving capital and labor 
 is not arbitration, not profit-sharing, not strikes and depre- 
 dations, but an honest and thorough revolution of the en- 
 tire industrial system. For capital to dominate over 
 human lives as a wholesale and national custom is diaboli- 
 
128 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 cal in practice and radically wrong in principle. To en- 
 deavor to reconcile labor and capital without changing 
 their present relations is to attempt the impossible. With 
 one the master and the other the slave^ they will continue 
 antagonistic and incompatible. But when those who work 
 become proprietors they will become responsible and be 
 given a voice in that wherein they are interested. They 
 will be clothed with authority. Thus empowered, laborers 
 could mutually regulate the hours of work as well as their 
 individual profits. The whims and caprice of capital 
 would no longer hold dominion over and dictate terms to 
 labor. 
 
 If the Government should own the railroads, telegraphs, 
 and mines, and municipalities the car lines, water and 
 light plants, and other monopolies, those employed to oper- 
 ate them would be under regulations infinitely more fair 
 and desirable than those now prevailing. Each man would 
 receive a just compensation for his services, and there 
 would be a personal dignity and responsibility that do not 
 now exist. There would be no magnates hungry for mil- 
 lions squeezing wages to increase profits at every point. 
 
 Not only does the vicious in business need to be dis- 
 carded and labor and capital united, but legitimate and de- 
 sirable forms of enterprise need to be renovated and 
 equalized. 
 
 When a bird clings too long to the same nest it is apt to 
 become infested, and so it is with business activities. When 
 long continued without disturbance deep ruts are formed, 
 abuses grow up, and arbitrary methods are apt to prevail 
 in the most exemplary forms of business. ^'Stock com- 
 panies have no soul and corporations never die.'^ Over- 
 grown by age, great concerns merge into trusts and syndi- 
 cates determined to monopolize the field, and they are 
 only too willing to devour every rival that shows its head. 
 
 Competition, at one time "the life of business,'^ has be- 
 come almost sure death to the small merchant and the be- 
 ginner. In the rivalries between the great and small con- 
 cerns the large enterprise is forced to be aggressive and 
 crushing in its influence. It is an axiom of business that 
 an enterprise must either grow or decline. There is no 
 standing still. Most of all^ the large concern must grow 
 
OXIR JtrATION'S NEED. 120 
 
 rapidly or become a great elephant upon the hands of its 
 owners. As rivals in business the great concern has the 
 vantage-gronnd. Everything bows to bigness : it has credit 
 unlimited, advantages in buying, cheap transportation, the 
 drift of the crowd, and favor in every detail. On the other 
 hand, everything operates against smallness: purchases 
 are too light, rating is too low, stock is too small, loca- 
 tion is too obscure, people are not attracted. These char- 
 acteristics are evident everywhere and in every form of 
 enterprise. It was recently claimed that in one of our 
 largest cities ten department stores transacted over 90 per 
 cent, of the business of the city, and that over 8,000 small 
 and medium sized storerooms were empty. 
 
 In direct conflict with everything genuinely American, 
 we are rapidly developing into two great classes in busi- 
 ness, in society, and in modes of thought and life. It is a 
 condition that has long cursed Europe, and nothing but a 
 determined uprising will prevent it from settling, like an 
 atmosphere of gloom, upon the American republic. 
 
 But these large concerns cannot be destroyed. Indeed, 
 they are not only a natural growth, but a necessity to meet 
 the requirements of our time. It is not their size, but their 
 ownership, that makes them dangerous. A divide-up and 
 start-even would not necessarily close or embarrass the 
 progress of a single large store or manufacturing concern ; 
 but it would correct the conditions and abuses that have 
 grown up with them. It would simply change ownership. 
 
 Nor would it be necessary to disband the much-despised 
 trusts and combines. Trusts are susceptible of an honor- 
 able and useful mission. There are good reasons why men 
 engaged in any particular line of action should associate 
 for mutual interest. If a just distribution of wealth ex- 
 isted it would doubtless be desirable to have every member 
 of each branch of business, including farmers and pro- 
 fessional men, as well as manufacturers, united through 
 organizations for mutual intercourse and profit. 
 
 Under the new conditions, if a trust representing a cer- 
 tain national industry, embracing fifty manufacturing 
 plants, be capitalized at fifty million dollars and employ- 
 ing 50,000 workers, instead of being controlled by fifty 
 millionaires, it Would be controlled by 50,000 men. The 
 
130 OUR NATION' 8 NEBB. 
 
 profits, instead of flowing into fifty pockets, would find its 
 way to 50,000 pockets. Instead of fifty palaces and 50,000 
 tenements there would be 50,000 homes owned by the oc- 
 cupants. Instead of fifty centers of luxury, extravagance, 
 and dazzling show there would be 50,000 firesides repre- 
 senting all the endearments of home, each one consuming 
 the natural products of civilization and contributing to 
 the various forms of society. Instead of fifty capitalists 
 and 50,000 wage-earners, with all the depressing influences 
 of servitude and poverty, there would be 50,000 master 
 workmen, interested directly in what they do and sending 
 out into the markets of the world goods manufactured 
 under the reign of the best possible methods of concen- 
 trated effort. 
 
They helped every one his neighbor; and every one said to his 
 brother: Be of good courage. — Isaiah. 
 
 A toil that gains with what it yields 
 
 And scatters to its own increase, 
 And hears, while sowing outward fields, 
 
 The harvest-song of inward peace. — Whittieb. 
 
 All that society can do it ought to do ... to give every 
 man, to the extent of our power, full, fair, and free oppor- 
 tunity so to exercise all his moral, intellectual, physical, and 
 spiritual energies that he may, without let or hindrance, be 
 able to do his duty in that state of life to which it has pleased 
 God to call him. — Lord Shaftesbury. 
 
 The man who is in danger of want, or even in dread of want, 
 is not a free man; and the country which does not assure him 
 the means of livelihood is not a free country, though it may 
 be the freest of all free countries. In other words, liberty and 
 poverty are incompatible. — William D. Howells. 
 
 The finest fruit earth holds up to its Maker is a man.— 
 Humboldt. 
 
 Every human being must have some object to engage his atten- 
 tion, excite his wishes, and rouse him to action, or he sinks, a 
 prey to listlessness. For want of proper occupations see stren- 
 uous idleness resorting to a thousand expedients — the race- 
 course, the bottle, or the gaming table, the frivolities of fashion, 
 the debasements of sensuality, the petty contentions of envy, 
 the grovelling pursuits of avarice, and all the various distract- 
 ing agitations of vice. — William Gaston. 
 
 Liberty cannot long endure in a country where the tendency 
 is to concentrate wealth in the hands of a few. — Daniel 
 Webster. 
 
 Is there anything better in a state than that both men and 
 women be rendered the very best? There is not.-— Plato. 
 
 132 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 133 
 
 CHAPTEK X. 
 
 MORAL AND SOCIAL INFLUENCE. 
 
 What would be the moral and social influence of a 
 divide-up and start-even ? Would the people be made bet- 
 ter or worse? 
 
 Doubtless there are many really good people to be found 
 who believe that the effect would be bad. Were the meas- 
 ure to become an issue in politics the assumed evil effects 
 would, perhaps, be the most strongly pressed argument 
 against its adoption. Many would claim that the drinking 
 class would debauch the deeper; that prodigals would in- 
 vade new fields of sin; that ignorance would be given a 
 dangerous power; that improvidence and laziness would 
 be encouraged; and that even if improvement were to fol- 
 low it would last only for a season, and conditions would 
 soon be as bad or worse than they are now. Thousands of 
 well-meaning men and women would vehemently condemn 
 such a proposition as impractical and detrimental to the 
 common good. Many would claim that wealth would be 
 transferred to strange and dangerous hands ; that it would 
 be simply sowing broadcast over the land the accumula- 
 tions of generations of labor, economy, and thought; and 
 that tricksters and dishonest schemers would manipulate 
 the accompanying evolutions of business and reap a rich 
 harvest. Some would predict that the final result would 
 be confusion, general devastation, and social and moral 
 chaos. 
 
 But none of these claims are supported by either his- 
 tory or facts. 
 
 The fact that a division of property would create new 
 conditions and destroy many old and well-established cus- 
 toms of business and habits of society would arouse lamen- 
 tations among the conservative. But the fact that an idea 
 or measure is new is no argument against it, nor is it to be 
 condemned because it, in turn, may be followed by con- 
 
134 OUR NATION'S NEED, 
 
 ditions as evil and vicious as those which it is intended to 
 remove. That a new political party will grow as corrupt 
 and useless as the old ones are, or that new political lead- 
 ers will grow as servile to party and as foggy in statesman- 
 ship as present incumbents, are not good reasons why new 
 parties should not be formed or new men elevated into of- 
 fice. That a new condition will breed new and even worse 
 evils to be overcome in the future is no reason why it 
 should not be brought about. Because a child will grow 
 as old as its father is no argument against its birth. That 
 another drought will come, more severe than that which 
 exists, is no point against rain. On the contrary, the fact 
 that political parties grow corrupt by age and politicians 
 weak and venal by long experience makes it imperative 
 that new principles be evolved and new men elected to of- 
 ficial positions. The fact that conditions grow unfair and 
 unjust makes a change absolutely necessary, just as the 
 fact that a man grows old and must die makes it necessary 
 that he be replaced by offspring, or the fact that the earth 
 becomes dry and parched creates an imperative demand for 
 successive rains. 
 
 The claim that any appreciable number of the people of 
 the United States are incapable of becoming safe and de- 
 sirable property owners is absolutely unwarranted. There 
 is nothing, outside of religion, that may be as safely dif- 
 fused among the people or which is as conducive to social 
 and moral rectitude as the moderate ownership of prop- 
 erty. For four thousands years history has been constant- 
 ly teaching that concentrated wealth leads to national de- 
 cay; that poverty leads to vice and dissipation; and that 
 those who are neither rich nor poor are the chief bulwark 
 of civilization. 
 
 During the reign of Solomon every man owned his home, 
 and the people were peaceful and contented. "He had 
 peace on all sides round about him ; and Judah and Israel 
 dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his 
 fig-tree, from Dan even to Beersheba, all the days of 
 Solomon." This is surely a remarkable illustration of how 
 man will respect and honor the practical application of 
 wise government and the universal ownership of property. 
 
 There is not a spot in our nation, be it ever so crowded 
 
OUR NATION^ 8 NEED. 135 
 
 or desolate, where a moderate possession of property should 
 not prove a direct and genuine blessing. Such a condition 
 is a part of the soul-life of a republican form of govern- 
 ment. "Give me neither poverty nor riches/^ prayed the 
 apostle. Either extreme is injurious. Safety rests in the 
 happy medium, and this medium implies ownership. Prop- 
 erty is the palladium of peace, usefulness, and power. For 
 childhood to be deprived of its benefits is a crime against 
 the Almighty ; to get married without it is like starting 
 from nowhere, protected by nothing, and aiming at a star ; 
 to grow old without it is to rob age of its evidence of vir- 
 tue and wisdom and even reproach infinite care. 
 
 To assail the wisdom of a divide-up on the ground that 
 the American people as a whole are unfit and unsafe to be- 
 come property owners — that it would be dangerous to allow 
 them a business or a competency because they are unable 
 to appreciate and care for them — is to assail the Declara- 
 tion of Independence, to ignore the principles of religion, 
 and insult common sense. To teach such doctrines is to 
 propagate anarchy, 
 
 A divide-up would neither injure society nor impair 
 morals. And there is every reason for believing that it 
 would be a great. social and moral uplift, such as the world 
 has never seen. Overwhelmingly true is it that the great 
 middle class — ^those who are not rich and who yet own 
 something — make the best and most loyal citizens. This 
 class are the backbone of society, the truest defenders of 
 the law, the safety-valve in politics, and the chief promo- 
 ters of virtue and religion. From the firesides of this class 
 of citizens go out the noblest and best types of manhood 
 and womanhood into the world, and their influence is 
 strong and constant for good. They add new vigor to 
 physical and social life, they stimulate business and in- 
 dustry, and add pure blood and clear brain to the national 
 character. 
 
 A divide-up would he a direct specific for the curse of 
 intemperance. It would supply what all other temperance 
 measures lack. It would destroy the nests in which in- 
 temperance is hatched and fostered. It would change the 
 social environments of those who drink. It would obliter- 
 ate the saloon with its temptations and bad associations. 
 
136 OXTB NATION'8 NEBT>. 
 
 It would stop drunkenness by removing the causes which 
 produce it. 
 
 For many years the subject of intemperance has been 
 widely and earnestly studied. In school, in church, and in 
 politics it has held a conspicuous place. It has been by 
 far the most liberally discussed subject upon the American 
 platform. Temperance workers have been almost guilty 
 of the sin of Ham in exposing his father Noah by publicly 
 parading the hideous countenances, the ragged attire, and 
 the wretched homes of their fathers and brothers who have 
 fallen victims to wine. But the consumption of liquor 
 constantly increases. In nearly every State the teaching 
 of the evil effects of alcohol is compulsory in public schools, 
 but the results of such instruction are scarcely visible. 
 The country is being constantly flooded with temperance 
 literature, but the drink curse, with all its attending evils, 
 survives. 
 
 It is furthermore true that the victims of no habit so 
 deeply deplore their bondage, and that to none; is extended 
 such honest sympathy. Temperance efforts have failed 
 because the real root of the habit has not been reached. 
 Temperance reformers have contented themselves with 
 condemning the use of liquors as a beverage, denouncing 
 the license system as a curse, and appealing to the con- 
 science of the drunkard for his pledge and to the honor of 
 the citizen for his vote. They have not followed the drink 
 curse to its final analysis. Too much attention has been 
 paid to the results of the drink habit — ^the cost in money, 
 happiness, life, and character — and not enough attention 
 given to the concrete reasons why men drink. When we 
 see a man drunk we know the cause: he has swallowed 
 some kind of liquor. This is self-evident to even a child. 
 But when we see a man drinking liquor it is not so easy 
 to tell why he does it. Yet the drinking of the dram is 
 the result of a cause, just as certainly as the staggering 
 gait and maudlin tongue. In fact, the drunkenness, the 
 poverty, the crime and death chargeable to the saloon sys- 
 tem are a secondary consideration to the more basic and 
 concrete forces existing back of the drink habit itself. It 
 is of far more importance to know where a drunkard came 
 from than to learn where he is going. The vital point of 
 
TIB NA TION '8 NEED. 137 
 
 the temperance question is not the fact that over 1,000 
 boys and yonng men learn to drink and 100 drunkards die 
 every day in the year, or that over 1,000,000,000 gallons 
 of liquor are annually consumed at a cost of over $1,000,- 
 000,000 to the people, or that on account of these things 
 the land is filled with crime and shame, misery and want; 
 but it is. Why do men drink f When this is discovered and 
 the cause removed, it can be claimed that a temperance 
 reform has at least commenced. 
 
 Every student and close observer knows that most liquor 
 is drunk by two classes — the rich and the poor — and that 
 the most dissipated class of all is the propertyless wage- 
 earners of the nation. The further men are separated 
 from the common level the greater their temptations be- 
 come. 
 
 The reasons why the rich take to wine and luxury and 
 other dissipations are apparent to all. Eiches are deceit- 
 ful, hardening to the heart, and deadening to the con- 
 science. They admit men into a social-circle which is un- 
 restricted in customs and unbridled in appetites. Eiches 
 carry, rather than lead, men into temptation, and force, 
 rather than invite, them to habits of dissipation. It al- 
 ways has been so and perhaps always vfill be so. 
 
 But powerful as riches are as a tempter of mankind, 
 poverty and wage-earning are close rivals. According to 
 reliable observers, more than tv/o-thirds of the liquor 
 drunk is swallowed by wage-earners. 
 
 "Wage-earners spend $700,000,000 annually for liquor 
 in the United States.^^ Said Mr. Powderly, while at the 
 head of the Knights of Labor : "A single county in Penn- 
 sylvania, so I am informed, spent in one year $17,000,000 
 for drink. That county contains the largest industrial 
 population, comparatively, of any in the State; $11,000,- 
 000 of the $17,000,000 comes from the pockets of v/orking- 
 men." 
 
 The question arises. Do men talce to strong drinh he- 
 cause they are wage-earners f With certain qualifications 
 this is undeniably true. 
 
 Twenty-five centuries ago it was said by one divinely in- 
 spired: "He that earneth wages, earneth wages to put it 
 into a bag with holes,'^ and the same can be said with equal 
 
138 OUB NATION'S NEED, 
 
 truth to-day. The thousands of wage-earners who were 
 employed in rebuilding the Temple at Jerusalem had no 
 more holes nor larger holes in their pockets than the wage- 
 earners of modern times. For thirty years wage-earning 
 has greatly increased in the United States, and parallel 
 with it the consumption of liquor has increased and multi- 
 plied. The growth of no two things has been more closely 
 related and uniform. 
 
 Wherever wages are paid in abundance the saloon seeks 
 a license and its patronage is well-nigh assured. 
 
 It matters but little whether wages be high or low. 
 Wherever irresponsible and propertyless wage-earning pre- 
 vails the wages are turned into whisky, beer, and tobacco 
 and into dissipations of every sort with a thoughtless 
 avidity that is simply astounding. The forces of heredity, 
 the impelling power of appetite, the allurements of com- 
 panionship and social influences are not here overlooked. 
 A thousand times no ! But riches on the one hand and 
 poverty and propertyless wage-earning on the other, as 
 causes of the drink habit and other dissipations, surpass 
 them all combined. A thousand times yes ! 
 
 Wage-earning is preeminently the gigantic curse of the 
 republic. As carried on it is only a substitute for chattel 
 slavery. In some respects chattel slavery would be prefer- 
 able, as the slave owners, representing the wealth of trusts, 
 syndicates, and great industrial concerns, would then be re- 
 sponsible for the food, clothing, and shelter of those they 
 would hold as property. Mankind should avoid wage-earn- 
 ing as it does a pestilence. The capable man who chooses 
 a life of wage-earning rather than to be his own master 
 commits a sin only surpassed by him who worships an idol 
 instead of the true God. 
 
 To work for wages, to be a life-long hireling, is an un- 
 natural thing to do. As citizens, men can choose their 
 rulers and law makers and express their desires at the 
 ballot-box, but as wage-earners in the realm of industry 
 they are like aliens and dumb. They cannot choose their 
 own masters, nor can they live the lives of free men. To 
 legions of men, commencing a life of wage-earning means 
 the surrender of their God-given talents and birthrights at 
 the feet of capital and, leaving hope and ambition behind^ 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 139 
 
 entering the great realm of industry to toil^ and sweat, and 
 merely exist, and die a martyr to the tyranny of mammon- 
 ism — a despotism saturated with selfish greed and that 
 "will be rich," and to reach its goal is willing "to drown 
 men in destruction and perdition." 
 
 Man's normal sphere is a high one. His aspirations and 
 heart, his powers and ambitions need cultivating, not 
 crushing. His talents are to be doubled, not diminished 
 or buried. The man in men requires exercise and an ob- 
 ject and aim. The higher qualities of mind and character 
 need even more than exercise and opportunity: they re- 
 quire responsibility to develop and perfect their beauty and 
 strength. Says Dr. Harris, United States Commissioner 
 of Education: "The personal conviction of responsibility 
 lies at the basis of all truly moral actions." When men 
 are denied natural responsibilities and turned into mere 
 automatic machines, as millions of wage-earners are, de- 
 velopment in the higher and broader sense is impossible. 
 When these higher attributes are destroyed men are de- 
 throned ; and thus weakened they become a prey to all that 
 is base and corrupt. With ambition checked and hopes 
 blighted men sell themselves in the industrial markets — so 
 much manual force for so much money — and when pay-day 
 comes, being victims to manhood's defeat, they hurry to the 
 saloon and to the various haunts of dissipation, to gratify 
 their perverted tastes and drown the stinging sense of 
 despair. 
 
 It is the duty of every man to be an integer among his 
 fellow-men, and he who willingly steps down from this 
 God-intended level sells his birthright. The legitimate 
 fruits of a man's talent and strength belong to himself and 
 his family. To allow capital to step in and manipulate 
 muscle, and mind, and strength, and life, in its own inter- 
 ests and claim all the profits outside of a stinted and 
 meager support is to permit deliberate and wholesale rob- 
 bery. 
 
 God intended that men should profit by what they do; 
 that their talents and labor only should measure or limit 
 their success ; and that each should receive a commendable 
 and just reward, not wages, for his work and energy. The 
 liireling is inevitably a subordinate^ an^ bis life is subject 
 
140 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 to compromise. Even in the Ten Commandments he is 
 classified with cattle. Wages is the penalty for sin, the 
 currency of submission and slavery, the coin of perdition. 
 It is the duty of a republic to make v/age-earning the ex- 
 ception, and not the rule and characteristic of its indus- 
 trial life. 
 
 Capital and labor must become a unit and not remain 
 divergent interests. But there is no compatibility except 
 where the hand that toils and the pocket that receives the 
 profits belong to one and the same man. There have been 
 strong efforts made to reconcile employers and the em- 
 ployed. But there is no honorable ground of compromise. 
 It can never be done until the wage-earner is willing to 
 insult Heaven by taking all that is useful in talent, 
 precious in intellect, and divine in manhood, and tie it up 
 in a napkin and return it to his Maker. 
 
 As a potent remedy for intemperance and other dissi- 
 pating habits nothing could be more direct and radical 
 than a divide-up of property. It would distribute the vast 
 accumulations of riches, remove the temptations both of 
 riches and poverty, give to every one an average possession, 
 impose upon each a share of responsibility, force every one 
 into exercise, encourage a definite purpose in each life, 
 and, above all, give to each worker a direct home and 
 money interest in the chosen pursuit of life. 
 
 A divide-up would redeem many who are noiv vicious 
 and lawless. Men can be found who are parasites upon 
 the body social, political, and industrial. They are looked 
 upon a lazy, shiftless, and a menace to all that is progress- 
 ive and valuable. Some of these men are depraved within 
 and without. Among their number are loafers, tramps, 
 dead-beats, and beggars. They are filthy in habit, be- 
 grimed in body, and polluted in mind. Their blood is con- 
 taminated by bad ancestry, their bodies are weakened by 
 depraved environments, and their sensibilities are blunted 
 and perverse. If the earth were to open and swallow them 
 it would seem that the ends of mercy had been served. 
 
 Many of this class never possessed anything, and they 
 apparently do not know how to earn, use, or save anything 
 or even to protect their own interests. 
 
 But in America this class is not large and in a divide-up 
 
OUB NATION'S NEED, 141 
 
 would play an insignificaiit part. Suppose there are 
 1,000,000 persons in all who would be unworthy of what 
 they would receive — and this is an extremely large esti- 
 mate. We are spending what would be their share in a 
 divide-up for liquor every year. Suppose we have 200,000 
 prostitutes in the nation. We are spending what would 
 be their allotment in a general divide every three months 
 for tobacco. Suppose there are 100,000 tramps in the 
 country. We have one citizen who could give to each one 
 of them $1,000 and still be a millionaire many times over. 
 
 It is to be remembered in this connection that there is a 
 pressing demand that some measure be adopted to lessen 
 the injury wrought by our criminal class. Criminals have 
 become a burden not easily endured. Eegarding our 
 criminals, Charles Dudley Warner recently said: ^^We 
 could better afford to take all these peoples, who are limited 
 in number, and board them for life at the St. Denis Hotel 
 at five dollars a day and make money at it.^^ If this be 
 true, what a saving it would be to give to each a share 
 in a divide-up, even if only one-half reformed in conse- 
 quence of their new environments ? It must be conceded 
 that these classes of people, above all others, need looking 
 after. They have peculiar claims upon the more fortunate. 
 Most of them are the result of vicious conditions for which 
 they are not responsible. They are victims, rather than 
 perpetrators, of wrong and disorder. It is the imperative 
 duty of the State and nation to lift them from their degra- 
 dation and indolence. They are still men and women, and 
 entitled to all the ennobling influences of a Christian 
 civilization. There remains in the souls of most of them 
 a spark of the divine, that only needs rekindling and feed- 
 ing to grow into a flame. 
 
 It is a matter worthy of concern that many of those who 
 are among the undesirable class are becoming the fathers 
 and mothers of more children, proportionately considered, 
 than more fortunate and desirable citizens. 
 
 The human race is *so constituted that it will multiply 
 more rapidly in filth, ignorance, and poverty than under 
 more refined and desirable conditions. The birth-rate in 
 the slum district of a large city has been known to exceed 
 by over 50 per cent, that of more refined and less crowded 
 
14a OTIB NATION'S NEED. 
 
 localities. In one district in New York City there were 
 not long since "986 persons to each acre, and out of a 
 population of 255,033 persons in this overcrowded section, 
 only 306 had access to a bath-tub." What was here found 
 on a large scale is to be found, only less in extent, in every 
 city in the Union. The birth-rate in such localities is 
 often enormous, and the children of such parentage are in- 
 evitably biased and bent. They easily become paupers, 
 criminals, and degenerates. There are already over 700,000 
 defectives in our nation, and our various penal institutions 
 and asylums are greatly overcrowded. The care and sup- 
 port of defectives and the expense of protecting life and 
 property against the lawless and criminal class are becom- 
 ing a heavy burden on taxation and charity. 
 
 Patriotism and statesmanship have no nobler or more 
 imperative mission than to arouse the depressed and de- 
 praved from the apathy and abandon into which they have 
 fallen. The only practical and sensible method is to break 
 up and destroy the slums and haunts of poverty where sin 
 and dissipation have been bred and brooded. A divide-up 
 would do this. The dingy and dirty hovels would be for- 
 saken, and homes where sunshine, and water, and fresh 
 air, and room were plentiful would be found. By giving 
 to each of these persons a share in a general divide-up a 
 new life would be opened up at once before them. 
 
 Mr. Booth Tucker, whose experience makes his opinions 
 authoritative, says: "Four-fifths of the miserable people 
 of our city slums would be born again, scripturally speak- 
 ing, under the influence of pure air, good food, perfect 
 .freedom, systematic labor, and the hope of ultimately own- 
 ing something of their own.'^ When Christ was upon earth 
 the common people heard Him gladly — the lame, the halt, 
 the blind, the leper, the prodigal, the harlot ; and the moral 
 exiles of the slums will live anew when the light and lib- 
 erty of love rescues them from the thraldom into which 
 they have fallen. ISTone would respond more quickly to 
 practical help. The majority of them would arouse from 
 their lethargy and become useful, desirable citizens. To 
 thousands it would be a veritable foretaste of heaven. 
 
 The benefits that would accrue to children would he in- 
 calculable. The ragged, ill-fed, and neglected children 
 
UB NA TION 'S NEED, 143 
 
 that swarm in homes where poverty and ignorance now 
 prevail would, more than their parents, profit by the 
 change. It would not only place each in a new environ- 
 ment, but school, church, and social advantage would be 
 within reach of all. They would be born into a new realm. 
 
 In an article in The Arena for June, 1897, Professor 
 Hull, of Swarthmore College, says that "90,000 children 
 have been sent from New York and Philadelphia to live in 
 private homes throughout the country by societies organ- 
 ized for the purpose," and that according to careful records 
 of each case "'85 per cent, of these have turned out well 
 and only 2 per cent, have grown into evil men." It is 
 claimed that there are all the time more than 100,000 
 laboring children in New York City. During the past 
 forty years more than 200,000 homeless boys and girls 
 have received supper, bath, and shelter free in the various 
 lodging-houses of the city. In every large city such chil- 
 dren exist in surprising numbers. 
 
 The history of Australia is an illustration of what will 
 be accomplished by giving an opportunity to poor and 
 destitute children. According to the Scientific American, 
 during the year 1849 the enormous number of 14,000 
 pauper boys and girls of England and Ireland were trans- 
 ported to the island of Australia. And if 14,000 were sent 
 during one year, it is reasonable to suppose that other 
 years furnished a large number. In addition, Australia 
 was for years the migrating point for a large number of 
 criminals. It is interesting to note what the history of 
 Australia has been, subjected to such influence. Of its 
 history, beginning two years after the colonization of these 
 pauper children, Chambers's Encyclopaedia says: "Since 
 1851 Australia has been advancing in all departments of 
 material well-being at a rate surpassing that of any other 
 country on the globe. Since 1870 its railroads and tele- 
 graphs have been increasing at a ratio, in relation to its 
 population, far exceeding that of the United States. Its 
 telegraphic traffic is enormous, relatvely considered being 
 double that of Great Britain." 
 
 What children need most is not philanthropy and char- 
 ity in the form of foundling asylums, orphanages, chil- 
 dren's homes, and institutional schools, but rather "a home 
 
144 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 with a small h/^ and such would be within reach of chil- 
 dren if they represented a property value. Well-regulated 
 institutions serve a noble purpose in caring for the afflicted 
 and defective, but to children normal in mind and body 
 there is no successful substitute for the home and fireside. 
 Says the eminent William Booth, whose experience is un- 
 surpassed: "A child brought up in an institution is too 
 often only half human, having never known a mother's 
 love and a father's care." And of those without any home 
 at all he says: "It is the dishorned multitude, nomadic 
 and hungry from birth, with hereditary weakness of body 
 and hereditary faults of character. Yet it is idle to hope 
 to mend matters by taking the children and bundling them 
 in barracks.'"' What a mine of untold wealth is now going 
 to waste or being coined into counterfeit citizenship in the 
 neglected childhood of the nation ! What a wise stroke of 
 statesmanship it would be to give all these children a 
 chance to grow and develop under influences where they 
 would learn to honor and dignify our nation and its insti- 
 tutions ! 
 
 The same facts which apply to depraved men and 
 neglected children apply with no less force to fallen wom- 
 en. When sin and shame assail womanhood and rob it of 
 its virtue, all human sympathy, it would seem, is forever 
 repulsed. 
 
 While more than all else fallen woman is a victim, yet, 
 traduced to its ruin and abandoned in its shame, it rivals 
 the saloon as a social and moral evil in the land. 
 
 Few are the women that seek their own shame. Says 
 Mrs. Charlton, of Chicago, an authority upon the subject : 
 "Of the 230,000 erring girls in this land, three-fourths of 
 them have been snared and trapped, bought and sold.'^ 
 "To supply the demands of passion in men," says J. B. 
 Wetty, "one hundred families must give up a daughter 
 apiece every day in the round year.'^ Says an author who 
 studied the subject for many years: "Women are ruined, 
 in a great proportion of cases, from a mere exaggeration 
 and perversion of the best qualities of a woman's heart. 
 They yield to desires in which they do not share from a 
 weak generosity which cannot refuse anything to the pas- 
 sionate entreaties of the man they love, There is in the 
 
OUR NATION ''S NEED. 145 
 
 warm, fond heart of woman a strange and sublime un- 
 selfishness, a positive love for self-sacrifice, an active desire 
 to show her affection by giving up to those who have won 
 it something she holds sacred and dear/' This is no ro- 
 mantic or over-colored picture. Those who deem it so have 
 not measured the angelic sympathies and affections of 
 womanhood. He who cannot appreciate these qualities in 
 woman is unworthy of her influence. Making all due al- 
 lowance for those who seem to be born inherently depraved, 
 it remains true that through no channel does so much that 
 is innocent, precious, and beautiful flow down to ruin as 
 goes down through the cruel rapids of woman's shame. 
 
 Why should not these women be lifted from their degra- 
 dation? Thousands — -aye, the most of them — ply their 
 vocation from necessity rather than choice. They deplore, 
 soul-deep, the fetters and bondage under which they live. 
 During their thoughtful moments the lost souls in perdi- 
 tion are not more miserable. A large percentage of our 
 fallen women are either feeble in mind or imbecile in 
 morals, and their sin is the transgression of others rather 
 than their own. Common justice and common instinct 
 demand that we search through the alleyways and the more 
 pretentious seclusions where their polluted but pitiful 
 bodies hide in neglected remorse, and give to each a home 
 and a chance to live a life of virtue and usefulness. The 
 most of them would reform if an unobstructed pathway 
 were opened up before them. And by uprooting the brothel 
 the ruin of legions of young men would be averted, as out- 
 raged virtue would cease to recoil. 
 
 It is to be remembered that the morally and socially un- 
 desirable, among both men and women as a class are what 
 they are because the world has conspired against them. 
 The elements of self-help and moral courage were lacking 
 in their character, and they have simply gone with the tide. 
 They required help from those stronger and firmer than 
 themselves, and failing to receive it when needing it most, 
 they became stranded. They are simply the debris of self- 
 ish social and political systems. 
 
 In a division of property it is presumed that the greatest 
 care would be exercised to give to each exactly the best 
 thing for him or her. Natural abilities and affinities, or 
 
146 OUR JSfATION^S NEED. 
 
 the lack of them, should be considered. As far as possible, 
 every life should be placed in harmony with its possessions. 
 In this way a divide-up could be made a factor, almost 
 infinite in power, for the prevention of vice, intemperance, 
 crime, and immorality. Social and moral growth could be 
 made possible. That ideal condition would, in a measure, 
 be secured in which it is easy to do right and difficult to do 
 wrong. 
 
"If there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these 
 things." 
 
 ; "New occasions teach new duties; 
 
 Time makes ancient good uncouth; 
 They must upward and onward 
 
 Who would keep abreast of truth." 
 
 A statesman may do much for commerce; most by leaving 
 it alone. A river never flows so smoothly as when it follows 
 its own course, without aid or check. Let it make its own 
 bed; it can do so better than you can. — Charles J. Haee. 
 
 I should no more dread that all the springs and rivers should 
 be exhausted than that money should abandon a kingdom 
 where there are people and industry. — Hume. 
 
 The great rule of conduct for us in regard to foreign na- 
 tions is in extending our commercial relations, to have with 
 them as little political connection as possible. So far as we 
 have already formed engagements, let them be fulfilled with 
 perfect good faith. Here let us stop. — Washington's Fare- 
 well Address. 
 
 When the wage-earners of this land lose hope, when the 
 star goes out — after that, anarchy or a czar. — Benjamin Har- 
 rison. 
 
 This should be thy work: to improve conditions of peace, 
 to spare the lowly, and to overthrow the proud. — Virgil. 
 
 The Government lacks in dignity when it puts itself in a 
 
 , position where it is either a mendicant asking aid from pri- 
 
 vate citizens or a weakling at their mercy. — Comptroller 
 
 ECKLES. 
 
 One thing ought to be aimed at by all men: that the inter- 
 est of each individually and of all collectively should be the 
 same; for if each should grasp at his individual interest all 
 human society would be dissolved.— Cicero. 
 
 148 
 
OTTR NATION'S NEED. 149 
 
 ; CHAPTEE XL 
 
 PRESENT POLITICAL ISSUES. 
 
 The political field is crowded with issues. Measures 
 representing almost every phase of economics have their 
 advocates and champions. That a remedy is needed to re- 
 move industrial and financial depression; to force an ade- 
 quate supply of money into circulation ; to enable all to earn 
 a livelihood and pay their debts ; to start and keep busy the 
 various forms of enterprise; to harmonize extremes and 
 conflicting interests; to restore confidence, contentment, 
 and prosperity among the people^, is a universal belief. 
 
 That a crisis of some kind is rapidly approaching in the 
 history of our nation few close observers will deny. That 
 this crisis will be chiefly political is an accepted fact. The 
 star of progress is leading the public eye in the paths of 
 public concern. Forward and determined action in the 
 near future is inevitable. 
 
 All legitimate public questions bear a vital relation to 
 each other. An issue, like a law, to be worthy of the name 
 must be an essential part of a perfect whole. One issue 
 may satisfy a political hobby-rider, but true statesmanship 
 must consider all worthy questions. It is impossible to 
 properly appreciate or wisely discuss any political measure 
 unless other contemporary and related measures are also 
 considered. National progress, like physical growth, must 
 be characterized by the harmonious action of separate yet 
 vitally related parts. 
 
 Among the more prominent measures at present dis- 
 cussed by political parties and political economists are the 
 following : 
 
 The tariff; the financial question; the kind of money; 
 bimetallism; international bimetallism; the amount of 
 money needed; the temperance question; the government 
 ownership of railroads, telegraphs, mines and other mo- 
 
150 OUB NATION'S NEED, 
 
 nopolies; trusts and monopolies; immigration; the initia- 
 tive and referendum; an honest election. 
 
 THE TARIFF. 
 
 A tariff is levied upon foreign goods coming to our 
 shores for two purposes: 
 
 1. To secure revenue to pay the running expenses of the 
 Government. 
 
 2. To protect American manufacturers, growers, and 
 laborers by making the tariff so high as to lessen or en- 
 tirely prevent the importation of such commodities as are 
 manufactured or grown in our own country. 
 
 When the importation of goods is lessened the tariff is 
 called "protective ;^^ when it is prevented entirely the 
 tariff is "prohibitory." 
 
 For a number of national campaigns the tariff was the 
 chief issue; and although at each election the policy was 
 reversed and each part}^, while in power, as far as possible 
 enforced the policy set forth in its platforms, yet at no 
 time have the results on either side met the expectations 
 of the people. 
 
 The channels of business are as wide as the earth and 
 as deep as the seas, and the real benefits to be derived from 
 a tariff are transient and limited. 
 
 The agitation of the tariff question during political cam- 
 paigns and its discussion in Congress have been more in- 
 jurious to business, no doubt, than would have been the 
 continued settled policy of either side. Business, by ^sur- 
 viving the ordeal, has proven itself to have a life invincible 
 to political assaults. 
 
 It is the policy of all parties to depend upon tariff duties 
 for revenue to support the Government; yet in principle 
 this policy is radically wrong. All tariff should be inci- 
 dental. There should be other sources of revenue than that 
 of levying a tax upon the importation of commodities 
 the manufacture of which employs handicraft in foreign 
 lands. 
 
 On the other hand, if goods are produced in foreign lands 
 that cannot be produced here and these goods are a neces- 
 
XTB JSTA TIOKT ^8 NEED. 151 
 
 sity to our people, tliere is no reason why a tariff should be 
 levied upon them at all when they come to our shores. 
 In other words, the tariff should be entirely divorced from 
 the governmental expenses, the salaries of politicians, and 
 every other financial consideration, either actual or imagi- 
 nary. The subject should be discussed and treated strictly 
 as a business question. Then the tariff could be lowered, 
 or raised, or abolished without conflicting interests inter- 
 posing. It is not good statesmanship to handicap business, 
 either one way or the other, in order to secure money to 
 pay political bills. 
 
 America is preeminently a business counU-y. Indeed, 
 an increase of business is an essential characteristic of hu- 
 man progress. Business in its broadest sense means supply 
 and demand, production and consumption, buying and sell- 
 ing, carrying and bringing, inventing, manufacturing, and 
 exchanging — "living and letting live." 
 
 Business is the life of civilization. It is business that 
 feeds, clothes, and shelters humanity. It takes the prod- 
 ucts of our labor and energy and carries them into the 
 markets of the world. No matter how far these products 
 must travel before they find a buyer, business, if unmo- 
 lested, will carry them to the Orient, to the tropics, to the 
 frozen zones, or to the half savage isles of the seas. On 
 the other hand, no matter what our wants or our desires 
 may be, business, if given permission, will search the wide 
 world over to find that which we crave and, with the will- 
 ingness of a faithful servant, lay it at our feet. 
 
 Business, then, is of first importance. If a high tariff 
 is the best thing for business it should be a law. If a low 
 tariff or free trade is best for business it should be adopted 
 at once. A tariff for the sake of governmental revenue, 
 regardless of the claims of business, should not be enter- 
 tained for a single moment. 
 
 Business is not only an essential factor in civilization, 
 but it requires channels in which to operate. Eivers and 
 railroads, harbors and oceans, steam and electricity are all 
 instruments to facilitate business intercourse. Our bank- 
 ing system and our postal system are institutions to make 
 business transactions easy. As all machinery must be kept 
 well oiled, so it is that millions of money are annually; 
 
152 OTTR NATION' 8 NEED. 
 
 spent in order that business may be transacted smoothly, 
 quickly, and profitably. 
 
 It must be admitted that a tariff of any sort interferes 
 with business, and that in itself it is objectionable. At 
 best it is only a remedy and a corrective. It is to be looked 
 upon as the lesser of two evils. 
 
 Many believe that a closely adjusted tariff is necessary 
 to prevent American manufacturers from imposing upon 
 the people, that if the tariff is placed high employers will 
 press wages down and prices up and thus reap a wide mar- 
 gin of profit. It is a widely diffused impression that it is 
 wise to turn the tariff into a sort of whip to be held over 
 the backs of manufacturers to keep them from being dis- 
 honest and from accumulating riches too rapidly. This 
 is a gross perversion of the functions of a tariff, and one 
 that has caused great mischief. There should be direct 
 and radical remedies to prevent dishonest employers from 
 grinding down the wages of help or imposing upon the 
 people. It is only a cowardly evasion of justice to ex- 
 pect a tariff to protect the laboring man and the public 
 against the caprice and cunning of greed. 
 
 To act as a protective factor is the only legitimate func- 
 tion of a tariff. And to protect the laboring man it must 
 prohibit. If the tariff is so adjusted that foreign goods 
 continue to come to our shores, the inevitable result is that 
 the American laborer is forced into idleness. Consumers 
 cannot use both foreign and American made hats, or cloth, 
 or silk, or buttons, or any other commodity. Every article 
 that comes lessens home production just that much. 
 
 But m^any think that by having a rather high tariff we 
 would allow a few goods to com^e in, simply enough to pay 
 our government expenses, and workingmen would get bet- 
 ter pay for making the remainder. Politicians have re- 
 duced this theory to almost a hair-splitting science. But 
 here, too, is a great injustice to the workingman. He may 
 get fair wages, but is kept in idleness much of the time. 
 This is becoming the lot of legions of American workmen. 
 To work for full wages on half time is relatively worse 
 than working full time on half wages. Under present 
 conditions this threatens to become a national and en- 
 slaving curse. If the tariff were placed so high that the 
 
OUB NATION'S NEED. 153 
 
 goods would not come here at all the workingman would 
 be entitled to full wages; and if the markets were suffi- 
 cient he would work full time. But even here it is to 
 be rem^embered that the market depends upon business 
 and not upon tariff^ and that the market is the true 
 source of the laboring man's hope. 
 
 While a protective tariff has become the dominating 
 policy in the United States, the fact should not be lost 
 sight of that of itself it impedes business in the broadest 
 and world-wide sense. 
 
 If we could double our exports by allowing a double 
 amount of imports from every nation on the globe, it would 
 be of great advantage to us. It is an axiom of business 
 that "all transactions are in some way reciprocated." If 
 this be true there is not much danger in encouraging free 
 intercourse between nations in matters of business, as in the 
 end the two accounts will practically balance each other. 
 
 Were all barriers to business obliterated, tariffs included, 
 our nation would have but little to fear. Unlimited re- 
 sources, inventive genius, and progressive enterprise have 
 made the United States the foremost nation on the globe. We 
 are headquarters for the implements and products of civili- 
 zation. We should attract the world to our shores for 
 supplies. No country has such vantage-ground. We are 
 already sending far more to other countries than we are 
 importing in return. We are exchanging the products 
 of genius, skill, brains, and enterprise for those of endur- 
 ance, muscle, toil, and servitude. During the fiscal year 
 ending June 30, 1899, we exported $1,227,023,302 worth of 
 products to foreign lands and imported $697,148,489 v/orth 
 in return. During the past year our exports have been 
 over $2,000,000,000 in value, and the difference in im- 
 ports and exports are tremendously in our favor. Our 
 exports are equal to the annual income of 3,000,000 work- 
 ingmen. It is an interest far too great and far too prom- 
 ising to be curtailed or crippled by a tariff, unless it mean 
 something more than consideration of revenue. 
 
 THE MONET QUESTION. 
 
 The money question has become a prominent issue in our 
 national politics. 
 
154 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 The chief points of controversy are: 
 
 lo The kind of money that shall be used. 
 
 2o The financial system that shall regulate its use. 
 
 3. The amount of money required. 
 
 The Kind of Money. — Eegarding the kind of money that 
 shall be used, opinions widely differ. The chief point of 
 difference is as to whether or not it is necessary that the 
 substance of which money is made have an intrinsic value. 
 One side contends that this is an absolute requirement, 
 while the opposite side holds that money is an instrument 
 of law, and that a piece of paper or other material upon 
 which the Government has placed its official seal becomes 
 of value regardless of its own nature. This is the chief 
 essential point of the entire money question. 
 
 Is it necessary that money have an intrinsic value? 
 
 Emphatically, No ! 
 
 If it is required that money have an intrinsic value, it is 
 also necessary that some substance be found that is exactly 
 suited for money and for little else ; that it exist in sufficient 
 quantities to supply the demand for money and yet not be 
 subject to private speculation; that its value remain uni- 
 form; and that it stand use without becoming worn. 
 
 Gold and silver are both useful in commerce. The sup- 
 ply of either is entirely uncertain. They are both subject 
 to intense speculation. They are constantly changing in 
 intrinsic value. Both suffer greatly through wear.. They 
 are both entirely unfit as a basis of the financial system 
 of a great nation. Were actual prosperity to universally 
 prevail, all the gold supply of our continent would soon be 
 absorbed in the manufacture of personal and domestic 
 valuables. According to the Scientific American, the value 
 of gold and silver in manufactured articles in 1850 was 
 over $165,000,000, or more than $7 for each person in the 
 nation. Since the above date our per capita wealth has 
 been increased fourfold. If the need of jewelry and valu- 
 ables made of precious metals has increased accordinglv, 
 it would require over $2,000,000,000 worth of the two 
 metals to meet the demand. This would bring into the 
 commercial markets our entire supply, leaving little or 
 none for money. The world's annual output of gold is 
 nearly $300,000,000, and under present conditions, when 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 155 
 
 the great majority of the people are poor, nearly one-half 
 of the output is used in arts and commerce. It is claimed 
 that "the medals, vessels, and other objects preserved in the 
 Vatican at Eome would make more gold money than the 
 whole of the present European circulation." King David 
 collected over $2,000,000,000 worth of gold for the Temple 
 and for the national treasury, and it was almost as plenti- 
 ful in Jerusalem as stones. 
 
 Even were gold and silver perfectly suited to be used as 
 money, they should not, either singly or combined, be made 
 the legal standard of value. The production of both metals 
 has been too spasmodic and uncertain to admit of such with 
 safety. During 1887 the output of the famous Comstock 
 mine was $37,062,252. During this year more of value 
 was taken from twelve insignificant-looking holes in the 
 mountain side than the corn crop of all the corn fields of 
 New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wis- 
 consin, and Minnesota combined. 
 
 A cubic foot of gold weighs over 19,000 ounces and is 
 worth nearly $400,000 as money at the mints. If one of 
 our Western settlers were to discover that his quarter-sec- 
 tion farm was so rich in gold that when brought to the 
 surface it would be equal to five inches of the precious 
 metal over the entire one hundred and sixty acres, it would, 
 when coined into money, have a purchasing power almost 
 without limit. Such a man could buy all property, both 
 personal and real, on our continent, including Canada and 
 South America. He could cross the ocean and purchase 
 England, Ireland, and the continent of Europe. He could 
 then buy China, Japan, and all Asia and Africa. Still 
 his purse would be full. He could search the seas and buy 
 all the islands. The whole earth would be his. His purse 
 would still be lich in gold. Not one-half of his money 
 would be absorbed. He would still have more money than 
 all the rest of the world. And yet the money kings of the 
 world are zealously striving to make it the unchangeable 
 organic law of the nations that 25.8 grains of gold, nine- 
 tenths fine, "shall be worth one dollar," and that this 
 dollar shall be the only basis upon which the value of money 
 shall rest. This law is now a national statute, notwith- 
 standing the fact that gold dollars are so unpopular that not 
 
156 OriB NATION'8 NEED. 
 
 one has been coined in several years, and that the larger 
 coins are so undesirable for general nse as money that they 
 have been relegated to bank and treasury vaults and paper 
 money is being used in their stead. It would seem that 
 Omnipotent Wisdom, in anticipation of the present age of 
 mammonism, secreted the precious metals within the bowels 
 of the earth and is determined to hold them there and yield 
 them up only to great toil and labor until mankind has be- 
 come wise enough to appropriate them to the purposes for 
 which they were intended. 
 
 Our cultivated civilization could appreciatingly utilize 
 in other ways than as money every grain of gold we have 
 or will ever find, and profit by its use. That, on account 
 of panics and hard times, due largely to legislation in 
 favor of a gold standard, the people should not only flood 
 the pawn shops with jewelry, but take $4,035,710 worth of 
 personal adornments to the mints to be coined into money, 
 as was done in 1891, is a reproach, as disgraceful as it is 
 stigmatizing, to our national law-makers. The true mis- 
 sion of gold is to be not money, but a civilizing factor. It 
 was not used as money in the world^s early history. It is 
 the emblem of purity and nobility. In the home and on 
 the person it is conducive to refinement and strength of 
 character. It is a prostitution of the proper use of gold 
 to make it the "money of the world." It should adorn 
 every person and be found in every home. Of it, if possi- 
 ble, should be made the chalice of every church. In a 
 legion of ways could it profitably serve mankind. From 
 moral, ethical, and social standpoints, a money system 
 which requires that a country^s gold be coined and deposited 
 in treasury vaults to protect the national credit is a heresy 
 akin to blasphemy. Such a proceeding is as useless and 
 senseless as was the setting up of the golden calf for v/orship 
 in the wilderness of sin. 
 
 On the other hand, when money does not have an in- 
 trinsic value, its value depends upon the responsibility back 
 of the authority that has placed its official stamp and seal 
 upon its face. If there is nothing back of the official seal 
 the money, of course, is worthless. If behind the obliga- 
 tions made upon the face of money rest the wealth, integ- 
 rity, and sovereignty of the nation, then it represents more 
 than an intrinsic value. 
 
OTTB NATION '8 NEED. 157 
 
 Under our present system a gold certificate is worth 25.8 
 grains of coin gold, made in the form of a disk called a 
 dollar, stamped to prevent counterfeiting. A silver cer- 
 tificate is worth 412.5 grains of coin silver in the form of a 
 stamped disk. These disks, or metal dollars, will be given 
 in exchange at the Treasury Department for all certificates, 
 such as are in general circulation, that any one is disposed 
 to bring. If the disk, or dollar, be taken back again the 
 Treasury Department will give a certificate in exchange. 
 Beyond this the Government is in no way responsible. To 
 swap dollars with the people is all the risk the Government 
 assumes. 
 
 But if it be true that the wealth of the nation — ^its lands 
 and rivers, its cities and commerce, its mines and forests — 
 is behind the money which is issued directly by the Gov- 
 ernment, it surely represents an enormous value. Hon. 
 James G. Blaine, in 1864, holding a greenback up before an 
 audience, said: "What is this? A dollar. And it is a 
 good dollar — good for the farmer, the mechanic, the mer- 
 chant, the sailor, everybody. What makes it a dollar? 
 Because every dollar's worth of property in the United 
 States is behind it, and the life's blood of every true and 
 loyal American citizen is behind it. And this makes it a 
 good dollar." 
 
 If it be true that a gold or silver certificate is worth only 
 so many grains of stamped metal of fluctuating value, and 
 that each note issued by the Government directly has be- 
 hind it eighty billions of wealth, the relative stability of the 
 two is easily appreciated. 
 
 The very fact that gold and silver coin is kept locked up 
 in vaults, and paper money, representing it, must be printed 
 and sent out for circulation, is positive proof that paper 
 money is preferred by the people. 
 
 While the claim is strongly urged that "no financial basis 
 is sound that does not provide for a redemption of currency 
 in the money of the world," it remains true that experience 
 has not supported this doctrine. The city of Venice, begin- 
 ning with the year 1171, used paper money for over six 
 hundred years. Its paper money was good in every civi- 
 lized country in the world, and the little republic for six 
 centuries was "the pride and glory of Italy." Paper, money 
 
168 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 was issued in Pennsylvania in 1739, ^^resting wholly upon 
 the credit of the Commonwealth/' and continued for a 
 period of many years. Of this period Benjamin Franklin 
 said : "There was peace in all her borders. A more happy 
 and prosperous population could not, perhaps, be found on 
 this globe. Not one dollar was ever at a discount for coin. 
 It was received for taxes. It was a currency without cost." 
 
 Says the Scientific American: "William Pitt, under a 
 system of paper money, carried the British nation through 
 thirty years of war and left it richer than he found it; 
 while Sir Robert Peel, whose system was a gold standard, 
 carried the British nation through thirty years of peace and 
 left it poorer, taking the condition of the people as a test, 
 than he found it." 
 
 The "Encyclopsedia Britannica" states as a consensus of 
 authoritative opinions: "The theory of intrinsic value of 
 money has been abandoned by the best writers and thinkers. 
 Coin is not a safe basis. The base is too small." Said 
 Henry Clay: "Whatever a government agrees to receive 
 in payment of the public dues as a medium of circulation 
 is money, no matter what its form may be." 
 
 At present the value of money is based upon the value of 
 gold. The value of gold, however, is an arbitrary one, the 
 result of legislative enactments in its favor. Silver oc- 
 cupies a subordinate position as money. The price of gold 
 being fixed by law, the value remains uniform ; while silver 
 is exposed, like potatoes, corn, or cotton, to commercial 
 fluctuations. 
 
 Our money system, in short, is : (1) A dollar shall be the 
 unit of value; (2) 25.8 grains of coin gold shall be worth 
 a dollar at the mints; (3) gold shall be the standard or 
 legal money. 
 
 An error quite common is to confound the term ''unit" 
 of value with '^standard" of value. 
 
 By "unit'' of value is meant that particular unit of money 
 to which all other units or parts of units must conform. 
 The dollar, regardless of the material of which it is com- 
 posed, is our unit of value. A dollar does not mean a fixed 
 quantity of gold or silver, but it means a unit equivalent to 
 ten dimes or one hundred cents. The dollar is to money 
 what the bushel is to dry measure, the gallon to liquid 
 
OTIB NATION'S NEED. 159 
 
 measure, or the yard-stick to the dry goods store. That 
 money have a unit of value is as essential as that it have 
 a name. Had gold and silver never been discovered money 
 would have been necessary; and the dollar as we have it 
 to-day would doubtless have been the unit of value. 
 
 A ''standard" of value, as the term is commonly used, 
 means an entirely different thing. It is the result of legis- 
 lation whereby a certain amount of some metal or other 
 substance is declared worth a dollar. These dollars, repre- 
 senting the desired amount of the specified substance, are 
 made the legal or "standard" money in business transac- 
 tions. In short, it is legislative interference in behalf of 
 some metal or metals in the government manufacture of 
 money. If gold be the favored substance, gold becomes 
 the standard of value; and all money must bear a legal 
 relation to gold. The same fact applies to silver. If both 
 metals are included the union constitutes "bimetallism." 
 
 The question arises: "/5 a 'standard' of value neces- 
 sary f" If gold, silver, or both be adopted as a standard, 
 it is inevitable that all financial transactions, all business 
 enterprises, and all money affairs must at once be adjusted 
 to this standard. As soon as a standard is adopted the 
 chosen metal gradually becomes a dominating factor in 
 finance and commerce. The minerals of the mines and the 
 bullion of the mints become more closely related to pros- 
 perity and plenty than the muscle and brain of man. Under 
 our present standard a large output of gold is almost as 
 necessary to the welfare of the people as a plentiful harvest. 
 A panic of gold would be nearly as disastrous and make 
 people starve almost as surely as a panic of bread. 
 
 To claim that a standard of value is necessary is pre- 
 posterous. To so claim is to assert that should our supply 
 of gold and silver cease and the present supply become 
 exhausted in the arts, money would cease to exist and the 
 people be doomed to financial barbarism. Let no man be so 
 cruelly blind as to conceive the notion that our prosperity 
 and progress are dependent upon either gold or silver or 
 both together. It is the mission of civilization to make 
 servants, not masters, of these things, no matter how in- 
 trinsically precious they may be. Eather than that we 
 should become their slaves, it were far better that they be 
 
160 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 again buried in the Western hills, as when the red man and 
 the buffalo trampled them under foot four centuries ago. 
 
 The idea that our monetary system must rest upon a 
 metal basis, a system inviting all the evils of greed and gain^ 
 is a sophistry as foolish as it is infamous. And for legis- 
 lative powers to enslave the people by narrowing our whole 
 monetary system to the single substance, gold, a metal 
 which at best is controlled by private interests and which 
 may become the weapon of tyranny in the hands of a very 
 few, is a species of treason against which every loyal citizen 
 should persistently contend. Both gold and silver should 
 be coined and used as money, but neither one nor both 
 together should be the standard money of the nation. 
 
 The question also arises: "Is it within the powers of 
 legislation to give a value to money?" A campaign ex- 
 pression, widely quoted, is: "An honest dollar, worth one 
 hundred cents everywhere, cannot be coined out of fifty- 
 three cents^ v/orth of silver plus a legislative fiat." This 
 is true or it is not true. If it be true of silver it is also 
 true of gold; and if so, a quantity of gold of unknown 
 value "plus a legislative fi_at" will not make a dollar. But 
 it does. For many years 25.8 grains of coin gold, of un- 
 known and ever-changing intrinsic value, through ^legisla- 
 tive fiat" have been kept worth exactly a dollar. G-old 
 coin is "fiat" money. So would "legislative fiat" make 
 371 J grains of silver worth a dollar. So would it make a 
 piece of paper worth a dollar. In other words, all money, 
 whether of metal or paper, is the product of "legislative 
 fiat." The intrinsic value of the metal of which money is 
 composed is entirely incidental and foreign to the principle 
 involved. 
 
 It is the plain and imperative duty of the Government to 
 properly recognize the monetary uses of both metals, but to 
 grant no undue favors to either. 
 
 Both gold and silver, to a limited extent, make desirable 
 money, but they both should stand on their own merits. 
 They are essentially commercial commodities. Each if left 
 to itself possesses an intrinsic value. They both are useful 
 for purposes other than money. The Government should 
 not add to nor depreciate the value of either metal. Its 
 duty is simply to recognize both metals, coin both as needed, 
 
OUM NATION'S NEED. 161 
 
 and treat both precisely the same. Neither one nor both 
 of them together can claim any right to legislative favor. 
 If 25.8 grains of coin gold or 371^ grains of silver when 
 made into a dollar are intrinsically worth one hundred 
 cents, and if the people desire to handle that kind of money, 
 they need no governmental aid to either raise, lower, or fix 
 their real worth. 
 
 Under present conditions gold mining is as mnch a 
 private industry as farming, and the future output is as 
 uncertain as the Delaware peach crop or the prospects of the 
 Kansas grasshopper. 
 
 Gold is fickle and deceptive. The production of noth- 
 ing has been more capricious or spasmodic. To legalize it 
 as the sole basis of our financial system is to expose the 
 nation to the vicissitudes of luck, to the domination of 
 private interests, and to the cunning of professional ma- 
 nipulators. In 1869 two capitalists cornered gold, created a 
 panic, jeopardized a legion of fortunes, and pocketed $11,- 
 000,000 in less than a week. And there are combinations 
 of men to-day who could if they would and would if they 
 dared corner gold again, deplete the Treasury, paralyze 
 business, and bring financial ruin to thousands of homes. 
 
 Within a few years gold may be a relic of the past, or 
 it may be so plentiful as to rival copper or brass in house- 
 hold utility. Chemists tell us that the oceans contain 
 60,000,000,000 tons of gold. This is equal to $25,000,000 
 worth to every man, woman, and child now living on the 
 earth — enough to build a golden palace for every family 
 in the world and to pave the streets with pure gold, thus 
 transforming the earth into a veritable New Jerusalem. 
 When God said, "Thy silver is mine and thy gold is mine," 
 it implied that they hold a prominent place in the world's 
 economy and that they have a mission as yet unconceived 
 in the future history of mankind. 
 
 There are also many reasons why the Government should 
 refuse to issue gold and silver certificates. This is done, 
 as every one knows, because the people prefer paper money 
 to coin. Except for international purposes or upon special 
 occasions, gold and silver are desirable as money only when 
 they enter into actual circulation. It is not sound business 
 policy to buy gold and silver and after it is coined issue 
 
162 OUn NATION'S NEED, 
 
 paper certificates for circulation and store the metal away 
 in treasury vaults. If no gold and silver certificates were 
 issued, it would then be learned how little modern civiliza- 
 tion appreciates the bulk, weight, and inconvenience of 
 traditional coin. 
 
 But the Government requires an official money of its 
 own, and an adequate supply should be issued directly from 
 the United States Treasury. TMs money should recognize 
 no standard hut that tvhich the sovereignty and honor of 
 the nation supplies. It should be a full legal tender for all 
 debts, both public and private, at all times and everywhere. 
 
 Under such a system the money of the country would be 
 gold and silver coin on the one hand and paper money is- 
 sued directly by the Government on the other. It would 
 soon be learned that the people have an implicit and un- 
 bounded confidence in the government under which they 
 live. 
 
 The "redemption" qualities of money so strongly urged 
 by some would harmonize with such a system. All gold and 
 silver coin desired would be available. They would be a 
 drug in the money market. Paper money is so much more 
 desirable that it would soon be universally used. The ac- 
 ceptance of paper money for all debts would be the most 
 perfect and complete redemption possible. 
 
 It is undeniable that nine men out of ten would have 
 more genuine confidence in paper money issued directly 
 by the Government, without anything but the national 
 honor back of it, than they have in either gold or silver coin. 
 Such money would be given unqualified preference. And it 
 would deserve confidence. Our finances would then rest 
 upon the most substantial basis possible under the skies. 
 It would be the money of the people. It would establish 
 a financial system as firm as the foundations of the Govern- 
 ment itself, and one that would survive so long as the prin- 
 ciples of liberty and the sovereignty of the nation endure. 
 
 BIMETALLISM. 
 
 Bimetallism is the concurrent use of gold and silver as 
 money at a relative value fixed by law. The specific de- 
 mand for bimetallism in the United States is that the rela- 
 
riR JSTA TION ^8 NEED. 163 
 
 tive value be approximately sixteen of silver to one of gold, 
 and that the coinage of silver be the same as that of gold — 
 free and nnlimited. Sentiment among the people in onr 
 country is overwhelming in favor of bimetallism. Nearly 
 every party has declared for it in some form. At the elec- 
 tion in 1896 over 13,500,000 votes were cast in favor of the 
 measure, either to be adopted at once or through inter- 
 national agreement, while less than 500,000 persons voted 
 against it. 
 
 The claim is made upon one side that the value of gold 
 dollars has appreciated on account of the legislative favor 
 that gold has received, and that the coin value is thus much 
 higher than what it would be if it were left to its own 
 merits like silver and other commodities. 
 
 It is claimed upon the other side that silver dollars are 
 only worth about one-half their face value, and it would 
 be dishonest to recognize fifty cents' worth of silver as legal 
 dollars. 
 
 In a sense both of these claims are true. The gold dol- 
 lar and the silver dollar are both dishonest. One is over- 
 favored, the other is an outcast. There is not an honest 
 dollar to be found of either kind. A dollar that demands 
 fifty cents' worth more than its face value is as dishonest as 
 the one whose face value is overrated. 
 
 The only way to remedy this financial crime is to dis- 
 card both metals or recognize both as money at the proper 
 ratio. 
 
 Through forty centuries they have come down to us as 
 money and as precious metals, and at a general ratio not 
 far from that suggested, or "16 to 1." They belong to- 
 gether, and it is futile to try to separate them. Of the two 
 metals, silver was used as money for centuries before gold. 
 Silver is the better suited for money. It is much more 
 common in actual circulation. When a financial system is 
 on a metal basis, if one metal be deprived of monetary 
 power the volume of full legal currency is thereby reduced 
 not far from one-half. 
 
 Bimetallism is in harmony with an invariable law. With 
 few exceptions all nature exists in pairs and correlative. 
 From the Garden of Eden until now everything has its 
 companion and counterpart. The brain, and blood, and 
 
164 OVB NATION'S NEED. 
 
 bones of all animal life are each composed of two distinct 
 materials. Nearly every organ in the body is one of a pair. 
 Nearly every human need is supplied by two articles similar 
 in nature. 
 
 There are two kinds of animal clothing — silk and wool, 
 and two vegetable fabrics — linen and cotton. There are 
 two chief kinds of grain — wheat and corn. How naturally 
 we associate horses and cattle^ sheep and hogs, rabbits and 
 squirrels, dogs and cats, and even rats and mice. Our 
 tables are supplie-d with beef and mutton, veal and pork, 
 chicken and turkey, goose and duck, coffee and tea, sugar 
 and molasses, milk and eggs. There are two kinds of fuel 
 — wood and coal; two natural sources of light — ^the sun 
 and moon; two domestic lights — ^the candle and lamp; 
 two manufactured lights — gas and electricity; two sources 
 of power — electricity and steam ; and two methods of send- 
 ing messages — telegraph and telephone. Fruits and vege- 
 tables are closely associated in pairs. There are two kinds 
 of potatoes. We have pears and apples, peaches and apri- 
 cots, cherries and plums, strawberries and raspberries, 
 gooseberries and currants, beets and onions, turnips and 
 carrots, peanuts and chestnuts, shellbarks and walnuts, 
 oranges and lemons, pineapples and bananas, beans and 
 peas. 
 
 Of the entire sixty-seven chemical elements almost none 
 are ever seen alone. Air is composed of nitrogen and oxy- 
 gen; neither would answer by itself. Water, the most 
 abundant substance in nature, is composed of two sub- 
 stances, oxygen and hydrogen; separated, one would blow 
 the earth into pieces and the other would burn the frag- 
 ments, but together they are the emblem of honesty, purity, 
 and divinity. 
 
 The atomic weight of oxygen is 16 and that of hydro- 
 gen is 1. Water is, therefore, atomically, precisely 16 to 1. 
 
 Common salt is composed of two substances, highly 
 poisonous when separated. Pure iron is but little known 
 and worthless. The best Bessemer steel is composed of 
 iron and carbon almost exactly 16 to 1. Scarcely a single 
 metal is suited to any use in its pure state. They all re- 
 quire a companion. Nearly all are dangerous when iso- 
 lated. There are seventeen elements in the human body ; 
 
OUB NATION'S NEED. 165 
 
 if isolated some would explode^ others would burn, one 
 would even dissolve glass, and man would become a center 
 of danger and destruction. 
 
 Tin alone is unfit to make a dinner pail. Pure lead is 
 unfit to make type or even shot. Neither pure gold nor 
 pure silver can be used for money. All coin is of neces- 
 sity composed of two metals. Every dollar or dime must 
 of necessity be bimetallic. Nature has established an in- 
 exorable law in favor of bimetallism, and she must be 
 obeyed. 
 
 In the mines gold and silver are found organically 
 wedded. A noted authority says : "All gold coin contains 
 silver which it is impossible to remove.^^ It may be that 
 the coming dollar will be one of silver and gold — "16 to 
 1^^ — ^melted together in the same crucible, and when in- 
 separably united made into a coin combining all the 
 virtues and free from all the objections which the two 
 metals now possess as money. It would seem that the 
 Great Teacher meant the whole realm of nature, including 
 the metallic world, when He said: "What, therefore, God 
 hath joined together let not man put asunder." 
 
 IISTTERNATIONAL BIMETALLISM. 
 
 In connection with the subject of bimetallism, the sug- 
 gestion of an international agreement upon the question 
 has secured recognition in the general issue. 
 
 It would consist of various nations agreeing upon a 
 certain basis of ratio between gold and silver, and each 
 nation in the compact adopting bimetallism upon that 
 basis. If all nations should enter into such an agreement, 
 gold and silver, related by a specific ratio, would consti- 
 tute the authorized legal "standard" of value ; and, to use 
 an oft repeated saying, "an American dollar would be 
 worth one hundred cents anywhere in the world." 
 
 In what way the United States would profit by an inter- 
 national agreement in favor of bimetallism has never been 
 satisfactorily explained. Why we should be anxious that 
 an American dollar be worth one hundred cents and of 
 high purchasing power in the markets of London, or Paris, 
 or Shanghai, or "anywhere on earth" is not easily com- 
 prehended. 
 
166 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 International bimetallism is both undesirable and un- 
 American. There are tens, of thousands of men in the 
 United States who refuse to become citizens and support 
 our institutions, yet who are making and saving every dol- 
 lar possible and sending it to the Orient. A still greater 
 number are working in our mines and scavenging our 
 streets, only to return to foreign shores with American 
 gold. Even the matrimonial adventurer comes from 
 across the sea and captures our wealth and beauty and set- 
 tles it in titled Europe. Thousands of our citizens, as 
 tourists, cross the ocean every year, hobnob with royalty, 
 and save enough by doing their shopping in London and 
 Paris to pay their passage over and return. According 
 to a recent report made by the Treasury Department at 
 ]N'ew York, not far from $40,000,000 worth of goods have 
 been thus brought from Europe annually and allowed to 
 come free of duty. 
 
 What our country needs is a money of its own. What 
 our people want is an adequate supply of dollars that are 
 good upon our own soil; good for the merchant and the 
 mechanic, the educated and the ignorant, the rich and the 
 poor. If American money should begin to depreciate the 
 moment it left our shores, and the further it should travel 
 the less it would be worth, our country need not suffer 
 in consequence and no patriotic American would have 
 cause to complain. International bimetallism is a fraud 
 and a dangerous snare. 
 
 International bimetallism is open to a still deeper ob- 
 jection. If all nations were to adopt it the world would 
 become one great system of finance. And like all other 
 , systems, it would have a circumference and also a center. 
 The center of this great financial system would be Great 
 Britain. The world would be one great financial empire 
 and London would be the throne. From this point usury, 
 and wholesale speculation, and the oppressions and dicta- 
 tions of concentrated capital would radiate. London is 
 now the pulse of the world's finance : it would then be its 
 heart. 
 
 The measure would enslave all nations to a money 
 system. No country v/ould be free. No government 
 would have an independent financial^ system, nor could it 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 16? 
 
 pass laws to protect itself without first consulting and 
 gaining the permission of powers chiefly alien to its own 
 interests. 
 
 The object wrought by the Kevolutionary War was 
 chiefly financial liberty, and by adopting international bi- 
 metallism we would, in no small measure, cast to the winds 
 that which once cost the life's blood of our fathers. Well 
 might the question of Washington here be asked : "Whj?-, 
 by interweaving our destiny with that of any other part of 
 Europe, entangle our peace and prosperity in the toils of 
 European ambition, rivalries, interests, humor, or ca- 
 price T^ 
 
 THE AMOUNT OF MONET NEEDED. 
 
 Money is as necessary in the channels of business as 
 water in the channels of the rivers. No matter how pure 
 water may be, it requires an abundance of it to bear the 
 freighted commerce of the world upon its bosom; and no 
 matter how good money may be, it requires an abundance 
 of it to meet the demands of a great and prosperous 
 people. 
 
 An adequate supply of money is imperative. It is not 
 only needed in large business centers, but everywhere. To 
 be short of money is a calamity. This truth applies with 
 equal force to the bankers of Wall Street, to the farmers 
 upon the prairie, to the merchant prince, or to the keeper 
 of a peanut stand. 
 
 Said the political economist Hume: "In every king- 
 dom into which money begins to flow in greater abundance 
 than formerly, everything takes a new face. Labor and 
 industry gain life; the merchant becomes more skillful 
 and diligent; and even the farmer follows his plow with 
 more alacrity and attention.^' The Monetary Commis- 
 sion of 1876 showed that the disasters of the Dark Ages 
 were caused by decreasing the amount of money among 
 the people. 
 
 The claim is made that there is plenty of money, but that 
 during recent 3^ears it has sought a hiding-place, and re- 
 fuses to come out and circulate because business ajffairs 
 have shown a low ebb of confidence. This is half a truth 
 
168 OVR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 only. It has sought refuge chiefly because it has been in 
 the hands of the few and because it is the wrong kind of 
 money. Our money represents gold, and gold is a com- 
 mercial article. Great financial magnates, aided by our 
 banking system, take advantage of this fact, practically 
 corner our money market, and wait until money can secure 
 special prices or special terms before investing it. Our 
 money, based upon gold, in an indirect way does exactly 
 what gold did during and after the war. "No people in a 
 great emergency ever found a faithful ally in gold. . . . 
 It was the most invincible enemy of the public credit. 
 Gold paid no soldier or sailor. It was worth most when 
 our fortunes were the lowest. . . . But, as usual, 
 when danger had been averted and victory had been se- 
 cured, gold swaggers to the front and asserts the su- 
 premacy." 
 
 But the free coinage of silver would afford only tem- 
 porary relief. The adoption of bimetallism, by doubling 
 the amount of standard money, would relieve conditions 
 for a season; but as both metals would be subject to the 
 same influences that gold is now exposed to, the control 
 of money would rapidly drift into the hands of a few. 
 
 Both gold and silver are secured through private chan- 
 nels; the Government simply coins the bullion. They are 
 both subject to feverish speculation. Gold and silver 
 mines are owned by men wild to get rich. In the end 
 bimetallism, if the two metals were declared the only real 
 money, would favor the few and oppress the many. The 
 people would be at the mercy of the money kings and mine 
 owners ; and as many of these are aliens and live in foreign 
 lands, serious complications would, in the end, be inevi- 
 table. 
 
 What the people need is not more money that they can 
 borrow or buy with mortgages and slavery, but more nat- 
 ural money, a money of the people, a money that will flow 
 through the channels of industry and commerce entirely 
 divorced from private entanglements. 
 
 As civilization increases and the needs of the people 
 grow, more money per capita is required. Every new in- 
 vention that creates new wants demands an increase of our 
 circulating medium. Unless the purchasing capacity of 
 
OUR N'ATION^S NEED. 169 
 
 the people be increased, every additional need must mean 
 the abandonment of some old comfort or the contraction 
 of a debt to secure the new. 
 
 There is less of exchange in business than formerly. 
 Producers sell their wares for cash and they buy for cash. 
 Gigantic concerns require an amount of money altogether 
 unnecessary years ago. Cash transactions have multiplied 
 enormously, and their magnitude has outgrown compari- 
 son with former times. In one office building in New 
 York city ^^over 23,000 persons went in and out in a single 
 day, and the business transacted surpassed that of many 
 of our small-sized cities.^^ Business exchanges running 
 into the millions are of daily occurrence. While these 
 transactions are not made in cash, yet the more closely 
 they are represented by actual money somewhere, the more 
 legitimate and natural they are. 
 
 When times of financial stringency come these great 
 money centers are the last to suffer. As the ocean is 
 swelled when the rivers run dry, so when panics prevail 
 in the land financial centers become engorged and hold 
 dominion over the money market. 
 
 As only the Government can coin or issue money, it is 
 the first concern of good statesmanship to see that the 
 people are fully supplied. When a stringency occurs, it 
 should never be due to a lack of a sufficient quantity of 
 money, but to some fault which needs correction in the 
 methods of handling it. 
 
 THE LIQUOR TRAFFIC. 
 
 Perhaps no one thing has deceived so many really good 
 people or so corrupted the popular mind and public morals 
 as the license system. License is wrong in principle and 
 vicious in practice. It is not a remedy for intemperance. 
 It promotes it. A saloon has the same effect upon the 
 average young man or a toper as a toy or candy shop 
 window does upon the child. It tempts him. It ruins 
 him. License does not tend to lessen or destroy the liquor 
 business, but protects and establishes it. As an economic 
 measure it is worse than a failure. 
 
 All license^ regarding tvrongs or evils shouU forever cease, 
 
170 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 The sale of liquor and other injurious things could then 
 be regulated or prohibited from a common sense business 
 standpoint. These things should stand upon their own 
 merits, not upon the merits of the money they pour into 
 the publi<3 treasury. 
 
 The sentiment in favor of the suppression of the liquor 
 traffic has never been more than feebly expressed at the 
 ballot-box. The license system and the drink traffic have 
 never met their opponents in open, decisive battle. The 
 advocates of no reform have been so separated into factions 
 as those who desire temperance reform; and none have 
 encountered such gigantic opposition. 
 
 There are many reasons why prohibition is strongly op- 
 posed. The liquor traffic is an enterprise of gigantic pro- 
 portions. It employs nearly 1,000,000 men. The annual 
 sales reach $1,000,000,000. The profits are large. It 
 pours into our national Treasury over $160,000,000 an- 
 nually. It is, in the form of license, a chief source of 
 revenue for cities and towns. It is intrenched in munic- 
 ipal, State, and national politics. It conducts nearly 
 250,000 saloons, and each one is a center of political in- 
 fluence. In its trail are millions of voters who, to some 
 extent, are addicted to drink and whose influence it secures. 
 It is organized. It is one solid, combined power. Money 
 is made easily by those in the business; they get it cash 
 down; they spend it freely and are willing to buy their 
 political liberties at the highest price. In its organized 
 form the liquor traffic is prepared to secure everything that 
 union or forces can produce or that money can buy. It 
 is well-nigh invulnerable. 
 
 To destroy the liquor traffic would cut off a great source 
 of revenue. It would throw legions of men out of employ- 
 ment. As a single-issue measure prohibition has failed, 
 and is likely to fail in the future, to secure enough "elec- 
 tion-day foUowers^^ to win success. 
 
 The fact that the closing of the saloon would be of 
 untold benefit to society and to business has failed to im- 
 press the public mind. The conscience of the liquor seller, 
 clouded by the love of lucre; the conscience of the liquor 
 drinker, clouded by the love of his dram; and the con- 
 gcienqe of the average Christian^ clouded by the love of 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 171 
 
 party, all compromise iipon the same ticket on election 
 day. For over twenty years this three-sided battle has 
 been going on, and liquor has won almost every time. 
 Even those who are actually engaged in the cause of tem- 
 perance fail to realize the great battle that is before them. 
 Their efforts, zealous and praiseworthy as they may be, 
 fall short of what is necessary to accomplish the end in 
 view. 
 
 During a division of property every saloon, every bar- 
 room, every brewery, and every distillery could be closed, 
 their stock and equipments destroyed, and every person 
 engaged in the business find more desirable positions in 
 other lines of action. The sale of liquor could then be 
 restricted to medical and scientific purposes by proper 
 laws. Only the purest would be made and their sale con- 
 fined to proper channels. These laws would, beyond ques- 
 tion, meet with popular approval. Appetite and habit 
 would of course rebel, but their influence would rapidly 
 wane, and in a short time sobriety would become a crown- 
 ing virtue of the nation. 
 
 GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF THE RAILROADS AND OTHER 
 
 MONOPOLIES. 
 
 ^ There are over 180,000 miles of railroads in the United 
 States. In operating them over 800,000 men are em- 
 ployed and nearly $800,000,000 are annually expended. 
 The estimated value of railroad property is over $12,- 
 000,000,000. While they are operated as private concerns, 
 they are involved in debt to the extent of $11,500,000,000. 
 
 There are over 1,000,000 miles of telegraph and tele- 
 phone wires in the country, the receipts of our telegraph 
 system alone being over $22,000,000. 
 
 Our annual output of coal is about 200,000,000 tons, 
 the mining of which is one of the leading industries of 
 the country. Over 2,000,000,000 gallons of oil are an- 
 nually taken from the earth, and it is used in almost every 
 household. 
 
 There were taken from the mines of the United States 
 in 1898 gold to the value of over $64,000,000 and over 
 $70,000,000 (commercial valne) worth of silver. 
 
172 OJJR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 These great natural monopolies have all become national 
 in importance. There is a rapidly growing demand that 
 they and other similar forms of wealth belong to the G-ov- 
 ernment. They have entirely outgrown the safety point 
 as private enterprises. Together they employ not far from 
 1,500,000 men. 
 
 In making the government ownership of these great 
 monopolies, or any one of them, the basis of a political 
 issue, the question naturally arises, How can the Govern- 
 ment acquire them? Would the Government buy the 
 present railroads, take them without buying, or build 
 parallel lines and, through competitive influence, force the 
 roads now operating to quit business? 
 
 None of these plans are practicable. To buy them 
 would establish an aristocracy. The Government would 
 simply assume guardianship over a lot of native and for- 
 eign bondholders. To take them without paying for them 
 would be both unconstitutional and dishonest. To build 
 new roads parallel would be foolhardy. The old lines 
 are, as a rule, just where they should be. Their courses 
 have become as fixed as the beds of' rivers, and new lines 
 would be a preposterous undertaking. And what is true 
 of railroads also applies to telegraph, telephones, street- 
 car lines, and to all natural monopolies. As a single-issue 
 measure it would be impossible to transfer these great 
 holdings from private to public possession with any degree 
 of equity. It could be done only as the accompaniment 
 of a universal readjustment of property among all the 
 people. These and all other natural monopolies, whether 
 national. State, or municipal, could then be reserved as 
 public property with absolute fairness to all. 
 
 TRUSTS AND MONOPOLIES. 
 
 The formation of ^^trusts'^ and other combinations dur- 
 ing recent years has attracted widespread attention, and 
 their consideration is one of the most prominent subjects 
 connected with politics at the present time. While the 
 primary object of trusts is to lessen expense and render 
 more efficient and satisfactory service to the public, their 
 y^etl object under present conditions se§ins to be to secure 
 
OUR JSfATION'S NEEDit 173 
 
 a monopoly in some special line of goods, control the out- 
 put, arbitrarily fix prices, and crush, or kill all discon- 
 i>ected opposition. It is simply the method that unbridled 
 power has always adopted to fortify itself and promote its 
 own interests. 
 
 Trusts represent a large share of the financial and in- 
 dustrial enterprise of the nation. Over 600 industrial 
 trusts and combinations have been formed in this coun- 
 try, and their combined capitalization is about $8,000,000,- 
 000. It would seem that our entire manufacturing sys- 
 tem eventually will be under the dominion of this form 
 of combination, more than one-half of it being already so 
 absorbed. 
 
 Trusts have been vehemently assailed in popular dis- 
 cussion, and the sentiment against them as now oper- 
 ated is both widespread and strong. But they have only 
 multiplied and become more deeply and thoroughly estab- 
 lished. 
 
 They represent a money power without a parallel in 
 all history. They are prepared to buy anything for cash 
 that is for sale at any price. They have the power to 
 purchase entire congressional districts and whole states 
 at election times as systematically as though such were 
 an ordinary business transaction. They can buy legis- 
 latures and law courts as easily as courtesy can win a 
 smile. They could donate to every governor of every 
 state, every congressman, and every senator an inde- 
 pendent fortune, and make of every president a million- 
 aire the day he assumed office, and scarcely feel the ex- 
 pense, provided these governors and law-makers and pres- 
 idents would turn legislation their way. 
 
 ^ Trusts are not, however, totally bad. It is only when 
 viewed superficially that they so appear. They are a 
 complex organism and are, to no small degree, an out- 
 growth of modern progress and improved methods of do- 
 ing business. It must be admitted that the capital they 
 represent employs millions of people and supports mil- 
 lions of homes. It is claimed in their favor that by their 
 existence ^''the prices of manufactured goods are lessened, 
 higher wages are paid, and the public is better served.'* 
 While ^his claim is not, as a rule, supported by facts, tho 
 
174 OUR NATION '8 NEED. 
 
 failure is due not to the existence of trusts, but to the 
 selfish and dishonest methods followed in their manage- 
 ment. 
 
 Trusts have the power to be the friend and protector 
 of labor. No truth is plainer than this. Trusts fortify 
 capital and capital employs labor, and whatever fortifies 
 that which employs labor can, if it will, give labor an in- 
 creased benefit. Theoretically trusts are desirable. It 
 must be admitted that if honestly and wisely conducted 
 both capital and labor would be benefited by their ex- 
 istence, and in addition the people would be better served 
 and supplied. It is only through corrupt management 
 that they merit disfavor. 
 
 Trusts represent order, system, economy of force, and 
 intelligent action, all of which are essential to the best 
 service and highest achievements. In union in business 
 matters, as elsewhere, there is strength. Trusts repre- 
 sent the thought, wisdom, and cultivated business acumen 
 of thousands of our most sagacious and farsighted men. 
 Viewed in the broader and deeper light of business ex- 
 perience, they are not only a legitimate outgrowth of genu- 
 ine progress, but they are a direct demand of the times. 
 From the beginning progress has made our industrial and 
 commercial life more complex, and increasing complexi- 
 ties have always demanded more extended and thorough 
 organization. 
 
 The remedy to employ against trusts is not to waste 
 energy in futile effort to destroy them, but to annul the 
 conditions which render them an evil. Were they de- 
 stroyed, the individual parts of which they are com- 
 posed would survive and possess wealth and power suffi- 
 cient to accomplish their ends almost as effectually as they 
 do now. Indeed, most of the evils ascribed to trusts grew 
 into existence and were widespread long before trusts were 
 formed. 
 
 It is claimed that trusts crush the small concerns and 
 make it impossible for young men to enter business. Yet it 
 is a recognized fact that for two decades over 80 per cent, 
 of those entering business failed. Were a river spanned 
 by a bridge so full of mantraps that fourmen out of every 
 five that undertook to cross it fell through and were 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 1^5 
 
 drowned, it would be a work of genuine philanthropy 
 should some one so barricade the bridge that none could 
 enter upon its seductive pathways. If the realm of busi- 
 ness and manufacture, through the influence of trusts, were 
 so walled in that no new recruits could enter until it oif er 
 more of success and less of failure, it would prove a blessing 
 to an untold legion of men whose ambition to launch into 
 business is greater than their ability to meet the difficul- 
 ties that beset those who find themselves so engaged. 
 
 It is claimed that trusts destroy competition. Yet the 
 f aet remains that competition has been so intense for many 
 years that manufacture and trade have been growing less 
 and less remunerative, and competition, so long the life of 
 business, has become its threatening death. Sothing but 
 organized union can control competition. While all de- 
 partments are overcrowded, there is imposed the addi- 
 tional curse of an army of misfits and incompetents who 
 fail in one line and fly to another and demoralize all, and 
 organized effort is the only resort whereby to make it 
 possible for even the fittest to survive and succeed. 
 
 It is claimed that trusts raise the price of commodities 
 and lower the wages of labor. Yet it is true that good 
 prices are the life of trade. Nothing so demoralizes busi- 
 ness as the loss of profit through low prices. It is the 
 greatest menace to all forms of trade — the curse most to 
 be feared. A nation cannot prosper except when prices 
 are good. Measures that promise "a demand for com- 
 modities at good prices" has been the rallying-cry of polit- 
 ical parties for years. If trusts have increased the ability 
 to pay better wages to labor than what heretofore ex- 
 isted, they deserve respectful consideration. And if trusts 
 have increased the profits of capital and labor has not 
 shared corresponding benefits, it is to no small degree the 
 fault of the laboring man himself. It simply shows that 
 the vital relations that should exist between capital and 
 labor have been destroyed. Both business and industry 
 have for many j^ears been undergoing a gradual deca- 
 dence. Profits have been growing less and wages m.ore 
 unstable. They have both suffered the scourge of falling 
 prices, and trusts have simply come to the rescue of a 
 legion of wage-earners struggling for better pay and an 
 army of employers struggling for betten profits. 
 
176 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 It is furthermore claimed that through the influence of 
 trusts men are thrown out of employment. They do save 
 labor in many directions, and by combining forces less 
 help is needed. With the overthrow of oposition thou- 
 sands of traveling men have been turned away idle. While 
 this is all wrong, it cannot be said that the trusts are an 
 evil in consequence. Labor-saving machinery should be 
 a blessing, and if trusts economize labor they should on 
 this account be a real blessing, and would be if just and 
 natural relations existed between capital and labor. 
 
 It is to be remembered also that while trusts are a new 
 invention, the evils now being ascribed to them have ex- 
 isted for years. The cause of these evils arises outside of 
 combinations. While few or no trusts have been formed 
 in Europe, the same evils prevail there to an extent even 
 greater than they do in our own land. 
 
 As an illustration of what organization regarding sup- 
 ply and demand will accomplish, take four of our leading 
 religious denominations — Methodist, Catholic, Presby- 
 terian and Congregational. The Methodist and Catholic 
 churches are systematically organized; the Presbyterian 
 and Congregational are not. In the Methodist Church 
 practically every pulpit in the United States has a 
 preacher and every preacher has a pulpit, and in the Cath- 
 olic Church every priest has a parish and every parish a 
 priest, while in the Presbyterian Church at one time there 
 were nearly 1,000 pulpits vacant and more than this num- 
 ber of preachers idle, and according to a recent report of 
 the Congregational Church there are 1,011 churches un- 
 supplied and 1,559 ministers without a charge. From a 
 money standpoint, moreover, the Methodist pulpit and 
 the Catholic parish, on account of system and organiza- 
 tion, are perhaps the best two financial institutions in 
 America. If these two denominations had no system re- 
 garding supply and demand, being so much larger than 
 the smaller bodies mentioned, the same conditions would 
 mean nearly 5,000 pastors idle and ahout 8,000 churches 
 unsupplied. These facts conclusively prove organization 
 to be a factor too powerful to be destroyed and too potent 
 for good to be ruthlessly condemned. 
 
 Farming^ medicine^ law^ merchauidising^ and otlie:r YO- 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 177 
 
 cations suffer greatly through lack of organization. 
 Farming has almost ceased to pay. The average physi- 
 cian has an income disgracefully small. The drug busi- 
 ness, once so profitable, on account of unrepelled competi- 
 tion has almost ceased to be remunerative. Taking into 
 account the services rendered, it is considered the least 
 profitCuble business in the nation, and the number of drug 
 stores for two years decreased at the rate of nearly 1,000 
 annually. 
 
 Oppose organization if we will, destroy all combinations 
 of capital if we must, yet the fact remains that they rep- 
 resent a force that, if properly directed and utilized, would 
 be productive of great good. Trusts can be made to fill a 
 most beneficent mission. 
 
 The lesson to le learned is that while trusts are a great 
 power, the people are still more powerful. The duty of 
 the people is to no longer allow them to dominate as mas- 
 ter, but to subdue them and make of them servants. Po- 
 litical parties are already making a target of trusts. Yet 
 insignificant and lame have been the remedies suggested 
 to destroy the evil so loudly condemned. 
 
 Let it be granted that trusts as now conducted are an 
 evil and that we would be better off without them; the 
 fact remains that it would be wiser still to let them live, 
 but bring them under subjection. It would be a -mistake 
 not without grave consequences to allow ourselves, im- 
 pelled by political zeal, to destroy combinations of capital 
 and enterprise without first calmly and carefully investi- 
 gating the legitimate claims they hold upon modern prog- 
 ress and the systems of business that inevitably outgrow 
 therefrom. The duty of the hour is to arise to the occa- 
 sion — ^no longer allow the trusts to benefit a few, but to 
 make their blessings extend to all. 
 
 The real remedy for trusts and all combinations of cap- 
 ital is a division of property — to diffuse their wealth 
 among the toiling millions who support them by their 
 labor. If a hundred, a thousand, or a hundred thousand 
 men are engaged in the manufacture of hats, sewing ma- 
 chines, calico, children's toys, bricks, or any other com- 
 modity, and representing a corresponding investment of 
 capital, there are no reasons why these men should not be 
 
178 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 associated together for their own benefit and for the good 
 of their business. No principle but a wicked one would 
 oppose such a combination, and no law but a vicious one 
 would prohibit it. Let us learn that related harmony and 
 order is as desirable in business affairs as in government. 
 
 Were trusts purged of watered stock, their average cap- 
 ital evidently would not be far from $1,000 for each per- 
 son employed. Reliable data v,dll almost invariably show 
 this. One great trust capitalized at $25,000,000 employs 
 25,000 men — exactly $1,000 for each. One of our largest 
 mercantile houses has a capital of $7,000,000 and employs 
 7,000 persons — exactly the same ratio. Evidently cap- 
 ital and labor, in their relations and ratio to each other, 
 are governed, like supply and demand, by well-defined nat- 
 ural laws. 
 
 Should a division of property be decided upon, the ex- 
 istence of trusts and combinations would greatly facili- 
 tate proceedings. They would become foundations on 
 which to construct a new industrial system. The $6,000,- 
 000,000 or $8,000,000,000 less inflation, now invested by 
 a few millionaires and combined in trusts would become 
 the property of millions of persons, embracing alike the 
 few who now own all and the many who own nothing. 
 
 Viewed aright, trusts are simply a step toward indus- 
 trial liberty. The distribution of property thus organ- 
 ized and valued would be a plain formality rather than 
 the array of perplexing details inevitable under other cir- 
 cumstances. By thus settling the problems incurred by 
 the advent of trusts, natural progress would not only be 
 stimulated, but it would continue undisturbed in its true 
 and legitimate channels. Trusts are now a benefit to the 
 few. They are now a union of influence confined to con- 
 centrated capital. In practice the members of trusts are 
 socialists. Trusts themselves are as socialistic as the Rus- 
 kin Colony. They are a veritable proof from the realm 
 of greed and money lustfthat the principle of "all things 
 in common" is profitable even in cold, practical business. 
 After a division of wealth they would be a benefit to all. 
 By becoming the pathway leading up to a division of 
 property, it would be seen that trusts were not a curse, but 
 a blessing, and that those who founded them were not 
 
OUR J^ATIOJSr'8 JSTEED. 179 
 
 tyrants or traitors, but benefactors, and builded wiser than 
 they knew. 
 
 One of the most significant effects of trusts is their in- 
 fluence upon commercial travelers. There are 350,000 
 traveling salesmen in the United States. A large percent- 
 age of them have already been turned idle, and the sal- 
 aries of as many more jeopardized on account of the labor- 
 saving features of business combinations. This is not only 
 unfair — it is downright wickedness. Traveling salesmen 
 have been the chief factor in the growth of modern en- 
 terprise. As educators of business men throughout the 
 country their influence has been incalculable. They have 
 been a propelling force without which the rapid develop- 
 ment of modern enterprise v/ould have been impossible. 
 No class of men have sacrificed so much; none have accom- 
 plished more; and considering the intensity of their la- 
 bors, none have been so poorly remunerated. For them 
 to be ruthlessly turned idle is an act which sinks to the 
 level of a crime. The business of the nation, in common 
 justice, to no small degree belongs to them. Through 
 long years of travel and toil they have not only earned it, 
 but established it, cared for it, and made it what it is. As 
 a class they are men of high character, of marked ability 
 and keen intelligence. 
 
 The only wise and honorable course open to traveling 
 salesmen is for them to demand a division of property 
 and thus acquire a financial interest in the goods they sell. 
 This would at once establish the proper relations that 
 should always exist between goods and the act of selling 
 them. 
 
 There is a special responsibility surrounding the selling 
 of goods entirely too little appreciated. At no time does 
 a thing come more in touch with our life and character 
 than when we try to sell it. The selling of goods brings 
 into exercise all the accomplishments of business train- 
 ing. Nothing requires more integrity, intelligence, and 
 tact. It might be claimed that no man has a right to en- 
 gage in the selling of goods as his life-work unless he have 
 a direct financial interest in the same as owner. While 
 ownership may not insure the highest degree of honor at 
 all times, yet it .is the best guarantee of it. The custom, 
 
ISO OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 so long in vogue, of harnessing "professional" salesmen 
 and sending them out over the country to sell goods, with 
 no responsibility except to employers, with no interest ex- 
 cept contingent profits, and depending for success upon 
 the high art of strategy and a captivating tongue, is fast 
 losing its force and should be abandoned. Every pur- 
 chaser has the right to demand that he procure goods under 
 the most favorable conditions, but such will not be pos- 
 sible until every salesman is, to some extent, owner. As 
 a matter of principle, it is the duty of traveling salesmen 
 to demand the adoption of such a measure. No class of 
 men could wield so great an influence in behalf of the 
 cause. Were the entire 350,000 traveling salesmen to en- 
 list as earnest and faithful champions of a divide-up of 
 propertv, the agitation of the question would become uni- 
 versal and its ultimate adoption would be little less than 
 assured. 
 
 IMMIGRATION". 
 
 The United States is a republic. The mission of its 
 citizens is to make it the happiest and most prosperous 
 nation on the earth. It now has a population of nearly 
 80,000,000. It could easily support over 1,000,000,000 
 people, or more than twelve times its present population. 
 
 Immigration constantly adds to our numbers. For the 
 past seventeen years an annual average of nearly 500,000 
 foreigners have landed upon our shores. They have come 
 from every clime and represent every phase of life and 
 character. Many of them are to be classed among our 
 best and most useful citizens. Others have been a con- 
 stant menace to our peace, our laws, and our institutions. 
 Immigrants, much more than our own natives, represent 
 extremes of intelligence and ignorance, virtue and vice. 
 
 America in her early history was a refuge for the vir- 
 tuous and oppressed, but there is danger of its becoming 
 the resort of the criminal and debased. We have been 
 BO loud and reckless in vaunting American liberty to the 
 world that a vast horde, hungry for this sort of thing, have 
 invaded our shores, and they are so prodigal with their 
 new privileges that there is scarcely enough liberty to go 
 around. This class have corrupted our politics, polluted 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 181 
 
 our cities, demoralized American labor, and lowered our 
 social standard. 
 
 That strict immigration laws be enacted and rigidly en- 
 forced is imperative. JSTot only should we shut out the 
 illiterate, but, above all, the criminal and vicious, the 
 shiftless and indolent. It would not be amiss to require 
 a reliable certificate of character and subjection to a med- 
 ical examination from all who seek a home among us. It 
 is an accepted principle that the Almighty will not help 
 those who are unwilling to help themselves, and the sooner 
 this principle becomes a settled policy regarding immigra- 
 tion the less will the country suffer. 
 
 But the United States needs more people. Indeed, to 
 increase her population should be a constant aim. We 
 cannot get too many people of the proper sort. Few 
 things redound more to the credit of a state or city or 
 locality than a constant and substantial increase in popu- 
 lation. 
 
 All cities and almost all towns have boards of trade 
 and other organized forces the object of which is to secure 
 manufacturing and other interests, knowing that men, 
 with their families, will follow. Even large sums of 
 money are often willingly and wisely given as a bonus, 
 land is donated, taxes rebated, and other concessions made 
 in order to secure those industries and enterprises which 
 employ handicraft and attract home-builders. 
 
 While America ought to refuse the vicious, it should 
 make a strong bid for the best brain and muscle of the 
 world. It should continue to be the refuge for men and 
 women with an upward aim in life, no matter what their 
 condition or from whence they might come. 
 
 A vigorous policy that should exclude the criminal and 
 depraved would at once attract those with higher aims and 
 motives. The United States is in a position to invite the 
 best manhood and womanhood everywhere. Here should 
 be the center and the highest development of the Anglo- 
 Saxon race. When we get the best mechanics and other 
 requisites we produce the best goods, and when we do 
 this the world will seek them and buy them here. 
 
 Paris is the center of fashion, and in consequence France 
 reaps all the profits and advantages that a precedent ia 
 
182 OUR NATION'S NEED, 
 
 fashion can insure. London is the center of the world's 
 money power, and as a result England reaps all the bene- 
 fits that a precedent in gold-standard heresy can bring. 
 So it is possible for the United States to establish a prece- 
 dent that shall be characteristic of its life and institu- 
 tions. Our precedent should not allure the devotees of 
 fashion or beguile the worshipers at the shrine of Mam- 
 mon; it should be such as will attract all honest blood and 
 brain to our shores that seek and can appreciate in the 
 highest sense the benefits of life, liberty, and the pursuit 
 of happiness. 
 
 THE INITIATIVE AND REFERENDUM. 
 
 Direct legislation, or tlie initiative and referendum, is 
 a movement to secure a reform in the methods of enacting 
 laws. It originated in Switzerland, the youngest of all re- 
 publics. 
 
 It consists in extending the law-making powers to the 
 people. It is a true democratic government, wherein the 
 people have the power to originate laws and repeal them, 
 instead of delegating these powers to representatives, as 
 in other countries. 
 
 The plan has been in successful operation in Switzer- 
 land since 1874, it having, in the meantime, undergone 
 some improvements. The system has been so satisfactory 
 that it is attracting widespread attention, and throughout 
 the United States efforts are being made to secure its 
 adoption. 
 
 It is not only a success, but it is establishing the im- 
 portant and too easily forgotten fact that it is entirely 
 safe to intrust the governmental affairs of a nation directly 
 to the people. 
 
 Switzerland, through the operation of the system, has 
 been enabled to adopt many reforms that would otherwise 
 have been impossible. The republic already owns its tele- 
 graphs and is negotiating for its railroads. A chief ad- 
 vantage of the system is that it has proven to be a great 
 educator of the people. It brings every voter in close 
 touch with legislative proceedings, and popular interest is 
 kept alive and the diffusion of economic intelligence pro- 
 
OVR NATION'S NEED. 183 
 
 moted to the highest degree. The measure is being dili- 
 gently advocated in the United States, many of OTir best 
 scholars and statesmen heartily indorse it, and it will 
 doubtless soon become embodied as a part of ©ur organic 
 governmental system. 
 
 Election reform must also always include improvements 
 in methods. United States Senators should be elected by 
 the direct vote of the people. Few measures are more in 
 need of adoption. The IJnited States Senate has degen- 
 erated, and its degradation will continue until machine 
 politics cease to dictate who shall occupy its chairs. So 
 long as money and %oss" influence, instead of votes, makes 
 Senators, the true interests of the people will be ignored. 
 Our present system of electing Senators is a remnant of 
 monarchy. Its continuance can only block and impede 
 progress. It is totally incompatible with the higher and 
 broader forms of republicanism. 
 
 AN HOTTEST ELECTIOlSr. 
 
 The right of suffrage is the chief pillar in our national 
 structure, and an honest ballot is the foundation-stone 
 upon which that pillar rests. 
 
 An honest ballot and a fair count is the j&rst and per- 
 haps the greatest issue in American politics. Upon se- 
 curing these depends the success of all other desirable 
 measures. 
 
 Corruption is, it would seem, the sheet-anchor of the 
 modern politician. Sentiments and policies are manu- 
 factured to suit the occasion, and clubs of voters are 
 formed and sold out to the highest bidder, like so many 
 sheep, or collected and sold by the dozen, like eggs. To 
 meet these contingencies the richest, and in some respects 
 the best men we have "chip in" and buy stuffing for the 
 ballot-box with as much zeal and earnestness as though it 
 were clothing for the naked or food for the starving. The 
 public conscience is quick and tender at many points, but 
 on the side of politics it is well-nigh dead. In order to 
 elect a legislator, a governor, or a president, men will re- 
 sort to all the schemes known to trickery and infamy, and 
 when their design is accomplished they will settle down 
 
184 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 as complacently and with as much dignity as though their 
 success were due to a special interference of the Omnipo- 
 tent. Honesty is almost completely overshadowed in poli- 
 tics, because to the bribe-taker it is a most profitable field, 
 while to the honest man it offers little pay. It is reliably 
 stated that presidential elections have cost from $10,000,- 
 000 to $15,000,000. Future triumphs of the money power 
 will cost increasing amounts. Some part of the money 
 expended at such times goes for legitimate purposes, but 
 the most of it is spent in a way to secure the most votes, 
 and no questions are asked. 
 
 Bribery promises to become a political high art and the 
 chief dependence in carrying the elections. Laws against 
 it are almost a dead letter. The surprising thing about it 
 is that really good men resort to it. None but sinners 
 will sell their votes, but apparently Christians of the most 
 circumspect class will contribute money to buy them. 
 
 Of all political questions, that of bribery and dishonesty 
 is perhaps the most difficult to meet. There is but one 
 sure remedy — an election in which honesty, loyalty to 
 principle, and adherence to convictions pay better than 
 the offers of the bribe-giver. Level the possessions of 
 wealth and bribery will become next to impossible. When 
 statesmanship offers the people what belongs to them — 
 the rich legacies and opportunities of a free country — 
 millionaire politicians will be outdone. 
 
And they shall build houses and inhabit them; and they 
 shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall 
 not buiid and another inhabit; they shall not plant and an- 
 other eat. — Isaiah. 
 
 In the world's broad field of battle, 
 
 In the bivouac of life. 
 Be not like dumb, driven cattle; 
 
 Be a hero in the strife. 
 
 — Henry W. Longfellow. 
 
 The great question of the future is money against legisla- 
 tion. My friends, you and I will be in our graves long before 
 the battle is ended; and unless our children have more cour- 
 age and patience than saved this country from slavery, re- 
 publican institutions will go down before moneyed corpora- 
 tions. — Wendell Phillips. 
 
 Every real thought on every real subject knocks the wind 
 out of somebody or other. As soon as his breath comes back 
 ne very probably begins to expend it in hard words. These 
 are the best evidences a man can have that he has said some- 
 thing it was time to say. — Oliver Wendell Holmes. 
 
 The American people are interested in but two things, re- 
 ligion and politics, and of these their schoolmasters are per- 
 mitted to know nothing. — ^Max O'Rell. 
 
 Of all the forms in which corruption can present itself, the 
 bribery of office is the most dangerous, because it assumes 
 the guise of patriotism to accomplish its fatal sorcery. We 
 are often asked, Where is the evidence of corruption? Have 
 you seen it? You might as well expect to see the embodied 
 forms of pestilence and famine stalking before you as to see 
 the latent operations of this insidious power. — George M. 
 
 DUFFIE. 
 
 186 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 187 
 
 CHAPTER XIL 
 
 A DIVIDE-UP AS A POLITICAL ISSUE. 
 
 Politics is the science of government. Its operation in i 
 a republic like ours is the vital force that sustains the na-l' 
 tional life. Nothing is so potent for good or evil. When 
 dominated by error or wrong it fills the land with dread. 
 When guided by correct and lofty motives it is our bul- 
 wark of safety. Politics has made our history. Through 
 it as a medium we must win our victories. To it are in- 
 trusted our private fortunes and our public destinies. 
 Politics enthrones all with a sacred trust. It is the holy 
 ark within which are the oracles of law and the liberties 
 of free citizenship. To ignore politics is anarchy; to pol- 
 lute it is treason. 
 
 What the country needs most is a new era in politics, 
 and what politics needs most is new issues, new men, and 
 modern methods. 
 
 To advocate a divide-up would bring a new and ex- 
 traordinary power into the political field. Party lines 
 would be drawn from new standpoints and party prin- 
 ciples would rest upon a new basis. 
 
 To divide up and start even as a political issue would 
 in no sense be a fantastical theory or a complicated dogma. 
 It would not be a many-sided, complex, and confusing 
 mystery that only a few could understand. It would not 
 be a fraud, a sham issue, a magnified farce, fostered and 
 fanned by either demagogues or fanatics to fool the peo- 
 ple. Even a child could understand it, and every intelli- 
 gent citizen would know exactly what he was voting for. 
 
 As a political issue it would cover the entire country. 
 It would be exactly as big as the United States. It would 
 interest all parts of the country alike. It would reach the 
 family occupying the most remote corner of Maine, or 
 Florida, or California, or the State of Washington. Every 
 state, every county, every city and town, every family and 
 
188 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 fireside, every man, woman and child wonld receive just 
 recognition. The nation would become a unit. Faction 
 fights would be forgotten. Voters would face an entirely 
 new front. All sectional differences between the North and 
 the South, the East and the West would be obliterated. It 
 would be the cause not of a class or faction, but of all the 
 people. 
 
 It would be a gigantic issue. In its magnitude and 
 scope it would be without a parallel in all history. But it 
 is to be remembered that our nation has become a great 
 country. It would not surpass in magnitude the nation 
 itself or the duties of its statesmen. 
 
 A divide-up would mean the lifting of over $50,000,- 
 000,000 worth of property from its present moorings and 
 transferring it into the possession of 50,000,000 people 
 who now possess little or nothing. This is more wealth 
 and more people than the entire nation possessed twenty 
 years ago. But a tremendous power is needed to free en- 
 slaved citizenship, to destroy political corruption, and 
 purify the ballot-box. No force yet devised has been able 
 to correct these great powers of evil. The mistake made 
 is that men conceive the idea that these things can be cor- 
 rected or destroyed without cost. The great defect in 
 present political issues is that they lack the element of 
 force. They fail to secure a following. They are too 
 local, too narrow, too fQ^tional, and fail to secure the 
 alliance required to win. We try to prune instead of up- 
 rooting. We cultivate sentiment, but drown convictions; 
 we endeavor to reform, but avoid revolutions. 
 
 The history of almost any campaign shows the utter 
 hopelessness of ordinary reform issues, be they ever so de- 
 sirable or essential to the public good. During the quiet 
 interim between elections such issues are born and grow 
 with much promise of success. They are usually cham- 
 pioned by able and courageous men. They enter the po- 
 litical field full of vigor and hope. They are advocated 
 with all the intensity of conviction and appeal to the high- 
 est and noblest in men. But when a political campaign 
 arrives party war-horses become aroused and the tradi- 
 tional hosts rally around the fossilized party banners and 
 follow the call of their masters. All the tricks of political 
 
OUM NATION'S NEED. 189 
 
 art begin to operate. Paid orators befog the air over issues 
 antiquated and dead. A subsidized press, like a myriad 
 of vassals, day by day not only distort facts and delude 
 the people, but with figures ridiculously small and predic- 
 tions cunningly dwarfed hopelessly blight the prospects of 
 every new issue. The conservative factions of the old par- 
 ties will, if need be, join forces in order to make their per- 
 manent supremacy secure. Money flows freely and men 
 are bought and sold like sheep. Brass bands and badges, 
 sky-roc4cefs and parades win the floaters and fickle in 
 faith. These thin^^s, with increasing intensity, are kept 
 up until election day. When the struggle is ended and 
 the votes counted the reform issue finds itself defeated and 
 perhaps dead and buried in oblivion. These facts teach 
 us that an issue to succeed must be greater than the do- 
 minions of party or party bosses ; stronger than the power 
 of money or the slavery of labor ; deeper than the indiffer- 
 ence of the masses or the apathy of ignorance. 
 
 We must learn the fact that only a great question will 
 arouse the people and win in politics. When reform 
 measures do triumph they almost invariably fail to ac- 
 complish their intended end. Said the Hon. John Wana- 
 maker, Americans merchant prince, in a recent important 
 address : "Pennsylvania has not made an inch-step of real 
 advance in good government for thirty years. She has 
 talked about it, marched and countermarched under and 
 over all sorts of platforms and pledges of reform, and 
 landed every time at the same old place.^' And what is 
 true of Pennsylvania is true of almost every state in the 
 Union, It U also true of the nation as a whole, and of 
 every county, city, and town. We have espoused reforms 
 and elected reform presidents, reform governors, reform 
 mayors, and reform legislators. We have been lured first 
 by one shibboleth and then another. Good men have stood 
 up to be knocked down. Ideals have been formulated into 
 party platforms only to make the success of the opposite 
 more secure. When a good man is elected to office he finds 
 himself handicapped by intrenched powers long estab- 
 lished that rule the field. 
 
 No measure can hope to win unless it interest all the 
 people. Nor can it profit by victory unless it represent 
 
190 OTIB NATION'S NEED. 
 
 the popular will. Fugitive issues and sectional questions 
 only embarrass political force and prevent progress. The 
 imperative need of American politics is a vital question, 
 broad and great as the nation itself, that will arouse the 
 attention of every citizen and every fireside. 
 
 A divide-up would be a radical issue. It would aim not 
 at symptoms, but at the disease ; not to simply palliate, but 
 to cure. Most of the issues launched forth simply pro- 
 pose to correct unfair methods, while permitting unjust 
 conditions to remain. If unjust laws and unfair methods 
 have produced millionaires and paupers, the usual remedy 
 would simply repeal the law and correct the methods, but 
 let the real trouble — ^the millionaires and the paupers — 
 continue. 
 
 These half-way measures are neither practicable nor 
 honest. When 1,000,000 men have absorbed the wealth 
 of the nation and hold warrantee deeds and gilt-edged 
 securities for it, it is not fair to then pass laws to prohibit 
 others from growing rich and leave unmolested the 1,000,- 
 000 who have absorbed the wealth of the country. Such 
 laws would inevitably establish an invulnerable aristoc- 
 racy. The Government would at once adopt paternalism 
 in favor of the few. Legislation of this sort would be as 
 a great gulf, with the heaven of wealth upon one side and 
 the perdition of poverty upon the other side, forming a 
 chasm across which few or none could pass. It is as es- 
 sential that vicious conditions be corrected as that cor- 
 rupt laws be repealed. If laws and methods have been 
 faulty, and, in consequence, the fruits of the toil and en- 
 terprise of four centuries have been concentrated in the 
 hands of a few men, the condition, as well as the laws or 
 methods through which it resulted, should be removed. A 
 law or a method can be no worse or more in need of cor- 
 rection than its evil effects are. It is quite as important 
 and as much a function of real justice to return plunder 
 to the owners as to make more stringent laws against pil- 
 fering. 
 
 But the facts go still further. The conditions need 
 correcting far more than the laws do. It does not appear 
 that laws bearing upon the subject have either produced 
 ox prevented extremes of wealth and poverty. These 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 191 
 
 things are the result of human nature, not of law or the 
 lack of it. Moreover, we can compel a division of prop- 
 erty ; but it is impossible to regulate human nature through 
 legislation. It is a fact well recognized that we have too 
 many laws already. The rich as a class do not obey those 
 we have. Patriotic as most rich men are, wealth ever 
 strives to be a law unto itself. There are few fences it 
 will not climb; there are few statutes it does not feel at 
 liberty to break. 
 
 The uselessness of laws intended to govern the special 
 duties of the rich is well illustrated by the manner in 
 which they escape the laws regulating taxation. Income 
 taxes and all other similar enactments have proved futile 
 wherever tried. As soon as the rich are taxed to an un- 
 usual extent, they increase their sources of revenue by rais- 
 ing rents, lowering wages, or advancing profits through 
 trusts and combines. Taxing the rich to establish finan- 
 cial equity has been tried in England and other countries 
 where there is not only an income tax, but various other 
 revenues paid entirely by the rich. Yet in the midst of 
 them the rich have grown richer and the poor poorer. It 
 is the wage-earner, the renter, the borrower, and the con- 
 sumer who invariably foot the bill. There are many who 
 imagine that an income tax would remedy present condi- 
 tions, and such a law has been strongly advocated. But 
 there are many reasons why it would entirely fail to fill 
 its intended mission. It would only more securely fortify 
 the rich and more deeply enslave the poor. 
 
 As an issue, to divide up and start even would bring 
 genuine patriotism into politics. In its discussion, obe- 
 dience tov^ard God and justice toward mankind would at 
 once become a basic principle. Love of country would be 
 enthroned. It would be an issue between patriotism and 
 selfishness, manhood and mammonism, gallantry and 
 greed. It would enlist the greatest in brain, the noblest 
 in heart, and the grandest in character. It would tend 
 to collect and crystallize into a tangible unit, at the bal- 
 lot-box, a multitude of forces now being wasted in isolated 
 efforts. Politics would get the benefit of powers now 
 operating outside of the political field, but which legiti- 
 mately belong to it. There are a multitude of organized 
 
192 OUB NATION'S NEED. 
 
 influences, representing not only the best intentions, but 
 great political power if directly applied, which are now 
 conflicting elements, and which, in consequence, diminish 
 rather than augment the better political forces of the 
 nation. Thus it is that the forces of evil, by being con- 
 centrated into a political unit, are triumphant at elec- 
 tions, while the forces for good, divided and confused, are 
 defeated and destroyed. 
 
 By giving patriotism a purpose men would be aroused 
 into concentrated action. What politics needs and what 
 it must have before the best element is again triumphant 
 is a campaign inspired by lofty motives. A moral con- 
 flict that demanded the courage of the old, the chivalry of 
 the young, and the devoted loyalty of every one would be 
 of untold benefit to all concerned. 
 
 Politics needs saturating with a vital principle. Lead- 
 ers would rather be patriots than pettifoggers. The 
 masses would rather defend a noble cause than be dupes 
 of political bosses. When brought face to face with 
 duties demanding unselfish devotion and sacrifice, man- 
 kind has seldom deserted or made a retreat. Men are 
 never so true as when enlisted in a noble cause; never so 
 brave as when facing a real danger; never so sure to 
 attain the mark as when the reaching requires their best. 
 The most endearing charm of history is the records of 
 manhood tested and tried and found to be true. Whether 
 following the leadership of Joan of Arc, a Washington, or 
 a Grant, men have made a record of which posterity has 
 ever had cause to be proud. No people were ever more 
 patriotic than Americans, and Americans were never more 
 loyal than now. All they need is a visible purpose and an 
 awakened motive. It is only v/hen purposes grow dim that 
 men grow weak; it is only when incentives disappear that 
 duty forsakes its post and retires to sleep. Our military 
 force is over 10,000,000 strong, and should a sufficient 
 emergency of war occur it would arise as one man and 
 offer its all for humanity's cause. And it is no less strong 
 in an emergency of peace. 
 
 With a divide-up as an issue, an honest election would 
 be assured. No matter how reckless bribery might become, 
 it would be overshadowed by personal interests. At such 
 
OUR NATION ^8 NEED. 193 
 
 an election every man^s vote would mean $1,000 in prop- 
 erty for himself and the same for his wife and each of his 
 children. If a yonng man were anticipating matrimony 
 it would- mean $1,000 in property for himself and the 
 same for his bride. To the business man it would mean 
 a revolution in his trade. To the professional man it 
 would mean an increased patronage among those able to 
 pay. To the farmer it would mean a market, at a good 
 price, for his products. To the laboring man and wage- 
 earner it would mean industrial liberty and financial op- 
 portunity. To womanhood and childhood it would mean 
 an inspiring interest never equaled before. To the rich it 
 would mean a chance to display executive ability in be- 
 half of mankind instead of bestowing all upon self. 
 
 Should a division of property become a political issue, 
 the most telling point, perhaps, against it would be the 
 embarrassment and humiliation that would be visited upon 
 the rich. To the wealthy it would be a severe trial. This 
 is a fact all must admit. To see the fruits of years of toil 
 and energy swept away and distributed to others, in many 
 instances to those unworthy, would be an ordeal surpass- 
 ingly great. To those especially who have grown old in 
 merited honor, success, and luxury, it would be a humilia- 
 tion, keen and deep. There are princes among men in 
 the realm of business and enterprise, and the honor and 
 affection bestowed upon them are such that a king might 
 envy. For them to willingly submit would show a rare 
 martyrdom ; for them to favor such an undertaking would 
 be a heroism sublime. Indeed, the just claims of the rich 
 add immensely to the gravity of the measure. It imposes 
 the ultimatum of responsibility. It joins it with the In- 
 finite as a sacred trust. It would be a crime, heinous be- 
 yond degree, if ruthlessly done. The parable of the rich 
 fool is a warning against forcing a division of property 
 through selfish motives. No man should advocate such 
 a measure until its justice, its need, and its wisdom are as 
 clear as the brightness of the noonday sun. 
 
 But viewed in a proper light a divide-up would lessen, 
 and not increase, the misfortunes and humiliations of the 
 wealthy. How fickle is fortune now! Financial wrecks 
 are to be found everywhere. Chauncey Depew, who has 
 
194 OTTR NATION' 8 NEED. 
 
 had a remarkable clientage among rich men, is reported 
 as saying that his experience "has been that eight-tenths 
 of them lose their fortunes during their lifetime." How 
 the princes of the world have been humiliated by poverty 
 during their declining years ! Columbus, Pitt, Clay, Jef- 
 ferson, Grant, Walter Scott, and a legion of others equally 
 worthy are striking illustrations of how little fortune ven« 
 erates worth and age. 
 
 There are as many who lose their all in a few years 
 imder present conditions as would suffer in a general di- 
 vision of property. The "bulls" and the "bears," the 
 speculators and kings of finance who corner commodities 
 and enforce panics, crush more homes and blight more 
 lives in a single generation than would meet disaster by 
 leveling wealth among all the people. 
 
 A divide-up would not cause, but it would prevent 
 wholesale financial shipwreck. It would give stability to 
 wealth, and this cannot be done so long as great extremes 
 prevail or a few control all others. It would stifle spec- 
 ulation and remove the jeopardy of fluctuating prices. It 
 would be wise statesmanship to level possessions, if for no 
 other reason than to make the getting of a livelihood uni- 
 versally easy and property more secure and stable. 
 
 That the rich would be obliged to vacate their present 
 mansions and that the best portions of our cities would 
 be vacated; that there would be no rich to purchase val- 
 uables and high-priced goods, and that, in consequence, a 
 most desirable market would be destroyed; and that we 
 need the inspiration which the presence of the wealthy 
 and successful impart, and which would be lost, are among 
 the many considerations easily woven into political argu- 
 ments against a general division of property. 
 
 But the mansions of the rich are scarcely occupied now. 
 A goodly portion of the wealthy maintain from two to five 
 residences, and not a few own a private yacht upon which 
 to disport as a pastime. The most magnificent private 
 residence in America has cost, it is claimed, $4,000,000, 
 and its owner, since its completion, has occupied it less 
 than thirty days each year. If money is worth 6 per 
 cent, interest, every day spent in this palace has cost its 
 owner $8,000, to say nothing of servants, repairs, taxes. 
 
OXTR NATION '8 NEED. 195 
 
 and sumptuous fare. As a matter of fact, the mansions 
 of the rich are the least used — the most reclusive and the 
 most superfluous portion of our national wealth. They 
 are chiefly located in large towns and cities, and they 
 would, under the new social conditions following a divide- 
 up, serve a most useful and opportune purpose as school 
 buildings, libraries, art galleries, hospitals, and for other 
 scientiflc, educational, and social uses. 
 
 As far as the purchases of the rich are concerned, much 
 of their shopping is already done in Europe, and a large 
 share of what they purchase at home has crossed the sea 
 and in no way benefits home industry. It is the rich and 
 the following they secure, more than anything else, that 
 brings foreign labor into competition with American in- 
 dustry. 
 
 The presence of the rich is not a wholesome inspiration 
 to mankind. To be overstimulated in the pursuit of 
 wealth is only a curse. Men were placed upon the earth 
 for a nobler mission than becoming infatuated with the 
 glamour and glory of riches. To trail after the votaries 
 of Mammon prevents normal ambition and always jeop- 
 ardizes the motives and success of the young. It is also 
 to be remembered that the rich, comparatively speaking, 
 are very few in number. Where one succeeds many fail. 
 The aged, as a rule, are poor. Those who have worked the 
 hardest often have the least. Those who most deserve 
 often come down to old age with a pittance. The rich and 
 the poor have grown old together. They are organically 
 related in every phase of life. Both are largely the result 
 of circumstances over which they exercised only partial 
 control. To no small degree the poor have made the few 
 rich and the rich have made the many poor. A divide-up 
 would harmonize divergent conditions resulting from co- 
 ordinate energies and activities. A division of property 
 would mean a comfortable allowance to all, and the meas- 
 ure, in addition, includes a pension to all aged and invalid 
 persons, thus placing the comforts of life within reach of 
 every one. 
 
 To the unprejudiced student of economics in the broad- 
 est sense, nothing is more evident than that a divide-up 
 of property would benefit more people^ with injury to less^ 
 
196 OTIB NATION' 8 NEED. 
 
 than any other measure within the power of citizenship. 
 ^Torty thousand men own one-half of the wealth of the 
 United States, while 40,000,000 people have practically 
 nothing." Each one of these 40,000 men owns that which 
 represents the labor, life, and character of 1,000 of his 
 neighbors. "One hundred fortunes aggregate $3,000,- 
 000,000." This is equal to $1,000 for each man, woman, 
 and child in Masachusetts and Ehode Island together, or 
 both Georgia and Louisiana, or the States of California, 
 Washington, Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and North and 
 South Dakota combined. 
 
 It might be claimed, on the basis of reliable estimates 
 relative to the subject, that were a division of property 
 and the cancellation of debts made, not more than one 
 voter, or family, or child in fifteen would lose financially. 
 And when we remember that great wealth is an actual 
 curse to the most of those who possess it, it must be ad- 
 mitted that the measure would be an unmixed blessing 
 to almost every individual in the nation, no matter what 
 his or her present social or financial condition may be. 
 When we realize the wonderful diversities of wealth and 
 poverty that prevail and consider the age in which we 
 live, the privileges we enjoy as citizens, the religion we 
 profess to believe, the possibilities within our reach, the 
 civilizing forces which bewilder us upon every side, and the 
 democratic spirit that, on account of cowardice and in- 
 difference, allows the condition to continue and grow more 
 pronounced, it brings to view an object-lesson that has 
 had few parallels in all history. While we are more ad- 
 vanced and more progressive than any other nation is now 
 or ever was, yet we are, at the same time, further from 
 what we might be or what we must become to accomplish 
 our mission as the leader and exemplar among the na- 
 tions of the world. 
 
 Should a divide-up and start-even become a political 
 issue, its discussion and execution would in many of its 
 features resemble the Civil War. The primary cause of 
 one was chattel slavery ; of the other, industrial and finan- 
 cial slavery. In one instance the rich owned men, both 
 life and body; in the other, the rich own not the bodies, 
 but the lives of men. Three hundred thousand men 
 
OTJB NATION '8 NEED. 197 
 
 owned all the slaves. The country has increased fourfold, 
 and four times as many, or 1,200,000 persons practically 
 own all the wealth now. About one man in fifteen lost 
 his slaves, and about one man in fifteen would lose his 
 wealth in a division of property. The war established 
 the authority of the Government over a single state or 
 combination of states; a division of property would es- 
 tablish the authority of the Government over individual 
 ownership or combination of capital. The war set the 
 bodies of men free ; a divide-up would liberate human life. 
 It would establish, in the broader and higher sense, that 
 fundamental principle promulgated by the great authority 
 Blackstone, that "sovereignty and legislation are indeed 
 convertible terms ; one cannot exist without the other." 
 
 Many would doubtless oppose a divide-up and start-even 
 on the ground that it would establish an undesirable prece- 
 dent. It would be claimed that in a short time there 
 would be a clamor for another division. To undergo the 
 process once need not necessarily establish the measure as 
 a settled policy of the nation. It would not make an- 
 other division in the future inevitable. Another division 
 might be desirable at the end of fifty, a hundred, or a 
 thousand years, but future generations, it is to be hoped, 
 will be, more than we are now, equal to the exigencies of 
 the age in which they shall live. As an incident of his- 
 tory it would serve as a wholesome check to unbridled am- 
 bition and to the growth of morbid extremes in the future. 
 
 The question arises. Who would be the chief cham- 
 pions and promoters of a divide-up and start-even should 
 it become an issue in our national politics ? 
 
 Both rich and poor would undoubtedly favor the meas- 
 ure, and both would oppose it. 
 
 Viewed superficially, it is easy to imagine that in the 
 midst of such an issue the people would sit down and esti- 
 mate their wealth and count the number of persons in 
 their families, and if they concluded that a divide-up 
 would be a gain they would favor it ; if it promised a loss 
 they would oppose it. As more than nine men out of 
 ten would gain by the adoption of the measure, it is not 
 difficult to imagine that there would be a general stam- 
 pede in favor of it, and that such a beneficent cause would 
 
198 OVR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 gain an easy victory. But such expectations would not be 
 realized. The dominion of wealth and the bondage of 
 wage-earning and poverty are not so easily overcome. It 
 would mean an intense struggle. It would require the 
 most unselfish patriotism and a display of the highest type 
 of heroism. 
 
 That many rich persons would heartily support the 
 measure cannot be doubted. It is to be remembered that 
 a divide-up and start-even would involve a great principle, 
 and principles win followers from those who sacrifice as 
 well as from those who profit. While this is true, the 
 rich as a class would vehemently oppose it. When men 
 gain advantages over their fellow-men, either in wealth 
 or power, they seldom voluntarily give up their dominion. 
 If history is a reliable teacher, it must be expected that 
 many of those who should most zealously and forcibly 
 support the measure would be its bitterest and most re- 
 lentless foes. 
 
 As in past conflicts, many who are eminent in religion, 
 distinguished in learning, and prominent in society and 
 politics would doubtless assail such a reform and vehe- 
 mently denounce it as wrong in principle and vicious in 
 practice. While a large share of the Christian element 
 would here find its ideal in politics and heartily enlist in 
 the crusade for justice and righteousness, not a few would 
 throw their influence against it. Of all the forces in the 
 world, perhaps that which has operated under the form 
 of religion has been at times the most desperate enemy 
 and opponent of genuine progress. About one-third of 
 our population is professedly Christian. Over $30,000,- 
 000,000 in property belong to those who pray : "Thy 
 kingdom come." It is a pleasant thought to believe that 
 these people would rejoice at the opportunity to unite in 
 uplifting humanity with their wealth. But no class of 
 people are more disappointing in the face of a noble cause 
 or a great crisis than those looked up to as the great and 
 good. 
 
 For has learning been a leader or even a faithful sup- 
 porter of progressive reforms. Says Benjamin Kidd : "It 
 has to be confessed that in England during the nineteenth 
 century the educated classes, in almost all the great po- 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 199 
 
 litical changes that have been effected, have taken the side 
 of the party afterward admitted to have been in the wrong. 
 They have invariably opposed at the time the measures 
 they have subsequently come to defend and justify." And 
 the record of scholars in politics in our own land has been 
 little better. Eeferring to an eventful period in our own 
 history, culminating in the crusade against slavery, Wen- 
 dell Phillips said: "Amid this battle of giants scholar- 
 ship sat dumb for thirty years, until imminent deadly peril 
 convulsed it into action; and colleges, in despair, gave to 
 the army that help they had refused to the market-place 
 and the rostrum." 
 
 The professional office-holder and the political boss, 
 whether higli or low, would, of course, oppose any measure 
 which should threaten their political prestige. Political 
 corruption is one of the curses that a division of property 
 is intended to destroy, and those who profit by it would 
 denounce the measure as diabolical and treasonable. 
 
 Conservatives would sincerely deplore and lament the 
 disaster which, to their vision, would inevitably follow a 
 division of property. Fogies would honestly predict social 
 chaos and political ruin. Pessimists would be horror- 
 stricken. These experiences have characterized every 
 great advance in history, and human nature is likely to 
 continue the same to the end of time. 
 
 The chief promoters of a divide-up would come from 
 the great middle class, from men who are neither worship- 
 ers of Mammon nor slaves to its power. There are many 
 reasons why this would be true. Sympathy is a more pow- 
 erful incentive than self-interest. The most zealous and 
 effective champions of justice and liberty are those who 
 witness wrong rather than those who suffer its oppressions. 
 True heroism emanates not from the head nor from the 
 pocket-book, but it is an impulse of the heart. It is to 
 be expected, therefore, that a great issue like a divide-up 
 and start-even would be chiefly supported by those most 
 deeply aroused by the principles involved. This is a wise 
 provision of the Creator in preparing mankind for great 
 epochs in human affairs, because it requires convictions 
 strongly rooted in the depths of character, rather than 
 
200 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 mere sentiment, to champion a great cause and carry it to 
 success. 
 
 The great middle classes are, after all, the most in- 
 tensely concerned. The merchant and the mechanic, the 
 farmer and the laborer, the professional man and the man 
 of moderate means are the ones whose interests, under 
 present conditions, are most in danger. These classes are 
 being crowded to the wall. They are being forced to ac- 
 cept a life of struggle to ward off actual bankruptcy and 
 poverty. Under present conditions it is only a question 
 of time when the middle class of mankind — ^those occupy- 
 ing the natural, normal sphere — will become almost ex- 
 tinct. There are multitudes of men belonging to these 
 classes who would temporarily lose through a division of 
 property, but on account of improved conditions they 
 would soon more than regain their temporary loss. Men 
 who are now "land poor'^ and "property burdened^^ would 
 have less, but what they should possess would afford a bet- 
 ter income. 
 
 Every business man knows that climbing the road to. 
 success is far more pleasurable and full of charm than the 
 goal at the end. No matter how much energy and effort it 
 costs, genuine success in effort and energy is a rich reward. 
 N"othing so inspires diligence and industry and rectitude 
 of character as a reasonably successful business career. 
 The best inheritance a father can bestow upon a son is not 
 riches, but opportunity and a clear sense of responsibility. 
 There are thousands of sons and daughters who, under 
 present conditions, will inherit fortunes only to lose them 
 and die poor. How incomparably more sensible and 
 blessed it would be if these sons and daughters were given 
 less to start with, but freed from the jeopardies which 
 now threaten the financial interests of almost every one. 
 
 All that is needed to insure the success of a divide-up 
 and start-even is that the people become fully informed 
 upon and interested in the subject. Should it once gain 
 a foothold upon the popular mind and heart, its growth 
 would be inevitable. Not in the entire historj^ of Amer- 
 ican polities has any measure so appealed to the highest 
 and noblest in citizenship as would this one. Under the 
 influence of proper leaders and zealously, aggressively, and 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 201 
 
 intelligently pressed throughout the land, perhaps no 
 measure has ever secured the unanimous approval that it 
 would receive at the ballot-box. 
 
 There are many reasons, based upon sound considera- 
 tions, for believing that in a campaign in which a divide- 
 up and start-even and naturally allied questions formed 
 the dominant issue, every state in the Union, by an over- 
 whelming majority, would favor its adoption. Could 
 party affiliations be forgotten and political intimidations 
 entirely subdued, the verdict in its favor would be well- 
 nigh unanimous. 
 
Now there are diversities of gifts. — Paxil. 
 
 Tor the heart grows rich in giving; 
 
 All its wealth is living grain, 
 Seeds which mildew in the garner, 
 
 Scattered, fill with gold the plain. 
 
 — ^Mrs. Charles. 
 
 It may be discovered that the true veins of wealth are 
 purple — and not in rock, but in flesh — perhaps even that the 
 final outcome and consummation of all wealth is in producing 
 as many as possible full-breathed, bright-eyed, and happy- 
 hearted human creatures. — Ruskin. 
 
 Labor, intelligent, manly, independent, thinking and acting 
 for itself, earning its own wages, accumulating those wages 
 into capital; educating childhood, maintaining worship, claim- 
 ing the right of elective franchise, and helping to uphold the 
 great fabric of the state. This is American labor, and all my 
 sympathies are with it; and my voice, till I am dumb, will be 
 for it. — Daniel Webster. 
 
 Why should we imagine that because we now have liberty 
 we must always possess it, however supine we may be? If 
 freedom is worth fightinr for it is worth preserving. Let us 
 never listen to the voice which would calm all our apprehen- 
 sions and lull us into slumbers of security; into a quiet which 
 migiit be repose indeed, but would soon be the leaden sleep of 
 despotism. — Charles G. Atherton. 
 
 Way down in the heart there is a tenderness for human 
 self-sacrifice which makes it seem loftier than the love of 
 glory; for it reveals the eternal possibilities of the human 
 soul. Wars and sieges pass away, and the great intellectual 
 efforts cease to stir our hearts; but the man who sacrifices 
 himself to his fellows lives forever. — Thomas B. Reed. 
 
 m 
 
OUR NATIOIfl'S NEED. 203 
 
 CHAPTER XIIL 
 
 A DIVIDE-UP AND NATURAL INEQUALITIES. 
 
 A DIVIDE-UP and start-even would promote normal in- 
 equalities among men. 
 
 Variety is a law of nature. 
 
 Men show diversities of ability, of temperament, and of 
 talent almost without limit. No two are alike. But these 
 diversities form a complete whole only when the relations 
 are harmonious in action and reciprocal in accomplish- 
 ment. For mankind to grow monstrosities or to become 
 homogeneous like sheep is a calamity. To allow the one 
 to monopolize the field or to compel the other by force of 
 law would be a public crime. 
 
 It is to be remembered that man is both an animal and 
 an intellectual force. The physical needs of all are prac- 
 tically the same; the intellectual possibilities may give to 
 each an individuality entirely unlike any one else. 
 
 There are many who honestly believe that inequalities 
 as they now exist are not only fair and proper, but essen- 
 tial to progress and civilization. A standing argument 
 in defense of present conditions is that some men, on ac- 
 count of inherent abilities, require much, and others, in 
 consequence of limited faculties, require very little, to sup- 
 ply their needs. It is also a common belief that extremes 
 of wealth and poverty are entirely normal and the result 
 of natural causes, and that on account of them enterprise 
 and business are developed to a degree otherwise unob- 
 tainable. 
 
 That wealth is necessary to progress and enterprise all 
 must admit. Bu^ it is not required that this wealth should 
 be in the possession of a few. It is contrary to all the 
 teachings of the past that it is more essential that a few 
 have great wealth than that all possess a reasonable share, 
 ^uch a condition has wrought tho downfall of too many, 
 
204 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 natrons to neednfurther proof of its inevitable tendency to 
 national decay. 
 
 That men widely differ in talent and energy is a law 
 that must be recognized. That the physical needs of men 
 are identical is also a law that mnst be obeyed. 
 
 The general and ordinary physical requirements of all 
 mankind are essentially the same. All are born naked, 
 helpless, dependent, and ignorant. All are subject to the 
 same physical laws. All have a imiform bodily tempera- 
 ture of 98.6° Fahrenheit. All require substantially the 
 same kinds and quantity of food, clothing, and shelter. 
 The domestic and social needs of all are similar. The 
 highest development of the race demands that what is 
 necessary for one exist within the reach of all. 
 
 The food requirements of mankind are remarkably uni- 
 form. Bread, water, salt, milk, fish, fruits, and animal 
 and vegetable food are used by all mankind. 
 
 The world is clothed almost entirely from six sub- 
 stances — cotton, wool, silk, linen, fur, and the skin of ani- 
 mals. The clothing needed by the millionaire and the 
 farmer, the dude and the day laborer, the society belle and 
 the servant are essentially the same. 
 
 Houses are composed of a still smaller number of ma- 
 terials. Wood, iron, glass, brick, and stone of some kind 
 furnish materials to build the city, the hamlet and the 
 farm-house, the palace of the rich and the hovel of the 
 poor. 
 
 Our social needs are exceedingly similar. All require 
 the advantages of schools, churches, books, newspapers, 
 recreations, amusements, and the endless variety of civiliz- 
 ing forces. Merchants supply all from the same markets ; 
 physicians treat all with the same remedies. Courts, if 
 just, apply the same laws to all alike; ministers preach the 
 same Gospel to the entire world. Fundamentally, we are 
 all upon a level and members of one great family. 
 
 While all men are created equal and up to a certain 
 point their needs are similar, yet beyond this point a 
 wonderful variety is displayed. It might be said that by 
 nature men are equally endowed, but that God interposes 
 and crowns the work of nature with an endless diversity 
 of gifts and powers. Some are given one talent, some 
 
OUB NATION'S NEED, 205 
 
 five, and some ten. Some are financiers, some are skillful 
 with hand, others active in brain. Some love wealth; 
 some love fame and honor; some are domestic and reclu- 
 sive. 
 
 That the abilities and broadened faculties of some men 
 require more costly surroundings, and consequently a 
 greater suppJy of wealth than others, is entirely true. Some 
 are satisfied with next to nothing and with simple exist- 
 ence, while others desire and strive for a liberal portion of 
 material comforts. While these extremes are visible 
 everywhere, it is also true that where wants are few the 
 ability to secure is meager, and where the needs are many 
 the ability to supply them, if normal conditions exist, is 
 not wanting. Indeed, it is, as a rule, easier for the gifted 
 to supply their greater needs thr^i for the ignorant and 
 apathetic to secure bare necessities. 
 
 How shall we supply these actual and uniform needs of 
 all, and also make it possible for special merit to receive 
 its special rewards? A division of property would solve 
 the problem exactly. Everybody would then be assured 
 actual necessitieSo And those who possess talent, or abil- 
 ity, or special energy would have all the advantages of a 
 good start and a fair opportunity. The world would in- 
 crease in wants and it would be able and willing to pay 
 for them. He who rendered the highest service or gave 
 the most would secure the greatest reward. 
 
 The most radical champion of inequalities, if he be sin- 
 cere, must admit that they should mean special merit or 
 the lack of it, and that, as far as possible, all should start 
 from a common level. When riches are the result of favor 
 without merit it 12 a public reproach, and poverty that is 
 due to lack of opportunity is a public disgrace. 
 
 With a fev/ exceptions, the present great accumulations 
 of wealth do not represent any special services to the 
 race. They have been inherited or else obtained through 
 a bold and determined struggle to get rich regardless of 
 the claims of others. Financiering has become a high art. 
 The old-fashioned way of getting rich by long devotion to 
 some legitimate business is becoming obsolete. It has 
 become a matter of chance — ^the prize to the man who 
 wins. As a class the rich possess no extraordinary quali- 
 ties of mind, talent, or character^ 
 
206 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 The prevailing mad rush for gain not only crushes the 
 ignorant and indifferent into despair, but it embarrasses 
 all who are not specially gifted at money-making. Men 
 can be found everywhere who have marked abilities and 
 brilliant intellects and who are capable of the highest use- 
 fulness, but who, on account of perverted industry, are 
 forced to eke out an existence struggling against the pri- 
 vations of poverty. They are not good financiers. Many 
 of these men are the salt of the earth. They have large 
 souls and warm hearts^ but their noble impulses and power 
 to achieve and bless their age are swallowed up in a strug- 
 gle for bread. 
 
 Those who uphold existing inequalities never carry their 
 reasoning to its logical conclusions. If existing condi- 
 tions are just and desirable, it follows that the rich are 
 those deserving riches and the poor are those deserving 
 poverty. It implies that millionaires have simply reaped 
 their just reward and that the poor have encountered their 
 legitimate portion. This theory also declares that the 
 wealth of the country in the possession of the few is where 
 it benefits humanity most, and that the masses are better 
 provided for and more contented than they would be if 
 each possessed a reasonable amount of property. It in- 
 cludes the belief that neglected childhood, forsaken age, 
 and industrial bondage are a necessary characteristic of 
 civilization, and that the tyranny of despotism and the op- 
 pression of heathenish slavery are natural and commend- 
 able if operated under a new form and clothed in a modern 
 garb. 
 
 A divide-up and start-even would not, therefore, mean 
 equality socially, intellectually, or even financially. It 
 would simply remove unjust and unnatural inequalities 
 now prevailing, and make it possible for more natural and 
 legitimate inequalities to occur. It would, to the fullest 
 degree, give all a fair start and abridge the highest possi- 
 bilities of no one. It would place no man in a strait- 
 jacket, and all would be free. 
 
 The adoption of the measure would be in full harmony 
 with the scientific fact that all men are created equal, and 
 in certain respects the needs of all are uniform, and the 
 equally important fact that in actual life men show a great 
 Idiversityj pf powers and talents, and some require wideE 
 
UB NA TION 'S NEED. 207 
 
 fields of action than others and deserve special measures 
 of reward. 
 
 One of the first lessons a divide-up would teach is that 
 riches and the lack of it have caused false standards to 
 prevail, and that genuine worth of intellect, of ability, and 
 of character have not received just recognition. The rich 
 are now our special dictators. They dominate in society, 
 in business, in the Church. Money is power and influ- 
 ence, and those who possess it are catered to and consulted, 
 and their opinions and advice are accepted as the wisdom 
 of the age. 
 
 Should a division of property be made and all be forced 
 to start from the same general level, new and natural 
 qualities would divide men into classes. Genuine ability 
 and worth would lead men to position and power. The 
 best doctor or preacher would get the best pay. The most 
 useful man would secure the best income. The fittest, and 
 not the richest, would attain to eminence. Men would 
 cease to own each other, and the ^l3oss'^ who now has noth- 
 ing but a "barrel" with which to gain popular favor would 
 become a political relic. When officials who were honest, 
 instead of professional politicians, should rule in office; 
 when teachers, instead of fossils, should shape public opin- 
 ion; when patriots, instead of puppets, should make our 
 laws — these officials and teachers and patriots would be 
 the favored among men. 
 
 Those filling high positions in politics and enterprise 
 would then be the servants, not the masters, of the many. 
 Now one man employs, dictates to, or discharges at will a 
 score, a hundred, a thousand; but under the new condi- 
 tions a score, or a hundred, or a thousand would choose 
 their rulers and leaders. While the many would be, in- 
 dividually, under the authority of one, the one would, in 
 return, be subject to the united will of the many. In- 
 equalities would continue to exist and develop, but they 
 would, more than now, represent natural qualities of mind 
 and character and be the legitimate result of natural 
 causes. Instead of class distinction regulated by property 
 and money, mankind would be measured by just levels — 
 by talent, by special gifts, by mental endowments, by abil- 
 ity, and by other legitimate forces with which life is so 
 pregnant. 
 
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine. — Solomon, 
 
 He sings of Brotherhood, and joy and peace, 
 
 Of days when jealousies and hate shall cease; 
 
 When war shall die, and man's progressive mind \ 
 
 Soar unfettered as its God designed. 
 
 — Mackay. 
 
 We cannot be happy but in the society of one another; and 
 from one another we daily receive, or may receive, important 
 services. These conditions recommend the great duty of uni- 
 versal benevolence, which is not more beneficial to others than 
 to ourselves; for it makes us happy in our own minds and 
 amiable in the eyes of all who know us; it even promotes 
 bodily health, and it prepares the soul for every virtuous 
 impression; while malevolent passions debase the understand- 
 ing, harden the heart, and make a man disagreeable to others 
 and a torment to himself. — James Beattie. 
 
 What we have most to desire is to make our countrymen 
 think. — ^William E. Gladstone. 
 
 The worst charge that can be made against a Christian is 
 that he attempts to justify the existing social order. — George 
 D. Hereon. 
 
 If you suffer the poor to grow up as animals they may 
 chance to become wild beasts and rend you. — ^Danton. 
 
 A religion of effortless adoration may be a religion for an 
 angel, but never for a man. Not in the contemplative, but in 
 the active, lies true hope; not in rapture, but in reality, lies 
 true life; not in the realms of ideals, but among tangible 
 things, is man's sanetifieation wrought. — ^Deummond. 
 
 S08 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 209 
 
 CHAPTEE XIV. 
 
 SOCIAL ADVANTAGE OF A DIVIDE-UP. 
 
 Were a divide-up of property to take place, it would 
 give opportunity to recast society and organize a system of 
 culture whereby social and ethical training would become 
 a part of our national life. This is one of the country's 
 greatest needs. Our social life at present is little less than 
 chaos. 
 
 Man's higher nature is a trinity, a blending of the in- 
 tellectual, social, and moral. The intellectual and the 
 moral are provided for, but the social nature — the central 
 element of our make-up — is left to shift for itself. 
 
 The intellectual is provided for chiefly by the public 
 school. Our common school system is supposed to give 
 every child in the nation opportunity to gain at least the 
 rudiments of an education. Nearly 500,000 teachers are 
 employed and paid from the public treasury of States and 
 counties, and three-fourths of all children of school age 
 are enrolled as pupils. School-houses are found every- 
 where, and, including colleges^ our educational system is 
 one of the most thoroughly organized and universally sup- 
 ported forces in the country. 
 
 The moral nature of mankind is provided for by the 
 Church and its auxiliaries. Nearly 100,000 ministers face 
 from 20,000,000 to 40,000,000 of our people every Sun- 
 day in the year to dispense moral and spiritual truths. 
 Over 10,000,000 scholars are taught by over 1,000,000 
 teachers in our Sunday-schools. Auxiliaries of various 
 kinds are operated and supported by millions of faithful 
 men, women, and children. Churches are located every- 
 where and represent every shade of belief. While entirely 
 divorced from politics and from the state, the Church, not 
 only as a national, but as a world-wide institution, shows 
 that cohesive affinities are not only strong, but universally 
 prevalent among the race. 
 
210 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 But the social nature is neglected. JSTo concrete effort 
 ever attempts to hold mankind together socially. When 
 children quit school no further intellectual training is, as 
 a rule, ever thought of. They are turned into the street. 
 Not only the Church, but all organizations must search for 
 their recruits among the highways and hedges. 
 
 Between the school and the Church there is a wide so- 
 cial chasm — an uncultivated but essential field of real life. 
 Social and ethical culture, except to a favored few, must 
 be caught on the fly. Eecreation is a mere matter of 
 chance. Amusements are dealt out haphazard. Fun is 
 an accident. Entertainment is an unknown quantity. 
 Sports are social renegades and money-making schemes. 
 
 The social field has become the resort of all kinds of in- 
 vaders. In the sweet name of charity wealth will enter 
 the social field, and, dressed in diamonds and decollete, 
 dance itself giddy. In the name of art vulgarity will 
 prate in tinsel and transparent gauze to win a livelihood. 
 In the name of religion really good people will pitch their 
 tent in the social field and with shady financial schemes 
 liquidate antiquated church debts. Theaters are run by 
 syndicates, the chief aim of which is to declare big divi- 
 dends. Lectures and entertainments are furnished to 
 make money. Music is dealt out like ribbons or muslin, 
 at so much per yard. 
 
 There is an imperative demand that society become or- 
 ganized. It has too long been driven hither and thither, 
 a constant temptation to the good and a destroying en- 
 vironment to the bad. Too long have talent and genius 
 been permitted to rust and indifference and ignorance to 
 die in their own obscurity and darkness. 
 
 During a division of property all theaters, opera-houses, 
 music-halls, and other buildings used solely for entertain- 
 ment purposes would become public property. In addi- 
 tion, in every city a number of magnificent private resi- 
 dences, with costly furniture and paintings, would also be 
 added to the public possessions. These buildings could 
 be made to fill a most valuable mission by becoming the 
 nucleus of a systematic social organization. Under such 
 a system they would become public theaters, opera-houses, 
 music-halls, libraries, reading-rooms, gymnasiums, art gal- 
 
OUR NATION '8 NEED. 211 
 
 leries, and schools of art, science, music, and other special 
 branches. They would become a public institution. It 
 might well be called the public culture system. 
 
 Such a system could be organized and operated with 
 the greatest facility. It would require that all large cities 
 be divided into districts, similar to school or political dis- 
 tricts, and that counties be divided so that each town would 
 be the center of its surrounding territory. Trustees or 
 local committees could be elected in the same manner as 
 school trustees and town officials. County and state offi- 
 cers could be elected or appointed the same as other state 
 officials. A national board, composed of one member from 
 each state, could have a general oversight of the entire 
 country. 
 
 When officers were duly elected it would become their 
 duty to assume control of all property set apart for social 
 purposes, the same as school trustees now control school 
 buildings and grounds. It would also be their duty to co- 
 operate with other boards, through county and state offi- 
 cers, to secure to the people entertainments, amusements, 
 and lectures, the services of special talent, and other social 
 advantages such as the locality and people should demand. 
 
 The operation of such a system would mean the employ- 
 ment of all the best talent, of every description, in the na- 
 tion. Every actor and actress, every artistic company of 
 entertainers of respectable merit, every elocutionist, singer, 
 or musician that should come up to a required standard 
 would thus find steady employment. Lecturers upon every 
 subject would be in demand, and those who could entertain, 
 or amuse, or specially instruct would be in constant ser- 
 vice. 
 
 While such a system would be distinct from the common 
 school, there are no reasons why the two could not, to some 
 extent cooperate. There are many subjects which require 
 special study and which the average teacher must entirely 
 neglect. Under such a system, persons devoted to special 
 branches of study could be employed to go from town to 
 town teaching a single subject. 
 
 In this way not only could the young be taught impor- 
 tant branches now entirely neglected, but the people at 
 large could gain from experts a great variety of knowl- 
 edge which now is practically inaccessible to them. 
 
212 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 Lectures on various scientific subjects, business, politics, 
 healtb, and social culture, and illustrated lectures upon 
 various topics would be brought within the reach of almost 
 every one. 
 
 When such a system should cover our entire nation, as 
 the school system does, it would mean that every section 
 of large cities and every town would be supplied with 
 buildings and equipments essential to the work involved. 
 Every town would have its public hall, public library, 
 gvmnasium, reading-rooms, and other buildings as the 
 ^ ^tem developed. 
 
 As our school system is supported in part by the state 
 and in part by local taxation, so could a system of public 
 culture be aided partly by state appropriations, and this 
 supplemented by local taxation, and by tuition and ad- 
 mission fees from those who should make use of its bene- 
 fits. 
 
 The advantages of such a system would not be limited 
 to securing the dissemination of amusements, recreation, 
 and social culture over the entire country, but it would 
 weed out the demoralizing, the vicious, and the vulgar. 
 While private enterprises would not be prohibited, it would 
 naturally follow that every meritorious company or enter- 
 tainer would prefer the force of official approval and the 
 salary that would be assured within the organized sys- 
 tem. There are no reasons why every desirable entertainer 
 now in the field could not be continued, and instead of 
 promiscuous engagements, under vicarious auspices and 
 large expenses, well-ordered circuits could be arranged and 
 '^ an entire state covered systematically. Thousands of 
 persons, representing every phase of talent and covering 
 every branch of science, art, learning, and industry, could 
 thus be kept employed, going from city to city and from 
 town to town, entertaining and instructing the people. 
 
 Under such a system local talent could be utilized to the 
 fullest. Not only would every district have its public 
 halls, libraries, reading-rooms, and other buildings, but it 
 would be the duty of official boards to encourage musical, 
 literary and other entertainments, debates, social gather- 
 ings, games, out-of-door sports, excursions, and everything 
 that would develop and strengthen the social character. 
 
OUR NATION* 8 NEED. 213 
 
 Brass bands and musical associations, both instrumental 
 and vocal, conld be organzied and become extremely help- 
 ful to the social life. Public parks and playgrounds would 
 become a part of all cities and towns. State and county 
 exhibitions could be held annually in the interests of ag- 
 riculture and commerce, with the idea of dividends to 
 stockholders eliminated. 
 
 Society could thus be made a factor incalculable for 
 good. The social element is the cohesive force which 
 binds men together. Friendship is a master passion. The 
 millennium, when it visits earth, will be social in its chief 
 features. The coming society will be scientific, educa- 
 tional, democratic, cooperative, fraternal, and religious. It 
 will not only acknowledge, but adopt the universal brother- 
 hood of man, and bring together in active and reciprocal 
 harmony the various diversities of gifts and abilities for 
 mutual benefit. Society touches the most impressionable 
 side of man^s nature, and it is the chief factor in uplifting 
 or degrading mankind. Within the realms of society is 
 more of pleasure and profit than can be found anywhere 
 else. It is not the leaves or garb of civilization, as too 
 many believe, but it is civilization itself. 
 
 The practical value of an organized system of social 
 culture cannot be too strongly pressed. Its benefits would 
 be varied, far-reaching, and sure. As the objectionable 
 and demoralizing would at once be condemned, the thea- 
 ter, the opera, and the playhouse and public resort would 
 not only become places of amusement, but of instruction 
 as well. Under such a system one evening's entertain- 
 ment each week would be easily placed within reach of 
 40,000,000 people. It could embrace every form of enter- 
 tainment and social instruction and be an actual normal 
 education. If 100,000 persons, representing every form 
 of talent and every branch of knowledge, were so employed, 
 at an average annual salary of $4,000 each, it would cost 
 only $10 per year to each of those securing benefits. Over 
 $200,000,000 is spent annually in this country on the thea- 
 ter. Much of this supports the wildest form of waste. 
 Six star actors, it is claimed, were paid $1,600,000 for 
 their services during six months. This is over $250,000 
 for each, or more than $10,000 per week. It is acknowl- 
 
2U OUB NATION'S NEED. 
 
 edged by competent judges that the American stage was 
 never so depraved and vulgar as it is to-day, and this de- 
 pravity is too often the winning card and the feature 
 brandished most to gain success. If the above sum was 
 systematically spent, what a revolution would ensue. It 
 would support 80,000 actors and actresses at a salary of 
 $5,000 each. Under the new order of things the stage 
 would become a field for genuine talent and art and the 
 theater a wholesome and ennobling part of our social life. 
 Under such a system billiards and various other games 
 now objectionable on account of their associations could 
 be made both elevating and desirable. What nobler or 
 more useful mission could the gorgeous grandeurs of mod- 
 ern theaters and the magnificent palaces of the rich per- 
 form than to become the basis of an organized system of 
 public culture? Their stately walls and attractive sur- 
 roundings would shed a new light; their magnificent in- 
 teriors and costly furnishings would breathe a new life. 
 They would add genuine glory to the nation's greatness. 
 
 Such an innovation cannot be considered as a mere ex- 
 periment. That such a system is needed is self-evident. 
 That it would succeed and become not only a permanent, 
 but a constantly increasing factor in our social and po- 
 litical life cannot be questioned. The practical utility 
 of such a system is already demonstrated upon every side. 
 That 15,000,000 children attend our public schools five 
 days each week ; that some 30,000,000 people attend church 
 every Sunday; that over 5,000,000 men are voluntary 
 members of fraternal organizations; that our country is 
 now a vast social network embracing a legion of diversi- 
 fied interests, is all evidence of the mutual and correlative 
 nature of our social life. The success of the '^university ex- 
 tension,'^ the Chautauqua system of education, and other 
 similar movements show the practicability of systematic 
 and organized effort in the intellectual and social field. 
 
 As all railroads during the divide-up would become pub- 
 lic property, traveling would naturally become a prominent 
 medium of education and social development. Travel 
 would be cheap and its benefits within reach of almost every 
 one. A train of twelve or twenty cars, furnishing accom- 
 modations for several hundred people, could be run at a 
 
OUR NATtOM'S NEED, %16 
 
 comparatively small daily expense. Five hundred persons 
 could travel for six weeks, have board and sleeping ac- 
 commodations, and cover more than 10,000 miles, moving 
 eight hours per day, at an expense not exceeding $60 each. 
 As a train can be run for less than $50 per day, such an ex- 
 cursion need not cost over $10 for each person for travel 
 alone. To travel 10,000 miles now costs not far from $200. 
 
 Excursions embracing, in a general way, the entire coun- 
 try could be made in the interest of various professions 
 and occupations, and not only could such travels be cheaply 
 made, but they could be pleasant and profitable in the ex- 
 treme. A national board of public culture could easily 
 arrange special excursions for various occupations and in- 
 terests, and in this way would be thrown together, for 
 travel, investigation, and social intercourse, companies of 
 teachers, ministers, doctors, lawyers, literary men, farmers, 
 stock-raisers, fruit-growers, architects, mechanics, mer- 
 chants, public officials, artists, musicians, and others rep- 
 resenting special departments of thought and enterprise. 
 Each excursion could be arranged so that points of greatest 
 interest to those participating could be reached. The edu- 
 cational value of such a measure is almost without limit. 
 What could be more profitable and desirable to a fruit- 
 grower, a stock-raiser, or a teacher than a six weeks' trip 
 in company with hundreds of others similarly interested, 
 visiting various parts of the country and investigating the 
 best methods and products to be seen in each ? 
 
 ISTot only could such excursions be arranged in the in- 
 terests of various occupations, but in like manner students 
 in our schools and colleges could supplement their studies 
 by systematic travel. Indeed, an extended and wisely ar- 
 ranged season of travel might well be added to the cur- 
 riculum of all institutions of learning. V/ith certain ex- 
 ceptions book learning is, at best, second-hand informa- 
 tion. No education can be complete and no mind can be 
 developed in the highest sense to which the experiences 
 and benefits of travel have been denied. With such con- 
 cessions as would follow the government ownership of rail- 
 roads, six or eight weeks of travel, in connection with a 
 college course, would not materially increase the general 
 expense. The experience would not only relieve the mo- 
 
216 OVB ITATION'S NEED, 
 
 notony of college life, but it would broaden the intellect 
 and develop the faculties of thought. 
 
 As a system of public culture developed tours could be 
 arranged reaching to all parts of the globe. Excursions 
 for students and others interested could be made around 
 the earth at small cost. By companies of several hundred 
 persons trains and steamers could be chartered and trips 
 made around the world, including the chief points of in- 
 terest in the circuit, at an expense of from $100 to $200 
 each. The advantages of such a programme are beyond 
 conception. N^ot only v/ould those participating receive 
 a benefit, but the light of American civilization would be 
 carried to other lands. It would be sowing good seed 
 broadcast over the earth. It would be practical mission- 
 ary work that would surely bring forth a rich harvest. It 
 is entirely reasonable to believe that such travels, sys- 
 tematicall}^ arranged, would receive an immense patronage 
 and continue as a permanent feature of progress. 
 
 Let no one belittle the suggestions here made. They are 
 not theories. They are not fanciful visions. They are 
 possibilities that we are trampling under our feet. Let us 
 believe that God has a higher and broader mission for 
 steam and electric power, for railroads and steamships, 
 than they have yet filled. When these things are lib- 
 erated from the thraldom of mammonism they will rapidly 
 multiply in application and usefulness. 
 
 Not only would a division of property give opportunity 
 to organize society, but many social abuses could be abol- 
 ished. Extremes of wealth and poverty have done more 
 injury in the social realm than anywhere else. Nowhere 
 else are people so stratified into classes. It is in the social 
 field that men test the character of each other. In no 
 other realm is the real inwardness of man's nature so 
 transparent or so exposed to view. 
 
 The new conditions would revolutionize the exercise of 
 what are now termed charity, benevolence, and philan- 
 thropy. As a benefactor of the race, modern philanthropy 
 scarcely deserves the name. The injury it inflicts counter- 
 acts much, if not all, of the good. 
 
 In large donations over $80,000,000 are now annually 
 given for benevolent purposes in our country. Such dona- 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 217 
 
 tions are rapidly on the increase. Although much of it 
 is prayerfully and thoughtfully given, the larger part of 
 it actually benefits none. Says the eminent Dr. George 
 F. Shrady regarding a very popular form of charity: "In 
 I^ew York alone there are 116 dispensaries, each one of 
 which is vying with the others in propagating the worst 
 form of pauperism. . . . There would not be any 
 danger of the really poor suffering if half the hospitals 
 and two-thirds of the dispensaries were closed to-morrow. 
 No millionaire anxious to fit the camel to the eye of the 
 needle and quiet his conscience by lending to the Lord need 
 worry because the dispensaries may suffer for want of 
 necessary funds. As it is, the thrift of one class now min- 
 isters to the improvidence of the other. The anodyne 
 which quiets the conscience of the giver paralyzes the soul 
 of the taker.^' 
 
 Andrew Carnegie, himself a recognized philanthrophist, 
 is quoted as being of the opinion that out of every $1,000 
 given in charity $950 do harm. Philanthropy and charity, 
 as a rule, perpetuate the very evils they are intended to 
 cure. And they deserve such a fate. To give all we have 
 to feed the poor may profit nothing. Indeed, it may do a 
 great injury. To help the poor from one hand and deny 
 them a chance to help themselves with the other, as too 
 many rich people do, is not charity. Such almsgiving is 
 bigotry crimson with crime. It tends to sap the force and 
 fiber of manhood and make indolence and pauperism a 
 perpetual doom. 
 
 Philanthropists should take to heart the words of Tol- 
 stoi, who says : "If I wish to help the poor I must not be 
 the cause of their poverty.^^ Men cannot ride to wealth 
 upon the backs of their fellow-men and make atonement 
 by supporting soup-houses and mission Sunday-schools or 
 building colleges and hospitals. 
 
 Millions of dollars are annually given to churches, col- 
 leges, and other public institutions by rich men, the re- 
 sults of which are far from an unmixed blessing. The 
 eff!ect too often seen is that the pulpit is muzzled and the 
 college curriculum biased to gratify the political or reli- 
 gious whims of their supporters. Young men have for 
 years been a choice attraction for philanthropy, and not 
 
218 OUR NATION^ 8 NEED, 
 
 only colleges, but libraries, gymnasiums, and other build- 
 ings have been erected and endowed for their benefit. Yet 
 nothing under the skies is so able to care for itself as a 
 young man. What young men need is not alms, but op- 
 portunity; not help, but responsibility; not endowments 
 which palsy the energies, but a road, wide enough for all, 
 leading to success; a field in which all can dig, a place in 
 which all can be useful, a mission in the world for each 
 one to fill. 
 
When the righteous are in authority the people rejoice; 
 but when the wicked beareth rule the people mourn. — Solo- 
 mon. 
 
 Higher — as opening up a loftier line; 
 
 Holier — as springing from a deeper root; 
 For love to God may be pronounced divine 
 
 When love to man becomes its genuine fruit. 
 
 —Barton. 
 
 If you do not wish for His kingdom, don't pray for it ; 
 but if you do, you must do more than pray for it; you must 
 work for it. — John Euskin. 
 
 Yes; the world wants the best thing — your best — and she 
 will smite you stealthily if you do not hand over your gift. — 
 Feances E. Willard. 
 
 The New Testament teems with passages inculcating peace, 
 brotherly love, mutual forbearance, charity, disregard for 
 filthy lucre, and devotedness to the welfare of our fellow- 
 men. — John Bright. 
 
 Oh! into what a blissful scene might this ruin of a world 
 yet be transformed were covetousness thoroughly subdued, and 
 were only those who profess to be Christians to come forth 
 with unanimity and lay down their superfluous treasures at 
 the foot of the cross. — Thomas Dick. 
 
 If • shipwreck should ever befall your country, the rock upon 
 which it will split will be your devotion to your private inter- 
 ests at the expense of your duty to the state. — Kossuth. 
 
 Remove but the single element of distrust, and who dpes 
 not see that the great cause of human wretchedness would be 
 taken away? — Mark Hopkins. 
 
 Professions pass for nothing with the experienced when 
 connected with a practice that flatly contradicts them. — Cooper. 
 
 220 
 
OUR NATION ^8 NEED, 221 
 
 CHAPTEE XV. 
 
 A DIVIDE-UP AND CHRISTIAN" CITIZENSHIP. 
 
 At the Presidential election in 1896 there were 13,923,- 
 643 votes east. Each one of these represented an Ameri- 
 can citizen. If the rate of increase that has marked the 
 past continues, in 1900 there will be 16,000,000 voters in 
 the nation. The laws and the liberties of the republic 
 are vested in these men. 
 
 The overwhelming majority of these citizens have hon- 
 est hearts and sincerely desire those things which best pro- 
 mote the welfare of all the people. Although represent- 
 ing almost every shade of religious belief and every na- 
 tionality, in politics we all meet upon a common level. 
 We all bring, or should bring, to the realm of citizenship 
 our patriotism and Christian character, and the general 
 level of political and governmental actions depends upon 
 the nature of our united influence as individual citizens. 
 
 It is unavoidably true that in a country like ours man 
 has two distinct sets of duties — those tvhich he owes to 
 himself and his own and those which he owes to society 
 and the state. 
 
 While the home, the school, and the Church have been 
 diligent in teaching individual and private duties, public 
 duties have been constantly neglected. Our schoolmasters 
 are permitted to know nothing of politics. Our strife and 
 calumny, the bias and deception of political contentions 
 form the school in which political sentiments are moulded 
 and in which political convictions are crystallized. 
 
 Contrary to the common impression, it is in our public 
 duties rather than in our private duties that we are rec- 
 reant. The evils resulting from neglect of public or po- 
 litical duties are far-reaching and disastrous. When 
 public duties are neglected or public actions are corrupt, 
 injurious recoil is made upon every phase of life. N"ot 
 
322 OUB NATION ^8 NEED, 
 
 only the nation, but the family and the individual suffer 
 inflictions. It is the ruling force in the realm of state 
 which brings prosperity or ruin upon a people. "When 
 the righteous are in authority the people rejoice; but when 
 the wicked beareth rule the people mourn.'^ Our public 
 and private relations are interdependent. If we are faith- 
 ful in both the performance of either is made easy. If we 
 ignore either the faithful performance of the other be- 
 comes impossible. 
 
 No matter how perfect and wedded to ideals a govern- 
 ment may be, when public duties are neglected public vir- 
 tue begins at once to yield to public vice. The real and 
 ideal immediately sever companionship and grow apart. 
 The real gradually but surely becomes organic and deep- 
 seated, while the ideal grows extraneous and remote. The 
 real is soon established by all of that which is; the ideal 
 must roam amid theories of that which ought to be. As 
 time goes on the real, no matter how deplorable, passes be- 
 yond correction; the ideal, no matter how intensely de- 
 sirable, passes beyond reach. Finally the real becomes an 
 established fact ; the ideal a visionary dream. 
 
 Failure to perform our duties as citizens has not been 
 willful, but has come through want of diligence. We have 
 lacked courage rather than motive. We have desired and 
 prayed for better things than we have been willing to work 
 for. The popular heart has longed for a new era, but the 
 yearning has not materialized into action. Protestant, 
 Catholic, and Jew have stood around the national altars 
 and desired to drop within the sacred urn a united peti- 
 tion for better laws and happier homes, but they have not 
 been bold enough to free themselves from the domination 
 of wealth and the bossism of political machines. Thus it 
 is that the miseries and oppressions which prevail are due 
 chiefly to the derelictions of our best citizens. They have 
 allowed themselves to be betrayed. They have been satis- 
 fled simply to desire good laws when duty demanded that 
 they make them and enforce obedience to them. In short, 
 good people have been the passive and not the active ele- 
 ment in politics. 
 
 That the country has suffered on account of political sin 
 is sure evidence that either corrupt or incapable men rule. 
 
OUR NATI0N^8 NEED. 223 
 
 Genuine statesmanship has not had charge of the affairs of 
 state. History establishes no fact more certainly than that 
 when worthy and able men rule, prosperity, peace, and 
 progress invariably follow. But for two decades, under 
 the alternating administrations of the great political par- 
 ties, our industrial and commercial interests have steadily 
 become more and more unstable. Our political ofhcials 
 have hindered rather than favored progress. They have 
 been more interested in political jobbery than in the enact- 
 ment of wholesome laws. During these years the corrup- 
 tions of the ballot-box have constantly increased and the 
 true interests of the people have been less and less re- 
 garded. The very things that we have been endeavoring to 
 remedy for twenty years have gradually grown worse. 
 Crime has multiplied; labor has grown dependent; the 
 consumption of liquor has increased ; the poor have become 
 more fated and the rich have grown richer at a rate un- 
 paralleled in the history of the world. 
 
 These things have occurred because patriotism and 
 Christian character have not dominated in the realms of 
 citizenship. The lesson must be learned over again that 
 men owe their noblest and strongest virtues to their coun- 
 try. Christian principles and political rectitude are in- 
 separable. Into these wedded relations God has incorpo- 
 rated laws and truths to which not only the lives of men, 
 but public policies and political actions must conform. To 
 bear fruit in political affairs is a chief mission of religion. 
 Said Washington after forty years of public life : "Of all 
 the things which lead to political prosperity, religion and 
 morality are indispensable supports." For many years re- 
 ligion and science wrestled for the dominion of truth, only 
 to awake, like Jacob and the angel, to find themselves 
 friends and co-workers at the dawn of a new day. So it 
 must be in the conflicts between Christian citizenship and 
 politics — they must become a unit and a single and mutual 
 force in the cause of right. 
 
 For years discontent, due to poverty and oppression in 
 a multitude of forms, has been appealing to existing po- 
 litical parties and to legislative powers for needed help. 
 With rare exceptions it has pleaded in vain. While po- 
 litical bosses have fattened upon spoils and organized 
 
224 OUB NATION'S NEED. 
 
 mammonism has pocketed its millions througli special priv- 
 ileges bought with bribes, the people have waited patiently 
 and long for justice that died in its early promise and for 
 blessings not yet seen. 
 
 While it is true that the Christian and moral element 
 has, more than any other, neglected its political duties, it 
 is also true that of all the victims of vicious laws and cor- 
 rupt legislation, Christianity and morality have been the 
 greatest. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 
 reap;" and this principle applies not only to men and 
 moral conduct, but to beliefs, doctrines, religion, politics, 
 and social customs. 
 
 Christianity as men see it has been a coward. By al- 
 lowing politicians to betray the interests of the people it 
 has itself suffered an incalculable loss. By being dis- 
 loyal to the people Christianity has lost its power over 
 them. The Church as an influence among the masses of 
 mankind has become almost impotent. A large part of 
 our population do not even seriously consider the subject 
 of religion. It is a truth, as startling as it is stupendous, 
 that there are millions of men, representing the very 
 cream of American manhood, who have so little regard for 
 that which claims to be Christianity that they do not con- 
 sider it worthy of a hearing. Not more than forty men in 
 a hundred go to church at all, and not one-half of these 
 are interested in its work. Eeaching the masses has be- 
 come a lost art. It takes twenty Christians a whole year 
 to secure a new recruit, and in most instances this new 
 member is a child brought up under Christian influences, 
 and it is much oftener a passive girl than an active boy. 
 It was claimed that there were 3,000 churches of one de- 
 nomination that failed to secure a single convert during 
 an entire year. Several of the leading denominations are 
 almost at a standstill. Yet the Church was never more 
 active or earnest or the pulpit more able. But its influ- 
 ence upon the world outside of its traditional followers is 
 deplorably weak. 
 
 There is a reason for this lack of vital force in the 
 Church. When the same conditions are so uniform, wide- 
 spread, and conspicuous, the cause should certainly be of 
 a nature to be seen and recognized. While there are many 
 
OUR NATION^ 8 N-EED. 225 
 
 influences which operate and cooperate against the Church 
 — and the inherent rebellion in man^s nature is not to be 
 overlooked — there is one overshadowing cause of this 
 estrangement on the part of mankind from the Church and 
 religious influences. The chief cause is found in politics 
 — Christianity has neglected its political duties. Instead 
 of standing immovable against wrong and corruption, it 
 weakly compromises its principles and cowers before the 
 powers of mammonism. 
 
 Paul said : "If any provideth not for his own * * * 
 he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel." A 
 means of livelihood is a means of grace. More than this, 
 it is an essential factor in the domination of faith. Chris- 
 tianity has neglected the material welfare, and as a result 
 faith is denied mankind. Poverty, want, wage-earning, 
 and lack of natural opportunities have placed a gulf between 
 the masses and the power to believe. Faith is denied them. 
 The salt of the earth has lost its savor, the light has van- 
 ished into darkn'^ss, and the witnessing power of Chris- 
 tianity stands as though it were dumb before the world. 
 
 To the sincere student of men and their material and 
 spiritual relations no truth can be more apparent. There 
 are millions of men in our nation, it is logical to believe, 
 who are victims of this outrageous wrong. 
 
 Without faith we are nothing. And none knew this 
 better than the Apostle Paul. IJpon the subject of faith 
 he was the world^s greatest authority. What Wilberforce 
 was to liberty, Blackstone to law, or Webster to the Consti- 
 tution, Paul was to the nature and power of faith. And 
 he taught the fact that to be robbed of the necessaries 
 of life was to be deprived of the ability to believe. He 
 never plead more earnestly than when presenting the claims 
 of the poor, and of none did he boast so publicly as of those 
 who were bountiful toward the needy. 
 
 Nearly 1,000,000 sons go out as young men into the 
 world every year from the firesides of our nation. Only 
 a few of these are provided for in the true sense. Most 
 of them start with nothing. Their opportunities are 
 meager and too often a myth. Many of them see nothing 
 ahead but vicissitude and struggle. As they mingle with 
 the world they meet thousands of men whose brightest 
 
^26 Oun NATION '8 NEED. 
 
 possibilities have been blighted. Men who have grown 
 prematurely old in the struggle for bread are seen npon 
 every side. The young men are forced to join the ever- 
 increasing army of wage-earners^ the majority of whom 
 are unwilling and discontented slaves to corporate greed 
 and subject to the whims and caprice of arbitrary and dog- 
 matic authority. They soon realize that they are a subor- 
 dinate part of creation. They associate with men whose 
 moral and spiritual natures have been corrupted by vicious 
 habits, whose intellects have been dwarfed by slavish servi- 
 tude and privation, and whose natural and manly ambi- 
 tions are crushed and dead. 
 
 Moreover, it is the inherent desire of every healthy, sen- 
 sible young man to get married and settle down. Next to 
 religion this is the noblest, as it is the most precious, im- 
 pulse of the soul. It is the one pure attribute that sur- 
 vived, spotless and holy, the sin of Eden. If these 
 natural and God-ordained hopes of becoming a husband 
 and father and the loved and honored head of a home and 
 fireside must, on account of poverty and the denial of in- 
 herent rights to the abundant resources of God's foot-stool, 
 be crushed within the bosom^ as thousands of young men 
 are forced to crush them, the sweetest and highest in man 
 is blighted and broken beyond repair. 
 
 Millions of men in the midst of these things see wealth 
 living in luxury, and Christianity, infatuated by its sump- 
 tuous array, courting its smile and support, while toward 
 the struggling poor it is exclusive and indifferent. These 
 conditions prevail almost everywhere, and the results are 
 inevitable. When man is forsaken by man he soon feels 
 forsaken by God, and when Christianity ceases to be alive, 
 active, and earnest in its devotions to humanity, disbelief 
 spreads broadcast like a pestilence. Thus betrayed, the 
 spirit in man is crushed and he turns his back upon the 
 Church. Eeligion becomes to him a jargon of mockeries, 
 the Bible a myth, and Christianity a delusion and a sham. 
 
 It is often asserted that men have as good chances now 
 as they ever had. This is not true. In the first place, 
 legitimate needs and actual necessities have greatly mul- 
 tiplied. And these needs are rapidly and inevitably in- 
 creasing. The legion of new inventions and comforts that 
 
OTTR NATION'S NEED. ^^7 
 
 modern genius has produced and is now inventing are a 
 natural result of progressive civilization. They fill a real 
 want and come to stay. It would be as possible to return 
 to ox-carts and homespun as to abandon modern comforts 
 and customs. These things were not brought to light to 
 be hated and spurned, but to be used and enjoyed. And 
 they were not intended for the few, but for everybody. 
 
 Children are more costly than formerly. They require 
 better clothes, better food, and better training. A much 
 higher grade of education is imperative. Social and re- 
 ligious advantages are more expensive. Homes cost more 
 than they did. It requires more knowledge, more influ- 
 ence, and more capital to enter business. In a multitude 
 of ways the pathway to success of the modern young man 
 is hedged about with difficulties. And an insurmountable 
 obstacle is that many lines of industry are absorbed by the 
 monopolies, trusts, and syndicates, a part of whose busi- 
 ness it is to crush every new recruit that shows his head in 
 conflict with their interests. It is also true that the prizes 
 called success have grown too great in size and too few in 
 number, making it impossible for more than one man in 
 a great number to reach the goal. 
 
 It was the intended mission of Christian citizenship to 
 prevent or overcome all of these things. It is its bounden 
 duty to correct them. Every man, in his inherent nature, 
 demands a visible chance in the world. It should not be 
 a fake, or a false hope, or a race in which a legion must 
 enter and only a few win. It is essential for his own best 
 interests that man see a pathway to the realization of his 
 highest possibilities ; that he not only be active, but useful ; 
 that the possession of a home be possible ; that his family 
 be a comfort rather than a burden; that his fireside be a 
 place of plenty and possible contentment, and not a con- 
 stant prey for the wolf of want; that social, educational, 
 and religious advantages all be within reach ; and that old 
 age bring no thought of dependence or neglect. Until, 
 to a reasonable degree, all of these things are possible to 
 every one of the great army of toilers, whether they be on 
 the farm or in the store, the office, the studio, the mine, or 
 the factory. Christian citizenship cannot claim that it has 
 done its duty in the realm of politics, nor can it expect 
 
228 OTIR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 that the masses will listen to the Gospel it professes to 
 believe and is wont to preach. 
 
 A recreant and cowardly Christianity has not only denied 
 the masses the power to believe, but it has dethroned faith 
 generally. Men have lost confidence in religion, in poli- 
 tics, in business, in each other, and in themselves. The in- 
 jury thus wrought has been incalculable. "Public faith 
 is the philosophy of politics and the religion of govern- 
 ments/' "A lack of public faith," said the eminent Fisher 
 Ames, "would not merely demoralize mankind; it tends to 
 break all the ligaments of society, to dissolve that mysteri- 
 ous charm which attracts individuals to the nation, and to 
 inspire, in its stead, a repulsive sense of shame and dis- 
 gust.'^ Confidence is a higher faculty than reason, and 
 when it is lost man is only half alive. We are strong or 
 weak, courageous or timid, a success or a failure, accord- 
 ing to the amount of our faith. Faith is not a vain ex- 
 pectancy, but the substance of things hoped for. Busi- 
 ness is regulated by it. Panics and bankruptcies are 
 chiefly a collapse of confidence. Commercial and finan- 
 cial apostasy — public disbelief — ^has for years prevailed in 
 our country like a pestilence. It has swept over the land, 
 and in the midst of plentiful harvests and material abun-~ 
 dance it has .blighted homes, and broken hearts, and forced 
 poverty and disaster upon the people to an extent only 
 surpassed by the carnage of war. What the country needs 
 most is not more resources and industries, more sunshine 
 and rain, or greater enterprise and wealth, but more faith 
 — faith in God, faith in man, faith in life and in the power 
 of effort ; a faith that rests upon a rock, a foundation upon 
 which all men can stand upright and invincible, and, en- 
 couraged by all that assurance can inspire, realize that 
 their highest success is unhindered and that their best 
 efforts are sure of reward. 
 
 By neglecting its political and public duties Christianity 
 has also brought reproach upon itself. Disbelief and dis- 
 respect have entered its sanctuaries and polluted its altars. 
 For a full decade the Church has been a chief target for 
 ridicule and reproach. This has not come from dema- 
 gogues and infidels, but it has been the voice of a quick- 
 ened conscience arousing into action a cowardly and apos- 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 229 
 
 tate Church. In the press and from the platform anath- 
 emas, fired by holy zeal, are hurled at its very vitals. 
 Christianity in its worship is beautiful, and in its devotion 
 to ceremony it is almost faultless. But in politics it is a 
 turncoat and a renegade. Men who are immaculate on 
 Sunday are, from all appearances, emissaries of perdition 
 in a political campaign. In church they are at their best 
 and parade in pious decorum ; in politics they are at their 
 worst and wallow in filth. In the realm of politics, to the 
 average observer, there is not much difference between the 
 good and the bad, saints and sinners, the sheep and the 
 goats. Piety and rottenness bribe with each other's boodle, 
 vote the same ticket, and gloat over the same victories. 
 
 In the Church religion grows beautiful flowers, but from 
 the ballot-box the world learns of its fruits. In the higher 
 councils of the Church heated conflicts over politics have 
 for years been waged, yet few real victories have been won. 
 It has been strong in resolves, but treacherous in action. 
 It has wasted its day of political grace, only to find itself 
 weakened and blinded by the darkness of a dead faith. 
 Evangelists and pastors find it necessary to spend their en- 
 ergies on the professedly saved. Eeligious books and 
 periodicals make it their mission to prevent the saved from 
 getting lost rather than to teach the lost how to be saved. 
 Indeed, the general trend of religious effort is to abandon 
 the world and its wickedness and revive and arouse into 
 action the dormant and moribund spirituality which 
 gathers about its altars for worship. Well has Dr. Strong 
 said : "If the Church refuses to save society she will fail 
 to save herself, because she will fail to adapt herself to 
 changed conditions. During the Christian era she has 
 already made several important readjustments, and if she 
 is to continue to live she must make another." 
 
 As the influence of Christian citizenship begins with 
 the individual, so in its results it ends where it begins — 
 vdth the man himself. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that 
 also shall he reap." Christianity has passively sown po- 
 litical corruption and it has borne its natural fruits. It 
 has not only denied the people faith, but it is robbing itself 
 of the power to practice the Golden Rule. By being a 
 stumbling-block to others men have hedged their own 
 
230 OUn NATION^ 8 NEED. 
 
 pathway. He who has not observed that the ability to 
 practice the Golden Enle in the best sense has been grad- 
 ually undermined and placed beyond reach of the average 
 individual, has not kept his eyes open. Legions of men 
 dependent upon wages feel obliged to sacrifice moral prin- 
 ciple in order to supply their families with bread. Busi- 
 ness men find that there is a Baal to whom they must bow, 
 or suffer the fires of opposition and ultimate defeat. The 
 realm of industry has become depraved and the channels of 
 enterprise corrupt and crooked. The individual has be- 
 come a slave to the powers that be. The useful and 
 humane features of business have been largely swallowed up 
 in the idea of money-making. The various branches of 
 business, under the reign of trusts and syndicates, are like 
 so many financial empires ruled by despots. Their scepter 
 of power is absolute and their kindness or tyranny is a 
 matter of whim. 
 
 The laws of cause and effect are inexorable, and they 
 apply not only to life and nature, but to the actions and 
 character of men. Nothing is more certain than that, 
 with the average man, rectitude of life requires proper and 
 contributing surroundings. Said Henry Drummond, one 
 of the deepest thinkers of our time : "The development of 
 any organism in any direction is dependent upon its en- 
 vironments. A living cell cut off from air will die. A 
 seed-germ apart from moisture and appropriate tempera- 
 ture will make the ground its grave for centuries. Human 
 nature, likewise, is subject to similar conditions. It can 
 only develop in presence of its proper environment. No 
 matter what its possibilities may be, no matter what seeds 
 of thought or virtue, what germs of genius c art lie latent 
 in the breast, until that appropriate environment presents 
 itself the correspondence is denied, the development is dis- 
 couraged, the most splendid possibilities of life remain un- 
 realized, and thought and virtue, genius and art are dead." 
 
 And what is true of the natural and spiritual world is 
 equally true of the realms of politics and business. When 
 political actions become corrupt, few are the men who can 
 withstand the debasing influence in which they are obliged 
 to move. When the channels of business are polluted by 
 unscrupulous or inordinate greed, men by the legion feel 
 
OUR NATION^ 8 NEED. 231 
 
 forced to resort to methods which their consciences con- 
 demn and which they inwardly despise. Not only are 
 Avage-earners and the poor made slaves, but merchants, 
 manufacturers, professional men, and even capitalists are 
 finding that liberty and free-will have taken flight, and 
 that they live in an environment infamous in nature and 
 arbitrary in power. While we are boasting of our liber- 
 ties and material progress, we are threatened with a po- 
 litical and industrial tyranny as despotic as that which 
 cursed Eome under the iron heel of the Caesars. 
 
 Christianity is at an extremity. A crisis confronts the 
 courage and conscience of men. An imperative duty, long 
 neglected, faces the individual citizen. It is not reason- 
 able to expect Christianity to spread or the Church to 
 attract the masses or its members to live lives of rectitude 
 until private and public life — character and politics — are 
 brought into harmony. It is a travesty upon religion to 
 preach the Gospel to men when its followers, covetous and 
 selfish, have placed a chasm between their fellows and the 
 faith they enjoy, or to pray, "Thy kingdom come" when 
 those who profess to be in the kingdom have lent their in- 
 fluence to deny those outside the common comforts of life. 
 
 These are painful charges to thrust in the face of Chris- 
 tianity. But they are more than true. He who will go 
 out into the world and mingle with men and candidly and 
 carefully study the conditions which prevail will witness 
 these perversions as plainly as though they were told in 
 blazing letters across the dome of the sky. 
 
 But the present is an occasion of great opportunity. 
 ISTever did such an inviting conquest face the powers of citi- 
 zenship. A new epoch is to mark the near future. The 
 character of this epoch is vested in the people. The way 
 is clear. The duty is plain. It consists in crystallizing 
 the Golden Eule and the teachings of Christ into political 
 action. 
 
 The Bible is intensely devoted to political questions. In 
 no other source are the duties of good citizenship so 
 vividly and faithfully portrayed. The prophets of the Old 
 Testament were all politicians in the best sense. Its pages 
 teem with political policies, commands, and warnings. The 
 entire Bible insists upon loyalty to country, and upon the 
 
23^ OVB NATION ^S NEED. 
 
 subjects of land and usury, riches and poverty, legislators 
 and laws, employers and employees, slavery and liberty it 
 is comprehensive and explicit. 
 
 In the treatment of political subjects the Bible almost 
 invariably centers upon the extremes of wealth and pov- 
 erty. Avarice has been the contending foe from the be- 
 ginning. Over no condition of life do so many warnings 
 hang as over riches. With one bold sweep it declares that 
 "the love of money is the root of all evil.'' If the love is 
 the root, that love gratified must be the tree upon which 
 all evil fruits grow. To become wedded to riches is as 
 much forbidden as was the fruit of the fatal tree in Eden. 
 The rich are admonished to "break off sins by showing 
 mercy to the poor." "For ye have eaten up the vineyard ; 
 the spoil of the poor is in your houses.'' "What mean ye 
 that ye beat my people to pieces and grind the face of the 
 poor ?" "He that oppresseth the poor to increase his riches, 
 and he that giveth to the rich, shall surely come to want." 
 "Eob not the poor because they are poor ... for the 
 Lord will plead their cause and spoil the soul of them that 
 spoiled them." "Go to, now, ye rich men ; weep and howl 
 for your miseries that shall come upon you." "Behold^ 
 the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, 
 which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries 
 of them which have reaped have entered into the ears of 
 the Lord." The Bible as a whole treats of earthly rather 
 than of heavenly things. It has more to say about ma- 
 terial than spiritual affairs. Its commands and warnings 
 are closely associated with the human side of life. Its 
 ' basic teachings are equality and justice among men. 
 
 The love that clings to self and ignores others regard- 
 ing temporal matters cannot be classified as a Christian 
 virtue. Says the beloved Apostle; "But whoso hath this 
 world's good, and seeth his brother hath need, and shutteth 
 up his bowels of compassion from, him, how dwelleth the 
 love of God in him." 
 
 The life and teachings of Jesus while upon earth were 
 largely devoted to financial and political duties. Eiches 
 were considered by Him a treacherous possession. His 
 sermons. His parables, and His ministrations directly bear 
 upon temporal affairs. One of His cardinal declarations 
 
OUR IfTATION'S NEED. 233 
 
 was : "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon." To the rich 
 yonng man He said : "Lackest thou one thing ; sell all that 
 thon hast and distribute nnto the poor/' Under the influ- 
 ence of His teachings Zaccheus gave one-half of his goods 
 at once to the poor and restored fourfold all his ill-gotten 
 gains. Warning against riches is a central teaching of the 
 Sermon on the Mount. The Lord's Prayer is devoted to 
 the subject of bread, debts, humanity, and earthly things 
 entirely. To pray for an ideal earthly kingdom, for good 
 laws, just conditions, prosperity, and peace, implies that we 
 shall vote, and work, and live for these things as much as 
 we do for bread and shelter. The parable of the rich man 
 and Lazarus gives divine authority to the thought that if 
 the rich fare sumptuously while poverty and suffering are 
 neglected, they deserve not only temporal death, but the 
 eternal fate of the damned. The only glimpse of the judg- 
 ment revealed to us is the parable of the sheep and the 
 goats. With the sheep upon the right side and the goats 
 upon the left, and amidst a vision of the earth's poor, and 
 hungry, and thirsty, and sick, and outcast, and oppressed, 
 He said to those upon the right side, "Verily I say unto 
 you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
 these my brethren, ye have done it unto me ;" and to those 
 upon the left He said : "Inasmuch as ye did it not to one 
 of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall 
 go away into everlasting punishment; but the righteous 
 into life eternal.'' 
 
 Christ's mission was to save the world, to redeem the 
 earth, to elevate mankind spiritually and temporally, and 
 to bring peace, good-will, and prosperity to the people. 
 His salvation is intended to rescue not only the souls, but 
 the bodies of men ; not only individuals, but nations. He 
 came that the Gospel be preached to the poor; that pov- 
 erty, want, oppression, and degradation be abolished. Com- 
 mon necessities and the good things of life are furnishings 
 of His earthly kingdom. He came to overcome sin and to 
 destroy its ravages; not to save men in their sins or in 
 their poverty, but out of both. To eradicate poverty and 
 misery, injustice and ignorance, is a part of the atone- 
 ment. 
 
 The principle and the practice of the general distribu" 
 
234 OUE JSTA TION '8 NEED. 
 
 tion of wealth as it prevailed in Canaan for centuries are 
 in full accord with the entire teachings of both the Old 
 and ]N"ew Testaments. It was a required practice in the 
 dominion of law ; it is an imperative principle in the gospel 
 of love. If it is a desirable measure in our country to-day, 
 its execution should meet the approval of every patriotic 
 Christian citizen. "Charge them that are rich in this 
 world . . . that they be rich in good works, ready to 
 distribute," is as binding as the Decalogue or the Apostle's 
 Creed. "Let the brother of low degree rejoice in that he 
 is exalted; but the rich in that he is made low," are ap- 
 peals to the grandest and noblest in man. How could it 
 be possible, except through a just and equitable distribu- 
 tion of property, to elevate the poor and destroy the glory 
 and power of riches and fulfill the saying : "He hath put 
 down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low 
 degree. He hath filled the hungry with good things, and 
 the rich he hath sent empty away"? 
 
 American citizenship holds within its grasp the desti- 
 nies of the future. A new era, to be the grandest the 
 world has seen, is before us. It will be the triumph of man 
 over nature, of right over v,^rong, of peace over war, of joy 
 over sorrow. In its contemplation mankind is confronted 
 by new duties. Simply to cleplore poverty and wrong and 
 pray for humanity will no longer avail. Faith, and hope, 
 and love no longer respond to hollow mockeries. Equal- 
 ity is the new signet in the divine seal of human govern- 
 ment. 
 
 To make a just and universal distribution of property 
 is the only way in which the higher elements of character 
 can be called forth. In no other v/ay can Christian broth- 
 erhood show t^at it loves its neighbor as itself. It is the 
 only thing that will humanize the hearts of the rich or 
 dispel the apathy and abolish the slavery of the poor. 
 Nothing else will so harmonize into action the diversities 
 of gifts and talents of the race. It is the only measure 
 that will satisfy the Golden Eule. l^othing else will so 
 renew the faith of the people and reestablish the influence 
 of Christianity in the land. 
 
 Christian citizenship, if it means anything, implies that 
 Christian principles should be the motive force in political 
 afiairs. It is not a new religion or a new theology that WQ 
 
OUB NATION'S NEED. 235 
 
 need, but a practical and opportune application of the reli- 
 gion we have. The signs of the times are prophetic of 
 momentous advances in the social and political world. To 
 keep in harmony with modern progress politics must re- 
 new its life. Evidently, God is demanding that not sim- 
 ply individuals, but that our nation and society as a whole 
 must he saved. 
 
 That religion possesses essentials which relate solely to 
 individual experience is entirely true. In a vital sense 
 every one must work out his own salvation and, independ- 
 ent of all else, preserve with loyal fidelity his own atti- 
 tude toward his Maker. Some may have no duties beyond 
 this personal exercise of hope and faith. But such a reli- 
 gion belongs to the circumscribed and obscure — its scope 
 is limited, its influence passive. Such a religion is not the 
 kind required of strong men, rich in influence and talents 
 and intrusted with the duties of citizenship. 
 
 The Christian pictured by Bunyan left his home, his 
 family, his country, and his all, and, single-handed and 
 alone, sought the Celestial City. But religion has out- 
 grown these narrow conceptions. The modern Christian 
 has a more comprehensive mission than this. His re- 
 sponsibility goes beyond self. It includes society and the 
 state. To a remarkable degree man has become his broth- 
 er's keeper. This was always a principle ; it is now a law. 
 To be a citizen is to be more than an individual. The ex- 
 perience sufficient to inspire childhood and comfort weak- 
 ness and age will not suffice for him who holds the political 
 destiny of the nation within his grasp. The religion that 
 redeems a subject will not save a citizen. Modern prog- 
 ress has united interests and combined forces. Men are 
 no longer isolated units, but vital parts of a complete 
 whole. Christianity is submerged in politics, and the in- 
 dividual Christian is as leaven in the political and social 
 lump. Only by lifting others can he lift himself. Only 
 by being the salt of the earth can he himself be saved. 
 Only by being the light of the world can he illuminate his 
 own pathway. God is demanding that citizenship in the 
 realm of politics shall become a channel of human redemp- 
 tion. The present age gives to Christianity a new mis- 
 sion. Its new duty rennirps thpt not only individuals, but 
 society and the, nation shall be saved and blessed.: _ 
 
Look not every man on his own things, but every man also 
 on the things of others. — Paul. 
 
 New times demand new measures and new menj 
 The world advances, and in time outgrows 
 The laws that in our fathers' day were best; 
 And doubtless, after us, some purer scheme 
 Will be shaped out by wiser men than we. 
 
 — Lowell. 
 
 The highest and noblest endeavor of the leaders of thought 
 is to-day bent on seeking the way for a closer brotherhood, a 
 mors perceptible blending between those whom social condi- 
 tions and injustice have too long kept asunder: and a grander 
 quest than this was never undertaken by belted knight. — H. 
 W. Cadman. 
 
 When the heart has become hot with the God-enkindled fire 
 of love, it refuses to regard any class, however ignorant and 
 degraded, as human rubbish. It looks down on no being for 
 whom Christ thought it worth while to die. The essential 
 dignity of human nature belittles the artificial distinctions of 
 social rank. Caste can no more survive the awakening of the 
 spirit of uiversal brotherhood than a night can outlive the 
 sunshine. — ^Josiah Strong. 
 
 They who seek to lift the works and institutions of men 
 with visions of larger truth and assertions of wider justice are 
 not destroyers, but builders; they make ready the way of the 
 Lord into new redemptions of human life. — George D. Her- 
 eon. 
 
 Lift up your eyes and you may see another stadium of his- 
 tory advancing. Its aim will be to realize the Christianity of 
 Christ Himself, which is about to renew its youth by taking 
 to heart the Sermon on the Mount. He that sitteth on the 
 throne is saying: "Behold, I make all things new." This 
 earth is yet to be redeemed, soul and body, with all its 
 peoples, occupations, and interests. — Roswell D. Hitchcock. 
 
 ^36 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 237 
 
 CHAPTEE XYI. 
 
 IS IT OUR DUTY TO DIVIDE UPf 
 
 This is America. Ours is a government of the people, 
 for the people, and by the people. Every citizen has a 
 rigfht to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. 
 
 Our country is rich. Its natural resources are bound- 
 less. It could support one-half of the human race and 
 have an abundance to spare. Our land is fertile and fur- 
 nishes a large share of the food supply of civilization. Our 
 climate is healthful, invigorating, and promotive of 
 strength and energy. Our mines are rich in treasure. 
 Gold and silver, iron and coal, oil and other minerals are 
 stored up for the ages. We have granite and lumber suffi- 
 cient to render exhaustion almost impossible. Our river 
 courses and harbors are unsurpassed. Our manufacturing 
 interests are in tiie front rank, and in progressive enter- 
 prise and inventive genius we lead the world. 
 
 America was intended to succeed. Before the foot of 
 civilized man ever pressed her shores the elements of suc- 
 cess swelled her bosom and filled her forests. Prosperity 
 and plenty echo from her thousand hills, and peace and 
 good-will here find their wonted clime. 
 
 No serious famine or long-continued pestilence has ever 
 marred her history. No matter how desperately foreign 
 foes have beaten upon our shores or how lavishly human 
 blood has been poured out upon her soil to uphold her 
 honor or preserve her name, through it all faith in her 
 natural resources has remained unshaken. No matter how 
 often the people have been made to suffer through their 
 OA\Ti transgressions or on account of man^s inhumanity to 
 man, they have never turned their faces toward heaven 
 and uttered an unanswered prayer for bread. Her store- 
 houses have crarrered abundant harvests, her markets have 
 let no real want remain unsupplied. As the magnificent 
 
238 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 ruins buried beneath the surface of ancient and historic 
 soil proclaim a great past, so do the rich and exhaustless 
 treasures stored up in the bosom of our continent proclaim 
 a great future. As an inspiration to material progress 
 and to civilizing forces America has no parallel. Well has 
 Emerson said: "America is another name for oppor- 
 tunity. Our whole history appears like a last effort of 
 Divine Providence in behalf of the human race.'' 
 
 Under such favorable conditions the people not only have 
 the right, but it is their duty to succeed. It is their duty 
 to perpetuate, with sacred fidelity, every advantage and 
 every blessing which unlimited opportunities and the best 
 laws can insure. 
 
 It is the direct mission of the American people to see 
 that injustice, oppression, enforced poverty, or unnatural 
 riches find no resting-place here. Liberty has been bought 
 and slavery has been banished at a great price, and the 
 victories are worth the cost only when the benefits they be- 
 stow are placed within the equal reach of all. Whenever 
 the just privileges of any one are cut off or the God- 
 intended opportunities of any one are denied, there still 
 exists an occasion for a patriotic and emphatic protest. 
 
 There is no genuine statesmanship excepting that which 
 is enlisted in the interest of all the people. There is no 
 patriotism that does not reverently stand ready to offer 
 itself in behalf of a righteous and just cause. When pov- 
 erty, debt, riches, oppression, crushing competition, indus- 
 trial bondage, and the injustice and viciousness which 
 they inevitably induce prevail in the land, and in the face 
 of it all political corruption and unbridled greed flourish 
 and intrench themselves, it becomes the imperative duty 
 of the people to arise and demand that conditions be 
 changed and the cause which produced them be removed, 
 no matter by whom such action is opposed or against 
 whose individual interests it may operate. 
 
 If it be true that these evils are due to the fact that the 
 wealth of the nation has drifted from the possession of the 
 many into the hands of the few; that this unnatural flow 
 of wealth and property has been going on for years and 
 steadily grows more and more rapid; that already 1,000,- 
 000 men own nearly the whole of the nation's wealth, and 
 
OUR I{ATION'S NEED. 239 
 
 at least 50,000,000 people have only a mere pittance, the 
 highest sense of honor demands that a remedy be applied. 
 
 If it be true that the concentration of wealth into the 
 hands of a few and the widespread prevalence of poverty 
 and debt is the chief cause of the various evils which so 
 burden and affhct our country, it is a conclusive proof 
 that these conditions are a national calamity. Through 
 the decline in values, the idleness of men, the depres- 
 sion in business, and the embarrassments of poverty dur- 
 ing the past ten years a vast army of our people have 
 suffered a loss the extent of which, from a financial 
 standpoint, is scarcely surpassed by the Civil War. 
 
 So long as present conditions exist prosperity alone can- 
 not bring permanent relief to the people. During recent 
 campaigns prosperity or the lack of it has been given great 
 prominence in political discussions. Its succeeding waves 
 have been made the rallying-cry of party leaders and mul- 
 titudes of voters have used it as their guiding star. Pros- 
 perity in spasms leaves the people worse off than it finds 
 them. Succeeding eras of prosperity are, to no small 
 extent, the cause of the present extremes of wealth and 
 poverty. Out of prosperous times evolve the magnate and 
 millionaire. Out of the interims of depression have come 
 financial wrecks and the widespread reign of wage-earn- 
 ing. It takes both "bulls'^ and "bears^^ to make a Wall 
 Street. Not only are prices forced up and down, but 
 prosperity and panics are brought to pass by designing 
 men. Nothing so favors financial extremes as flood and 
 ebb tides of commerce and industry. The essential high 
 art of modern financiering consists in taking advantage 
 of prosperity and panics at the expense of those not so 
 keen and far-sighted. 
 
 Extremes of wealth and poverty are a condition that 
 is both a cause and effect. It may be the outgrowth of 
 even good laws and natural causes, but the results to 
 which it leads are all unnatural and vicious. It is not 
 .50 much the result of had laivs as it is the cause of them. 
 It is the source of political corruption and unjust op- 
 pression rather than the result of these things. When 
 a few have all and the many have nothing, all that is 
 accursed becomes incarnate. It is a condition which de- 
 
240 OUR NATION'S MEED. 
 
 fies correction itself and prevents normal activity in 
 everything within the range of its influence. 
 
 It wonld be impossible to outlaw the forces which have 
 created existing extremes of wealth and poverty. Both 
 extremes are reached by a thousand paths. Honesty and 
 fraud, energy and intrigue, acquirement and inheritance, 
 genius and greed — things good and bad — produce both 
 wealth and poverty. These operations of mind, ambition, 
 chance, and human nature are entirely beyond the power 
 of legal control. And it is well they are; because if all 
 enterprise and human relations could be operated and 
 controlled like one vast machine, it would be coercion, not 
 liberty. Every man would wear a strait- jacket and good- 
 ness would become a law instead of a virtue, which is 
 impossible. 
 
 So long as concentrated wealth is permitted to dominate, 
 genuine reforms, either industrial, financial, political, or 
 moral, are prevented. For two decades it has forestalled 
 almost every effort in the direction of genuine progress. 
 Politics has become the playground of wealth, and poli- 
 ticians, from the President down, are little else than its 
 puppets. So long as this condition exists, the great octo- 
 pus which strangles law and liberty will hold supremacy, 
 no matter how diligently we may apply remedies in other 
 directions. Should a divide-up be made, it would even 
 then be difficult to enact laws and establish customs that 
 would maintain desirable conditions in matters of wealth 
 and poverty. To endeavor to grope our way back to that 
 which is desirable through a wilderness of theories, ideal 
 though they may be, is not only impracticable, but utterly 
 impossible. 
 
 To equalize wealth among the 'people is the first 
 thing to do. If this were done other reforms would 
 be easy. It would break the ground for and bring within 
 reach many measures and issues now both impracticable 
 and impossible. The interests of the people would become 
 mutual, and movements which now arouse intense an- 
 tagonisms and are sure of defeat would then be favored, 
 with popular approval. The public ownership of rail- 
 roads, telegraphs, and mines and the destruction of the 
 liquor traffic would be easily accomplished, Our whole 
 
OXIR NATION' 8 NEED. 241 
 
 monetary system could be reformed without opposition. 
 If the Government should own the gold and silver mines, 
 our national credit would be at once established through- 
 out the world. The initiative and referendum would J3e- 
 come a natural and welcome sequence of the new order of 
 things. 
 
 The rich can enter no just plea against a divide-up and 
 start-even. They have proven themselves entirely inca- 
 pable of managing, to the best advantage, the wealth that 
 they now legally claim. They have turned wealth into a 
 curse rather than a blessing. It is the mission of wealth 
 to be useful and active ; to keep mind, muscle, and handi- 
 craft busy; to establish homes and promote education and 
 morality ; to render suffering unnecessary and actual want 
 impossible. It is the duty of wealth to prevent hard times 
 and poverty and to insure prosperity and plenty. It is 
 its duty to lift all and oppress none. In a country like 
 ours wealth should give to every one an opportunity and 
 allow no one to wholly fail. 
 
 But in the hands of those who hold it wealth has ut- 
 terly failed to do these things. The millionaire, as a 
 rule, is a complete and disastrous failure. His talent of 
 money-making is a peril ; his charity a curse to his fellows. 
 Wealth when concentrated in the hands of a few ceases to 
 possess either conscience or sympathy, except in rare in- 
 stances. It will invite panics and plan general destruc- 
 tion; it will devour its neighbors and starve their chil- 
 dren; it will buy political power and social honor in the 
 open markets, and corrupt legislation and disregard laws 
 as though such things were only intended for swine. 
 
 Wealth will conspire against all else for its ot\tl profit; 
 it will crush its rivals and deceive its friends; and if al- 
 lowed full sway it will rule the earth with all the cruelty 
 that heartless tyranny can conceive. Wealth in the hands 
 of the few has ever been and will continue to be humanity's 
 constant and relentless foe. Distributed equitably among 
 all the people, it becomes their loyal friend and a chief 
 factor of Christian civilization. Concentrated wealth 
 and widespread poverty are antagonistic and cannot be 
 reconciled. The condition is unjust, unnatural, un- 
 christian, and un-American. 
 
242 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 An important lesson to be learned is that riches and 
 poverty are mnch alike in that they are both abnormal. 
 They are conditions to be equally deplored. That both 
 conditions, in a most pronounced form, are rapidly on 
 the increase is, perhaps, onr greatest national peril. While 
 concentrated wealth and diffused poverty represent ex- 
 tremes and stratify our social life, yet they are correla- 
 tive and vitally connected. Only through the influence 
 of the other does either exist. Only by a study of both 
 can either be fully understood. Only by assailing both 
 can either be subdued. 
 
 The best sociologists tell us that poverty is a disease. 
 Few truths have been more boldly or more conclusively 
 proven. In one of her most noted public addresses Frances 
 Willard said: "Poverty is a disease; it is degradation; 
 it has no right to be; and when men and women wake 
 out of sleep and see themselves as the criminals they are, 
 nothing in the world will be so sure of an actual extermi- 
 nation as the cursed thing called poverty — the cradle of 
 crime, the father of filtli, the mother of misery. In the 
 past we have comforted ourselves with looking upon it as 
 the effect of wrong-doing, but have now aroused our- 
 selves to the study of it as a cause. We ^re determined 
 to burn out, to its last infectious atom, the stench of the 
 slums and the supreme temptations to a bad life with 
 which poverty haunts the dreams of babyhood, handicaps 
 the purposes of youth, enthralls the life of manhood.^' 
 
 But, like poverty, riches is also a disease. Its threat- 
 enings are as dire and its results are as deadly. Its 
 symptoms are pathognomonic and arise from no other 
 condition or cause. The miser is as much a victim of 
 riches as the pauper is of poverty. The millionaire madly 
 grasping for more is as much a cancerous neoplasm upon 
 the body social as is the tramp who begs from door to 
 door to appease his hunger. The unbridled ambition of 
 avarice is as morbid as the apathy of the mendicant. It 
 is the nature of poverty to enslave, but the slavery to 
 v/hich the poor must submit is no more abjectly servile 
 than that imposed upon its victims by the rapacity of 
 greed. 
 
 The poor we pity with a lavish sympathy, yet no less 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 243 
 
 pitiable and little less worthy of our compassion are those 
 whose love is wedded to lucre, whose god is gain. 
 
 Concentrated wealth is more baneful in a nation like 
 ours than poverty. Said one of the wisest of statesmen: 
 ^^Monarchies are destroyed by poverty; republics are de- 
 stroyed by wealth.^^ His words are true. While poverty 
 is the threatening foe of the empires of Europe riches is 
 the menace most dangerous in our own land. So true is 
 this that we might destroy all other existing evils and let 
 riches prevail, and with it a tyranny despicable and cruel 
 would remain. 
 
 It has been taught and widely believed that the in- 
 different and prodigal poor are beyond repair. The "sub- 
 merged tenth/^ according to modern charity, are scarcely 
 worth the effort required to save them. But their condi- 
 tion is no more hopeless than that of the "emerged tenth^^ 
 — the very rich whose sympathies are selfish, whose af- 
 fections are calloused by the love of gold. 
 
 Concentrated riches m^ore than poverty is a progressive 
 disease. It is active, aggressive, usurping, and dangerous. 
 More than poverty has it defied law, forgotten God, and 
 ruined nations. More than poverty has it palsied industry, 
 degraded labor, and corrupted the ballot-box. More than 
 poverty is it the hidden power behind corrupt legislation, 
 the saloons, and the evils that curse our financial and in- 
 dustrial systems. More than poverty is riches a deep- 
 seated organic lesion, poisoning and destroying the vital 
 principles of our national life and threatening the in- 
 tegrity of the Government itself. 
 
 Another lesson to be learned is that concentrated riches, 
 as well as poverty, is in need of destruction. The world 
 has expected too much from the rich and not enough from 
 its poor. The rich have been burdened with responsibil- 
 ities, while the duties of the poor have been ignored. We 
 would have the rich assume guardianship over the poor — 
 make of the wealthy philanthropists in public and alms- 
 givers in private. We forget that from among the com- 
 mon people, even from among the poor and oppressed, 
 God calls His heroes and chief workers. Poverty is a great 
 teacher. It has a nobler mission than making misan- 
 thropes of mankind. He who cowardly ignores the lessons 
 poverty is wont to teach is as guilty as he who wastes his 
 
244 OUB NATION'S NEED. 
 
 riches in luxury and riotous living. Widely separated as 
 the rich and poor are in many respects, in responsibility 
 they are a unit. The poor man, as well as the rich man, 
 is his brother^s keeper. It is no more the duty of the rich 
 to hold dominion over the poor than it is the duty of the 
 poor to hold guardianship over the rich. Poverty more 
 than wealth teaches men the needs of mankind. It is 
 both futile and unfair to expect the rich as a class to 
 heartily enlist in or wisely shape the course of any benefi- 
 cent reform. The advent of doomsday is as promising. 
 The divine rights of property will be as persistently de- 
 fended as the divine rights of kings. It is as impossible 
 for the rich to voluntarily give up their wealth or favor 
 any measure that would jeopardize its possession as it 
 would be for the royal potentates of earth to vacate their 
 thrones and scatter to the winds the diadems that il- 
 lumine their crowns. 
 
 The rich, in common with the poor, deserve our sym- 
 pathy and compassion. More than the poor are they 
 enslaved. They demand help. Meager, indeed, are the 
 lessons learned by our statesmen until the needs of riches, 
 as well as those of poverty, are pointed out and placed 
 within reach. One-sided and impotent will political and 
 social reforms and Christian charity remain until the 
 fact is appreciated that both riches and poverty are twin 
 evils to be overcome and subdued. As existing in our 
 land to-day, concentrated wealth and diffused poverty are 
 a common curse. Their existence forms a dominating 
 national characteristic. Their perpetuation means the 
 nation's peril. Their continued growth and influence will 
 mean the nation's ruin. 
 
 Solomon classified riches and poverty together and 
 prayed for deliverance from both. They are vitally asso- 
 ciated evils; both ever-present symptoms of the same dis- 
 ease and can never be divorced. It is impossible to foster 
 one without fostering the other. It is impossible to de- 
 stroy one without destroying both. So long as a nation is 
 the paradise of the rich it will remain the purgatory of 
 the poor. Whenever the poor are given what justly be- 
 longs to them, it is inevitable that it be done at the ex- 
 pense of the rich. With certain limitations these results 
 aire inevitable. Through motives born of the noblest im- 
 
OUR NATION'S NEED. 245 
 
 pulse and througli love, iinalloyed and of the heart, is 
 it the plain dnty of the millions of common people in our 
 land to demand that both riches and poverty, in their 
 unnatural and unwarranted extremes, be speedily and 
 effectually destroyed. 
 
 Thus viewed, a divide-up and start-even would not be 
 a war between the rich and poor, but a conflict in behalf 
 of both. It would be a warfare that has been waged 
 over and over again — a warfare to secure human liberty 
 and equality. Lincoln said that this nation could not con- 
 tinue half slave and half free. ISTor can it. It matters 
 little whether the slavery means fetters which bind men 
 -to the will of other men or fetters which bind men to the 
 power of money. Mankind will not only revolt against 
 slavery, but it will, with even greater protestation, revolt 
 against the tyrannies of unjust and enforced inequalities. 
 The love of liberty and equality is so great that while men 
 may endure bondage and humiliation for a season, the 
 time inevitably arrives when the passion for freedom and 
 justice becomes so intense that it swells to the height of a 
 fury. There is great truth in the words of De Tocque- 
 ville: "Democratic communities have a natural taste for 
 freedom. Left to themselves they will seek it, cherish 
 it, and view any privation of it with regret. But for 
 equality their passion is ardent, insatiable, incessant, in- 
 vincible; they call for equality in freedom; and if they 
 cannot obtain that they still call for equality in slavery. 
 They will endure poverty, servitude, barbarism, but they 
 will not endure aristocracy." 
 
 By the close student of men and public affairs the op- 
 portune time for a radical reform in our customs and po- 
 litical conditions is seen to be rapidly approaching. While 
 prosperity and adversity, in the form of riches and pov- 
 erty, are both capable of proving of benefit, this benefit 
 is only transient and is soon transformed into injury. 
 The good effects of these opposite experiences are fast 
 disappearing in our country. The rich have extracted all 
 there is of genuine benefit from their possessions, and 
 the reaction, in many instances, has already begun its 
 work of ruin. To most of the rich the discipline of earn- 
 ing a livelihood would prove a real blessing. The masses, 
 in turn, have reaped all the advantages that adversity and 
 
246 OUR NATION'S NEED. 
 
 oppression can bring. When either riches or poverty be- 
 comes an inheritance, a fixed experience from the cradle 
 to the grave, the higher motives and best energies are sel- 
 dom awakened. In one instance man is robbed of the 
 need and in the other of the chance to exercise his natural 
 talents and possibilities. 
 
 For a number of years we have been growing a crop, 
 ever increasing, of two dangerous classes of men. One 
 class, rich from birth, trained in luxury, isolated in so- 
 ciety, poisoned with conceit, considering themselves su- 
 perior in blood and finer in mind than the rest of the world, 
 have lost sympathy and grown heartless, and are ready 
 and willing to grind their fellows into ignorance and 
 want to gratify their inherited and pampered appetites 
 for indulgence and maintain their social dominion. The 
 other class, born in poverty, grow up indolent, indifferent, 
 and ignorant, neither trained in virtue nor disciplined 
 in character, and, morbidly contented and apathetic, they 
 settle like dregs to the bottom of our social life. These 
 two classes are the counterpart of each other. They are 
 both a constant menace to good government and they 
 pollute society with conceit and luxury, calumny and 
 ' hate. 
 
 But these classes are not yet large. The great mass 
 of the people are patriotic and intensely loyal to the com- 
 mon good. Legions of them, schooled in adversity and 
 economy, are, to a remarkable degree, prepared to ap- 
 preciate and wisely use a just proportion of property. 
 Taken as a whole, no people in the world were ever better 
 prepared to respond to increased aims and opportunities. 
 "Give the people an object in life," said Edward Everett, 
 "and the best methods will infallibly be suggested by that 
 instinctive ingenuity of our nature which provides means 
 for great and precious ends. Give the people an object, 
 and the worn hand of labor will be opened to the last 
 farthing, that its children may enjoy means denied to 
 itself." 
 
 While to divide up would be a new feature in the 
 modern economy of nations, it is also true that our coun- 
 try must of necessity adopt new and untried methods in 
 promoting and preserving the national life. It is an in- 
 teresting fact that America is peculiarly situated regard- 
 
OTfR NATION^ 8 NEED, 247 
 
 ing the settlement of questions upon which citizens widely 
 diiier. The records of history show that irreconcilable 
 differences have usually been settled, if settled at all, by the 
 weaker side taking refuge in some remote land to avoid 
 presecution and ignoble defeat. Thus from the beginning 
 of nations the oppressed have "sought a new country/' 
 where more room and greater freedom abound. 
 
 But a new settlement of differences must be found. 
 Mankind has populated its last refuge. Every river has 
 been forded, every mountain climbed, and ships laden 
 with expatriated exiles have spanned, every deep. Follow- 
 ing in the march of mankind the world's scepter has 
 passed from Persia to Greece, from Greece to Italy, from 
 Italy to Great Britain, and from Great Britain it has 
 come to the New World. "Like the easter star which took 
 its course westward until it stood still over the cradle of 
 Bethlehem, so the star of empire, rising in the east, has 
 led the course of empire until it stands still over our 
 national domain, beckoning the people of earth to follow 
 in its pathway."' Beyond us is the Orient. The bridges 
 back to the fatherland from whence we came are forever 
 burned. There is no new country in which the oppressed 
 or despised can seek refuge and liberty. Here, for the 
 first time in human history, men are required to settle 
 their differences face to face. It is a new epoch that con- 
 fronts mankind. The oppressed and the oppressor, the 
 weak and the strong, the poor and the rich are clothed 
 with a new duty. Heretofore it has been the privilege of 
 the oppressed to plead humbly for justice and the equal 
 privilege of the oppressor to refuse it. But America has 
 established a new tribunal, before which her humblest 
 subjects may come and plead their cause. To-day it is 
 the duty of the oppressed to demand justice, and it is the 
 equal requirement that the oppressor manfully and hon- 
 orably grant it. 
 
 These new and more intimate relations mark the ad- 
 vent of a higher type of citizenship. They demand that 
 public differences not only be settled, but that they be 
 settled right. They mean that civilizing forces have 
 progressed and that duty and law have received a higher 
 and nobler mission among men. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Agassiz, 29. 
 Anarchy, 64. 
 Aretta, The, 143. 
 Atherton, Chas. G., 202. 
 Australia, History of, 143. 
 Andrews, E. B., 82. 
 
 Bancroft, George, 32. 
 
 Baker, E. D., 90. 
 
 Barbauld, 82. 
 
 Beneficial Societies, 85. 
 
 Beattie, James, 208. 
 
 Bimetallism, 162; Interna- 
 tional, 165. 
 
 Blaine, Jas. G., on Constitu- 
 tion, 66; on Money, 157. 
 
 Brooks, Phillips, 14; 40. 
 
 Brace, C. Loring, 14, 
 
 Bright, John, 220. 
 
 Burke, Edmund, 54. 
 
 Building Associations, 84. 
 
 Business methods, 86; and 
 Civilization, 151. 
 
 Booth, William, on child train- 
 ing, 144. 
 
 Bunyan, John, 235. 
 
 Cadman, H. W., 40; 54; 104; 
 236. 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas, on nations, 
 18; on religion, 118. 
 
 Capital and Labor, 127; 140. 
 
 Carnegie, Andrew, on Charity, 
 217. 
 
 Certificates, money, 161. 
 
 Channing, on War, 22. 
 
 Children, benefiting, 142; ex- 
 pensive, 227. 
 
 Chambers's Cyclopsedia, 143. 
 
 Charlton, Mrs., on prostitution, 
 144. 
 
 Chautauqua Circle, 214. 
 
 Christian Citizenship, 221. 
 
 Christianity, duty of, 229. 
 
 Cigarettes, 125. 
 
 Civil War and a divide, 194. 
 
 Cicero, 148. 
 
 Clay, Henry, on money, 158. 
 
 Comstoek Mine, 155. 
 
 Competition, 128. 
 Communism, 58. 
 Confucius, 82. 
 Constitution, 56; 64. 
 Congress, Power of, 42. 
 Co-operation, 86. 
 Czar of Eussia, 21. 
 
 Danton, G. J., 208. 
 
 Depew, Chauncey, 90; on fail- 
 ures, 193. 
 
 De Tocqueville, on aristocracy, 
 245. 
 
 Debts, Release of, 73. 
 
 Dick, Thomas, 220. 
 
 Diversities, natural, 203. 
 
 Direct Legislation, 181. 
 
 Dollar, The, 158. 
 
 Draco's Laws, 78. 
 
 Drummond, Henry, 14; 208; 
 on environment, 230. 
 
 Dun's Review, 27. 
 
 Duffie, Geo. M., 186. 
 
 Eckles, Comptroller, 148. 
 Elections, Honest, 183; 192. 
 Emerson, on America, 238. 
 Encyclopaedia Britannica, on 
 
 money, 158. 
 Everett, Edward, on parental 
 
 love, 246. 
 Excursions will be educational, 
 
 214. 
 
 Faber, F. W., 54. 
 Failures, 27. 
 "Fiat" Money, 160. 
 Fiske, John, 118. 
 Foreign Debts, 50. 
 Froude, 118. 
 
 Franklin, Benjamin, on inven- 
 tions, 127; on money, 158. 
 Fraternal Insurance, 85. 
 
 Garfield, Jas. A., 54. 
 Gaston, William, 132. 
 Gambling devices, 126. 
 Gladstone, W. E., on militar- 
 ism, 21; on duty, 208. 
 
250 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Gold, value of, 155; is fickle, 
 161; in oceans, 161. 
 
 Government ownership, 171. 
 
 Grady, Henry W., 104. 
 
 Grant, U. S., 90. 
 
 Great Britain, conditions of, 
 24; poverty of, 98. 
 
 Greece, History of, 78. 
 
 Gompers, Samuel, 82. 
 
 Goldsmith, 0., 82. 
 
 Harrison, Commissioner, on Re- 
 sponsibility, 139. 
 
 Harrison, Benjamin, 40; 54; 
 148. 
 
 Hamilton, Alexander, 54. 
 
 Hare, Chas. J., 72; 148. 
 
 Hazlitt, William, on adversity, 
 88. 
 
 Henry, Patrick, on Peace, 22. 
 
 Herron, Geo. D., 72; 208; 
 236. 
 
 Hitchcock, P. D., 236. 
 
 Hopkinson, Joseph, 54. 
 
 Honesty, 55. 
 
 Howitt, William, on Christian 
 duty, 80. 
 
 Home Journal, 107. 
 
 Holland, J. G., 118. 
 
 Howells, Wm. D., 132. 
 
 Hopkins, Mark, 220. 
 
 Holmes, O. W., 186. 
 
 Human Nature, 16; 29. 
 
 Humboldt, 132. 
 
 Hull, Prof., on children, 143. 
 
 Hume, J., 148; on money, 167. 
 
 Inequalities, 17; natural, 203. 
 Intemperance, 135. 
 Immigration, 180. 
 Initiative and Peferendum, 182. 
 Income Taxes, 191. 
 Intrinsic Value, 154. 
 Ireland, condition of, 24; 98. 
 Israel, laws of, 16; 73. 
 Isaiah, 132; 186. 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, on major- 
 ity, 42. 
 Johnson, Alex., 90. 
 Jubilee, 74. 
 
 Kidd, Benjamin, on the edu- 
 cated, 198. 
 
 Kingsley, Charles, 72. 
 Kossuth, L., on public neglect, 
 220. 
 
 Laws, unstable, 63; natural, 
 76. 
 
 Laveleye, Emile De, 72, 
 
 Labor-saving machinery, 127. 
 
 Lincoln, A., on Declaration, 66. 
 
 Life Insurance, 85. 
 
 Liquor Business, 120 ; 137. 
 
 Literature, Vicious, 126. 
 
 License, wrong and unprofit- 
 able, 169. 
 
 Lowell, J. P., 236. 
 
 Lord, John, 118. 
 
 Longfellow, 105; 186. 
 
 Lycurgus, 78. 
 
 Mammonism, 23. 
 
 Mann, Horace, 32; 104. 
 
 Mansions, private, 49. 
 
 Marriage, 107. 
 
 Mackay, Chas., 72; 208. 
 
 Masses, Peaching the, 224. 
 
 McAnally, Prof., on Marriage, 
 
 107. 
 Medicine, Secret, 122. 
 Middle Classes, 197. 
 Money Question, 153; kinds 
 
 of, 154; amount needed, 
 
 167. 
 Monetary Commission, 167. 
 Monopolies, 172. 
 Moral Influence, 133. 
 
 Nations must be saved, 235. 
 
 Organization, Value of, 175. 
 Ownership, Power of, 95. 
 O'Pell, Max, 186. 
 
 Paul, 54; 118; 202; 225; | 
 
 236. 
 Patent Medicines, 122. 
 Peace Conference, 21. 
 Pensions, 50. 
 Pentecost, Dr., 77. 
 Peel, Robert, 158. 
 Philosophy of Divide, 15. 
 Phillips, Wendell, on the people, 
 
 102; on corporations, 186; 
 
 on scholarship, 199. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 251 
 
 Philanthropy, 216. 
 
 Pitt, William, 158. 
 
 Postal System, 84. 
 
 Plato, 132. 
 
 Powderly, T. V., on drink, 137. 
 
 Poor, The, prolific, 141. 
 
 Politics, 187. 
 
 Poverty a disease, 242. 
 
 Prosperity in spasms, 239. 
 
 Present Issues, 149. 
 
 Precedent, 18 ; 197. 
 
 Public Ledger, 58. 
 
 Public Faith, 228. 
 
 Public Ownership, 171. 
 
 Queen Victoria on War, 21. 
 
 Reeves, Robert N., 90. 
 Reforms fail, 188. 
 Reed, Thomas B., 202. 
 Redemption Money, 162. 
 Riches a disease, 242. 
 Rousseau, 14. 
 Rodgers, John D., 32. 
 Ross, W. W., 118. 
 Ruskin, John, 202; 220. 
 
 Schools, Common, 84; 209. 
 
 Scientific American, 143; 154; 
 158. 
 
 Schiller, 40. 
 
 Seward, Wm. H., 32. 
 
 Self Respect, 68. 
 
 Senators, Election of, 183. 
 
 Shaftesbury, Lord, 132. 
 
 Shrady, Dr. Geo. F., on char- 
 ity, 217. 
 
 Slums, 93. 
 
 Smith, Wm., on Jubilee, 75. 
 
 Smith, Rev. S. M., 14. 
 
 Solon, 78. 
 
 Social Influence, 133. 
 
 Solomon, 208; 220. 
 
 Social Advantages, 209. 
 
 System of Public Culture, 209. 
 
 Strong, Josiah, on church, 229; 
 236. 
 
 Stock Exchange, 92. 
 
 Standard of Value, 158. 
 
 Sunday Rest, 126. 
 
 Switzerland, Laws of, 182. 
 
 Talents, Diversities of, 16. 
 
 Tariff, The, 150. 
 
 Tenants, 97. 
 
 Theatres, 210. 
 
 Trusts, 86; 129; 172. 
 
 Tobacco, 125. 
 
 Tolstoi on Charity, 217. 
 
 Tramps, 140. 
 
 Traveling Salesmen, 179. 
 
 Tl'avel for instruction, 214= 
 
 Tucker, Booth, 142. 
 
 University Extension, 214. 
 
 Unbelief, 225. 
 
 Unit of Value, 158. 
 
 Value, per capita, 35. 
 Venice, History of, 157. 
 Vicious, The, 140. 
 Virgil, 148. 
 
 War, use of, 19; unpopular, 
 
 21; not last resort, 42. 
 Wage-earning, 137. 
 Warner, Chas. D., on crim- 
 inals, 141. 
 Washington, 148; on foreign 
 
 relations, 167; on religion, 
 
 223. 
 Wanamaker, John, on politics, 
 
 189. 
 Wealth and Poverty, 26. 
 Wealth of U. S., 34; per 
 
 capita, 35; growth of, 35; 
 
 58; vested in people, 60. 
 Webster, Noah, 82. 
 Webster, Daniel, 132; 202. 
 Wetty, J. B., on fallen women, 
 
 144. 
 Whittier, J. G., 22; 104; 118; 
 
 132. 
 Wise, Daniel, 104. 
 Willard, Frances, 118; 220; 
 
 on poverty, 242. 
 Wright, Commissioner, 85. 
 Woodbury, Levi, 40. 
 
 Young, The, 105. 
 Young Men, duty of, 115; 
 claims of, 225. 
 
Forty Popular Books. 
 
 We call your special attention to the following list of 
 copyright books written by popular authors, printed on 
 best laid paper and bound in heavy paper covers. 
 
 Any of these books can be obtained from your book- 
 seller, or they will be sent by mail postpaid to any address 
 on receipt of price, 50 cents each, by J. S. Ogilvie Pub- 
 lishing Company, 57 Rose Street, New York. 
 
 Any of these Books can be obtained from your bookseller, or they 
 will be sent by mail postpaid to any address on receipt of 
 75 Cents each for the cloth edition, or 50 Cents each for the 
 paper covered edition, by J. S. OGILVIE PUBLISHING 
 COMPANY, 57 Rose Street, New York. 
 
 No. 1. ASENATH OF THE FORD. By ''Rita." 12mo, 
 358 pages. 
 
 The reputation of this popular author is sufBcient to ex- 
 pect a good story, and no one will be disappointed in this one. 
 
 No. 2. A SECRET QUEST. By George Manyille Fenn. 
 12mo, 349 pages. 
 
 No. 8. A MODERN DICK WHITTINGTON. By James 
 Payn, author of *' For Cash Only," ^' A Prince of the 
 Blood," *' By Proxy," ''Lost Sir Massingberd," etc., 
 etc. 12mo, 334 pages. 
 
 The Btory, In Its plot, holds the attention closely. Sir Charles Is admirably 
 drawn, as are the women characters. There Is much of terse eplgrtun and clerer 
 Bfttlre, here and there, which adds piquancy to the stoiy.— Boston Times. 
 
 — 1-^ 
 
No. 4. ALONE ON A WIDE, WIDE SEA: An Ocean 
 Mystery. By W. Clark Russell, author of '* My 
 Danish Sweetheart," '^ The Golden Hope, "etc. 12mo, 
 348 pages. 
 
 The story is exciting. Women will read tlie story with peculiar interest and solemn- 
 ly resolve never, never again to remove their wedding ring.— iView? York Herald. 
 
 The story is powerfully told and marks a new departure by the author.— iVfeto 
 York Tribune. 
 
 The book is one of the freshest and most delightful of W. Clark Russell's sea 
 Btories.— i^oston Traveller. 
 
 Altogether, It is a moving tale and very Instructive as to sea lUe.-^BrooJclin 
 Citizen. 
 
 No. 5. A LOYAL LOVER. By Mrs. E. Lovett Camerok; 
 author of ^'This Wicked World," '^Deceivers Ever,'* 
 etc. 12mo, 294 pages. 
 
 strongly dramatic, cleverly managed, well written, with a tragedy developed wlifli 
 much power.— £osto7j Saturday Evening Gazette. 
 
 No. 6. A HARD LESSON. By Mrs. E. Lovett Cameron, 
 author of ^'In a Grass Country," ''A Life's Mistake," 
 etc. 12mo, 343 pages. 
 
 Mrs. Cameron has written many good books, but none 
 better than this. 
 
 A charming story, graceful in style, crowded with incidents, often very dramtUlO 
 tJiough never sensational in the bad sense.— American Bookseller. 
 
 No. 7. A DOUBLE LIFE. By Ella Wheeler Wilco-x, 
 author of ' • Poems of Passion," etc. 12mo, 306 pages. 
 
 In all of Mrs. Wilcox's writings she has done no better 
 work than she has in this volume. She is one of the American 
 authors that hold a high place in the opinion of the best critics. 
 
 No. 8. A MODERN BRIDEGROOM. By Mrs. Alexander 
 Frazer. 12mo, 312 pages. 
 
 a- 
 
No. 9. A TYPICAL AMERICAN ; An Anonymous 
 American Story. l2mo, 256 pages. 
 
 In this story the hero illustrates in his own person the 
 unique qualities and see-saw experiences of our ambitious 
 public men. He is encircled by troops of friends, flatterers 
 and foes, in society, in politics and in the press. The por- 
 traiture and the ever- varying play of these characters around 
 the central figure make up a comedy-drama of daily life as 
 sparkling and faithful as anything now current in fiction or 
 on the stage. 
 
 No. 10. BACK TO LIFE ; A Story of a Mistake. By 
 
 T. W. Speight. 12mo, 254 pages. 
 
 A sensational novel, brightly written.— iVeio TorJc Independent, 
 Will attract readers of the best class.— American BooTcseUer. 
 Very well told.— Springjield Re%mbUcan. 
 
 No. 11. " BEATRICE AND BENEDICK." By Hawley 
 
 Smart. 12mo, 277 pages. 
 
 This is a soldier's love story, with a dash of sport, and 
 is in this popular author's happiest vein and most character- 
 istic style. 
 
 No. 12. BOB MARTIN'S LITTLE GIRL. By David C. 
 
 MUERAY. 12mo, 383 pages. 
 
 This is a fascinating book by a popular author. 
 
 No. 13. CONSTANCE. By F. C. Philips, author of 
 ''Jack and Three Gills," ''The Dean and His 
 Daughter," "As In a Looking Glass," etc. 12mo, 
 305 pages. 
 A story of extraordinary interest and dramatic power. 
 
 No. 14. GRAVE LADY JANE. By Florence Warden, 
 author of "The House On The Marsh," etc. 12mo, 
 320 pages. 
 
No. 15. HER MAD LOVE. By Gerald Carlton. 12mo, 
 282 pages. 
 
 No. 16. THE HUNTING GIRL. By Mrs. Edward 
 Kennard, author of ^' Pretty Kitty Herrick," etc. 12 
 mo, 374 pages. 
 
 No. 17. IN THE DAYS OF THE MUTINY. By G. A. 
 
 Henty. 12mo, 397 pages. 
 
 The book has a very clever and interesting plot. The scene is laid in India. The 
 story is told in an easy, graceful, effective style. The characters are living beings, 
 and the final ending is fitting. — The Boston Republic. 
 
 It is a well told story of the great mutiny in ln^B,.~Syracuse Herald. 
 
 No 18. INSCRUTABLE. By Esme Stuart. 12ino, 298 
 pages. 
 
 No. 19. LADY VERNER'S FLIGHTo By ^^ The Duchess." 
 12II10, 310 pages. 
 
 The girl next door will have this boofe within three days. It !s a pure story of 
 English life, in which there is the most delightfully viliainous villain, who dies at 
 Just the right time, and there are no less than three love affairs going on at the same 
 time. — New York Recorder. 
 
 No one of the popular fiction writers is more delightfully Interesting than the 
 "Duchess," and in "Lady Verner's Flight" she quite surpasses her own standard 
 of entertaining literature. The story is told with the animation and humor char- 
 acteristic of this writer, and will be enjoyed by grave statesmen and Jurists and men 
 of affairs who desire to give themselves mental relaxation.-~!Z7ie Boston Beacon, 
 
 No. 20, THE LAST SIGNAL. By Dora Bussell, author 
 of *' The Other Bond," etc. 12mo, 311 pages. 
 
 No. 21. MR. AND MRSo HERRIES. By May Crommelin. 
 12mo, 250 pages. 
 
 No. 22. MAYFLOWER TALESc By Julian Hawthorne, 
 
 Grant Allen, Richard Dowling and George E. 
 
 Sims. 12mo, 2T6 pages. 
 .. 
 
 -4- 
 
Ko. 23. " OUT AT TWINNETT'S." By John Habbes. 
 TON, author of *< Helen's Babies." 12mo, 283 pages. 
 
 This is a well- told and thoroughly readable romance of 
 New York life. Mr. Habberton's direct and unaffected style 
 was never shown to better advantage than in this drama, 
 which possesses an added interest by the fact that the scene is 
 laid on the Sound, and some of its characters are graphic 
 word-pictures of the quaint folk still to be found along that 
 coast. 
 
 No. 24. ONE TOUCH OF NATURE. By Maegaret 
 Lee. 12mo, 300 pages. ^ ^ 
 
 One lays down the book with the sense of having made pleasant acquaintances. 
 t-New Fork Advertiser. 
 
 Plenty of thrilling sensations that give it a refreshing yigoT.— Philadelphia Item. 
 An intensely interesting story.— Pittsl>urg Press. 
 
 A medal should be given to the author of this thrilling storj.—St. Louis Republic. 
 A bright little story that keeps the heart sweet and glad all the way through.— 
 Detroit News. 
 
 No. 25. PRETTY KITTY HERRICK, A Dashing Story 
 of Love and Sport. By Mrs. Edward Kennard, 
 author of ''A Real Good Thing," *'The Girl in the 
 Brown Habit," <^ Killed in the Open," ''Matron or 
 Maid," ''Straight as a Die," etc. 12mo, 407 pages. 
 
 No. 26. THE PEER AND THE WOMAN. ByE. Phillips 
 t Oppenheim. 12mo, 259 pages. 
 
 A highly sensational but quite unobjectionable romance 
 of fashion and passion. 
 
 An interesting and extremely Intricate story of crime and detention.— iVfetc For* 
 Herald. 
 
 An excellent story that wUl be read with pleasure by lovers of Gaborlau.-* 
 Chicago Mail. 
 
 A powerful story, abounding in plot and well tol6..-—Toronto Farm, 
 
 There isn't a dull page in it.— Lancaster New Era. 
 
 — 5 — 
 
Noo 27o Sm ANTHONY'S SECMET; of, A False Posi* 
 tion~The Story of a Mysterious Marriage, By 
 
 Adeline Sergeant, author of ''Roy's Repentance," 
 *'The Great Mill Street Mystery," ''No Saint," etc. 
 12mo, 628 pages. 
 
 Miss Sergeant's books find a warm welcome wherever her dramatic and origi- 
 nal style is known. This is her latest novel and is one of her best efforts.— Boston 
 HeraZa. 
 
 No. 28o SWEET IS REVENGE : A Sensational Novel. 
 
 By J. Fitzgerald Molloy, author of "ThatYillain 
 Romeo," "How Came He Dead?" etc., etc. 12mo, 
 291 pages. _. _ 
 
 This little romance will find plenty of admirers. — Pittsburg BuUetfn, 
 Wholesome and well flavored.— ifmweapoMs Tribune. 
 
 No. 29. TINKLETOP'S CRIME. By George R. Sims, 
 author of " Ostler Joe," " Mary Jane's Memoirs," etc. 
 12mo, 316 pages. 
 
 No. 30. THE SORCERESS. By Mrs. Oliphant. 12mo, 
 382 pages. Bound in cloth, with onyx side, 75 cents. 
 
 No. 31. THROUGH PAIN TO PEACE. By Sarah Doud- 
 ney. 12 mo, 380 pages. 
 
 No. 32. TWO LOYAL LOVERS. By Elizabeth W. 
 Johnson. 12mo, 381 pages. 
 
 No. 33. THE OTHER BOND. By Dora Russell, author 
 of "Foot-prints on the Snow," "The Broken Seal," 
 "A Bitter Birthright," "The Track of the Storm," 
 "A Fatal Post," etc., etc. 12mo, 372 pages. 
 
 A pathetic, even tragic BtoYj.—BrooTclyn Eagle. 
 
 A well-told, English story, full of exciting incidents, and presenting some very 
 strong character drawing. — Boston Home Journal. 
 A most entertaining story.— boston Daily Traveller^ 
 
No. 34. THE OLD MILL MYSTERY. BjA.W.Margh- 
 
 MONT. 12mo, 246 pages. 
 
 No. 85. THE MAN FROM THE WEST. By A Wall 
 
 Street Man. 12mo, 246 pages. 
 
 This book created a great sensation, and has been drama- 
 tized for production on the stage. Every American should 
 read it. 
 
 No. 36. UP FROM THE CAPE. By Aunt Desire. 12 
 mo, 252 pages. 
 
 This is one of the most interesting books issued for a long 
 time, and will make a record for itself. 
 
 No. 37. VANITY'S DAUGHTER. By Hawley Smart. 
 12mo, 320 pages. 
 
 No. 38. WELL OUT OF IT. By John Habberton, 
 author of '^ Helen's Babies," etc., etc. 12mo, 256 
 pages. 
 
 An intensely Interesting story, —Pittsburg Press. 
 
 A medal should be given to the author of this thrilling story.— ^. Louis Jtepubllo, 
 A bright little story that keeps the heart sweet and glad all the way througli.^ 
 Detroit News. 
 
 No. 39. WELL WON. By Mrs. Alexander. 12mo, 256 
 
 pages. 
 
 Full of snap and interest and altogether equal to anything 
 
 written by this popular author. 
 
 A clever and merry little story .—iVeitf TorTc Herald. 
 A capital domestic comedy. — New TorTc Advertiser. 
 This little romance will find plenty of admirers.— Pi«s&wrfl' BuUetin. 
 
 No. 40. THE ADVENTURES OF A BASHFUL BACHE- 
 LOR. By Clara Augusta. 12mo, 288 pages. 
 
 — f — 
 
190Q 
 
Il»»» 
 
 HIMIMW IMIIW IIMIMMMI— II 
 
 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 013 722 243 7