BB
OUR COUNTRY:
ITS POSSIBLE FUTURE AND ITS PRESENT CRISIS.
BY
EBV. JOSIAH STRONG, D. D.,
GENEBAL SECEETAEY OF THE EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE FOB THE UNITED STATES, NEW YORK.
With an Introduction, by PEOF. AUSTIN PHELPS, D. D.
" WE live in a new and exceptional age. America is another name for Opportunity. Our whole history appears like a last effort of the Divin 6 Providence in behalf of the human race."—JEmerson.
ONE HUNDREDTH THOUSAND.
PUBLISHED BY
THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO., 740 AND 742 BEOADWAY, NEW YORK.
FOB
THE AMERICAN HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY.
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Prefatory Note.
THIS Volume was prepared for the American Home Missionary Society by EEV. JOSIAH STRONG, D.D., then its representative for the work of Home Missions in Ohio,. As will be seen at a glance, its main purpose is to lay before the intelligent Christian people of our country facts and arguments showing the imperative need of Home Missionary work for the evangelization of the land, the encouragements to such effort, and the danger of neglecting it.
Copies for perusal and distribution can be obtained from the publishers, The Baker & Taylor Co., No. 9 Bond Street, New York. Fifty cents in cloth binding or Twenty-five cents in paper.
Copyrighted by the AMERICAN HOME MISSIONARY SOCIETY,
1885.
12PTON ACCESSKMI
*• ' '
INTRODUCTION.
THIS is a powerful book. It needs no introduction from other sources than its own. Its great strength lies in its facts. These are collated with rare skill, and verified by the testi- mony of men and of documents whose witness is authority. The book will speak for itself to every man who cares enough for the welfare of our country to read it, and who has intelli- gence enough to take in its portentous story.
It is worthy of note that almost all the thinking which think- ing men have given to the subject for the last fifty years has been in the line of the leading idea which this volume enforces — the idea of crisis in the destiny of this country, and through it in the destiny, of the world. The common sense of men puts into homely phrase the great principles which underlie great enterprises. One such phrase lies under the Christian civilization of our land. It is " the nick of time." The pres- ent hour is, and always has been, " the nick of time" in our history. The principle which underlies all probationary ex- perience comes to view in organized society with more stu- pendous import than in individual destiny. This book puts the evidence of that in a form of cumulative force which is overwhelming.
Fifty years ago our watchful fathers discerned it in their forecast of the future of the Republic. The wisest among them even then began to doubt how long the original stock of American society could bear the interfusion of elements alien to our history and to the faith of our ancestry. The conviction was then often expressed that the case was hopeless on any
IT OUB COUNTRY.
theory of our national growth which did not take into account the eternal decrees of God. Good men were hopeful, only be- cause they had faith in the reserves of miejht, which God held secret from human view.
Those now living who were in their boyhood then, remem- ber well how such men as Dr. Lyman Beecher, of Ohio, and Dr. Wm. Blackburn, of Missouri, used to return from their conflicts with the multiform varieties of Western infidelity, to thrill the hearts of Christian assemblies at the East with their pictures of Western greatness, and Western perils. Those were the palmy days of "May Anniversaries." The ideas which the veterans of the platform set on fire and left to burn in our souls were three. The magnitude of the West in geo- graphical area ; the rapidity with which it was filling up with social elements, many of them hostile to each other, but nearly all conspiring against Christian institutions ; and the certainty that Christianity must go down in the struggle, if Eastern enter- prise was not prompt in seizing upon the then present oppor- tunity, and resolute in preoccupying the land for Christ. Again and again Dr. Beecher said in substance on Eastern platforms : "Now is the nick of time. In matters which reach into eternity, now is always the nick of time. One man now is worth a hundred fifty years hence. One dollar now is worth a thousand then. Let us be up and doing before it is too late."
From that time to this the strain of appeal has been the same, but with accumulating volume and solemnity of warn- ing. The fate of our country has been in what Edmund Burke describes as " a perilous and dancing balance." Human wisdom could at no time foresee which way the scales would turn. Every day has been a day of crisis. Every hour haa been an hour of splendid destiny. Every minute has been *f the nick of time." And this is the lesson which this volume emphasizes by an accumulated array of facts and testimonies and corollaries from them, the force of which can scarcely
OUR COUNTRY. V
be overstated. Fifty years of most eventful history have been piling up the proofs of our national peril, till now they come down upon us with the weight of an avalanche. Such is the impression which the argument here elaborated will make upon one who comes to it as a novelty, or in whose mind the facts have become dim.
One is reminded by it of the judgment which has been ex- pressed by almost all the great generals of the world, from Julius Csesar to General Grant, that in every decisive battle there is a moment of crisis on which the fortunes of the day turn. The commander who seizes and holds that ridge of destiny wins the victory. The conflict for the world's salva- tion partakes of the same character. And the facts and their corollaries massed together in this book show that nowhere is it more portentously true than in this country. Our whole history is a succession of crises. Our national salvation de- mands in supreme exercise certain military virtues. Vigilance in watching opportunity ; tact and daring in seizing upon op- portunity ; force and persistence in crowding opportunity to its utmost of possible achievement — these are the martial vir- tues which must command success.
This volume presents, also, with a power which can scarcely be exceeded — for it is the power of the simple facts — the truth that Christian enterprise for the moral conquest of this land needs to be conducted with the self-abandonment which deter- mined men would throw into the critical moment in the criti- cal battle of the critical campaign for a nation's endangered life. What the campaign in Pennsylvania was to the Civil War, what the battle of Gettysburg was to that campaign, what the fight for Cemetery Hill was to that battle, such is the present opportunity to the Christian civilization of this country.
Turn whichever way we will— South, West, North, East — we are confronted by the same element of crisis in the outlook upon the future. Everything seems, to human view, to de-
VI OUE COUNTRY.
pend on present and dissolving chances. Whatever can be done at aU must be done with speed. The building of great States depends on one decade. The nationalizing of alien races must be the work of a period which, in a nation's life, is but an hour. The elements we work upon and the elements we must work with are fast precipitating themselves in fixed institutions and consolidated character. Nothing will await our convenience. Nothing is indulgent to a dilatory policy. Nothing is tolerant of a somnolent enterprise.
The climax of the argument appears in the view taken of the auxiliary relation of this country's evangelizing to the evangelizing of the world. One who studies even cursorily the beginnings of Christianity will not fail to detect a masterly strategy in apostolic policy. Christian enterprise at the outset took possession first of strategic localities, to be used as the centers of church-extension. The first successes of Christian preachers were in the great cities of the East. The attractive spots, to the divine eye, were those which were crowded with the densest masses of human being. Not a trace do we find of labor thrown off at random in the apostolic tactics. As little do we discover of the spirit of romance. The early mis- sions were not crusades for the conquest of holy places. They were not pilgrimages to sacred shrines. Martial ardor in the work was held well in hand by martial skill in the choice of methods and localities.
The same military forecast has ruled Christian missions from that day to this, so far as they have been crowned with great successes. How little of work and expenditure at hap- hazard has entered into the splendid structure of English and American missions to the heathen I How little has the spirit of romance or of aesthetic taste ever accomplished in evangeliz- ing the nations ! The two localities to which the romance of Christian enterprise would naturally turn are Palestine and Greece ; the one as the home of our Lord, the other as the birthplace of art and culture. Yet how little, comparatively
OUR COUNTRY. VII
speaking, have Christian missions achieved in either land I Labor has been as faithful and self-sacrifice as generous there as elsewhere; but in the comparison with other missions, where are the fruits?
Success in the work of the world's conversion has, with rare exceptions, followed the lines of human growth and pro- spective greatness. But a single exception occurs to one's memory — that of the Hawaiian Islands. Seldom has a nation been converted to Christ, only to die. The general law has been that Christianity should seat itself in the great metropoli- tan centers of population and of civilized progress. It has allied itself with the most virile races. It has taken possession of the most vigorous and enterprising nations. The coloniz- ing races and nations have been its favorites. It has aban- doned the dying for the nascent languages. Its affinities have always been for the youthful, the forceful, the progressive, the aspiring in human character, and for that stock of mind from which such character springs. By natural sequence, tne localities where those elements of powerful manhood are, or are to be, in most vigorous development, have been the strate- gic points of which our religion has taken possession as by a masterly military genius.
The principles of such a strategic wisdom should lead ns to look on these United States as first and foremost the chosen seat of enterprise for the world's conversion. Forecasting the future of Christianity, as statesmen forecast the destiny of na- < tions, we must believe that it will be what the future of this country is to be. As goes America, so goes the world, in all that is vital to its moral welfare. In this view, this volume finds the superlative corollary of its argument.
AUSTIN PHELPS.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
THE TIME FACTOR IN THE PROBLEM.
The closing years of the nineteenth century are one of the great focal points in history. It is proposed to show that the progress of Christ's kingdom in the world for centuries to come depends on the next few years in the United States.— P. 1.
CHAPTER II.
NATIONAL RESOURCES.
Vastness of our domain, compared with Europe and China. Our agricultural resources equal to sustaining 1,000,000,000 inhabitants. Mineral wealth : mineral product greater already than that of any other country. Manufactures, present and prospective : led Great Britain, in 1880, by $650,000,000. Our threefold advantage. United States to become the workshop of the world. With all our resources fully developed can not only feed, but enrich 1,000,000,000.— P. 7.
CHAPTER in.
WESTERN SUPREMACY.
Extent of Western States and Territories. Nearly two and one- half times as much land west of the Mississippi as east of it, not in- cluding Alaska. The " Great American Desert," Amount of arable, grazing, timber, and useless lands. Mineral resources of the West. With more than twice the room and resources of the East, the West will have probably twice the population and wealth of the East.-P. 15.
CHAPTER IV.
PERELS. —IMMIGRATION.
Controlling causes threefold. 1. Attracting influences in the United States ; prospect of proprietorship in the soil ; this is the land of plenty ; free schools. 2. Expellant influences of Europe ; prospect not pacific ; France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Russia, Great Britain ; military duty ; the " blood tax" ; population becoming more crowded. 3. Facilities of travel ; labor saving machinery. All co- operate to increase immigration. Foreign population in 1900. Moral and political influence of immigration. Influence upon the West. -P. 30.
OUR COUNTRY. ix
CHAPTER V.
PERILS. — EOMANISM.
I. Conflict of Romanism with the fundamental principles of our government ; liberty of conscience ; free speech, and a free press ; free schools ; loyalty to the Constitution and loyalty to the Pope. 2. Attitude toward our free institutions. 3. Rapid growth of Roman- ism in the United States, especially in the West.— P. 46.
CHAPTER VI.
PERILS.— MORMONI8M.
Polygamy not an essential part of Mormonism; might be de- stroyed without weakening the system. Strength lies in ecclesiastical despotism. Mormon designs. The remedy.— P. 59.
CHAPTER VII.
PERILS. — INTEMPERANCE.
I. The progress of civilization renders men the easier victims of intemperance. Civilization must destroy the liquor traffic, or be de- stroyed by it. The problem serious enough in the East. What of the West, where the relative power of the saloon is two-and-one-half times greater?
II. The liquor power; wealth; organization; aims; methods. Influence in Rocky Mountains and beyond. — P. 68.
CHAPTER VIII.
PERILS.— SOCIALISM.
The Socialistic Labor Party and the International Working-men's Association. Teachings. Numbers. Conditions favovable to growth : 1. Immigration ; 2. Increasing Individualism ; 3. Prevalence of skep- ticism ; 4. Development of classes ; 5. Growing discontent. Modern enginery of destruction. Conditions at the West peculiarly favorable to the growth of Socialism.— P. 85.
CHAPTER IX.
PERILS. — WEALTH.
Comparative statement of wealth. Rate of increase. Advantages over Europe. Dangers: 1. Mammonism; 2. Materialism ; 3. Luxuri- ouanesfs ; 4. Congestion of wealth. All these diftigerl greater at the W«st than at the East.— P. 1*2.
X OTTE COUNTRY.
CHAPTER X.
PERILS.— THE CITY.
Disproportionate growth of the city. Each of the preceding perils, except Mormonism, enhanced in the city, and all concentered there. Moral and religious influence and government all weakest in the city, where they need to be strongest. The West peculiarly threatened.— P. 128.
CHAPTER XI
THE INFLUENCE OF EABLY SETTLEBS.
First permanent settlers impress their character on future genera- tions. Illustrations. Character of the formative influences in the West.-P. 144.
CHAPTER XII.
THE EXHAUSTION OF THE PUBLIC LANDS.
Meaning of cheap public lands, and significance of their occupa' tion. Their extent. Exhausted in fifteen or twenty years. The character of the West and, hence, the future of the nation to be de- termined by 1900. —P. 153.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WOBLD's FUTUBE.
Reasons why the world's future is to be shaped by the Anglo- Saxon. The United States to be the seat of his power. The most marked characteristics of the Anglo-Saxon race are here being empha- sized, and the race schooled for the competition with other races, which will begin as soon as the pressure of population on the means of support is felt in the United States. The result of that competi- tion. The responsibility of this generation. — P. 159.
CHAPTER XIV.
MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
For an unparalleled opportunity God has conferred on this gen- eration the power of unprecedented wealth. It is for the Church to recognize the relations of the one to the other.— P. 180.
CHAPTER I.
THE TIME FACTOR IN THE PROBLEM.
THERE are certain great focal points of history to- ward which the lines of past progress have converged, and from which have radiated the molding influences of the future. Such was the Incarnation, such was the German Reformation of the sixteenth century, and such are the closing years of the nineteenth century, second in importance to that only which must always remain nrst ; viz., the birth of Christ.
Many are not aware that we are living in extraordi- nary times. Few suppose that these years of peaceful prosperity, in which we are quietly developing a conti- nent, are the pivot on which is turning the nation's future. And fewer still imagine that the destinies of mankind, for centuries to come, can be seriously af- fected, much less determined, by the men of this gen- eration in the United States. But no generation ap- preciates its own place in history. Several years ago Professor Austin Phelps said: "Five hundred years of time in the process of the world's salvation may de- pend on the next twenty years of United States his- tory," It is proposed in the following pages to show that such dependence of the world's future on this generation in America is not only credible, but in the highest degree probable.
A THE TIME FACTOR IN THE PROBLEM.
To attribute such importance to the present hour may strike one who has given little or no study to the subject as quite extravagant. It is easy jbo see how a great battle may in a day prove decisive of a nation's future. A political revolution or a diplomatic act in some great crisis may cut the thread of destiny; but how is it possible that a few years of national growth, in tune of peace, may be thus fateful? Great civil- izations have been the product of ages. Their char- acter is slowly developed, and changes therein are slowly wrought. What are twenty years in a nation's growth, that they should be so big with destiny?
It must not be forgotten that the pulse and the pace of the world have been marvelously quickened during the nineteenth century. Much as we boast its achieve- ments, not every one appreciates how large a propor- tion of the world's progress in civilization has been made since the application of steam to travel, com- merce, manufactures, and printing. At the beginning of this century there was very little travel. Men lived in isolated communities. Mutually ignorant, they natu- rally were mutually suspicious. In English villages a stranger was an enemy. Under such conditions there could be little exchange of ideas and less of commodi- ties. Buxton says: "Intercourse is the soul of prog- ress." The impetus given to inter-communication of every sort by the application of steam was the begin- ning of a new life in the world. Crompton's spinning- mule was invented in 1775 ; Cartwright's power-loom in 1787; and Whitney's cotton-gin in 1793; but they did not come into common use until the nineteenth century. At the outbreak of the Revolutionary War there were in use in English and American homes the same primitive means by which the world's wool and
THE TIME FACTOE IN THE PROBLEM. 3
flax had been reduced to yarn for thousands of years, the same rude contrivance used in ancient Mycenae and Troy by Homer's heroines. There are men alive to-day, whose mothers, like Solomon's virtuous woman, laid their hands to the spindle and distaff, and knew no other way. William Fairbairn, an eminent mechanic, states that "in the beginning of the century the human hand performed all the work that was done, and per- formed it badly." Methods of travel and communi- cation were as primitive as those of manufacture. "Toward the close of the eighteenth century Lord Campbell accomplished the journey from Edinburgh to London in three days and three nights, But judicious friends warned him of the dangers of this enterprise, and told him that several persons who had been so rash as to attempt it had actually died from the mere rapidity of the motion."* In 1879 the railways of Great Britain conveyed 629,000,000 passengers.f It took Dr. Atkinson eight months to go from New England to Oregon in 1847. When he returned the journey occupied six days. When the battle of Waterloo was fought (1815) all haste delivered the thrilling dispatches in London three days later. The news of the bom- bardment of Alexandria (1882) was received in the English capital a few minutes after the first shell was thrown.
Any one as old as the nineteenth century has seen a very large proportion of all the progress in civilization made by the race. When seven years old he might have seen Fulton's steamboat on her trial trip up the Hudson. Until twenty years of age he could not have found in all the world an iron plow. At thirty he
* Mackenzie's History of the Nineteenth Century, t MulhalL
4 THE TIME FACTOR IN THE PROBLEM.
might have traveled on the first railway passenger train. Fifty years later the world had 222,000 miles of railway. For the first thirty-three years of his life he had to rely on the tinder-box for fire. He was thirty-eight when steam communication between Eu- rope and America was established. He had arrived at middle life (forty-four) when the first telegram was sent. Thirty-six years later the world had 604,000 miles of telegraph lines. Our century has been dis- tinguished by a rising flood of inventions. The En- glish government issued more patents during the twenty years succeeding 1850 than during the two hundred and fifty years preceding.
But this has not been simply a mechanical era of marvelous material progress. With the exception of astronomy, modern science, as we now know it, is almost wholly the creation of the nineteenth century. In this century, too, have the glorious fruits of mod- ern missions all been gathered. Another evidence of progress which, if less obvious than material results, is more conclusive, is found in the great ideas which have become the fixed possession of men within the past hundred years. Among them is that of individual liberty, which is radically different from the ancient conception of freedom that lay at the foundation of the Greek and Eoman republics, and later, of the free cities of Italy. Theirs was a liberty of class, or clan, or nation, not of the individual; he existed for the government. The idea that the government exists for fche individual is modern.
From this idea of individual liberty follows logically the abolition of slavery. At the close of the eighteenth century slavery existed almost everywhere — in Russia, Hungary, Prussia, Austria, Scotland, in the British,
THE TIME FACTOE IN THE PROBLEM. O
French, and Spanish colonies, and in North and South America. During the first seven years of this century English ships conveyed across the Atlantic 280,000 Africans, one-half of whom perished amid the horrors of the "middle passage," or soon after landing. But this century has seen slavery practically destroyed in all Christendom.
Another idea, which, like that of individual liberty, finds its root in the teachings of Christ, and has grown up slowly through the ages to blossom in our own, is that of honor to womanhood, whose fruitage is woman's elevation. Early in this century it was not very uncommon for an Englishman to sell his wife into servitude. "A gentleman in this country, in 1815, having access to not a very large number of English sources of information, found, in a single year, thirty- nine instances of wives exposed to public sale, like cattle, at Smithfield."* The amazement or incredulity with which such a statement is received by this gener- ation is the best comment on it.
Another striking evidence of progress is found in the enhanced valuation of human life, which has served to humanize law and mitigate "man's inhuman- ity to man." At the beginning of this century noth- ing was cheaper than human life. In the eye of English law the life of a rabbit was worth more than that of a man ; for even an attempt upon the former cost the sacrifice of the latter. The law recognized
* Dorchester's Problem of Religious Progress, p. 219. The New Monthly tfagazine, for September, 1814, contains the following: " Shropshire.— A well-looking woman, wife of John Hall, to whom she had been married only one month, was brought by him in a halter, and sold by auction, in the market, for two and sixpence, with the addition of sixpence for the rope witk which she was led. In this sale the customary market fees were charged— toll, one penny ; pitching, three pence."
6 THE TIME FACTOK IN THE PEOBLEM.
two hundred and twenty-three capital offences. "If a man injured Westminster Bridge, he was hanged. If he appeared disguised on a public road, he was hanged. If he cut down young trees ; if he shot at rabbits ; if he stole property valued at five shillings; if he stole anything at all from a bleach field; if he wrote a threatening letter to extort money; if he returned prematurely from transportation — for any of these offenses he was immediately hanged." "In 1816 there were at one time (in England) fifty-eight persons under sentence of death. One of these was a child ten years old."*
Space does not suffer even the mention of other noble ideas, the growth of which has enriched our civilization and elevated man. Our glance at the con- dition, fourscore years ago, of the most enlightened of the nations, hasty as it has been, suffices to remind us of the amazing changes which have taken place within a few years ; and to show that if we reckon time by its results, twenty years of this century may out- measure a millennium of olden time.
As the traveler in Asia follows the sun westward around the world, he finds life growing ever more in- tense and time more potent.
" Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay."
And to carry the comparison between the East and the West a degree further, permit me to quote an in- telligent Englishman who is a competent witness ; viz., Mr. Joseph Hatton, who says: "Ten years in the history of America is half a century of European pro- gress. Ten years ago the manufactures of America were too insignificant for consideration in the Old World.
•Mackenzie's History of the Nineteenth Century.
NATIONAL RESOUBCES. 7
To-day England herself is successfully rivaled by American productions in her own markets."* But the comparison does not end here. Ten years in the New West are, in their results, fully equal to half a century east of the 'Mississippi. There is there a tremendous rush of events which is startling, even in the nine- teenth century. That western world in its progress is gathering momentum like a falling body. Yast regions have been settled before, but never before under the mighty whip and spur of electricity and steam. Kefer- ring to the development of the West, the London Times remarks: "Unquestionably, this is the most impor- tant fact in contemporary history. It is a new fact, it can not be compared with any cognate phenomenon in the past." And, as it is without a precedent, so it will re- main without a parallel, for there are no more New Worlds.
CHAPTER II.
NATIONAL KESOUECES.
IT is necessary to the argument to show that the United States is capable of sustaining a vast popula- tion.
The fathers on Massachusetts Bay once decided that population was never likely to be very dense west of Newton (a suburb of Boston), and the founders of Lynn,
* Tb-day in America, 1881,
8 NATIONAL RESOURCES.
after exploring ten or fifteen miles, doubted whether the country was good for anything farther west than that. Until recent times, only less inadequate has been the popular conception of the transmissouri region and the millions destined to inhabit it. Of late years, home missionary writers and speakers have tried to astonish us into some appreciation of our national domain. Yet it may well be doubted whether even he who has pondered most upon its magnitude has a "realizing sense" of it. Though astonishing compari- sons have ceased to astonish, I know of no means more effective or more just by which to present our physical basis of empire.
What, then, should we say of a republic of eighteen states, each as large as Spain; or one of thirty-one states, each as large as Italy ; or one of sixty states, each as large as England and Wales ? What a confed- eration of nations ! Take five of the six first-class Powers of Europe, Great Britain and Ireland, France, Germany, Austria, and Italy ; then add Spain, Portugal, Switzerland, Denmark, and Greece. Let some greater than Napoleon weld them into one mighty empire, and you could lay it all down in the United States west of the. Hudson River, once, and again, and again — three times. Well may Mr. Gladstone say that we have " a natural base for the greatest continuous empire ever established by man ;" and well may the English premier add: "And the distinction between continuous empire and empire severed and dispersed over sea is vital."* With the exception of Alaska our territory is compact, and though so vast, is unified by railways and an un- equaled system of rivers and lakes. The latter, occu-
NATIONAL RESOURCES 9
pying a larger area than Great Britain and Ireland, are said to contain nearly one-half of all the fresh water on the globe. We are told that east of the Kocky Mountains we have a river-flow of more than 40,000 miles (i.e., 80,000 miles of river-bank), counting no stream less than a hundred miles in length ; while Eu- rope in a larger space has but 17,000 miles. It is esti- mated * that the Mississippi, with its affluents, affords 35,000 miles of navigation. A steamboat may pass up the Mississippi and Missouri 3,900 miles from the Gulf — " as far as from New York to Constantinople.'^ Thus a " vast system of natural canals'* carries our sea- board into the very heart of the continent.
But what of the resources of this great empire which makes so brave a display on the map ? Alaska is capa- ble of producing great wealth, but not including this territory, the area of the United States, according to the census of 1880, is 2,970,000 square miles. Accord- ing to the smallest estimate I have ever seen (and doubtless too small), we have 1,500,000 square miles of arable land. China proper, which, according to her last census, supports a population of 360,000,000, has an area of 1,348,870 square miles, or considerably less than one-half of ours, not including Alaska. The Chi- nese could hardly be called a manufacturing people ; and when their last census was taken (1812), their for- eign commerce was inconsiderable. That vast popula- tion, therefore, drew its support from the soil. The mountains of China occupy an area of more than 300,000 square miles, and some of her plains are bar- ren. It would seem, then, that our arable lands, taking the lowest estimate, are in excess of those of China, by some hundreds of thousands of square miles. The ffia Britannic^ t tfr.
10 NATIONAL RESOURCES.
fact, therefore, that Chinese agriculture, with its rude implements, feeds hundreds of millions ought, certainly, fco be suggestive to Americans.
The crops of 1879, after feeding our 50,000,000 in- habitants, furnished more than 283,000,000 bushels of grain for export. The corn, wheat, oats, barley, rye, buckwheat and potatoes— that is, the food crops, weire that year produced on 105,097,750 acres, or 164,215 square miles. But that is less than one-ninth of the smallest estimate of our arable lands. If, therefore, it were all brought under the plow, it would feed 450,000,000 and afford 2,554,000,000 bushels of grain for export. But this is not all. So excellent an au- thority as Mr. Edward Atkinson says that where we now support 50,000,000. people, " one hundred million could be sustained without increasing the area of a single farm, or adding one to their number, by merely bringing our product up to our average standard of reasonably good agriculture; and then there might remain for export twice the quantity we now send abroad to feed the hungry in foreign lands." If this be true (and it will hardly be questioned by any one widely acquainted with our wasteful American farm- ing), 1,500,000 square miles of cultivated land — less than one-half of our entire area this side of Alaska — are capable of feeding a population of 900,000,000, and of producing an excess of 5,100,000,000 bushels of grain for exportation; or, if the crops were all con- sumed at home, it would feed a population one-eighth larger; viz., 1,012,000,000. This corresponds very nearly with results obtained by an entirely different process from data afforded by the best scientific au- thority.* It need not, therefore, make a very severe * See Encyclopedia Britannicai Vol. 1^ p. 717.
NATIONAL RESOU&CES. 11
draught on credulity to say that our agricultural re- sources, if fully developed, would sustain a thousand million souls.
But we have wonderful wealth under the soil as well as in it. From 1870 to 1880 we produced $732,000,- 000 of the precious metals. The United States now raises one-half the gold and silver of the world's sup- ply. Iron ore is to-day mined in twenty-three of our states. A number of them could singly supply the world's demand. Our coal measures are simply inex- haustible. English coal-pits, already, deep, are being deepened, so that the cost of coal-mining in Great Britain is constantly increasing, while we have coal enough near the surface to supply us for centuries. When storing away the fuel for the ages, God knew the place and work to which he had appointed us, and gave to us twenty times as much of this concrete power as to all the peoples of Europe. Among the nations ours is the youngest — the Benjamin — and Benjamin- like we have received a five-fold portion. Surely "He hath not dealt so with any people." Our mineral pro- ducts are of unequaled richness and variety. The remarkable increase from 1870 to 1880 * places us at the head of the nations. Our mining industries exceed those of Great Britain three per cent., and are greater than those of all continental Europe, Asia, Africa, South America, Mexico, and the British Colonies col- lectively ; and as yet, we have hardly begun to develop these resources. Thousands of square miles of min- eral wealth lie wholly untouched.
* Mulhall.
18TO. 1880. Increase.
Iron ore, tons ...................... 4,500,000 9,500,000 110 per cent.
Copper " ...................... 12,700 20,300 60 "
Coal " ...................... 33,000,000 55,000,000 66 "
Petroleum, gallons ................. 42,000,000 880,000,000 20-fold.
12 NATIONAL BESOUBCES.
Let us glance at our manufactures, present and pro- spective. Our first great advantage is found in our superabounding coal. Our second lies in the fact that we have our raw material at hand. England must go at least 3,000 miles for every cotton boll she spins ; we raise our own. And mills are now being built in the South which manufacture the cotton where it is grown. We produce also the wool, the woods, the hides, the metals of every sort, all that is required for nearly every variety of manufacture. The remaining advan- tage which crowns our opportunity is the quality of our labor ; American operatives being, as a class, the most ingenious and intelligent in the world. Invent- iveness has come to be a national trait. The United States Government issues four times as many patents as the English. From the Patent Office in Washing- ton there were issued, during 1884, 20,297 patents. At the International Electrical Exposition in Paris, a few years ago, five gold medals were given for the greatest inventions or discoveries. How many of them, think you, came to the United States f Only five. The Mechanical World, of London, says that the United States has the best machinery and tools in the world; and Mr. Lourdelot, who was recently sent over here by the French Minister of Commerce, says that the superiority of tools used here, and the attention to details too often neglected in Europe, are elements of danger to European industries. Herbert Spencer tes- tifies that " Beyond question, in respect of mechanical appliances, the Americans are ahead of all nations." * The fact of superior tools would alone give us no small advantage, but the possession of the best machinery
• For much additional and weighty testimony to the same point, see re- port of Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor for 1879, po. xiii and xiv.
NATIONAL EESOUECES. 13
implies much more; viz., that we have also the best mechanics in the world.
In close competition, any one of the three advan- tages *enumerated ought to insure ultimate supremacy; the coincidence, then, of these three great essentials of manufactures, each in such signal measure as to con- stitute together a triple advantage, must deliver over to us the markets of the world. Already have we won the first rank as a manufacturing people, our products in 1880 having exceeded even those of Great Britain by $650,000,000. So soon is Mr. Gladstone's prophecy, uttered five or six years ago, finding its fulfillment. Speaking of the United States, he said: "She will probably become what we are now, the head servant in the great household of the world, the employer- of all employed, because her service will be the most and ablest." And it is interesting to note not only our position, but our rate of progress. While the manu- factures of France, from 1870 to 1880, increased $230,- 000,000, those of Germany $430,000,000, and those of Great Britain $580,000,000, those of the United States increased $1,030,000,000.* Moreover, the marked ad- vantages which we now enjoy are to be enhanced. While England's coal is growing dearer, ours will be growing cheaper. The development of our vast re- sources will greatly increase, and hence cheapen, raw materials. The superior ingenuity and intelligence of our mechanics and operatives, which enable us now to compete with the cheaper labor of Europe, will con- tinue to give us better machinery, while our rapidly increasing population will cheapen labor. Even now, with cheap labor against us, we can lay down our
* Our total agricultural products for 1880 were $2,625,000,000 ; lactures for the same year were $4,440,000,000.
14 NATIONAL RESOURCES.
steels in Sheffield, our lower grades of cotton in Man- chester, our electro-plate in Birmingham, and our watches in Geneva, and undersell European manufac- turers on their own doorsills. What, then, may we reasonably expect, when, with a dense population, cheap labor is no longer against us 1 And while our manufactures are growing, our markets are to be greatly extended. Steam and electricity have mightily compressed the earth. The elbows of the nations touch. Isolation — the mother of barbarism — is be- coming impossible. The mysteries of Africa are being laid open, the pulse of her commerce is beginning to beat. South America is being quickened, and the dry bones of Asia are moving; the warm breath of the Nineteenth Century is breathing a living soul under her ribs of death. The world is to be Christianized and civilized. There are about 1,000,000,000 of the world's inhabitants who do not enjoy a Christian civil- ization. Two hundred millions of these are to be lifted out of savagery. Much has been accomplished in this direction during the past seventy-five years, but much more will be done during the next fifty. And what is the process of civilizing but the creating of more and higher wants f Commerce follows the mis- sionary. Five hundred American plows went to the native Christians of Natal in one year. The millions of Africa and Asia are some day to have the wants of a Christian civilization. The beginnings of life in India demand $12,000,000 worth of iron manufactures, and $100,000,000 worth of cotton goods in a single year. What will be the wants of Asia a century hence? A Christian civilization performs the miracle of the loaves and fishes, and feeds its thousands in a desert. It multiplies populations. A thousand civilized men
WESTERN SUPBEMACY. 15
thrive where a hundred savages starved. What, then, will be the population and what the wants of Africa, a century hence I And with these vast continents added to our market, with our natural advantages fully real- ized, what is to prevent the United States from becom- ing the mighty workshop of the world, and our people " the hands of mankind" ?
If it is not unreasonable to believe that our agricul- tural resources alone, when fully developed, are capa- ble of feeding 1,000,000,000, then surely, with our agri- cultural and mining and manufacturing industries all fully developed, the United States can sustain and en- rich such a population. Truly has Matthew Arnold said : " America holds the future."
CHAPTER III.
WESTERN SUPREMACY.
" I NEVER felt as if I were out of doors before !" ex- claimed a New Englander, as he stepped off the cars west of the Mississippi, for the first time.
The West is characterized by largeness. Mountains, rivers, railways, ranches, herds, crops, business trans- actions, ideas ; even men's virtues and vices are cyclo- pean. All seem to have taken a touch of vastness from the mighty horizon. Western stories are on the same large scale, so large, indeed, that it often takes a dozen eastern men to believe one of them. Thev have
16 WESTERN SUPBEMACY.
a secret suspicion that even the best attested are in- flated exaggerations, which, pricked by investigation, would burst, leaving behind a very small residuum of fact. It will be necessary, therefore, to glance rapidly at the resources of the West, in order to show that it will eventually dominate the East. And by " the West" I mean that portion of the country lying west of the Mississippi, not including Alaska, unless so specified ; for, though that territory has vast resources which will some day add much to our wealth, the na- tional destiny is to be settled this side of Alaska.
Of the twenty-two states and territories west of the Mississippi only three are as small as all New England. Montana would stretch from Boston on the east to Cleveland on the west, and extend far enough south to include Kichmond, Ya. Idaho, if laid down in the East, would touch Toronto, Can., on the north, and Raleigh, N. C., on the south, while its southern boundary line is long enough to stretch from Wash- ington City to Columbus, O.; and California, if on our Atlantic seaboard, would extend from the southern line of Massachusetts to the lower part of South Caro- lina; or, in Europe, it would extend from London across France and well into Spain. New Mexico is larger than the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. The greatest measurement of Texas is nearly equal to the distance from New Orleans to Chicago, or from Chicago to Boston. Lay Texas on the face of Europe, and this giant, with his head resting on the mountains of Norway (directly east of the Orkney Islands), with one palm covering London, the other Warsaw, would stretch himself down across the king- dom of Denmark, across the empires of Germany and Austria, across Northern Italy, and lave his feet in the
WESTERN STTPKEMACY. 17
Mediterranean. Dakota might be carved into a half- dozen kingdoms of Greece ; or, if it were divided into twenty-six equal counties, we might lay down the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel in each.
Place the 50,000,000 inhabitants of the United States in 1880 all in Texas, and the population would not be as dense as that of Germany. Put them in Dakota, and the population would not be as dense as that of England and Wales. Place them in New Mexico, and the density of population would not be as great as that of Belgium. Those 50,000,000 might all be comfort- ably sustained in Texas. After allowing, say 50,000 square miles for " desert," Texas could have produced all our food crops in 1879 — grown, as we have seen, on 164,215 square miles of land — could have raised the world's supply of cotton, 12,000,000 bales, at one bale to the acre, on 19,000 square miles, and then have had remaining, for a cattle range, a territory larger than the State of New York.
Accounting all of Minnesota and Louisiana west of the Mississippi, for convenience, we have, according to the census of 1880,* 2,115,135 square miles in the West and 854,865 in the East. That is, for every acre east of the Mississippi we have nearly two and a half west of it. But what of the " Great American Desert," which occupied so much space on the map a genera- tion ago? It is nomadic and elusive; it recedes be- fore advancing civilization like the Indian and buffalo which once roamed it. There are extensive regions, which, because of rocks or lava-beds or alkali or alti- tude or lack of rain, are unfit for the plow ; but they afford much of the finest grazing country in the world,
* The areas of tlie states given in the Ninth Census have been recompute* for the Tenth.
18 WESTERN SUPREMACY.
much valuable timber, and mineral wealth which is i enormous. Useless land, though much in the aggre- gate, is far less than is commonly supposed, and in comparison with wealth-producing lands is almost in- significant. The vast region east of the Kocky Mount- ains, though once the home of the " Great American Desert," really contains very little useless land. We have all heard of the "Bad Lands" of Dakota, but they comprise only about 75,000 acres out of 94,528,000 in the territory, and even these lands are an excellent stock-range. Mr. E. V. Smalley says* : " Cattle come out of the Bad Lands in the spring as fat as though they had been stall-fed all winter." The United States Surveyor-General says: "The proportion of waste land in the territory (Dakota), owing to the absence of swamps, mountain ranges, overflowed and sandy tracts, is less than in any other state or territory in the Union." There are 20,000 square miles of "Bad Lands" in Northwestern Nebraska, rich in wonderful fossils, but economically worthless. It is often said that the Kansas lands near the Colorado border are al- kaline; but Professor Mudge, State Geologist, says that, in fifteen years of exploration, he has found but two springs containing alkalies, and has never seen ten acres of land in one place which has been injured by it. There is probably as little waste land in Kansas as in Illinois. The " Staked Plain" of Texas is sometimes spoken of as a desert ; but a Texan writer, who has lived there for years, says of it : " While it is true that this vast territory which we are describing is mainly a grazing country, it is also true that it abounds in fer- tile valleys and rich locations of large extent, which are as well watered and as fertile as any in the natio-' i:
* The Century for August, 1882.
WESTEEN SUPREMACY. 19
Tnat portion of the "Staked Plain" which is mountain- ous is rich in minerals.
Driven from the plains east of the Rocky Mountains, the " Great American Desert" seems to have become a fugitive and vagabond on the face of the e&rth. It was located for a time by the map makers in Utah, but being persecuted there, it fled to Arizona and Nevada. I do not mean to imply that there are no was*e lands in Utah. Portions of the territory are as worthless as some of its people. There are some deserts, one west of the Great Salt Lake, which contains several thou- sand square miles ; but the Surveyor-General of the Territory says: "Notwithstanding the opinion of many who deem our lands * arid, desert, and worthless,' these same lands, under proper tillage, produce forty to fifty bushels of wheat, seventy to eighty bushels of Oats and barley, from two hundred to four hundred bushels of potatoes to the acre, and fruits and vegeta^ bles equal to any other state or territory in quantity and quality." There are vast tracts which can not be irri- gated, but it has been discovered that by deep plowing, these same lands, without artificial moisture, can be made to produce bountifully. The culture of these high lands was, the past year, thoroughly successful. Arizona has been considered a waste, and undoubtedly much land there is arid ; but, on the other hand, there is much also which is wealth producing. Gen. J. C. Fremont, who, as Governor of the Territory for several years, had exceptional facilities for gaining informa- tion, in his official report in 1878, said : " So far as my present knowledge goes, the grazing and farming lands comprehend an area equal to that of the State of New York." And a writer in Harper's Magazine for March, 1883, says : " It is estimated by competent authority
20 WESTEBX SUPREMACY.
that, with irrigation, thirty-seven per cent, can be re- deemed for agriculture, and sixty per cent, for pastur- age." * Certain it is that when the Spaniards first visited the territory, in 1526, they found ruins of cities and irrigating canals, which indicated that it was once densely populated by a civilized race which subsisted by agriculture.
There is more barren land in Nevada than in any other state or territory of the "West. The wealth of the state is not agricultural or pastoral, but mineral. Nevertheless the Surveyor-General of the State says: " In our sage-brush lands, alfalfa, the cereals, and all vegetables flourish in profusion where water can be obtained, and the state is speedily becoming one of the great stock-raising states of the Union." A good authority estimates that eventually one-half of the state can be made valuable.
The area in which occur, here and there, most of the worthless lands of the West, is pyramidal in shape, the base extending along the Mexican line into Texas, and the apex being found in the northern part of Idaho. That is, the proportion of useless lands decreases as you go north, until it seems to disappear entirely be- fore reaching the Northern Pacific Kailway. Mr. E. V. Smalley, who, in the summer of 1882, traveled the line of that road before its completion,, writes : | " The whole country traversed through the northern tier of territories, from Eastern Dakota to Washington, is a habitable region. For the entire distance every square mile of the country is valuable either for farming,
* From all the information I can gatber, this latter estimate seems to me too large. In my computation of the valuable lands of the West, page 21, 1 have called 55,000 square miles in Arizona, about one-half of the territory worthless,
t The Century Magazine for Oct., 1882.
WESTERN SUPREMACY. 21
stock-raising, or timber-cutting. There is absolutely no waste land between the well-settled region of Dakota and the new wheat region of Washington Territory. Even on the tops of the Eocky Mountains there is good pasturage ; and the vast timber belt enveloping Clark's Fork and Lake Pend d' Oreille, and the ranges of the Cabinet and Cceur d' Alene Mountains is more valu- able than an equal extent of arable land."
Comparatively little of the Eocky Mountain region has been surveyed. In the absence of exact kncfwledge, therefore, we must rely on the estimates of Surveyor- Gen6rals, Governors, and others who have had oppor- tunities to form intelligent opinions concerning the available lands of the West. In some cases official re- ports of surveys have afforded accurate information; but in most it has been necessary to rely on estimates which pretend to be only approximately correct. I be- lieve they are temperate, and will prove to be rather under than over the truth. According to these esti- mates, the region west of the Mississippi embraces 785,000 square miles of arable lands, 645,000 of grazing lands, 260,000 of timber lands, and 425,000 square miles which are useless, except so far as they are min- eral lands. In weighing these figures several consid- erations should be borne in mind.
1. Generally speaking, those best acquainted with the West make the largest estimates of its resources and have the most faith in its future.
2. Land often appears worthless which experiment proves to be fertile. For instance, the " Great Colum- bia Plains" of Eastern Washington. The soil, which varies from one foot to twenty feet in depth, is, except in the bottom lands, a very light-colored loam, con- taining an unusually large percentage of alkalies and
22 WESTERN SUPREMACY.
fixed acids. A few years ago, sowing wheat on that soil would have been deemed throwing it away; but the experiment resulted in a revelation ; viz., that these 14,000,000 acres of peculiar soil are probably the best wheat fields in all the world. Other illustra- tions equally striking might be given. Kev. A. Blanch- ard, Home Missionary Superintendent for East Wyo- ming and Colorado,* writes : " Nothing is more sur- prising than the material for supporting a population which Continues to be developed in all this region of mountain and plain, which, twenty years ago, was con- sidered an inhospitable desert, capable of supporting nothing but Indians."
3. Barren lands are often rendered fruitful. Water is all that is needed to make most of our western " des- erts" blossom as the rose. In 1882 twelve Artesian wells were sunk in Tulare County, California, with as- tonishing results. They were found to flow from 200,000 to 1,500,000 gallons daily; and where once were barren plains, the fields are a succession of vine- yards, orchards, and wheat fields. Since then many of these wells have been sunk in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado. Moreover, the rainfall seems to be increasing with the cultivation of the soil. It is also worthy of note that what rain there is usually falls in those months when it is most needed, and that there is little or none during harvest.
Oftentimes all that a sterile soil needs is treatment with some mineral which Nature has deposited near
by.
4. The arable lands in the Rocky Mountains are mainly in valleys, which, like basins, have gathered the detritus of the mountains for ages. The soil is, there-
* Since transferred to Kansas.
WESTERN SUPREMACY. 23
fore, very deep and strong, yielding much more than the same area in the East; and in the Southwest two crops a year from the same soil are very common, so that this land is equal to twice or three times the same area in the East.
5. The above estimate of arable lands in the "West does not include the timber lands, a large proportion of which is of the finest quality. Of the 260,000 square miles of timber, 45,000 are in Texas, 26,000 in Arkansas, and 25,000 in Minnesota. Nearly one-half of the whole is in the Mississippi valley, and a good deal of the remainder is on fine soil, so that it is reasonable to infer that 100,000 square miles, or more, of this timber land would be arable, if cleared. More- over, much of the 645,000 square miles of grazing land will prove to be arable. We may, therefore, ex- pect the arable lands of the West ultimately to reach 900,000 square miles, and perhaps 1,000,000.
6. A considerable portion of the 854,865 square miles east of the Mississippi is not arable. In New England, New York, and Pennsylvania there are 94,500 square miles of unimproved lands.* It is a fair infer- ence that in the old states where land has long been in demand, so much would not remain unimproved unless generally incapable of improvement. Through- out the many mountain ranges of the entire Appa- lachian system, there is much waste land and more that is not arable. In the absence of any exact data it would seem from the facts just given, that there must be not less than 50,000 or 60,000 square miles of waste land east of the Mississippi, and twice as much that is
*New England has 28,468 square miles not in farms, 41,500 unimproved. New York " 10,402 " " " " " 29,000 »
Pennsylvania " 13,952 " " " " " 24,000 "
24 WESTERN SUPREMACY.
not fit for the plow. This reduces the arable lands of the East to about 700,000 square miles as against 785,000 in the West, with the probable eventual ad- dition to the latter of one or two hundred thousand more. For every acre in the East, bad as well as good, there is another in the West capable of producing food ; and in addition, a timber area as vast as all New England, New York, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and Indiana- And this, be it remembered, does not include the magnificent timber lands of Alaska, which William H. Seward said would one day make that ter- ritory the ship-yard of the world. And in addition to all this, the West has grazing lands 50,000 square miles broader than the total area of all the states east of the Mississippi not above enumerated. In 1880 there were in the West 61,211,000 head of live stock ; and those vast plains are capable of sustaining several times that number. The West, therefore, has 1,690,000 square miles of useful land against 800,000 in the East, more than twice as much.
Nor have we finished our inventory of western wealth. Its mineral resources are simply inexhaustible. The precious metals have been found in most of the states and territories of our Western Empire. From the discovery of gold to June 30th, 1881, California has produced $1,170,000,000 of that metal. The an- nual product is now from eighteen to twenty-five mil- lions. From 1863 to 1880, Idaho produced $90,000,- 000 of gold and silver, and Montana from 1861 to 1879, not less than $162,000,000. In twenty years, Nevada produced $448,545,000 of the precious metals. The production of Colorado, during the twenty-four years preceding 1883, was $167,000,000. Her out-put 'for 1882 was $27,000,000. In wealth producing power a
WESTERN SUPREMACY. 25
single rich mine represents a great area of arable land. For instance the Comstock Lode, in 1877, produced $37,062,252. Those twelve insignificant looking holes in the side of the mountain yielded more wealth that year than 3,890,000 acres planted to corn the same year. That is, those few square rods on the surface in Ne- vada were as large as all the corn fields of New Eng- land, New York, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota collectively. Kocky Mountain wealth, penetrating thousands of feet into the earth, compen- sates for large areas of barren surface. The agricul- tural resources of a country do not now as formerly determine its possible population. To-day easy trans- portation makes regions populous and wealthy, which once were uninhabitable. Even if a blade of grass could not be made to grow in all the Rocky Mountain States, that region could sustain 100,000,000' souls, provided it has sufficient mineral wealth to exchange for the produce of the Mississippi valley. Quartz mines have been known in the Rockies for years, which could not be worked without heavy machinery. The inner chambers of God's great granite safes, where the silver and gold have been stored for ages to enrich this generation, are fastened with time locks, set for the advent of the railway. The projection of railway systems into the mountains will rapidly develop these mines. For the year ending May 31st, 1880, the United States produced 55 tons 724 pounds (avoir- dupois) of gold, and 1,090 tons 398 pounds of silver. " These huge figures may be better grasped, perhaps, by considering that the gold represents five ordinary car-loads, while a train of 109 freight cars of the usual capacity would bo required to transport the silver.*
*Tentli Census.
Ub WESTERN SUPREMACY.
But the precious metals constitute only a small pari of the mineral wealth of the West. "An eminent metallurgist and scientist has recently estimated the entire mineral production of the region west of the Mississippi, for the year 1880, as worth $1,000,000,000 and has given the items on which his estimate is baaed."* This sum is equal to the value of five-elev- enths of all our agricultural products for the same year. The West has upwards of 200,000 square miles of coal measure, thirty-eight times the area of all the coal fields of Great Britain, Excepting Minnesota, coal has been found in every state and territory west of the Mississippi. And not one is without iron. California has superior ores. The iron of Oregon is equal to the very best Swedish and Russian metal. Wyoming has immense deposits. The supply of Utah is enormous. It is found in some form in every county of Missouri. Iron Mountain and Pilot Knob are estimated to contain 500,000,000 tons of the finest ore. There are great masses of iron in Texas, proba- bly equal in quantity and quality to any deposits in the world. Lead is found in all the states and terri- tories of the West, except Minnesota, Nebraska, and the Indian Territory. In many of them the ores are rich and abundant. The lead-producing area in Missouri is over 5,000 square miles. The product of that state in 1877 was over 63,000,000 pounds. Nebraska and Kan- sas alone are without copper. Eich ores and native metal abound in what seem inexhaustible quantities. The deposits of salt are without computation. Besides salt springs and lakes which yibl<? great quantities, there are beds of unknown depth covering thousands of acres. Sulphur also is exceedingly abundant. In
* Our Western Empire, p. 212.
WESTERN SUPREMACY. 27
Idaho ill) ere is a mountain which is eighty-five per cent, pure sulphur. A deposit in Louisiana, equally pure, is 112 feet thick. Nevada has borax enough to supply mankind. In "Wyoming there are lakes in which the de- posits of sulphate of soda are from ten to fifteen feet in thickness, and almost chemically pure. Gypsum abounds. Texas has the largest deposits known in the world ; " enough to supply the universe for centuries." The Colorado River of Texas cuts its way through mountains of solid marble. In many parts of tLe Rocky Mountains there are the finest building stones, granite, sandstone and marble, of all possible colors and shades, without end. It would be tiresome simply to enumerate the valuable minerals which swell the un- developed wealth of the West. If recent reports are correct, it is not denied even tin, the world's supply of which has hitherto been so limited. Inconsiderable deposits have been found in several states and terri- tories; but Prof. Bailey, United States Geologist for Montana, states that in the region of Harney's Peak, he has found tin-bearing rock that can be quarried from the surface, that there are veins measuring more than fifty feet in width which will average much better than those in Cornwall. He declares that there is enough to supply the world, and says that it is impossi- ble to imagine this great body of ore ever being exhausted. If these statements are correct, the discovery is one of the most important of the cen- tury.
The unrivaled resources of the West together with the unequaled enterprise of her citizens are a sure prophecy of superior wealth. Already have some of these young states outstripped older sisters at the East, as is seen by the following statement of wealth
28 WESTERN SUPREMACY.
per caput according to the assessed valuation of prop- erty in 1880:
In South Carolina $110 In Kansas $161
" Illinois 255 " Minnesota 330
" Vermont 259 " Colorado 331
«' Indiana 368 " Montana 475
" New York.... 538 " California 674
The West is destined to surpass in agriculture, stock- raising, mining, and eventually, in manufacturing. Already appears the superiority of her climate, which Montesquieu declares " is the most powerful of all em- pires, and gives guaranty alone of future develop- ment." Every advantage seems to be hers save only greater proximity to Europe, and if the East com- mands European commerce, the Golden Gate opens upon Asia, and is yet to receive
** the wealth of Ormus and of Ind,"
and send her argosies to all the ports of the broad Pacific.
Beyond a peradventure, the West is to dominate the East. With more than twice the room and resources of the East, the West will have probably twice the population and wealth of the East, together with the superior power and influence which, under popular government accompany them. The West will elect the executive and control legislation. When the center of population crosses the Mississippi, the West will have a majority in the lower House, and sooner or later the partition of her great territories, and probably some of the states, will give to the West the control of the Senate. When Texas- is as densely peopled as New England, it is hardly to be supposed her millions will be content to see the 62,000 square miles east of the Hudson send twelve senators to the seat of govern- ment, while her territory of 262,000 sends only two.
WESTERN SUPREMACY. 29
The West will direct the policy of the Government, and by virtue of her preponderating population and influence will determine our national character, and therefore, destiny.
Since prehistoric times populations have moved steadily westward, as De Tocqueville said, "as if driv- en by the mighty hand of God." And following their migrations, the course of empire, which Bishop Berke- ley sang, has westward taken its way. The world's scepter passed from Persia to Greece, from Greece to Italy, from Italy to Great Britain, and from Great Britain the scepter is to-day departing. It is passing on to " Greater Britain," to our mighty West, there to remain, for there is no further West ; beyond is the Orient. Like the star in the East which guided the three kings with their treasures westward until at length it stood still over the cradle of the young Christ, so the star of empire, rising in the East, has ever beckoned the wealth and power of the nations westward, until to-day it stands still over the cradle of the young empire of the West, to which the nations are bringing their offerings.
The West is to-day an infant, but shall one day be a giant, in each of whose limbs shall unite the strength of many nations.
30 PERILS. — IMMIGRATION.
CHAPTER IV.
PERILS IMMIGRATION.
POLITICAL optimism is one of the vices of the Ameri- can people. There is a popular faith that " God takes care of children, fools, and the United States." We deem ourselves a chosen people, and incline to the be- lief that the Almighty stands pledged to our prosper- ity. Probably not one in a hundred of our population has ever questioned the security of our future. Such optimism is as senseless as pessimism is faithless. The one is as foolish as the other is wicked.
Thoughtful men see perils on our national horizon. Let us glance at those only which peculiarly threaten the West. America, as the land of promise to all the world, is the destination of the most remarkable migra- tion of which we have any record. During the last four years we have suffered a peaceful invasion by an army more than twice as vast as the estimated number of Goths and Vandals that swept over Southern Eu- rope and overwhelmed Rome. During the ninety years preceding 1880, ten million foreigners made their homes in the United States, and three-quarters of them came during the last third of that period. Not only are they coming in great numbers, but in num- bers rapidly increasing. A study of the causes of this great world movement indicates that as yet we have seen only beginnings. Those controlling causes are three-fold. 1. The attracting influences of the United States. 2. The expellent influences of the Old World. 3. Facilities for travel.
1. The attracting influences of the United States. We have already seen that for every one inhabitant in
PERILS. IMMIGRATION. 31
1880 the land is capable of sustaining twenty. This largeness of room and opportunity constitutes an urgent invitation to the crowded peoples of Europe. The prospect of proprietorship in the soil is a power- ful attraction to the European peasant. In England only one person in twenty is an owner of land ; in Scotland, one in twenty-five ; in Ireland, one in seven- ty-nine, and the great majority of land-holders in Great. Britain own less than one acre each. More than three-fifths of the United Kingdom are in the hands of landlords, who own, each one, a thousand acres or more.* One man rides in a straight line a hundred miles on his own estate. Another owns a county ex- tending across Scotland. A gentleman in Scotland.has recently appropriated three hundred square miles of land, extending from sea to sea, to a deer forest; evicting many families to make room for the deer. What must free land mean to such a people I
This, moreover, is the land of plenty. The following table,| giving the average amount of food annually consumed per inhabitant, shows how much better the people of the United States are fed than any people of Europe. Potatoes are estimated as grain, at the rate of four bushels to one of wheat.
France |
Grain, bushels. .... 24.02 |
Meat, pounds. 81.88 84.51 57.10 119.10 54.05 25.04 |
Austria |
Grain, bushels. .. 13 K7 |
Meat, pounds. 56.03 51.10 20.80 |
Germany |
23.71 |
Sweden and Norway 12.05 Italy o «9. |
|||
Belgium . . . |
. 2284 |
||||
Great Britain. . . Russia |
20.02 1T.9T |
Europe |
|||
17 66 |
57.50 120.00 |
||||
Spain... |
.. 1T.68 |
United States... |
.. 40.66 |
John Eae says that in Prussia, nearly one-half of the population have to live on an annual income of $105 to
* Encyclopedia Britannica, vol. viii, p. 223.
tMulhall, Balance-Sheet of the World, 1870—1880, p. 39.
32 PEKILS. IMMIGRATION.
a family. Is it strange that they look longingly toward the United States?
Immigration rises and falls with our prosperity. A financial crisis here operates at once as a check, but numbers increase again with the revival of business. We shall have, as heretofore, an occasional crash, fol- lowed by commercial depression, but it can hardly be questioned that the development of our wonderful re- sources will insure a high degree of material prosper- ity for many years to come. And the brightening blaze of our riches will attract increased immigration. Equal rights also and free schools are operative. We expend for education nearly six times as much, per caput, as Europe. Parents know that their children will have a better chance here, and come for their sake. These facts are becoming more widely known in other lands. Every foreigner who comes to us and wins suc- cess, as most of them do under more favorable conditions, becomes an advertiser of our land ; he strongly attracts his relatives and friends, and very likely sends them money for their passage. There is, therefore, a ten- dency in immigration to increase in geometric ratio.
2. The expellent influences of Europe. Social or political upheavals send new waves of immigration to our shores. A glance at the situation shows that the prospect for the next fifteen or twenty years is not pa- cific. There is scarcely a first-class power in Europe on whose political horizon there are not clouds bigger than a man's hand.
France. The French are fickle. Since the Kevolu- tion no regime has continued for twenty consecutive years. The Kepublic is not yet fifteen years old, and the question may fairly be raised whether it can stand during the remaining five years or more which seem to
PERILS IMMIGRATION. 33
constitute the necessary political probation of a French government. And if the Eepublic becomes perma- nent, which now seems likely, it will operate as a con- stant thorn in the sides of European monarchies, by stirring up popular discontent.
Germany. The Eevolution of 1848 showed that the German people, always lovers of freedom, had grasped the principles of civil liberty ; but it also showed that they had no practical knowledge of self-government. During these thirty-seven years of increasing acquaint- ance with our free institutions, their love of liberty has been growing, but in the science of self-govern- ment they have gained no experience. They are ruled by an .Imperialist, and the German Chancellor is an old man. There is no one in training to take Bismarck's place, and in an important sense he can have no suc- cessor ; for, in consolidating the empire, he has done for Germany what, in the nature of the case, no other man can do. Germany, therefore, has tolerated from him what it will tolerate from no other man. " The existing regime will, doubtless, last his time ; and it is all the more likely to do so because everybody knows it will not survive him" * Here, then, is a mighty peo- ple, liberty loving, having no practical knowledge of self-government, and he who rules them is an old man. It looks as if the death of the Emperor and that of the great Chancellor would be the signal for movements little short of revolutionary. German emigration for 1882 was probably a quarter of a million. No wonder a member of the Reichstag recently cried : " The Ger- man people have now but one want — money enough to get to America" ; and revolution in Germany means a still greater exodus.
* The Nation for April 3d, 1804.
34 PERILS. IMMIGRATION.
Austria. Nihilism is active ; and a blow struck by Nihilists last year so terrified the Government that several provinces of the empire were placed under military rule.
Italy. The Italians are worse fed than any other people in Europe, save the Portuguese. The tax-col- lector takes thirty-one per cent, of the people's earn- ings ! According to a newly issued report upon the crown-lands, upwards of 60,000 small proprietors have been evicted because unable to pay the taxes. And taxes are increasing. Notwithstanding the industrial advance made by Italy from 1870 to 1880, the national debt increased so much more rapidly that the nation was $200,000,000 poorer in 1880 than ten years before. Growing population and increasing taxation are al- ready resulting in increased emigration. Italy, pressed by want as severe as that of Ireland, may yet send a like flood upon us.
Russia. The throne of the Czar stands on a volcano. Alexander HI. seems fully committed to Imperialism, and the Revolutionists are fully determined that the people shall assist in the work of government. They are wholly unrestrained by any religious scruples, and do not hesitate to sacrifice themselves as well as their enemies in the execution of their plans. " The Govern- ment may continue to arrest and hang as long as it likes, and may succeed in oppressing single revolution- ary bodies. . . . But this will not change the state of things. Revolutionists will be created by events ; by the general discontent of the whole of the people ; by the tendency of Russia toward new social forms. An entire nation cannot be suppressed." * The utterly lawless
* Address of the " Executive Committee" to the Emperor, March 10th, 1881. Underground Russia, p. 267.
PERILS. — IMMIGRATION. 35
Warfare of the Nihilists naturally prevents the Czar from making any concessions, while his arbitrary and oppressive acts deepen popular discontent. Apparent- ly, the repressive policy of the Government and popu- lar agitation will serve each to intensify the other, un- til there results a spasmodic convulsion throughout Russia. And revolution in Russia means increased emigration.
Great Britain. There is much popular discontent in the United Kingdom, which will increase as England loses her manufacturing supremacy. The late Mr. Fawcett says* that local expenditure, if it increases during the next quarter of a century as during the last, will exceed that of the Imperial Government. In Liverpool, for example, rates in 1841 amounted to less than $2.00 per caput; they now amount to more than $9.00 per caput. Local authorities now raise $200,- 000,000 a year for local purposes, and have an annual deficit of $100,000,000, which is met by borrowing. Local indebtedness has increased from $165,000,000 in 1867 to $600,000,000 in 1884. In 1880 the amount of mortgage on landed property in Great Britain and Ire- land was 58 per cent, of its full value. An English- man, writing on the coming revolution in England,f says you can scarcely find an educated Englishman, who, if his sober judgment is appealed to, will not tell you there is every likelihood that a complete social and political reorganization will be attempted in those Islands before the close of the nineteenth century. Thomas Hughes says : " We may despise the present advocates of social democracy, and make light of their sayings and doings ; but there is no man who knows
* Manual of Political Economy.
t North American Review, October, 1888.
Ob PERILS. IMMIGRATION.
what is really going on in England but will admit that there will have to be a serious reckoning with them at no distant day." There is but one Gladstone, and he is an old man. A writer in The British Quarterly* says : " The retirement of Mr. Gladstone will be the breaking up of the great deep in. English politics." And social and political disturbances in Great Britain mean increased emigration.
The progress of civilization is in the direction of popular government All kings and their armies can- not reverse the wheels of human progress. I think it was Victor Hugo, who, with prophetic ear, heard a European of some coming generation say: "Why, we once had kings over here!" All the races of Europe will one day enjoy the civil liberty which now seems the peculiar birthright of the Anglo-Saxon. De Tocqueville, whom Mr. Gladstone calls the Edmund Burke of his generation, said he regarded the progress of democratic principles in government as a providential fact, the result of a divine decree. Matthew Arnold, after his recent visit to America, speaking of the repub. lican form of government, said: "It is the only event- ual form of government for all people." Great revolu- tions, then, are to take place in Europe, why not within the next twenty-five years — some of them I And judg- ing the future by the past, they will not be peaceful. The giant is blind and grinding in his prison house, howbeit his locks are growing, and we know not how soon he may bow himself between the pillars of des- potism.
In Continental Europe generally the best years of all able-bodied men are demanded for military duty. Germans must be seven years in the army, and give
• April, 1883.
PERILS. IMMIGBATION. 37
three of them to active service ; the French, nine years in the army and five years in active service; Austrians, ten years in the army and three in active service ; Bussians, fifteen years in the army and six in active service. When not in active service they are under certain restrictions. In addition to all this, when no longer members of the army, they are liable to be called on to do military duty for a period varying from two to five years. This robbery of a man's life will continue to be a powerful stimulus to emigration • and the "blood tax" which is required to support these millions of men during unproductive years is steadily increasing. While aggregate taxation decreased in the United States from 1870 to 1880, 9.15 per cent., it increased in Europe 28.01 per cent. The increase in Great Britain was 20,17 per cent.; in France, 36.13 per cent.; in Kussia, 37.83 per cent.; in Sweden and Norway, 50.10 per cent.; in Germany, 57.81 per cent. And notwithstanding the burden of taxation is so heavy and so rapidly increasing, the public debts of Europe are making frightful growth. They have nearly doubled in fifteen years, and in 1880 were $22,265,000,000. The cost of government has risen fifty per cent, in ten years. If existing tendencies continue a quarter of a century more, they must pre- cipitate a terrible financial catastrophe and perhaps a great social crisis. Moreover, the pressure of a dense population is increasing; 22,225,000 souls having been added to the population of Europe during the ten years preceding 1880. Europe could send us an un- ceasing stream of 2,000,000 emigrants a year for a century, and yet steadily increase her population.
We find, therefore, the prospect of political commo- tions, the thumb-screw of taxation, given a frequent
€58 PERILS. — IMMIG&ATlOtf.
turn, and a dense population becoming more crowded, all uniting their influence to swell European emigra- gration for years to come.
3. Facilities of travel are increasing. From 1870 to 1880, 39,857 miles of railway were built in Europe, only two thousand less than in the United States during the same period. Thus, interior populations are enabled more easily to reach the seaboard. Im- provements in steam navigation are making the ocean passage easier, quicker, and cheaper. In 1825 the cheapest passage from Europe to America was about $100. Now the rates from continental ports to New York are from $25 to $30, and from London $20. Steerage passage from Liverpool has been reduced to $8. There are great multitudes in Europe who look westward with longing eyes, but who do not come, only because they cannot gather the passage money and keep soul and body together. The reduction of rates, even a few dollars, makes America possible to added thousands.
The threefold influences, therefore, which regulate immigration all co-operate to increase it and insure that for years to come this great "gulf stream of hu- manity " will flow on with a rising flood.
Furthermore, labor-saving machinery has entered upon a campaign of world- wide conquest. This fact will render still more operative each of the three classes of influences enumerated above. Wherever man labors labor-saving machinery is destined ultimately to go ; and the people of the United States are to make most of it for the world. We have mountains of iron and inexhaustible measures' of coal, together with a genius for invention. Already are we sending our machines over the civilized world. A»d what does this mean?
PERILS. IMMIGRATION. 39
Sending a machine to Europe that does the work of a hundred men, temporarily throws a hundred men out of employment. That machine is useful because it renders useless the skill or strength of a hundred men, They cannot easily, in a crowded population, adjust themselves to this new condition of things. The making of this machinery in the United States in- creases the demand for labor here, and its exportation decreases the demand for labor in the Old World. That means immigration to this country. We are to send our labor-saving machinery around the globe, and equivalents in bone and muscle are to be sent back to us.
In view of the fact that Europe is able to send us nearly nine times as many immigrants during the next thirty years as during the thirty years past, without any diminution of her population, and in view of all the powerful influences co-operating to stimulate the movement, is it not reasonable to conclude that we have seen only the advance guard of the mighty army which is moving upon us?
The Tenth Census gives our total foreign-born popu- lation as 6,679,943 ; but we must not forget their children of the first generation, who, as we shall see, present a more serious problem than their parents, the immi- grants. This class numbers 8,316,053, making a total foreign population of nearly 15,000,000. In 1882 immi- gration nearly touched 800,000. In view of the consid- erations already given, this would not be deemed a high average for the twenty years from 1880 to 1900. On that estimate, allowing a death rate of fifteen to one thousand (that of 1880) there will be in 1900 over 19,000,000 persons of foreign birth in the United States. And if the proportion of foreign-born to
40 PERILS. IMMIGRATION.
native-born of foreign parentage continues the same, our foreign population in 1900 will be 43,000,000. So immense a foreign element must have a profound in- fluence on our national life and character. Immi- gration brings unquestioned benefits, but these do not concern our argument. It complicates almost every home missionary problem and furnishes the soil which feeds the life of several of the most noxious growths of our civilization. I have, therefore, dwelt at some length upon its future that we may the more accurately measure the dangers which threaten us.
Consider briefly the moral and political influence of immigration. 1. Influence on morals. Let me hasten to recognize the high worth of many of our citizens of foreign birth, not a few of whom are eminent in the pulpit and in all the learned professions. Many come to us in full sympathy with our free institutions, and desiring to aid us in promoting a Christian civilization. But no one knows better than these same intelligent and Christian foreigners that they do not represent the mass of immigrants. The typical immigrant is a European peasant, whose horizon has been narrow, whose moral and religious training has been meager or false, and whose ideas of life are low. Not a few be- long to the pauper and criminal classes. "From a late report of the Howard Society of London, it ap. pears that 'seventy-four per cent, of the Irish dis- charged convicts have found their way to the United States.'"* Moreover, immigration is demoralizing. No man is held upright simply by the strength of his own roots ; his branches interlock with those of other men, and thus society is formed, with all its laws and customs and force of public opinion. Few men ap-
* Dorchester's Problem of Religious Progress, p. 423.
PERILS. IMMIGRATION. 41
preciate the extent to which they are indebted to their surroundings for the strength with which they resist, or do, or suffer. All this strength the emigrant leaves behind him. He is isolated in a strange land, perhaps doubly so by reason of a strange speech. He is trans- planted from a forest to an open prairie, where, before he is rooted, he is smitten with the blasts of temptation. We have a good deal of piety in our churches that will not bear transportation. It cannot endure even the slight change of climate involved in spending a few summer weeks at a watering place, and is com- monly left at home. American travelers in Europe often grant themselves license, on which, if at home? they would frown. Yery many church-members, when they go west, seem to think they have left their Chris- tian obligations with their church-membership in the East. And a considerable element of our American- born population are apparently under the impression that the Ten Commandments are not binding west of the Missouri. Is it strange, then, that those who come from other lands, whose old associations are all broken and whose reputations are left behind, should sink to a lower moral level ? Across the sea they suf- fered many restraints which are here removed. Better wages afford larger means of self-indulgence ; often the back is not strong enough to bear prosperity, and liberty too often lapses into license. Our population of foreign extraction is sadly conspicuous in our criminal records. This element constituted in 1870 twenty per cent, of the population of New England, and furnished seventy-five per cent, of the crime. That is, it was twelve times as much disposed to crime as the native stock. The hoodlums and roughs of our cities are, most of them, American-born of foreign
42 PERILS. IMMIGKATION.
parentage. Of the 680 discharged convicts who ap- plied to the Prison Association of New York for aid, during the year ending June 30th, 1882, 442 were born in the United States, against 238 foreign-born; while only 144 reported native parentage against 536 who reported foreign parentage.
The Ehode Island Work-house and House of Cor- rection had received, to December 31st, 1882, 6,202 persons on commitment. Of this number, fifty- two per cent, were native-born and seventy-six per cent, were born of foreign parentage.* While in 1880 the foreign-born were only thirteen per cent, of the entire population, they furnish nineteen per cent, of the con- victs in our penitentiaries, and forty-three per cent, of the inmates of work-houses and houses of correc- tion. And it must be borne in mind that a very large proportion of the native-born prisoners were of for- eign parentage.
Moreover, immigration not only furnishes the greater portion of our criminals, it is also seriously affecting the morals of the native population. It is disease and not health which is contagious. Most foreigners bring with them continental ideas of the Sabbath, and the result is sadly manifest in all our cities, where it is be- ing transformed from a holy day into a holiday. But by far the most effective instrumentality for debauch- ing popular morals is the liquor traffic, and this is chiefly carried on by foreigners. In 1880, of the " Traders and dealers in liquors and wines,"t (I sup- pose this means wholesale dealers) sixty-three per cent' were foreign-born, and of the brewers and maltsters seventy-five per cent., while a large proportion of the
*For additional statistics oa this point$ see North American Review, Janu- ary, 1884. t The Tenth Census.
. IMMIGRATION. 49
remainder were of foreign parentage. Of saloon- keepers about sixty per cent, were foreign -born, while many of the remaining forty per cent, of these cor- rupters of youth, these western Arabs, whose hand is against every man, were of foreign extraction.
2. "We can only glance at the political aspects of im- migration. As we have already seen, it is immigration which has fed fat the liquor power; and there is a liquor vote. Immigration furnishes most of the vic- tims of Mormonism ; and there is a Mormon vote. Im- migration is the strength of the Catholic church ; and there is a Catholic vote. Immigration is the mother and nurse of American socialism ; and there is to be a socialist vote. Immigration tends strongly to the cities, and gives to them their political complexion. And there is no more serious menace to our civiliza- tion than our rabble-ruled cities. These several perils, all of which are enhanced by immigration, will be con- sidered in succeeding chapters.
Many American citizens are not Americanized. It is as unfortunate as it is natural, that foreigners in this country should cherish their own language and pecul- iar customs, and carry their nationality, as a distinct factor, into our politics. Immigration has created the " German vote " and the " Irish vote," for which politi- cians bid, and which have already been decisive of state elections, and might easily determine national. A mass of men but little acquainted with our institutions, who will act in concert and who are controlled largely by their appetites and prejudices, constitute a very para- dise for demagogues.
We have seen that immigration is detrimental to popular morals. It has a like influence upon popular intelligence, for the percentage of illiteracy among
44 PERILS. IMMIGEATIOK.
the foreign-born population is thirty-eight per cent, greater than among the native-born whites. Thus immigration complicates our moral and political prob- lems by swelling our dangerous classes. And as immi- gration is to increase much more rapidly than the population, we may infer that the dangerous classes are to increase more rapidly than hitherto.* It goes without saying, that there is a dead-line of ignorance and vice in every republic, and when it is touched by the average citizen, free institutions perish ; for intelli- gence and virtue are as essential to the life of a re- public as are brain and heart to the life of a man.
A severe strain upon a bridge may be borne with safety if evenly distributed, which, if concentrated, would ruin the whole structure. There is among our population of alien birth an unhappy tendency toward aggregation, which concentrates the strain upon portions of our social and political fabric. Cer- tain quarters of many of the cities are, in language, customs and costumes, essentially foreign. Many colonies have bought up lands and so set themselves apart from Americanizing influences. In 1845, New Glarus, in southern "Wisconsin, was settled by a colony of 108 persons from one of the cantons of Switzer- land. In 1880 they numbered 1,060 souls; and "No Yan- kee lives within a ring of six miles round the first built dug-out." This Helvetian settlement, founded three years before Wisconsin became a state, has pre- served its race, its language, its worship, and its cus- toms in their integrity. Similar colonies are now be- ing planted in the "West. In some cases 100,000 or 200,000 acres in one block, have been purchased by
* From 1870 to 1880 the population increased 30.06 per cent. During the same period the number of criminals increased 82.33 per cent.
PEEILS. IMMIGBATION. 45
foreigners of one nationality and religion ; thus build- ing up states within a state, having different lan- guages, different antecedents, different religions, dif- ferent ideas and habits, preparing mutual jealousies, and perpetuating race antipathies. If our noble domain were ten-fold larger than it is, it would still be too small to embrace with safety to our national future, little Ger- manies here, little Scandinavias there, and little Ire- lands yonder. A strong centralized government, like that of Rome under the Caesars, can control heterogene- ous populations, but local self-government implies close relations between man and man, a measure of sympa- thy, and, to a certain extent, community of ideas. Our safety demands the assimilation of these strange populations, and the process of assimilation will be- come slower and more difficult as the proportion of foreigners increases.
When we consider the influence of immigration, it is by no means reassuring to reflect that seventy-five per cent, of it is pouring into the formative West. We have seen that in 1900 our foreign population, with their children of the first generation, will proba- bly number not less than 43,000,000. If the move- ment westward continues, as it probably will, until the free farming lands are all taken, 25,000,000 of that foreign element will be west of the Mississippi. And this will be two-thirds of all the population of the West, even if that population should increase 350 per cent, between 1880 and 1900. Already is the propor- tion of foreigners in the territories from two to three times greater than in the states east of the Mississippi. We may well ask — and with special reference to the West — whether this in-sweeping immigration is to for- eignize us, or we are to Americanize it. Mr.
46 PERILS. BOMANISM.
Beecher hopefully says, when the lion eats an ox the ox becomes lion, not the lion ox. The illus- tration would be very neat if it only illustrated. The lion happily has an instinct controlled by an unfailing law which determines what, and when, and how much he shall eat. If that instinct should fail, and he should some day eat a badly diseased ox, or should very much over-eat, we might have on our hands a very sick lion. I can even conceive that under such conditions the ig- noble ox might slay the king of beasts. Foreigners are not coming to the United States in answer to any appetite of ours, controlled by an unfailing moral or political instinct. They naturally consult their own interests in coming, not ours. The lion, without being consulted as to time, quantity or quality, is having the food thrust down his throat, and his only alterna- tive is, digest or die.
CHAPTER V.
PERILS. ROMANISM.
THE perils which threaten the nation and peculiarly menace the "West demand, for their adequate presenta- tation, much more space than the narrow limits of this work allow. We can touch only salient points.
ROMANISM.
There are many who are disposed to attribute any fear of Boman Catholicism in the United States to
PEEILS. — ROMANISM. 47
bigotry or childishness. Such see nothing in the char- acter and attitude of Komanism that is hostile to our free institutions, or find nothing portentous in its growth. Let us, then, first compare some of the funda- mental principles of our government with those of the Catholic church.
The Constitution of the United States guarantees liberty of conscience. Nothing is dearer or more fun- damental. Pope Pius IX. in his Encyclical Letter of Aug. 15th, 1854, said: "The absurd and erroneous doctrines or ravings in defense of liberty of conscience are a most pestilential error — a pest, of all others, most to be dreaded in a state." The same Pope, in his Encyclical Letter of Dec. 8th, 1864, anathematized "Those who assert the liberty of conscience and of religious worship," also " All such as maintain that the church may not employ force."
The pacific tone of Kome in the "United States does not imply a change of heart. She is tolerant where she is helpless. Says Bishop O'Connor : " Eeligious liberty is merely endured until the opposite can be carried into effect without peril to the Catholic World." The Catholic Review says : " Protestantism, of every form, has not, and never can have, any right where Catholicity is triumphant." (A strange kind of catho- licity /) The Archbishop of St. Louis once said : " Heresy and unbelief are crimes ; and in Christian countries, as in Italy and Spain, for instance, where all the people are Catholics, and where the Catholic re- ligion is an essential part of the law of the land, they are punished as other crimes." In the same strain The Boston Pilot : " No good government can exist without religion, and there can be no religion without an Inquisition, which is wisely designed for the pro-
48 PERILS. ROMANISM.
motion and protection of the true faith.'7 The follow- ing is from The Rambler, a Catholic paper of London : " Religious liberty, in the sense of a liberty possessed by every man to choose his religion, is one of the most wicked delusions ever foisted upon this age by the father of all deceit. The very name of liberty — except in the sense of a permission to do certain definite acts — ought to be banished from the domain of religion. It is neither more nor less than falsehood. No man has a right to choose his religion. None but an atheist can uphold the principles of religious liberty. Shall I foster that damnable doctrine, that Socianism, and Calvinism, and Anglicanism, and Judaism, are not every one of them mortal sins, like murder and adul- tery ? Shall I hold out hopes to my erring Protestant brother, that I will not meddle with his creed if he will not meddle with mine ? Shall I tempt him to for- get that he has no more right to his religious views than he has to my purse, to my house, or to my life blood? No, Catholicism is the most intolerant of creeds. It is intolerance itself; for it is the truth itself." The St. Louis Shepherd of the Valley says : " The Catho- lic who says the church is not intolerant belies the Sacred Spouse of Christ." Every cardinal, archbishop and bishop in the Catholic church takes an oath of al- legiance to the Pope, in which occur the following words : " Heretics, schismatics, and rebels to our said Lord (the Pope), or his aforesaid successors, I will to my utmost persecute and oppose."*
Another foundation stone of our free institutions is free speech and a free press. But in his Encyclical Let- ter of Dec. 8th, 1864, Pius IX. anathematized "All wno maintain the liberty of the press," and "all advocates
*R. W. Thompson's The Papacy and the Civil Power, p. 717.
PERILS. ROMANISM. 49
of the liberty of speech." He calls it the "liberty of perdition."
Again, free schools are one of the corner-stones of our Government. Catholic opposition to our public- school system is general and well known. Says a Papal Encyclical : " XLY. — The Komish church has a right to interfere in the discipline of the public schools, and in the arrangement of the studies of the public schools, and in the choice of the teachers for these schools."
"XL VII. — Public schools open to all children for the education of the young should be under the con- trol of the Romish church, and should not be subject to the civil power, nor made to conform to the opinions of the age."
Said the Vicar-General of Boston, in a public lecture, March 12th, 1879: "The attitude of the Catholic church toward the public schools of this country, as far as we can determine from papal documents, the decrees of the Council of Baltimore, and the pastor- als of the several bishops, is one of non-approval of the system itself, of censure of the manner of con- ducting them that prevails in most places, and of sol- emn admonition to pastors and parents to guard against the dangers to faith and morals arising from frequenting them."* The attitude of the Catholic church toward our schools is not simply one of "non- approval," but of decided hostility. Says the Cincin- nati Catholic Telegraph : " It will be a glorious day for the Catholics in this country when, under the blows
*In St. Mary's Parish, Cambridgeport, Mass., for attending a public school after Father Scully had commanded attendance at a parochial school a boy was stretched upon a table, and his back lashed till for two weeks the child could not lie down on account of his wounds. Fate of Repub- lics, p. 286.
50 PERILS. ROMANISM.
of justice and morality, our school system will be shiv- ered to pieces." I do not forget that in the dark ages it was the Church of Home which prevented the lamp of learning from going out utterly, or that the Jesuits, at a later period, were the most famous teachers in Europe. But Rome has never favored the education of the massesc In her relations to them she has adhered to her own proverb, " Ignorance is the mother of de- votion." In Protestant countries like Germany and the United States, where there is a strong sentiment in favor of popular education, she has been compelled in self-defense to open schools of her own. But her real attitude toward the education of the masses should be inferred from her course in those countries where she has, or has had, undisputed sway ; and there she has kept the people in besotted ignorance. In- stance her own Italy, where seventy -three per cent, of the population are illiterate, or Spain, where we find eighty per cent., or Mexico, where ninety-three per cent, belong to this class.
Again, our Constitution requires obedience to the laws of the United States and loyalty to the Government. The Pope also demands of every subject obedience and loyalty to himself. In an Encyclical he says :
" XIX. — The Romish church has a right to exercise its authority without any limits set to it by the civil power."
"XXVII. — The Pope and the priests ought to have dominion over the temporal affairs."
"XXX. — The Romish church and her ecclesiastics have a right to immunity from civil law."
" XLII. — In case of conflict between the ecclesiasti- cal and civil powers, the ecclesiastical powers ought to prevail."
PERILS. ROMANISM. 51
In the oath of allegiance, already referred to, taken by all whom the Pope elevates to positions of official dignity the candidate swears he will "humbly receive and diligently execute the apostolic command," and that he will " endeavor to preserve, defend, increase, and advance, the authority of the Pope." "The creed of Pope Pius IY. is put for subscription before every priest and every bishop. Every convert to Eomanism must signify his assent to it. One of its sections reads, * I do give allegiance to the bishop of Eome ' ; and the sense is, 'I do give political as well as religious alle- giance.'"* The two greatest living statesmen hold that the allegiance demanded by the Pope is inconsist- ent with good citizenship. Mr. Gladstone says: "... the Pope demands for himself the right to determine the province of his own rights, and has so defined it in formal documents as to warrant any and every invasion of the civil sphere ; and that this new version of the principles of the Papal church inexora- bly binds its members to the admission of these exor- bitant claims, without any refuge or reservation on be- half of their duty to the Crown."f He also says : "Eome requires a convert, who joins her, to forfeit his moral and mental freedom, and to place his loyalty and civil duty at the mercy of another." Prince Bismarck, in a speech delivered April 16th, 1875, said : " . . this Pope, this foreigner, this Italian, is more powerful in this country than any one person, not excepting even the King. And now please to consider what this for- eigner has announced as the programme by which he rules in Prussia as elsewhere. He begins by arrogating to himself the right to define how far his authority ex- tends. And this Pope, who would use fire and sword
"Joseph Cook, Marriage, p. 12. tThe Vatican Pecrees, p. 45,
52 PEBILS. ROMANISM.
against us if he had the power to do so, who would confiscate our property and not spare our lives, expects us to allow him full, uncontrolled sway in our midst." Hon. R. "W. Thompson, late Secretary of the Navy, says: "He who accepts Papal infallibility, and with it the ultramontane interpretation of the power of the Pope over the world, and thinks that by offending the Pope he offends God, will obey, passively, unresisting- ly, uninquiringly. Such a man, whether priest or layman, high or low, is necessarily inimical to the gov- ernment and political institutions of the United States ; with him, his oath of allegiance is worth no more than the paper upon which it is written."
At a meeting in Glasgow, Oct. 5th, 1875, Dr. J. P. Thompson introduced the following resolution: " That, in the judgment of this Meeting, the Papacy, as ex- emplified in the Vatican Decrees, is the most perfected of all existing forms of tyranny, inasmuch as it aims at placing in the hands of a single irresponsible man the conscience of individuals, the civil government of nations, and the supreme control of the spiritual affairs and temporal interests of the world." To show that this construction of the Pope's demands and assump- tions is not unfair, permit me to quote some high Cath- olic authorities. Bishop Gilmour in his Lenten Letter, March, 1873, said: "Nationalities must be subordi- nate to religion, and we must learn that we are Catho- lics first and citizens next. God is above man, and the church above the state." Cardinal McCloskey says: •''They (the Catholics of the United States) are as strongly devoted to the sustenance and maintenance of the temporal power of the Holy Father as Catholics in any part of the world ; and if it should be necessary to prove it by acts, they are ready to do so." In a ser-
PEBILS. ROMANISM. 53
mon, preached when he was Archbishop, Cardinal Manning put the following sentences in the mouth of the Pope : "I acknowledge no civil power ; I am the subject of no prince ; and I claim more than this. I claim to be the supreme judge and director of the con- sciences of men; of the peasant that tills the fields, and of the prince that sits upon the throne ; of the household that lives in the shade of privacy, and the legislator that makes laws for kingdoms ; I am the sole, last, supreme judge of what is right and wrong." He also says : " Moreover, we declare, affirm, define, and pronounce it to be necessary to salvation for every human creature to be subject to the Eoman Pontiff." Of the utter degradation of reason, and the stifling of conscience the teaching of Cardinal Bellarmine affords a good example : " If the Pope should err by enjoin- ing vices or forbidding virtues, the Church would be obliged to believe vices to be good and virtues bad, un- less it would sin against conscience."*
Manifestly there is an irreconcilable difference be- tween papal principles and the fundamental principles of our free institutions. Popular government is self- government. A nation is capable of self-government only so far as the individuals who compose it are capable of self-government. To place one's con- science, therefore, in the keeping of another, and to disavow all personal responsibility in obeying the dictation of another, is as far as possible from self- control, and, therefore, wholly inconsistent with repub- lican institutions, and, if common, dangerous to their stability. It is the theory of absolutism in the state, that man exists for the state. It is the theory of
*Dr. Littledale'a " Plain Reasons Against Joining the Church of Rome," page 129.
34 PERILS. ROMANISM.
absolutism in the church, that man exists for the church. But in republican and Protestant America it is believed that church and state exist for man and are to be administered by him. Our fundamental ideas of society, therefore, are as radically opposed to Vaticanism as to Imperialism. And it is as inconsistent with our liberties for American citizens to yield allegi- ance to the Pope as to the Czar.
Second. Our brief examination of the underlying principles of Romanism almost renders superfluous any consideration of its attitude toward our free institu- tions. If alive, it must necessarily be aggressive ; and it is alive. Cardinal Manning advises Romanists throughout the world to enter politics as Romanists, and to do this especially in England and the United States. In our large cities the priests are already in politics, and to some purpose. The authorities of New York city, during the eleven years preceding 1880 gave to the Roman church real estate valued at $3,500,000, and money to the amount of $5,827,471 ; this in ex- change for Romish votes, and every cent of it paid in violation of law. This suggests, in passing, that the Catholic church is storing up power by amassing im- mense wealth. Father Hecker says that the aggregate wealth of the Roman church in the United States in- creased from nine millions in 1850 to twenty-six mil- lions in 1860, and to sixty millions in 1870.
Here are some predictions : " There is ere long to be a State religion in this country, and that State re- ligion is to be Roman Catholic." — Father Hecker, 1870. " The man to-day is living who will see a ma- jority of the people of the American continent Roman Catholics." — Boston Pilot. "Effectual plans are in operation to give us the complete victory over Protest-
PERILS, ROMANISM. 55
antism." — A former Bishop of Cincinnati. "Within thirty years, the Protestant heresy will come to an end." — Bishop of Charleston. These utterances are quite worthless as prophecies, but are valuable as con- fessions. They indicate unmistakably the attitude of Romanism in the United States. There surely can be no question on that point since the open declaration of the Pope that "America is the hope of Rome." Half a century ago, Gregory XVI., who held that "the sal- vation of the church would come from America," said: " Out of the Roman States there is no country where I am Pope, except the United States."
Third. Many who are well acquainted with the true character of Romanism are indifferent to it, because not aware of the rapid growth of the Catholic church in the United States. They tell us, and truly, that Rome loses great numbers of adherents here through the in- fluence of our free schools, free institutions, and the strong pervasive spirit of independence which is so hostile to priestly authority. But let us not congratu- late ourselves too soon. The losses of Romanism in the United States are not, to any extent, the gains of Protestantism. When a man, born in the Catholic church, loses confidence in the only faith of which he has any knowledge, he does not examine Protestantism, but sinks into skepticism. Romanism is chiefly re- sponsible for German and French infidelity. For, when a mind to which thought and free inquiry have been forbidden as a crime attains its intellectual ma- jority, the largeness of liberty is not enough; it reacts into license and excess. Skepticism and infidelity are the legitimate children of unreasoning and superstitious credulity, and the grandchildren of Rome. Apostate Catholics are swelling our most dangerous classes.
56 PERILS. ROMANISM.
Unaccustomed to think for themselves, and having thrown off authority, they become the easy victims of socialists or nihilists, or any other wild and dangerous propagandists.
But, notwithstanding the great losses thus sustained by Romanism in the United States, it is growing with great rapidity. In 1800 the Catholic population was 100,000. In 1884, according to official statistics, it was 6,628,176. At the beginning of the century there was one Catholic to every 53 of the whole population ; i& 1850, one to 14.3 ; in 1870, one to 8.3 ; in 1880, one to 7.7. Thus it appears that, wonderful as the growth cf our population has been since 1800, the growth of the Catholic church has been much more rapid. Dr. Dor- chester, in his valuable and inspiring work, Problem oj Religious Progress, easily shows that the actual gains of Protestantism in the United States, during the cen^ tury, have been much larger than those of Catholicism, and seems disposed, in consequence, to dismiss all anxiety as to the issue of the race between them. But it is the relative rather than the actual gains which are prophetic. From 1800 to 1880 the population in- creased nine-fold, the membership of all evangelical churches twenty-seven-fold, and the Catholic popula- tion sixty-three-fold. Not much importance, however, should be attached to this comparison, as the Catholic population was insignificant in 1800, and a small ad- dition sufficed to increase it several-fold. But in 1850 the Catholic church was nearly one-half as large as all evangelical Protestant churches. Let us, then, look at their relative progress since that time. From 1850 to 1880 the population increased 116 per cent., the communicants of evangelical churches 185 per cent., and the Catholic population 294 per cent. From 1850
PERILS. BOMANISM. 57
to 1880 the number of evangelical churches increased 125 per cent.; during the same period Catholic churches increased 447 per cent. From 1870 to 1880 the churches of all evangelical denominations increased 49 per cent., while Catholic churches multiplied 74 per cent. From 1870 to 1880 the ministers of evangelical churches increased in number 46 per cent., Catholic priests 61 per cent. From 1850 to 1870, ministers in- creased 86 per cent., priests 204 per cent. From 1850 to 1880, ministers increased 173 per cent., and priests 391 per cent. In 1850 the Catholic population was equal to 45 per cent, of the evangelical church-member* ship, in 1870 it was equal to 68 per cent., and in 1880 it equaled 63 per cent., a slight relative loss. During the ten years Romanism gained largely on Protestant- ism in the number of churches and ministers ; but lost slightly in the* number of communicants ; a loss due to the- falling off of immigration during the last half of the period. Examination shows that the growth of the Catholic church corresponds closely with that of the foreign population, but is somewhat more rapid. Since 1880 there has been a marked increase in the Catholic population. The average annual growth of the latter from 1870 to 1880 was 176,733, while from 1883 to 1884 it was 231,322.
It has been shown that during the remainder of the century or longer, the rate of immigration will un- doubtedly increase. The ratio of growth of the Cath- olic church will, therefore, increase, and it will con- tinue to make a rapid gain on the Protestant denomina- tions. But this is not all. Rome, with characteristic foresight, is concentrating her strength in the western territories. As the West is to dominate the nation, she intends to dominate the West. In the United States a
58 PERILS. — ROMANISM.
little less than one-eighth of the population is Catho- lic ; in the territories taken together, more than one- third. In the whole country there are not quite two- thirds as many Catholics as there are members of evangelical churches. Not including Arizona and New Mexico, which have a large native Catholic population, the six remaining territories had in 1880 four times as many Romanists as there were members in all Protes- tant denominations collectively ; and, including Arizona and New Mexico, Rome had eighteen times as many as all Protestant bodies. We are told that the native Catholics of Arizona and New Mexico are not as ener- getic as the Protestants who are pushing into those territories. True, but they are energetic enough to be counted. The most wretched members of society count as much at the polls as the best, and too often much more. It is poor consolation which is drawn from the ignorance of any portion of our population. Those de- graded peoples are clay in the hands of the Jesuits. When the Jesuits were driven out of Berlin, they de- clared that they would plant themselves in the western territories of America. And they are there to-day with empires in their brains. Expelled for their intrigues even from Catholic countries, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, and other states, they are free to colon- ize in the great West, and are there gathering and plotting to Romanize and control our western empire. Rev. J. H. Warren, D.D., writes from California, in which state there are four times as many Romanists as Protestant church-members: "The Roman Catholic power is fast becoming an overwhelming evil. Their schools are everywhere, and number probably 200 in the state. Their new college of St. Ignatius is, we are told, the largest, finest, best equipped of its kind in the
PEKILS. MOBMONISM. 59
United States. They blow no trumpets, are sparing with statistics, but are at work night and day to break down the institutions of the country, beginning with the public schools. As surely as ws live, so surely will tho conflict come, and it will be a hard one."*
Lafayette, himself a Romanist, was not wholly bliftd when he said : "If the liberties of the American peo- ple are ever destroyed, they will fall by the the Romish clergy."
CHAPTER YL
PERILS. MOBMONISM.
THE people of the United States are more sensible of the disgrace of Mormonism than of its danger. The civilized world wonders that such a hideous cari- cature of the Christian religion should have appeared in this most enlightened land ; that such an anachro- nism should have been produced by the most progress- ive civilization; that the people who most honor womankind should be the ones to inflict on her this deep humiliation and outrageous wrong. Polygamy, as the most striking feature of the Mormon monster, attracts the public eye. It is this which at the same time arouses interest and indignation; and it is be- cause of this that Europe points at us the finger of shame. Polygamy is the issue between the Mormons
* Sermon of Rev. E. P. Goodwin, D.D., before the American Home Mis- sionary Society, May 9tn, 1880,
60 PERILS. MORMONISM.
and the United States government. It is this which prevents Utah's being admitted as a state. It is this against which congress has legislated. And yet, polygamy is not an essential part of Mormonism; it was an after-thought ; not a root, but a graft. There is a large and growing sect of the Mormons,* not lo- cated in Utah, which would excommunicate a member for practicing it. Nor is polygamy a very large part of Mormonism. Not more than one man in ten prac- tices it. Moreover, it can never become general among the " saints," for nature has legislated on that point, and her laws admit of no evasions. In Utah, as else- where, there are more males born than females ; and, in the membership of the Mormon church, there are some 6,000 more men than women.
Polygamy might be utterly destroyed, without seri- ously weakening Mormonism. It serves to strengthen the system somewhat by thoroughly entangling its vic- tim in the Mormon net ; for a polygamist is not apt to apostatize. He has multiplied his "hostages to for- tune"; he cannot abandon helpless wives and children as easily as he might turn away from pernicious doc- trines. Moreover, he has arrayed himself against the government with law-breakers. Franklin's saying to the signers of the Declaration of Independence is ap- propriately put into the mouths of this class: "If we don't hang together, we shall all hang separately." Still, it may be questioned whether polygamy adds more of strength or weakness; for its evil results doubtless often lead the children of such marriages, and many others, to question the faith, and finally abandon it.
* The Josephites, scattered through the United States, are law-abiding citizens, deluded, but inoffensive.
PERILS. — MORMONISM. 61
What, then, is the real strength of Mormonism ? It is ecclesiastical despotism which holds it together, unifies it, and makes it strong. The Mormon church is probably the most complete organization in the world. To look after a Mormon population of 138S000, there are 28,838 officials, or more than one to every five persons. And, so highly centralized is the power, that all of these threads of authority are gathered into one hand, that of President Taylor. The priesthood, of which he is the head, claim the right to control in all things religious, social, industrial and political. Brig- ham Young asserted his right to manage in every par- ticular, " from the setting up of a stocking to the rib- bons on a woman's bonnet." Here is a claim to abso- lute and universal rule, which is cheerfully conceded by every orthodox " saint." Mormonism, therefore, is not simply a church, but a state ; an " imperium in im- perio" ruled by a man who is prophet, priest, king and pope, all in one — a pope, too, who is not one whit less infallible than he who wears the tiara. And, as one would naturally expect of an American pope, and especially of an enterprising western pope, he out- popes the Eoman by holding familiar conversation with the Almighty, and getting, to order, new revela- tions direct from heaven; and, another advantage which is more material, he keeps a firm hold of his temporal power. Indeed, it looks as if the spiritual were being subordinated to the temporal. Rev. W. M. Barrows, D.D., after a residence at the Mormon capital of nearly eight years, said ':* " There is no doubt that it is becoming less and less a religious power, and more and more a political power. The
* Address at the Home Missionary Anniversary, in Chicago, June 8ta, 1881.
. — MORMONISM.
first Mormon preachers were ignorant fanatics; but most of them were honest, and their woids carried a weight that sincerity always carries, even in a bad cause. The preachers now have the ravings of the Sibyl, but lack the inspiration. Their talk sounds hollow ; the ring of sincerity is gone. But their eyes are dazzled now with the vision of an earthly empire. They have gone back to the old Jewish idea of a tem- poral kingdom, and they are endeavoring to set up such a kingdom in the valleys of Utah and Idaho and Montana, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico, Ari- zona and Nevada."
If there be any doubt as to the designs of the Mor- mons, let the testimony of Bishop Lunt be conclusive on that point. He said, a few years ago: "Like a grain of mustard- seed was the truth planted in Zion; and it is destined to spread through all the world. Our church has been organized only fifty years, and yet behold its wealth and power. This is our year of jubi- lee. We look forward with perfect confidence to the day when we will hold the reins of the United States government. That is our present temporal aim ; after that, we expect to control the continent." When told that such a scheme seemed rather visionary, in view of the fact that Utah cannot gain recognition as a state, the Bishop replied: "Do not be deceived; we are looking after that. We do not care for these terri- torial officials sent out to govern us. They are no- bodies here. We do not recognize them, neither do we fear any practical interference by congress. We intend to have Utah recognized as a state. To-day we hold the balance of political power in Idaho, we rule Utah absolutely, and in a very short time we will hold the balance of power in Arizona and Wyoming.
PERILS.— MORMONISM. 63
A few months ago, President Snow, of St. George, set out with a band of priests, for an extensive tour through Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho and Arizona, to proselyte. We also expect to send missionaries to some parts of Nevada, and we de- sign to plant colonies in Washington Territory.
"In the past six months we have sent more than 3,000 of our people down through the Sevier valley to settle in Arizona, and the movement still progresses. All this will build up for us a political power, which will, in time, compel the homage of the demagogues of the country. Our vote is solid, and will remain so. It will be thrown where the most good will be accom- plished for the church. Then, in some great political crisis, the two present political parties will bid for our support. Utah will then be admitted as a polygamous state, and the other territories we have peacefully subjugated will be admitted also. We will then hold the balance of power, and will dictate to the country. In time, our principles, which are of sacred origin, will spread throughout the United States. We possess the ability to turn the political scale in any particular com- munity we desire. Our people are obedient. When they are called by the church, they promptly obey. They sell their houses, lands and stock, and remove to any part of the country the church may direct them to. You can imagine the results which wisdom may bring about, with the assistance of a church organization like ours."
The astute bishop does not over-estimate the effect- iveness of the Mormon church as a colonizer. An order is issued by the authorities that a certain dis- trict shall furnish so many hundred emigrants for Ari- zona or Idaho. The families <,re drafted, so many
64 PEBILS. MORMONISM.
from a ward ; and each ward or district equips its own quota with wagons, animals, provisions, implements, seed and the like. Thus the Mormon president can mass voters here or there about as easily as a general can move his troops.
By means of this systematic colonization the Mor- mons have gained possession of vast tracts of land, Jtnd now " hold almost all the soil fit for agriculture from the Rocky Mountains to the Sierra Nevada, or an area not less than 500 miles by 700, making 350,000 square miles'';* that is, one-sixth of the entire acreage between the Mississippi and Alaska. In this extended region it is designed to plant a Mormon population sufficiently numerous to control it. With this in view, the church sends out from 200 to 400 missionaries a year, most of whom labor in Europe. They generally return after two years of service at their own charges. If any of the converts are too poor to reach " Zion" unaided, they are assisted by loans from the " Perpet- ual Emigration Fund," founded in 1849. The number of proselytes from the Old "World is steadily increas- ing. During the first ten years after the founding of the emigration fund the annual average was 750, for the next decade it was 2,000, for the last five years the number has ranged from 2,500 to 3,000. The losses by apostasy f are many, but are more than covered by
* Rev. D. L. Leonard^ Home Missionary Superintendent for "Utah, Idaho, Montana and West Wyoming.
t We may learn ere long that there is as little occasion for congratulation over Mormon apostasy as over Eoman Catholic. The Mormon, in his mental make-up, is a distinct type. There are men in every community who were born for the Mormon church. Let ono of the missionaries of the " Saints" appear, and he attracts this class as naturally as a magnet attracts iron fil- ings in a handful of sand. They are waiting to hear and believe some new thing ; they are driven about by every wind of doctrine ; they have probably been members of several different religious denominations ; tk«y are credu-
PEEILS. — -MORMONISM. 65
the number of converts, while the natural increase of the church by the growth of the family is exceedingly large. Furthermore, to the growing power of multi- plying numbers is added that of rapidly increasing wealth. The Mormons are industrious — a lazy man cannot enter their heaven — and the tithing of the in- crease adds constantly to the vast sums already gathered in the grasping hands of the hierarchy. The Mormon delegate to Congress, who carries a hundred thousand votes in one hand, and millions of corruption money in the other, will prove a dangerous man in Washington, unless politicians grow strangely virtu- ous, and there are fewer itching palms twenty years hence.
Bishop Lunt is not altogether alone in the anticipa- tions quoted above. Hon. Schuyler Coif ax says:* " With Utah overwhelmingly dominated by the Mor- mon Theocracy of their established church, and wield- ing, also, as they already claim, the balance of power in the adjoining territories, this Turkish barbarism may control the half-dozen new states of our Interior, and, by the power of their Senators and Representa- tives, in both branches of our Congress, may even dic- tate to the nation itself." Those best acquainted with Mormonism seem most sensible of the danger which it threatens. The pastors of churches and principals of schools in Salt Lake City, in an address to American citizens, say :f "We recognize the fact that the so-called
lous and superstitious, and are easily led in the direction of their inclina- tions ; they love reasoning, but hate reason ; they are capable of a blind de- votion, and strongly incline to fanaticism. In a word, they are cranky. A Church largely made up of such material will, of course, multiply apostates. The Mormon church is a machine which manufactures tinder for socialistic fire.
* The Advance, Aug. 24th, 1882.
t Hand-book of Mormonism, p. 94.
66 PERILS. MORMONISM.
Mormon Church, in its exercise of political power, is antagonistical to American institutions, and that there is an irrepressible conflict between Utah Mormonism and American republicanism; so much so that they can never abide together in harmony. We also believe that the growth of this anti-republican power is such that, if not checked speedily, it will cause serious trouble in the near future. "We fear that the nature and extent of this danger are not fully comprehended by the nation at large."
If the Mormon power had its seat in an established commonwealth like Ohio, such an ignorant and fanat- ical population, rapidly increasing, and under the abso- lute control of unscrupulous leaders, who openly avowed their hostility to the state, and lived in con- temptuous violation of its laws, would be a disturbing element which would certainly endanger the peace of society. Indeed, the Mormons, when much less pow- erful than they are to-day, could not be tolerated in Missouri or Illinois. And Mormonism is ten-fold more dangerous in the new West, where its power is greater, because the " Gentile" population is less ; where it has abundant room to expand ; where, in a new and unor- ganized society, its complete organization is the more easily master of the situation ; and where state consti- tutions and laws, yet unformed, and the institutions of society, yet plastic, are subject to its molding influ- ence.
And what are we going to do about it ? Thus far, legislation against polygamy has accomplished but lit- tie. Each new law has been "answered" by an in- creased number of polygamous marriages. Happily there have been some convictions of late; but it is always difficult to convict criminals by a jury where
PEKILS. — MORMOKtSM. 67
public sentiment is against the law which has been vio- lated. Nevertheless, something can be done by legis- lation. Where the dignity of the law is held in con- tempt there must be found some way to make the arm of the law felt.* But we have seen that, if polygamy were entirely suppressed, it might not seriously cripple the power of Mormonism. Any blow to be effective must be aimed at the priestly despotism. The power of the hierarchy is enhanced by the great wealth of the church. The sequestration of that wealth, there- fore, would, in some measure, disable the hierarchy. "Senator Hoar proposes that a commission be ap- pointed to take over the property of the organization called the Mormon church, and to apply to the pur- poses of supporting common schools in this polyg- amous territory the funds which have been collected contrary to law, and in excess of authority, in the Mormon Endowment Houses, "f The proposition was approved by the judiciary committee of the Senate. But the power of the priesthood existed before that wealth was accumulated. It was their power which made that accumulation possible. The proposed blow, therefore, though it might be helpful, would not go to the root of the matter. Belief in the divine inspira- tion, and hence infallibility of the priesthood, is the se- cret power of the system, and a veritable Pandora's box out of which may spring any possible delusion or excess. Said Heber C. Kimball, formerly one of the Apostles : " The word of our Leader and Prophet is the word of God to this people. "We cannot see God. We cannot hold converse with him. But he has given us a
* For some valuable suggestions on this point see " How Shall the Mor- mon Question be Settled?" From an address by Dr. Barrows at the Home Missionary Anniversary, in Chicago, June 8th, 1881.
t Josepn Cook, Lecture, " What Shall be Done with Mormonism ?"
68 PERILS. MORMOWISM.
man that we can talk to and thereby know his will, just as well as if God himself were present with us." Special "revelations" to the head of the church, even if directly contrary to the Scriptures, or the Book of Mormon, are absolutely binding. The latter says:* "Wherefore I, the Lord God, will not suffer that this people do like unto them of old ; wherefore, my breth- ren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord. For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife ; and concubines he shall have none." Yet a special " revelation'" sufficed to establish polygamy. Mormon despotism, then, has its roots in the supersti- tion of the people ; and this Congress cannot legislate away. The people must be elevated and enlightened through the instrumentality of the Christian school and the preaching of the gospel. This work is being effectively done by the New West Education Commis- sion and the American Home Missionary Society. It is chiefly to such agencies that we must look to break the Mormon power.
CHAPTER VII.
PERILS. INTEMPEEANCE.
To touch so vast a subject, and only touch it, is diffi- cult. Let us consider briefly but two points — the dan- ger of intemperance as enhanced by the progress of civilization, and the Liquor Power. I. The progress
* Book of Jacob, Chap. II, verse 6.
PEKILS. INTEMPERANCE. 69
of civilization brings men into closer contact. The three great civilizing instrumentalities of the age, moral, mental and material, are Christianity, the press and steam, which respectively bring together men's hearts, minds and bodies into more intimate and mul- tiplied relations. Christianity is slowly binding the race into a brotherhood. The press transforms the earth into an audience room ; while the steam engine, so far as commerce is concerned, has annihilated, say, nine-tenths of space.
Observe how this bringing of men into closer and multiplied relations has served to increase the excite- ments of life, to quicken our rate of living. The Chris- tian religion is an excitant. In proportion as it leads men to recognize and accept their responsibility for others, it arouses them to action in their behalf, under the stress of the most urgent motives. The press and telegraph, by bringing many minds into contact, have ministered marvelously to the activity of the popular intellect. Isolation tends to stagnation. Intercourse quickens thought, feeling, action. Steam has stimulat- ed human activity almost to a fury. By prodigiously lengthening the lever of human power, by bringing the country to the city, the inland cities to the sea- board, the seaports to each other, it has multiplied many-fold every form of intercourse. By establishing industries on an immense scale it has greatly compli- cated business ; while severe and increasing competi- tion demands closer study, a greater application of energy, a larger expenditure of mental power.
Thus it would seem that these three great forces of civilization move along parallel lines, and co-operate in stimulating the nations to an activity ever more in- tense and exciting ; so that the progress of civilization
70 MJBtLS.
seems to involve an increasing strain on the nervous system. These influences will be better appreciated if we compare, for a moment, ancient and modern civiliza- tion. Look at life in Athens, Jerusalem or Babylon, when they were centers of civilization, as compared with Paris, London, or New York. The chief men of an Oriental city might be found sitting in the gate gossiping, or possibly philosophizing. Those of an Oc- cidental metropolis are deep in schemes of commerce, manufacture, politics or philanthropy, weaving plans whose threads reach out through all the land, and even to the ends of the earth. The Eastern merchant sits in his bazaar, as did his ancestor two or three thousand years ago, and chaffers with his customers by the hour over a trifle. The "Western and modern business man is on his feet. The two attitudes are representative. Ancient civilization was sedentary and contemplative ; ours is active and practical. " Multum inparvo " is its maxim. Immense results brought about in a few days, or even minutes, hurry the mind through a wide range of experience, and compress, it may be, years into hours. I am not at all sure that Abraham Lincoln did not live longer than Methuselah. In point of experi- ence, results, acquisitions, enjoyment and sorrow — in all that makes up life, save the mere factor of time — I am. not at all sure that the antediluvians were not the children, and the men of this generation the aged pa- triarchs. And life is fuller and more intense, activity is more eager and restless here in the United States than anywhere else in the world. We work more days in a year, more hours in a day, and do more work in an hour than the most active people of Europe.*
* These statements could be abundantly confirmed, but it is presumed they will not be doubted. The point will be further developed in a later chapter.
PEEILS. INTEMPEBANCE. 71
If we were quite unacquainted with the results of this feverish activity of modern civilization, and especially of American civilization, reason would en- able us to anticipate those results. Such excitements, such restless energy, such continued stress of the nerves, must, in course of a few generations, decidedly change the nervous organization of men. We know that the progress of civilization has refined tempera- ments, has rendered men more susceptible and sensi- tive. A tragedy that is a nine days' horror with us would hardly have attracted more than a passing glance in old Eome, whose gentle matrons made a holiday by attending gladiatorial shows, and seeing men kill each other for Roman sport at the rate of 10,000 in a single reign. And when brothers met in the arena, and lacked the nerve to strike each other down, red-hot irons were pressed against their naked, quivering flesh to goad them on, while these same mothers shouted: " Kill !" We complain sometimes that modern life has become too largely one of feeling. It is true the many live lives of impulse, rather than of principle ; but it is also true that the springs of human sympathy were never so easily touched as now. Such wide differences in men's sensibilities argue not only a difference of -edu- cation, but a change in the world's nerves.*
Physicians tell us that going from the equator north, and from the arctic regions south, nervous disorders increase until a climax is reached in the temperate zone. An eminent physician of New York, the late Dr. George M. Beard, who has made nervous diseases a specialty, says that they are comparatively rare in
* Since writing the above, I find the following sentence in Dr. Geo- M. Beard's American Nervousness, p. 118: "Fineness of organization, wb^ch is essential to the development of the civilization -of modern times, i» %r> eompanied by intensified mental susceptibility."
72 PEBILS. INTEMPERANCE.
Spain, Italy and the northern portions of Europe, also in Canada and the Gulf States, but very common in our Northern States and in Central Europe. And this belt, it will be observed, coincides exactly with the zone of the world's greatest activity; and further, where this activity is greatest ; viz., in the United States, these nervous disorders are the most frequent. Dr. Beard begins an exceedingly interesting work* on nerv- ous exhaustion with these sentences: "There is a large family of functional nervous disorders that are increasingly frequent among the indoor classes of civ- ilized countries, and that are especially frequent in the northern and eastern parts of the United -States. The sufferers from these maladies are counted in this coun- try by thousands and hundred of thousands ; in all the Northern and Eastern States they are found in nearly every brain- working household." After speaking of certain numerous and wide-spread nervous diseases among us, he adds : " In Europe these affections are but little known." They are all diseases of civilization, and of modern civilization, and mainly of the nineteenth century, and of the United States. "Neurasthenia," which is the name he gives to nervous exhaustion, "is," he says, "comparatively a modern disease, its symptoms surprisingly more frequent now than in the last century ; and is an American disease, in this, that it is very much more common here than in any other part of the civilized world."
When we consider that the increased activity of modern civilization is attended by new and increasing nervous disorders, that the belt of prevalent nervous diseases coincides exactly with that of the world's greatest activ- ity, and, further, that in this belt, where the activity is
* Entitled Neurasthenia,
PERILS. — INTEMPERANCE. 73
by far the most intense, nervous affections are by far the most common, it is evident that the intensity of modern life has already worked, and continues to work, important changes in men's nervous organization. The American people are rapidly becoming the most nervous, the most highly organized, in the world, if, indeed, they are not already such. And the causes, climatic and other, which have produced this result, continue operative.
Be it observed now that nervous people are exposed to a double danger from intoxicating liquors. In the first place, they are more likely than others to desire stimulants. Says Dr. Beard: "When the nervous sys- tem loses, through any cause, much of its nervous force, so that it cannot stand upright with ease and comfort, it leans on the nearest and most convenient artificial support that is capable of temporarily prop- ping up the enfeebled frame. Anything that gives ease, sedation, oblivion, such as chloral, chloroform, opium or alcohol, may be resorted to at first as an in- cident, and finally as a habit. Such is the philosophy of opium and alcohol inebriety. Not only for the re- lief of pain, but for the relief of exhaustion, deeper and more distressing than pain, do both men and women resort to the drug shop. I count this one of the great causes of the recent increase of opium* and alcohol inebriety among women."
As a nation grows more nervous, its use of in- toxicating liquors increases. In Great Britain, Bel- gium, Holland and Germany, which are the European countries lying in the nervous belt, there has been a
* There were imported into the United States in 1869, 90,99T pounds o/ opium ; in 1874, 170,706 pounds ; in 1877, 230,102 pounds ; during the fiscal year ending in 1880, 553,451 pounds ; an increase of more than six-fold in eleven years.
74 PERILS. — INTEMPERANCE.
marked increase in the use of alcohol during recent years. Since 1840, its consumption in Belgium has increased 238 per cent. In 1869 there were 120,000 saloons in Prussia ; in 1880 there were 165,000. From 1831 to 1872, while the population (not including re- cent annexations) increased 53 per cent., whisky sa-' loons increased 91 per cent. For all Germany, the in- crease in consumption of spirituous liquors, per caput, from 1872 to 1875, was 23.5 per cent. The German correspondent of the New York Nation writes: " Within the last few years dram and whisky drinking has, with fearful rapidity, spread more and more among the working classes. Even in wine-growing and beer-producing countries, alcohol is taking the place of lighter beverages." In Great Britain, during the year 1800, a population of 15,000,000 consumed a little less than 12,000,000 gallons of spirits. Fifty years later, a population of 27,000,000 consumed 28,- 000,000 gallons. In 1874, a population of 32,000,000 consumed 41,000,000 gallons. That is, while the population increased 113 per cent., the consumption of spirituous liquors increased 241 per cent. From 1868 to 1877 (the latest statistics to which I have access), while the population increased less than ten per cent., the amount of spirituous liquors consumed increased thirty-seven per cent. "In the United States," says The Voice,* a careful and accurate au- thority, " the consumption of beer has increased, since 1840, 1,675 per cent., of wine 400 per cent., and of ardent spirits over 200 per cent.f (these are not our es- timates, but are figures taken from the governmental official reports)." According to these official reports, the people of the United States used four gallons of
* Sept. 25tll, 1884.
t During the same period tlie population increased about 217 per cent.
PEHILS. INTEMPERANCE. 76
intoxicating drinks per caput in 1840, and twelve gallons per caput in 1883. During the five years pre- ceding 1884, while the population increased about 15 per cent., the consumption of distilled spirits increased 44.5 per cent., and that of malt liquors 60.2 per cent. The production of the latter has risen from 1,628,934 barrels in 1863 to 18,998,619 barrels in 1884.
It should be remembered that at the beginning of this century liquors were on every side-board, and conscientious scruples against their moderate use were almost unheard of. To-day there are many millions of teetotalers both in this country and in Great Britain. Especially during the past twenty years, while the manufacture of intoxicants in the United States has so rapidly increased, the temperance reform has made wonderful progress, and the proportion of teetotalers is much greater to-day than ever before. And yet there is much more liquor used per caput now than formerly ; showing, conclusively, that there is much more of excess now than then ; declaring that, as a nation grows nervous, those who drink at all are more apt to drink immoderately.
Again, in the second place, men of nervous organiza- tion are not only more likely than others to use al- cohol, and to use it to excess, but its effects in their case are worse and more rapid. The wide difference between a nervous and a phlegmatic temperament accounts for the fact that one man will kill himself with drink in four or five years, and another in forty or fifty. The phlegmatic man is but little sensitive to stimulus ; hence, when its influence wears off, there is little reaction. He, accordingly, forms the appetite slowly, and the process of destruction is slow. An- other man, of fine nervous organization, takes a glass
76 PERILS. — INTEMPERANCE.
of spirits, and every nerve in his body tingles and leaps. The reaction is severe, and the nerves cry out for more. The appetite, rapidly formed, soon becomes uncontrollable, and the miserable end is not long de- layed. The higher development of the nervous sys- tem, which comes with the progress of civilization, renders men more sensitive to pain, more susceptible to the evil results which attend excess of any kind. Savages may, almost with impunity, transgress laws of health which would inflict on civilized men, for like transgression, penalties well-nigh or quite iatal. It would seem as if God intended that, as men sin against the greater light which comes with increasing civiliza- tion, they should suffer severer punishment.
It has been shown that the use of intoxicants is more dangerous for this generation than it has been for any preceding generation ; that it is more danger- ous for inhabitants of the nervous belt than for the re- mainder of mankind; that it is more dangerous for the people of the United States than for other inhabit- ants of this belt. It remains to be shown that it is more dangerous for the people of the West than for those of the East.
Among the principal causes which are operative to render the typical American temperament more nervous than the European is the greater dryness of our cli- mate. " Dr. Max von Pettenkof er has concluded, from the investigations he has made into the comparative loss of heat experienced by a person breathing dry air and one breathing damp air, that with the dry air more heat is lost and more created, and, in conse- quence, the circulation is quicker and more intense, life is more energetic, and there is no opportunity for the excessive accumulation of fat or flesh, or for the
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development of a phlegmatically nervous tempera- ment." * The mountain region of the West has by far the dryest atmosphere of any portion of the coun- try. The writer has often seen Long's Peak by moon- light at a distance of eighty miles. The wonderful transparency of that mountain air is due to the ab- sence of moisture. Such a climate is itself a wine, and life in it is greatly intensified, with corresponding re- sults in the nervous system. We should, accordingly, expect to find a marked increase of intemperance. And such is the case. In the Mississippi valley, where the altitude is low, and the atmosphere moist, there is much less intemperance than in the mountains, as appears from the ratio of voters to saloons. Take the tier of states and territories next east of the Rocky Mountain range. In 1880, Dakota had 95 voters to every saloon ; f Nebraska, 133 ; Kansas, 224 ; and Texas, 136. But notice the change as soon as we reach the high altitudes. Montana had only 28 voters to each saloon; Wyoming, 43; Colorado, 37; New Mexico, 26 ; Arizona, 25 ; Utah, 84 ; Idaho, 35 ; Wash- ington, 68 ; Oregon, 58 ; California, 37 ; and Nevada, 32. The average for the states between the Missis- sippi and the Eocky Mountains was one saloon to every 112.5 voters. In the eleven mountain states and territories, the average was one saloon to every 43 voters. East of the Mississippi, the average was one saloon to every 107.7 voters. If our assumption that the ratio of saloons to voters correctly measures in- temperance, is just, the people in the western third of
* C. E. Young, in Popular Science Monthly, September, 1880.
t Statistics compiled from Census of 1880, and Internal Revenue of same year. The number of saloons is doubtless much larger than is reported by the Census ; but for comparison between the East and West, or the city and country, the Census statistics answer every purpose.
78 PEBILS. INTEMPERANCE.
the United States are two and one-half times as in- temperate as those in the eastern two-thirds. There are several causes of this, some of which are more or less temporary ; but one of the chief influences is cli- matic, which will continue operative.
We have seen that the progress of civilization brings men into more intimate relations, that closer contact quickens activity, that increased activity refines the nervous system, and that a highly nervou3 organization invites intemperance, and at the same time renders its destructive results swifter and more fatal. Thus the very progress of civilization renders men the easier victims of intemperance. We have also seen that un- der regulation the liquor traffic increases much more rapidly than the population. The alternative, then, seems simple, clear, certain, that civilization must de- stroy the liquor traffic or be destroyed by it. Even here in the East, where there is only one saloon to every 107 voters, this death struggle is desperate, and no man looks for an easy victory over the dragon. What, then, of the far West, where the relative power of the saloon is two-and-a-half times greater I
II. — THE LIQUOE POWER.
The liquor traffic, of course, implies two parties, the buyer and the seller. The preceding discussion re- lates to the former, only a few words touching the lat- ter. According to the Keport of the Commissioner of Internal Eevenue for 1883, there were then in the United States 206,970 liquor dealers and manufactur- ers. Their1 saloons, allowing twenty feet front to each, would reach in an unbroken line from Chicago to New York. There is invested in this business an immense capital. The North American JZeview estimates it at
PERILS. — INTEMPERANCE. 7 9
$1,000,000,000, which is very moderate, if Joseph Cook's statement is correct, that there are $75,000,000 engaged in this traffic in the city of Boston. In an address in the House of Eepresentatives, in favor of the Bonded Whisky Bill, Hon. P. V. Deuster, of Wis- consin, member of Congress, and special champion of the liquor dealers, said that the total market value of the spirituous, malt, and vinous liquors produced in 1883 was $490,961,588. According to the census, the capital invested in their manufacture was, in 1880, $132,051,260. It is generally estimated that the an- nual liquor bill of the nation is $900,000,000. So great wealth in the hands of one class, having common interests and a common purpose, is a mighty power. And this power does not lack organization. There is a combination of all the distillers north of the Ohio, from Pittsburgh to the Pacific. Their success at Washington a few years since in securing legislation which granted to whisky makers peculiar privileges, accorded to no other tax payers, is sufficient evidence of their power. The United States Brewers' Associa- tion was organized in 1862. The object of the organi- zation may be inferred from the introduction to their constitution, where we read: "That the owners of breweries, separately, are unable to exercise a proper influence in the interest of the craft in the legislature and public administration." How this " proper influ- ence" is brought to bear upon legislatures will appear later. That it is potent there can be no doubt. At the Brewers' Congress, held in Buffalo, July 8th, 1868, President Clausen, speaking of the action of the New York branch of the association, relative to the excise law of that state, said : " Neither means nor money were spared during the past twelve months to accom-
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plish the repeal of this detested law. The entire Ger- man population were enlisted." "Editorials favorable to the repeal were published in sixty different English and German newspapers. Just before the election, 30,000 campaign circulars were distributed among the Germans of the different counties. A state con- vention of brewers, hop and malt dealers, hop growers, etc., was largely attended, and resolutions were adopted in which we pledged ourselves to support only such candidates who bound themselves to work for the repeal of the excise law, and thereby check the exertions of the temperance party. These resolutions were published, principally through the English press, in all the counties of the state. By these efforts the former minority in the Assembly was changed to a ma- jority of twenty votes in our favor." The object of this association is not industrial, but avowedly polit- ical. The president said, at the Chicago Congress, in 1867 : " Only by union in brotherly love it will be pos- sible to attain such results, guard against oppressive laws, raise ourselves to be a large and wide-spread po- litical power, and with confidence anticipate complete success in all our undertakings." Again at Davenport, in 1870, President Clausen said : " Unity is necessary, and we must form an organization that not only con- trols a capital of two hundred million dollars, but which also commands thousands of votes, politically, through which our legislators will discern our power." At the Chicago Congress, the brewers resolved : " That we consider it absolutely necessary that our organiza- tion should exist in every state and county." The fol- lowing resolution was passed by the Liquor Dealers and Manufacturers' Association of Illinois, four years ago ; "Resolved, That the maintenance and perfection
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of our present State Association is absolutely neces- sary for the proper protection of our business inter- ests ; that the new Board of Trustees spare neither trouble nor expense to properly -organize every sena- torial district in the state, so that, by the time of the next election of members of the General Assembly, the business men engaged in the liquor trade may be thor- oughly organized and disciplined." The Brewers and Maltsters' Association, of New York, claims to control in that state 35,000 votes.
Let us look now at some of the methods of the Liquor Power. The brewers favor boycotting. The following resolution was passed at their seventh con- gress : "Resolved, That we find it necessary, in a busi- ness point of view, to patronize only such business men as will work hand-in-hand with us." A blacksmith, who was employed by a brewer, served on a jury which convicted a saloon-keeper of selling liquor contrary to law, and in consequence lost his situation. By their own confession, they expend money freely to accomplish their purpose at the polls. The Chicago delegate at the Milkaukee Congress, June 6th, 1877, said : " The brewers of Illinois have expended $10,000 to beat the temperance party at the elections." The Chair said : "Almost every local association has expended large amounts for this purpose." The liquor lobby at Al- bany, New York, at the session of 1878 — 9, admitted before a legislative committee that they had expended about $100,000 to influence legislation. From the con- fessions of an old liquor-dealer and lobbyist* we learn by what methods legislation at Albany was "influ- enced" twenty years ago. After the election and be- fore the legislature convened, " Our correspondents
* C. B. Cotton, in The Voice for Feb. 5th, 1885.
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throughout the state gave us special and truthful de- scriptions of every one of the opposition members, their mode of life, their habits, their eccentricities and their religious views ;. whether they were approachable : with a thorough analysis of their characters in every way, so that we might understand our subjects in ad- vance." If the stiff-necked legislator could not be in- duced to vote directly against temperance measures, or persuaded to " dodge," he must be convinced that he was sick, threatened with diphtheria or something else, and unable to leave his room. A sworn affidavit of the doctor to this effect cost " anywhere from $25 to $100, according to the size of the lie sworn to." These cases of sickness never proved fatal, and recovery was always rapid. "I well remember a senator who was in great distress about a mortgage that was being foreclosed on his house, amounting to about $1,500. This man's trouble came to the knowledge of the lobby. Suddenly one of the lobbyists was missing, and a few days later the senator received his canceled mortgage through the post. He never forgot the favor, nor did his vote do us any harm afterward." Sometimes a member found an elegant suit of clothes hanging over a chair by his bedside in the morning ; and sometimes a rela- tive would be presented with a neat little house. An- other popular method was for a member to receive a package by express from Troy, or some other town near by. "This package always contained a certain sum of money, and it was always so arranged that one of the lobby should be with the gentleman wlien the package came to hand. No receipt was ever taken from the sender in his real name, but the receiver gave the Express Company one in his real name. So we had all the evidence we needed, and the receiver dared not go
PERILS. INTEMPERANCE. 83
back on the compact the transaction covered. From that moment he was at the mercy of the lobby." " If our tactics failed in the legislature, and temperance laws were passed, we went home to defeat their execu- tion. The officers designated to execute these laws were generally elected. If by ourselves, it was all right. If by our opponents, we had to buy them up, and but few were found who would not take a bribe." "Although the liquor lobby, during the last forty years, has used millions of dollars in corrupt bargaining and bribery, and never has made a secret of the fact, yet no member was ever caught in the act, and, it is fair to presume, no one ever will be. There is no way so dark they cannot find their road through." Thus does the Liquor Power corrupt public morals and defeat the popular will.
And this power, which does not hesitate to buj votes or intimidate voters, to defy the law or bribe its officers, comes to its kingdom through political partisanship, which enables it to make one of the two great parties its slave, and the other its minister. Even in the cities the citizens who desire clean govern ment are in the majority; but, instead of uniting to make and enforce good laws, they permit politics to enter into the elections, thus throwing the power into the hands of the bad minority. "There are two things," said D'Alembert, " that can reach the top of the pyramid — the eagle and the reptile." Under the rum government of our cities, the reptile climbs. In 1883, of the twenty-four aldermen of the city of New York, ten were liquor-dealers and two others, including the President of the Boarel, were ex-rumsellers. Impor- tant offices in the city government, which pay a salary of $12,000 or $15,000, have within a few years been
84 PERILS. INTEMPERANCE.
occupied by men who kept "bucket shops" and "all- night " dens ; some had been prize fighters, and others had been tried for the crime of murder. Is it strange if the law in the hands of such men is a dead letter *? Says Anthony Comstock: "I have no doubt many of our influential city politicians are in receipt of a regular revenue in the way of hush money from gambling-sa- loons, brothels and groggeries, and the word is passed all the way down the line to let them alone." Dr. Howard Crosby says : " One of the captains of police is said to have made $70,000 in one year by his carefulness in leaving the law-breakers alone. Anybody with half an eye can see that the exemption of the liquor-selling law-breakers from prosecution is a system and not an accident." "From Police Headquarters goes forth the order, not written but verbal, that the police are not to enforce the excise law. Ihave had my man on the force, and can speak with knowledge of the facts. If a man is arrested for violating an excise law, the next morning the one who arrested him is called up, reprimanded, and the man arrested is discharged, while the policeman is transferred to some far-off dis- trict, the twenty-fourth ward, for instance — that Bot-» any Bay of the police force — if he is not immediately discharged by those four men we call Commissioners." Says the New York Times : " The great underlying evil, which paralyzes every effort to get good laws, and to secure the enforcement of such as we have, is the system of local politics, which gives the saloon-keepers more power over government than is possesssed by all tbe religious and educational institutions in the city." Our cities are growing much more rapidly than the Tffrole population, as is the liquor power also. If this power continues to keep the cities under its heel, what
PERILS. SOCIALISM. 83
of the nation, when the city dominates the country? Such a powerful organization, resorting to such un- scrupulous methods in the interest of a legitimate business — mining, railroading — would be exceedingly dangerous in a republic; and the whole outcome of this traffic, pushed by such wealth, such organized en- ergy and such means, is the corrupting of the citizen and the embruting of the man.
And if the liquor power is a peril at the East, what of the Eocky Mountain region and beyond, where mammonism is more abject, where there is less of Christian principle to resist the bribe, and where the relative power of the liquor traffic is two and a half times greater than at tbe East?
CHAPTEE Yin.
PEEILS. SOCIALISM.
SOCIALISM attempts to solve the problem of suffering without eliminating tne factor of sin. It says : "From each according to his abilities; to each according to his wants." But this dictum of Louis Blanc could be realized only in a perfect society. Forgetting that " there is no political alchemy by which you can get golden conduct out of leaden instincts,"* socialism thinks to regenerate society without regenerating the individual. It proposes to work this regeneration by
* Herbert Spencer, in Contemporary Review, April, 1884, p. 482.
W PEKILS. SOCIALISM.
reorganizing society on a co-operative, instead of a competitive, basis. It talks much of fraternity, but forgets what Maurice finely said, that "there is no fra- ternity without a common Father."
It attracts two very different and almost opposite classes of minds ; the one, men of large heart, philan- thropic, often self-sacrificing, but unpractical. Among this class there are not a few noble and brilliant names. The other class embraces discontented, envious, selfish, and often desperate, men, who are terribly practical in their proposed methods. Some have become discour- aged and sullen under real grievances, others are thoroughly vicious and lawless.
The despotism of the few and the wretchedness of the many have produced European socialism. It has been supposed that its doctrines could never obtain in this land of freedom and plenty ; but there may be a despotism which is not political, and a discontent which does not spring from hunger. We have dis- covered that German socialism has been largely in_ ported, has taken root, and is making a vigorous growth. Let us look at it as it appears in this ^)u&- try. There are two parties in the United States, known as the " Socialistic Labor Party," and the " In- ternational Workingmen's Association." The one is the thin, the other the thick, end of the socialistic wedge. Both seek to overthrow existing social and economic institutions; both propose a co-operative form of production and exchange, as a substitute for the existing capitalistic and competitive system ; both expect a great and bloody revolution ; but they differ widely as to policy and extreme doctrines. The plat- form* of the Socialistic Labor Party contains much
* See the document in Joseph Cook'a " Socialism," pp. 20—22.
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that is reasonable, and is well calculated to disciple American workmen. It does not, as a party, attack the family or religion, and is opposed to anarchy. The International Workingmen's Association, which is much the larger party, is extreme and violent. The ideals of the Internationals are "common property, socialistic production and distribution, the grossest materialism — for their god is their belly, free love, in all social arrangements, perfect individualism; or, in other words, anarchy. Negatively expressed — Away with private property! Away with all authority! Away with the state ! Away with the family ! Away with religion!"* In the manifesto unanimously adopted by the Internationals at Pittsburgh, occurs' the following : " The church finally seeks to make com- plete idiots of the mass, and to make them forego the paradise on earth by promising them a fictitious heaven." "Truth" published in San Francisco, says: "When the laboring men understand that the heaven which they are promised hereafter is but a mirage, they will knock at the door of the wealthy robber, with a musket in hand, and demand their share of the goods of this life now." "Freiheit" the blasphemous paper of Herr Most, thus concludes an article on the " Fruits of the Belief in God": " Keligion, authority and state, are all carved out of the same piece of wood — to the Devil with them all !" The same sheet " ad- vocates a new genealogy, traced from mothers, whose names, and not those of the fathers, descend to the children, since it is never certain who the father is." "Public and common up-bringing of children is likewise
* Prof. R. T. Ely, in The Christian Union. For an able exposition of Re- cent Phases of Socialism in the United States, see articles by Professor Ely, in The Christian Union for April 24th, May 1st, and May 8th, 1884.
88 PEKILS. SOCIALISM.
favored in the 'FreiheitJ in order that the old family may completely abandon the field to free love." *
Having lost all faith in the ballot, the Internationals propose to carry out their " reforms" by force. The following is from the Pittsburgh manifesto : " Agita- tion for the purpose of organization ; organization for the purpose of rebellion. In these few words the ways are marked, which the workers must take if they want to be rid of their chains. We could show, by scores of illustrations, that all attempts in the past to reform this monstrous system by peaceable means, such as the ballot, have been futile, and all such efforts in the future must necessarily be so. There remains but one recourse — force !"
The Central Labor Union had a parade in New York City, September 5th, 1883, in which from ten to fifteen thousand laborers participated. Some of their ban- ners were inscribed as follows : " Workers in the Ten- ements, Idlers in the Brown-stone Fronts"; "Down with Oppressive Capital"; "The Wage System Makes Us Slaves"; " We Must Crush Monopolies Lest They Crush Us"; "Prepare for the Coming Kevolution"; " Every Man Must Have a Breech-loader, and Know How to Use It." The Vbrbote, published in Chicago, glorifies dynamite as "the power which, in our hands, shall make an end of tyranny." Truth says : " War to " the palace, peace to the cottage, death to luxurious idleness. We have no moment to waste. Arm ! I say, to the teeth ! for the revolution is upon you." An ar- ticle in the Freiheit, entitled " Kevolutionary Princi- ples," contained the following : " He (the revolutionist) is the irreconcilable enemy of this world, and, if he continues to live in it, it is only that he may thereby
* Professor Ely, in The Christian Union.
PERILS. — SOCIALISM. 89
more certainly destroy it. He knows only one science — namely, destruction. For this purpose he studies day and night. For him everything is moral which favors the triumph of the revolution, everything is im- moral and criminal which hinders it. Day and night may he cherish only one thought, only one purpose — namely, inexorable destruction. While he pursues this purpose, without rest and in cold blood, he must be ready to die, and equally ready to kill every one with his own hands who hinders him in the attainment of this purpose." There has been recently formed in the United^tates a society called " The Black Hand," which, in its proclamation, urges " the propaganda of deed in every form," and cries: "War to the knife!" The explosions in the Houses of Parliament and Tow- er of London called forth the following declarations at a meeting of socialists in Chicago : " This explosion has demonstrated that socialists can safely go into large congregations in broad daylight and explode their bombs.
" A little hog's grease and a little nitric acid make a terrible explosion. Ten cents' worth would blow a building to atoms.
" Dynamite can be made out of the dead bodies of capitalists as well as out of hogs.
" All Chicago can be set ablaze in a minute by elec- tricity.
" Private property must be abolished, if we have to use all the dynamite there is, and blow ninety-nine hundredths of the people off the face of the earth."
At the tinte of the railroad riots, in 1877, which cost many lives, and not less than a hundred million dol lars of property, and to quell which ten states, reach ing from the Atlantic to the Pacific, called on the Pres
90 PEBILS. SOCIALISM.
ident of the Ignited States for troops, there were but few socialists among us, and they seem to have been taken unawares by the outbreak ; but they will be pre- pared to make the most of the next. The following are stock phrases, found in all their publications: " Get ready for another 1877"; " Buy a musket for a repetition of 1877"; "Buy dynamite for a second 1877"; " Organize companies and drill io be ready for a re- currence of the riots of 1877."
As to the number of socialists in the United States -we have no exact knowledge. • Their press is numerous and is increasing. Moreover, "there are a , very large aumber of papers like the Labor World of Philadel- phia, organs of the Knights of Labor, and other labor organizations, which have many points in common with the socialistic parties, which are growing nearer to them continually, and which undoubtedly help forward the general movement."* The labor papers of Michi- gan claim that, at the elections last fall, nineteen mem- bers of the labor organizations were elected to the State Legislature. In 1878 four socialistic aldermen were elected in Chicago, and the party's candidate for mayor received twelve thousand votes. Three candi- dates for the House of Eepresentatives of Illinois, and one state senator were elected the same year.f Pro- fessor Ely doubts whether there are ten thousand out- spoken adherents of the Socialistic Labor Party in this country. The Internationals are much stronger, and are growing rapidly. A prominent member of this party in Chicago claims twenty-five thousand men, " all armed and drilled." President Seelye, flf Amherst College, says: "There are probably 100,000 men in
* Professor Ely, in the Christian Union, May 8th, 1384. t Quoted by Prof. Ely from the socialist's report published in Detroit, 1880.
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the United States to-day whose animosity against all existing social institutions is hardly less than bound- less "* A writerf in The New Englander for January, 1884, says there are in this country " 200,000 members of labor organizations who are more or less familiar with the doctrines of socialism." This is apparently a very mild statement, as the leading papers of New York C? Yyr claimed, as long ago as the summer of 1881, that " The Knights of Labor " alone numbered 800,000, be- sides many smaller organizations, which are more or less socialistic in their sympathies and ideas, though not avowedly connected with either of the socialistic parties. The Vorbote of Chicago says : " You might as well suppose the military organizations of Europe were for play and parade, as to suppose labor organiza- tions were for mere insurance and pacific helpfulness. They are organized to protect interests, for which, if the time comes, they would fight." But the present strength of socialistic organizations in the United States concerns us less than their prospective numbers. Let us look at the conditions favorable to the growth of socialism. The reception given to the books of Mr. Henry George is one of the signs of the times. " Prog-
* The reception given to Herr Most in this country is significant. His ad- vocacy of assassination as a means of progress was too extreme for the Social-democratic party in Germany, from which he was expelled on ac- count of his views. He has, however, been accorded a warm welcome in the United States. The writer heard him in Cincinnati soon after the riot His subject was, "The Coming Crisis of the World, and the Social Revolu- tion." He began his remarks by saying that some had connected the late riot in this city with his speeches. His defense was that " If the socialists, in their might, and the working men, had arisen, they would not have at- tacked the jail and its murderers, but have gone to the palaces of the rich." Although it was a rainy night the hall was packed with a sympathetic audi- ence, even the standing room being taken. His most bloodthirsty and in- cendiary utterances were applauded to the echo with voice, hand and foot He has met like audiences in other large cities.
t Rev. Edward Kirk Rawsoa,
92 PEKELS. SOCIALISM.
ress and Poverty " has been read by tens of thousands of workingmen. And the fact that the demand for an economic work should exhaust more than a hundred editions, and still continue unsatisfied, indicates a great deal of popular sympathy with its doctrines. That Mr. George has made many disciples among American workmen is shown by the organs of the various laboi organizations; and any one who is convinced that proprietorship in land is unjust, has taken at least one step toward Proudhon's famous doctrine that "prop- erty is theft." Mr. George has rendered eminent ser- vice to the cause of socialism against traditional law by bringing to its support, in the United States, the strength of moral ideas.
1. Most of the Internationals, the anarchic socialists, in this country are Germans, whose numbers are con- stantly being recruited by immigration. And not only is immigration to increase, but socialism is spreading rapidly in Germany, which will influence its growth here. " Since the organization of the German Empire the social democratic votes for members of the Impe- rial Parliament (Keichstag) have numbered as follows : 1871, 123,975; 1874, 351,952; 1877, 493,288; 1878, 437,158.* In 1884 the socialists of Germany cast 700,- 000 votes and elected twenty-four members of the Beichstag. " Professor Fawcett, in opening his present course of lectures at Oxford, said that, if the growth of the socialistic political vote progressed in Germany and the United States for the next fifty years as it has for the last fifty, capital can do nothing effectual against socialism."!
2. There are other influences, which, though obscure,
* Professor Ely's "French and German Socialism in Modern Times," p. 213. t Joseph Cook's "Socialism," p. 17* 1880.
PEKILS. SOCIALISM. 93
are no less potent than immigration in fostering the growth of socialism in America. Among the deep cur- rents of the centuries, flowing down through the lasi eighteen hundred years, there has been an irresistible drift toward individualism. Guizot says that the " prime element in modern European civilization is the energy of individual life, the force of personal exist- ence." The masses once existed for the state ; the in- dividual was nothing. When Christ said : " What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul ?" thus teaching the priceless worth of every human being, he introduced a new idea into the world, which is leavening society. It has manu- mitted slaves, it has elevated woman, it has overthrown despotisms and written constitutions, it has swept away privileges and abolished caste. It is bearing Europe onward to popular government. Is it strange that the liberated pendulum should swing beyond the position of stable equilibrium'? Already are there signs of an excessive individualism among us ; a cer- tain self-assertion, a contempt of authority, which for- gets that duties are co-extensive with rights. Extreme socialism is only "individualism gone mad." This powerful movement, therefore, toward individualism, and especially its perceptible tendency toward ex- tremes, is favorable to the spread of socialism.
3. The prevalence of skepticism, also, is significant in this connection. A wide-spread infidelity preceded the French Kevolution, and helped to prepare the way for it. A criminal in a prison on the Khine left, not long since, on the walls of his cell, the following mes- sage for his successors: "I will say a word to you. There is no heaven or hell. When once you are dead there is an end of everything. Therefore, ye scoun-
94 PEBILS. SOCIALISM.
drels, grab whatever you can ; only do not let your- selves be grabbed. Amen." Not only does irreligion remove all salutary fear of retribution hereafter, and thus give over low-minded men to violence and excess ; but, when a man has lost all portion in another life, he is the more determined to have his proportion in this. There are, doubtless, Christian socialists ; but the In- ternationalists are gross materialists. The socialist, Boruttau, says : " No man else is worthy of the name of socialist save he who, himself an atheist, devotes his exertions with all zeal to the spread of atheism." The great increase, therefore, of skepticism in this genera- tion, and especially of doubt touching the sanctions of the divine law, has prepared a quick and fruitful soil for socialism.
4. Equality is one of the dreams of socialism. It protests against all class distinctions. The develop- ment of classes, therefore, in a republic, or the widen- ing of the breach between them, is provocative of so- cialistic agitation and growth. Among the far-reach- ing influences of mechanical invention is a tendency, as yet unchecked, to highten differences of condition, to establish social classes, and erect barriers between them. In a sense, classes do and must exist wherever there are resemblances and differences ; but so long as the individual members of social classes easily rise or fall from one to the other, by virtue of their own acts, such classes are neither unrepublican nor unsafe. But, when they become practically hereditary, differences are inherited and increased, antipathies are strength- ened, the gulf between them is widened, and they harden into casts which are both unrepublican and dangerous. Now the tendency of mechanical inven- tion, under our present industrial system, is to sepa-
PEBILS. SOCIALISM. 95
rate classes more widely, and to render them hered- itary.
Before the age of machinery, master, journeymen, and apprentices worked together on familiar terms. The apprentice looked forward to the time when he should receive a journeyman's wages, and the journey- man might reasonably hope some day to have a shop of his own. Under this system there was little oppor- tunity to develop class distinctions and jealousies. Moreover, there was a great variety of work. A black- smith, for instance, was not master of his trade until he could make a thousand things, from a nail to an iron fence. There was relief from monotony, and scope for ingenuity and taste. But machinery is in- troduced, and with it important changes. It is dis- covered that the subdivision of labor both improves and cheapens the product. And this double advan- tage has stimulated the tendency in that direction until a single article that was once made by one workman now passes through perhaps threescore pairs of hands, each doing a certain part of the work on every piece. Manchester workmen, complaining of the monotony of their work, said to Mr. Cook: "It is the same thing day by day, sir; it's the same little thing; one little, little thing, over and over and over." Think of mak- ing pin-heads, ten hours^pb day, every working day in the week, for a year — twenty, forty, fifty years! A nailer, in the midst of a clatter, enough to drown thought, does his day's work by pressing into the jaws of an ever-ravenous machine a small bar of iron, which he turns rapidly from side to side. Think of making that one movement for a lifetime ! Such dreary mo- notony is the most wearisome of all manual labor. It admits of little interest and no enthusiasm in one's
^ PERILS. SOCIALISM.
work ; and, worst of all, it cramps the mind and belit- tles the man. Once the man who made the nail could make the iron fence, also ; now he cannot even make the nail, but only feed a machine that makes it. Be- yond question, under the minute division of labor, the operative tends to degenerate. This truth is sadly manifest in the manufacturing towns of England. Says Mr. Emerson :* " The robust rural Saxon degen- erates in the mills to the Leicester stockinger, to the imbecile Manchester spinner — far on the way to be spiders and needles. The incessant repetition of the same hand-work dwarfs the man, robs him of his strength, wit, and versatility, to make a pin-polisher, a buckle-maker, or any other specialty ; and presently, in a change of industry, whole towns are sacrificed like ant-hills !" And statistics show that the population of the manufacturing departments of France, also, is far inferior to that of the agricultural departments.
Under the low wages of the present industrial sys- tem, there is a strong tendency among operatives to form an hereditary class, and thus degenerate the more. In Massachusetts, where statistics of labor are the most elaborate published, the average working man is unable to support the average working man's fam- ily. In 1883 the average expenses of working men's families, in that state, were $i54.42, while the earnings of workmen who were heads of families averaged $558. 68. | This means that the average working man had to call on his wife and children to assist in earn- ing their support. We accordingly find that, in the manufactures and mechanical industries of the state, in 1883, there were engaged 28,714 children under six-
* " English Traits," p. 240.
t " Fifteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Statistics," p. 464.
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teen years of age. Of the average wording man's fam- ily 32.44 per cent, of the support fell upon the children and mother. I am not aware that the condition of the working man is at all exceptional in Massachusetts. " In their last report, the Illinois Commissioners of Labor Statistics say that their tables of wages and cost of living are representative only of intelligent working men, who make the most of their advantages, and do not reach ' the confines of that world of helpless ignorance and destitution in which multitudes in all large cities continually live, and whose only statistics are those of epidemics, pauperism, and crime.' Nev- ertheless, they go on to say, an examination of these tables will demonstrate that one-half of these intelli- gent working men of Illinois ' are not even able to earn enough for their daily bread, and h^ve to depend upon the labor of women and children to eke out their mis- erable existence.' "* In 1880, of persons engaged in all occupations in the United States, 1,118,356 were children fifteen years of age or under. f Their num- ber, in ten years, increased 21 per cent, more rapidly than the population. These children ought to be in the school instead of the mill or the mine. How much longer will the operatives of the United States be distinguished for their intelligence if our children under sixteen are pressed into the factory? In many cases the body is stunted, the mind cramped, and the morals corrupted. A writer J in the North American Review, for June, 1884, says that in Pennsylvania there are "herds of little children of all ages, from six years upward, at work in the coal breakers, toiling in
* Henry George's "Social Problems," p. 100.
t " Compendium of tne Tentn Census," Part II, p. 1358,
t Henry D. Lloyd.
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dirt, and air thick with carbon dust, from dawn tc dark, of every day in the week except Sunday. These coal breakers are the only schools they know. A let- ter from the coal regions, in the Philadelphia Press, declares that ' there are no schools in the world where more evil is learned, or more innocence destroyed, than in the breakers. It is shocking to watch the vile prac- tices indulged in by these children, to hear the fright- ful oaths they use, to see their total disregard for re- ligion and humanity.' " In the upper part of Luzerne County there are three thousand children, between six and fifteen years of age, at work in this way. In mills and factories children are put to feeding machines, and the narrow round of work prevents a natural de- velopment of tl^e mind. Girls brought up in the fac- tories, or whose mothers are there employed, make poor housekeepers, learn little of those arts of economy by which the handful of meal and the cruse of oil of a meager income waste not, neither fail. They make poor wives, and keep their husbands poor. Thus the children of another generation are forced into the fac- tory. Hence the tendency to establish a class of he- reditary operatives, which classes are already estab- lished in Europe, and will appear here in due time.
Moreover, our labor system, together with mechan- ical invention, is steadily developing an unemployed class, which furnishes ready recruits to the criminal, intemperate, socialistic and revolutionary classes. Mr. Gladstone estimates that manufacturing power, by the aid of machinery, doubles for the world once in seven years. Invention is liable, any day, to render a given tool antiquated, and this or that technical skill useless. Every great labor-saving invention, though it eventu- ally increases the demand for labor, temporarily
PERILS. SOCIALISM. 99
chrows great numbers out of employment. The operative, who for years has confined himself to one thing, has, thereby, largely lost the power of adapta- tion. He cannot turn his hand to this or that ; he is very likely too old to learn a new trade, or acquire new technical skill ; he has no alternative ; and, unless an- chored by a family, probably turns tramp. Competi- tion produces over-production, which results in clos- ing mills and mines for long periods, thus swelling the floating population.
We have seen that mechanical invention tends to create an hereditary operative class, and an unem- ployed and floating population. It also tends, on the other hand, to create a class of capitalists and monopo- lists.* Before the age of machinery, manufacturing power was, of course, muscular. That power belonged to the workmen, and could not be monopolized or cen- tralized without their consent. Every man had a fair chance to compete with his fellow ; no one enjoyed an immeasurable advantage ; but machinery enables one man to own a power equal to that of a thousand or ten thousand men. Modern science and invention, in subjecting mighty forces of nature to human control, have made the Anakim our slaves. Here is an army of giants who never hunger and never tire, who never suffer and never complain; when ordered to stop working, they never raise bread riots. They always recognize their masters, and obey without question and without conscience. The availability and magni-
* After discussing these tendencies of modern manufactures, De Tocque- ville advises the friends of democracy to " keep their eyes anxiously fixed in this direction," and adds : " For if ever a permanent inequality of condi- tions and aristocracy again penetrate into the world, it may be predicted that this is the channel by which they will enter." "Democracy in America," Book Second, Chap. 20.
100 PERILS. SOCIALISM.
tude of these forces make the concentration of power both certain and dangerous. The masters of these forces are the Caesars and Napoleons of modern society. Within certain limits, other things being equal, the larger the manufactory the cheaper the product, and the greater the percentage of profit on the investment. This law results in the massing of capital. These great enterprises demand able men to organize and conduct them. The employer is no longer a workman with his employes; his work is mental, not manual ; it tasks and strengthens all his powers ; his faculties are developed, while those of the men who tend his machines are cramped. He has little personal acquaintance with his employes, and, with noble exceptions, has little personal interest in them. Thus these classes grow apart. Says Mr, Lecky : " Every change of conditions which widens the chasm and impairs the sympathy between rich and poor, cannot fail, however beneficial may be its effects, to bring with it grave dangers to the state. It is in- contestable that the immense increase of manufactur- ing population has had this tendency."* And not only are these classes becoming further removed from each other, they are also becoming organized against each other. Capital is combining in powerful corpora- tions and "pools," and labor is combining in powerful trades- unions. And these opposing organizations make trials of strength, offer terms and conditions of surrender, like two hostile armies.
5. Again, socialism fattens on discontent. We are told that the condition of working men everywhere has vastly improved during the last fifty or a hundred years.
* " England in the Eighteenth Century," Vol. II, p. 693.
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If this be true, it has not prevented a rapid growth of socialism in Europe ; and tihe fact that American work- men are better off than European, will not prevent its spread here. De Tocqueville observed and wondered that the masses find their position the more intolera- ble the more it is improved. This is because the man improves faster than his condition ; his wants increase more rapidly than his comforts. A savage, having nothing, is perfectly contented so long as he wants nothing. The first step toward civilizing him is to create a want. Men rise in the scale of civilization only as their wants rise ; and, wherever a man may be on that scale, to awaken wants which cannot be satis- fied is to provoke discontent as surely as if comforts were taken from him. Macaulay argues that the nine- teenth century is the golden age of England, rather than the seventeenth, because then, "noblemen were destitute of comforts, the want of which would be in- tolerable to a modern footman, and farmers and shop- keepers breakfasted on loaves the very sight of which would raise a riot in a modern workhouse/' and especially because few knights had " libraries as good as may now perpetually be found in a servants' hall, or in the back parlor of a small shop-keeper."* The evidence of progress is found not so much in the fact that the footman has a library as that he wants it. There has been a wonderful "leveling up" of the common people, and their wants have risen accord- ingly. It is very true that within a century there has been a great multiplication of the comforts of life among the masses ; but the question is whether that increase has kept pace with the multiplication of wants. The mechanic of to-day, who has much, may * " History of England," Chap. 3.
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be poorer than his grandfather, who had little. A rich man may be poor, and a poor man may be rich. Poverty is something relative, not absolute. I do not mean simply that a rich man is poor by the side of one richer. That man is poor who lacks the means of sup- plying what seem to him reasonable wants. The horizon of the working man, during this century, has been marvelously expanded; there has been a pro digious multiplication of his wants. The peasant of a few generations ago knew little of any lot save his own. He saw an aristocracy above him, which enjoyed peculiar privileges; but these were often justified in his eyes by superior intelligence and manners. The life of the rich and great was far removed from him and vague. He was not discontented for lack of luxu- ries of which he knew nothing. But modern manu- factures and commerce and shop-windows have made all luxuries familiar to all eyes. The working man of to-day in the United States has probably had a com- mon school education, has traveled somewhat, attended expositions, visited libraries, art galleries and museums ; through books he has become more or less acquainted with all countries and all classes of society ; he reads the papers, he is vastly more intelligent than his grandfather was, he lives in a larger world, and has many more wants. Indeed, his wants are as bound- less as his means are limited. Education increases the capability of enjoyment; and this capability is in- creasing among the many more rapidly than the means of gratification ; hence a growing popular discontent. There is much dissatisfaction among the masses of Europe. There would be more if there were greater popular intelligence. Place Americans in the circum- stances under which the peasant of Continental Europe
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lives, and there would be a revolution in twenty-four hours. Hopeless poverty, therefore, in the "United States, where there is greater intelligence, will be more restless, and more easily become desperate than in Europe. Many of our working men are beginning to feel that, under the existing industrial system, they are condemned to hopeless poverty. "We have already seen that the average working man in Massachusetts and Illinois is unable to support his family. At that rate, how long will it take him to become the owner of a home I Of males engaged in the industries of Mas- sachusetts in 1875, only one in one hundred owned a house. When a working man is unable to earn a home, or to lay by something for old age, when sickness or the closing of. the factory for a few weeks, means debt, is it strange that he becomes discontented ?
And how are such items as the following, which ap- peared in the papers of January, 1880, likely to strike discontented laborers? "The profits of the Wall Street Kings the past year were enormous. It is estimated that Yanderbilt made $30,000,000; Jay Gould, $15,000,- 000 ; Kussell Sage, $10,000,000 ; Sidney Dillon, $10,000,- 000; James K. Keene, $8,000,000; and three or four others from one to two millions each ; making a grand total for ten or twelve estates of about eighty millions of dollars." Is it strange if the working man thinks he is not getting his due share of the wonderful increase of national wealth 1
" There is," says the eminent Professor Cairnes, " a constant growth of the national capital, with a nearly equally constant decline in the proportion of capital which goes to support productive labor." And this can result, he points out, only in " a harsh separation of classes, combined with those glaring inequalities in
104 -PEEILS. SOCIALISM-
the distribution of wealth which most people will agree are among the elements of our social insta- bility." "Unequal as is the distribution of wealth already in this country (England), the tendency of in- dustrial progress — on the supposition that the present separation between industrial classes is maintained — is toward an inequality greater still. The rich will be growing the richer, and the poor at least relatively poorer."* Professor Henry Carter Adams says that " the benefits of the present civilization are not im- partially distributed, and that the laborer of to-day, as compared with the non-laboring classes, holds a rel- atively inferior position to that maintained in former times. The laborer himself interprets this to mean that the principle of distribution, which modern so- ciety has adopted, is unfair to him."t Is it strange that working men should agree with such conclusions of political economists 1
Many wage-workers have come to feel that the capi- talist is their natural enemy, and that he is always ready, when opportunity offers, to sacrifice them and their families to his selfish gains. This does the great- est injustice to some employers, who, in times of de- pression, run their factories for months at a daily loss to themselves, rather than throw their workmen out of employment. But such capitalists are as rare as they are noble. More do not hesitate to enter into combi- nations powerful enough to command the trade, and then stop work for weeks and months in order to in- flate prices, already fair. In November, 1883, the As- sociation of Nail-makers ordered a suspension in order to raise prices ; and for five weeks 8,000 workmen were
* Political Economy.
t Quote-i by Washington Gladden, LL.D., in Century Magazine for Octo* ber, 1884, p. 906.
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thrown out of employment, just as winter was coming on. Every mill in the West was in the "pool"; the suffering workmen, therefore, could not gain employ- ment by going from one to another. They had learned to do but one thing, and could not turn their hand to anything else. There was nothing to do but nurse their discontent. Those November and Decem- ber weeks were a good spring-time for sowing social- istic seed. The Liverpool Cotton Exchange, three years ago, by manipulating prices, stopped 15,000,000 *spindles, thus taking the bread out of the mouths of thousands of men, women, and children. The above simply illustrates a strong tendency toward combina- tion and monopoly, which is one of the darkest clouds on our industrial and social horizon. Our various in- dustries are combining to force down production — that means that working men are thrown out of em- ployment; and to force up prices — that means in- creased cost of living. There are lumber, coal, coke, oil, brick, nail, screw, steel, rope, fence-wire, glass, wall-paper, school books, insurance, hardware, starch, cotton, and scores of other combinations, all made in the interest of capitalists. Small dealers must enter the "pool" or be crushed. Once in, they must submit to the dictation of the " large " men. Thus power is being gathered more and more into the hands of con- scienceless monopolies.
Adam Smith thought wheat was less liable than any other commodity to be monopolized by speculators, because "its owners can never be collected in one place." But this supposed impossibility is practically overcome by the railway and telegraph, and now Boards of Trade arbitrarily make and unmake the prices of food, and wheat is as easily "cornered" as
106 PERILS. SOCIALISM.
anything else. A single firm in Chicago, five years ago, gained control of the pork market, more than doubled the price, and cleared over seven million dol- lars on a single deal, the influence of which in advan- cing prices was felt in every part of the world. The full significance of such transactions is seen only when we consider, as has been shown by Drs. Drysdale and Farr, of England, that the death rate rises and falls with the prices of food. When the necessaries of life are " too easily " secured, combinations declare a war against plenty, production is stopped, and tens of* thousands are forbidden to earn while prices rise. Thus, in this land of plenty, a few men may, at their pleasure, order a famine in thousands of homes.
This is modern and republican feudalism. These American barons and lords of labor have probably more power and less responsibility than many an olden feudal lord. They close the factory or the mine, and thousands of workmen are forced into unwilling idle- ness. The capitalist can arbitrarily raise the price of necessaries, can prevent men's working, but has no re- sponsibility, meanwhile, as to their starving. Here is " taxation without representation " with a vengeance. We have developed a despotism vastly more oppressive and more exasperating than that against which the thirteen colonies rebelled.
Working men are apt to be improvident. It is often their own fault that enforced idleness so soon brings want. Though, at times, they know enough of want, as a class they know little of self-denial. They gen- erally live up to the limit of their means. If wages are good, they have the best the market affords ; when work and credit fail, they go hungry. Neither the capitalist nor the laborer has a monopoly of the fault
PEKILS. SOCIALISM. 107
for the difficulties existing between them. But our inquiry is after facts, not faults ; and the fact of im- providence on the part of many working men only makes their discontent the deeper and more certain.
A communistic leader, who visited America thirty years ago, was asked what he thought of the condition of the working classes here. " It is very bad," he re- plied, " they are so discouragingly prosperous." But the growth of dissatisfaction and of socialism among our wage-workers, in recent years, has taken place not- withstanding generally good harvests and a great in- crease of aggregate wealth. Poor harvests were^potent causes in bringing Louis XYI. to the guillotine, and precipitating the Eeign of Terror. We must, of course, expect them to occur as heretofore, perhaps recur in successive years. The condition of the working man will then probably be bad enough to satisfy the most pessimistic agitator. Every such " winter of discon- tent " among laborers is made "glorious summer" for the growth of socialistic ideas.
We have glanced at the causes which are ministering to the growth of socialism among us : a wide-spread discontent on the part of our wage-working population, the development of classes and class antipathies, and the appearance of an unemployed class of professional beggars, popular skepticism, a powerful individualism, and immigration. If these conditions should remain constant, socialism would continue to grow ; but it should be remembered that all of these causes, with the possible exception of skepticism, are becoming more active. Within the life-time of many now living, pop- ulation will be four times as dense in the United States as it is to-day. Wage-workers, now one-half of all our workers, will multiply more rapidly than the popula-
108 PEEILS. SOCIALISM.
tion. After our agricultural land is all occupied, as it will be a few years hence, our agricultural population, which is one of the great sheet-anchors of society against the socialistic current, will increase but little, while great manufacturing and mining towns will go on multiplying and to multiply. In the development of our manufacturing industries and our mining re- sources we have made, as yet, hardly more than a be- ginning. "When these industries have been multiplied ten-fold, the evils which now attend them will be cor- respondingly multiplied.
It must not be forgotten that, side by side with this deep discontent of intelligent and unsatisfied wants, has been developed, in modern times, a tremendous enginery of destruction, which offers itself to every man. Since the French Revolution nitro-glycerine, illuminating gas, petroleum, dynamite, the revolver, the repeating rifle and the Gatling gun have all come into use. Science has placed in man's hand superhu- man powers. Society, also, is become more highly organized, much more complex, and is therefore much more susceptible of injury. There never was a time in the history of the world when an enemy of society could work such mighty mischief as to-day. The more highly developed a civilization is, the more vulnerable does it become. This is pre-eminently true of a ma- terial civilization. Learning, statesmanship, character, respect for law, love of justice, cannot be blown up with dynamite ; palaces, factories, railways, Brooklyn bridges, Hoosac tunnels, and all the long inventory of our material wonders are destructible by material means. " The explosion of a little nitro-glycerine un- der a few water mains would make a great city unin- habitable ; the blowing up of a few railroad bridges
PERILS.— -SOCIALISM. 109
and tunnels would bring famine quicker than the wall of circumvallation that Titus drew around Jerusalem; the pumping of atmospheric air into the gas-mains, and the application of a match would tear up every street and level every house."* We are preparing conditions which make possible a Reign of Terror that would beg- gar the scenes of the French Revolution.
Conditions at the "West are peculiarly favorable to the growth of socialism. The much larger proportion of foreigners there, and the strong tendency of immi- gration thither, will have great influence. There is a stronger individuality in the West. The people are less conservative ; there is less regard for established usage and opinion. The greater relative strength of Romanism there is significant ; for apostate Catholics furnish the very soil to which socialism is indigenous. Mormonism also is doing a like preparatory work. It is gathering together great numbers of ill-balanced men, who are duped for a time by Mormon mummery ; but many of them, becoming disgusted, leave the church and with it all faith in religion of any sort. Skeptical, soured, cranky, they are excellent socialistic material. Irreligion abounds much more than at the East ; the proportion of Christian men is much smaller. " Into these Western communities the international societies and secret labor leagues and Jacobin clubs, and athe- istic, infidel, rationalistic organizations of every name in the Old World, are continually emptying themselves. They are the natural reservoirs of whatever is uneasy, turbulent, antagonistic to either God or man among the populations across the sea. They are also the nat- ural places of refuge for all in our own country who are soured by misfortune, misanthropic, seekers of radical * " Social Problems." D. 14.
110 PERILS. SOCIALISM.
reforms, renegades, moral pariahs. They are hence, in the nature of things, a sort of hot-beds where every form of pestilent error is sure to be found and to come to quick fruitage. You can hardly find a group of ranch-men or miners from Colorado to the Pacific who will not have on their tongue's end the labor slang of Denis Kearney, the infidel ribaldry of Robert Ingersoll, the socialistic theories of Karl Marx."*
Socialism makes few proselytes among farmers. Less than one-half of all the lands West of the Mississippi is arable. The agricultural element, therefore, will be a much smaller proportion of the whole population in the West than in the East. The industries of several of the great mountain states will be almost wholly mining and manufacturing ; nearly the whole popula- tion, therefore, will be wage-workers — the class most easily discipled by socialistic agitators. The capitalist is a large figure in the West. He owns the mines, he owns vast reaches of grazing land, and the great herds of cat- tle.f He has also invested in many thousands of acres of farming lands. Railroads of immense length have been richly subsidized with^Iands which will steadily appre- ciate in value. These corporations bid fair to become much richer and more powerful than like monopolies in the East. The longest eastern roads would hardly be considered more than first-rate side-tracks out W^est; and some day the wealth and power of the western roads will be in proportion to their length.
* Rev. E. P. Goodwin, D.D., Home Missionary Sermon, p. 16.
t At a meeting of cattle " kings " in St. Louis, last November, there were many associations represented which own half a million head of stock or more. The Northern New Mexico Cattle Grower's Association own 800,000 cattle, besides a large number of horses, which graze over 15,000,000 acres of land. The Texas Live Stock Association own 1,000,000 cattle, 1,000,000 sheep and 350,000 horses. A moderate estimate of their value would be
PEBILS. SOCIALISM. Ill
There was no immense disparity of fortune between the early settlers of the East. They started pretty evenly in the race, and it has taken several generations to develop the wide extremes of modern society ; but these differences exist at the outset in the West. East- ern capital has emptied itself into Western mines and herds and " bonanza " farms. The comparatively small population of the West has to-day more millionaires and more tramps than the whole country had a few years since. Many cattle and railway " kings," many gold and silver" kings," there rule their subjects. And last August eighty tramps took possession of Castle- ton, Dakota, drove many families from their homes and committed numerous excesses. Western society is organized at the very beginning, on the class distinc- tions which are so favorable to the growth of social- ism.
Modern civilization is called on to contend for its life with forces which it has evolved. Said President Seelye, last summer, to the graduating class of Amherst College: "There is one question of our time to ward which all other questions, whether of nature, of man, or of God, steadily tend. ... No one will be likely to dispute the affirmation that the social question is, and is to be, the question of your time." That question must be met in the United States. We need not quiet misgiving with the thought that popular government is our safety from revolution. It is because of our free institutions that the great conflict of socialism with society as now organized is likely to occur in the United States. There is a strong disposition among men to charge most of the ills of their lot to bad government, and to seek a political remedy for those ills. They expect in
112 PERILS. — WEALTH.
the popularization of power to find relief. Constitu- tional government, a free press and free speech would probably quiet popular agitation in Russia for a gen- eration. The new Franchise Bill will allay restlessness in England for a time. If Germany should become a republic, we should hear little of German socialism for a season. But all our salve of this sort is spent ; there are no more political rights to bestow ; the peo- ple are in full possession. Here then, where there is the fullest exercise of political rights, will the people first discover that the ballot is not a panacea. Here, where the ultimate evolution of government has taken place, will restless men first attempt to live without government.
There is nothing beyond republicanism but anarch- ism.
CHAPTER IX.
PERILS. WEALTH.
The wealth of the "United States is phenomenal. In 1880 it was valued at $43,642,000,000 ; more than enough to buy the Kussian and Turkish Empires, the kingdoms of Sweden and Norway, Denmark and Italy, together with Australia, South Africa and all South America — lands, mines, cities, palaces, factories, ships, flocks, herds, jewels, moneys, thrones, scepters, dia- dems and all — the entire possessions of 177,000,000 people. Great Britain is, by far, the richest nation of
PERILS. — WEALTH. 113
the Old World, and our wealth exceeds hers by $276,- 000,000. The most remarkable point of this compar- ison is the fact that European wealth represents the accumulations of many centuries, while the greater part of ours has been created in twenty years. In 1860 our wealth was valued at $16,160,000,000. In 1880 it had increased 170 per cent. During that period a mil- lion producers were destroyed by war, and not only were two great armies withdrawn from productive oc- cupations, but they devoted marvelous energy and in- genuity to the work of destruction. Moreover, during the same period, slaves, whose value was estimated in 1860 at $1,250,000,000, disappeared from the assets of the nation. But, notwithstanding all this, our wealth, during those twenty years, increased $27,482.000,000 — $10,000,000,000 more than the entire wealth of the Empire of Eussia, to be divided between 82,000,000 people. And this increase, it should be observed, was only a small part of the wealth created — the excess after supporting the best-fed people in the world. To the wealth of 1870 were added, during the next ten years, $19,587,000,000, an average of $260,000 every hour, night and day, except Sunday, or $6,257,000 every week-day for the period. The material progress of the United States from 1870 to 1880 is wholly with- out a parallel in the history of the world.
It is difficult to realize that the youngest of the na- tions is the richest, and that the richest of all nations Las, as yet, only begun to develop its resources. Sev- en-eighths of our arable land are not under cultivation, and much of our agriculture is rude ; a much larger portion of our mineral wealth is undeveloped ; and the only limit which can be set to our possible manufac- tures is the world's need. Our domestic commerce,
114 PEKtLS. — WEALTH.
already $18,000,000,000 * a year, will double and quad- ruple with the growth of population. Here are thirty- eight nations, so to speak — and soon to be half a hun- dred— enjoying perfect freedom of intercourse, with but one language and one currency, with common in- terests and common institutions. In Europe, com- merce must run a gauntlet of custom-houses, on a score of frontiers, and must stumble over thrice as many languages ; while those nations, with conflicting inter- ests and mutual jealousies and antipathies, exhaust much of their strength in watching, foiling, and crip- pling each other. Europe spends annually on the maintenance of fleets and armies nearly $900,000,000. And this is but little more than one-half the actual cost ; for these 3,000,000 men and more are withdrawn from industrial pursuits in the flower of their youth. If the time of privates is worth seventy-five cents a day, and that of officers two dollars, the value of labor an- nually lost to Europe by her standing armies is $758,- 978,000. In 1880, we expended on our army and navy $54,000,000 ; and, reckoning the time of the private soldier here worth a dollar and a half a day, and that of the officer worth four dollars, the value of the labor lost by our army in 1880 was only $16,000,000. That is, in competing with Europe for wealth, our location is worth to us about $1,588,000,000 a year. In 1880 our wealth was 23.93 per cent, of the wealth of all Eu- rope; our earnings were 28.01 per cent, of those of Eu- rope ; and our increase of wealth was 49.28 per cent, of European increase. From 1870 to 1880 there was a decrease of wealth per caput, in Europe, of nearly 3 per cent., while here there was an increase of 39 per cent. If existing conditions continue, the time will un- * J. L. Stevens, in International Review, Dec. 1881.
PERILS. WEALTH. 115
doubtedly come when the people of the United States will possess more wealth than all the nations of Eu- rope. Our riches, together with the power, the prob- lems and dangers which attend them, are to be multi- plied many fold. Mr. Gladstone estimates that the amount of wealth that could be handed down to pos- terity, produced during the first 1800 years of the Christian Era, was equaled by the production of the first fifty years of this century; and that an equal amount was produced in the twenty years from 1850 to 1870. This will not seem incredible, if we accept his further estimate that the manufacturing power of the world is doubled, by the aid of machinery, every seven years. Some thirty years ago, the power of machinery in the mills of Great Britain was computed to be equal to* 600,000,000 men, or more than all the adults, male and female, of mankind. Think of such a power, and much greater, at work for the enriching of our nation, and that power doubled every seven years! It is a promise of unspeakable wealth. And such wealth con- tains mighty possibilities, both for good and evil. Let us, in this connection, look at the latter.
1. As civilization increases, wealth has more mean- ing, and money a larger representative power. Civili- zation multiplies wants, which money affords the means of gratifying. With the growth of civilization, therefore, money will be an ever-increasing power, and the object of ever-increasing desire. Hence the dan- ger of Mammonism, growing more and more intense? and infatuated. The love of money is the besetting sin of commercial peoples, and runs in the very blood of Anglo-Saxons, who are the great wealth-creators of the world. Our soil is peculiarly favorable to the * " Emerson's Prose Works," Vol. II., p. 236,
116 PERILS. WEALTH.
growth of this "root of all evil"; and for two reasons. First, wealth is more easily amassed here than any- where else in the world, of which we have already seen sufficient proof ; and, second, wealth means more, has more power, here than elsewhere. Every nation has its aristocracy. In other lands the aristocracy is one of birth ; in ours it is one of wealth. It is useless for us to protest that we are democratic, and to plead the leveling character of our institutions. There is among us an aristocracy of recognized power, and that aris- tocracy is one of wealth. No heraldry offends our re- publican prejudices. Our ensigns armorial are the trademark. Our laws and customs recognize no noble titles ; but men can forego the husk of a title who pos- sess the fat ears of power. In England there is an eager ambition to rise in rank, an ambition as rarely gratified as it is commonly experienced. With us, as- piration meets with no such iron check as birth. A man has only to build higher the pedestal of his wealth. He may stand as high as he can build. His wealth can- not secure to him genuine respect, to be sure ; but, for that matter, neither can birth. It will secure to him an obsequious deference. It may purchase political distinction. It is power. In the Old World, men com- monly live and die in the condition in which they are born. The peasant may be discontented, may covet what is beyond his reach; but his desire draws no strength from expectation. Heretofore, in this coun- try, almost any laborer, by industry and economy, might gain a competence, and even a measure of wealth ; and, though now we are beginning to approx- imate the conditions of European labor, young men, generally, when they start in life, still expect to be- come rich ; and, thinking not to serve their god for
PERILS. WEALTH. 117
naught, they commonly become faithful votaries of Mammon. Thus the prizes of wealth in the United States, being at the same time greater and more easily won, and the lists being open to all comers, the rush is more general, and the race more eager than elsewhere " But they that will be rich, fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition."* They who "will be rich" are tempted to resort to methods less laborious and more and more unscrupulous. Fierce competition is leading to frequent adulterations, and many forms of bribery. It is driving legitimate busi- ness to illegitimate methods. Merchants offer prizes to draw trade, and employ the lottery to enrich them- selves and debauch the public. The growth of the spirit of speculation is ominous. The salaries of clerks, the business capital, the bank deposits and trust-funds of all sorts which disappear " on 'change," indicate how widespread is the unhealthy haste to be rich. And such have the methods of speculation become that " The Exchange " has degenerated into little better than a euphemism for " gambling hell." " While one bushel in seven of the wheat crop of the United States is received by the Produce Exchange of New York, its traders buy and sell two for every one that comes out of the ground. When the cotton plantations of the South yielded less than six million bales, the crop on the New York Cotton Exchange was more than thirty- two millions. Pennsylvania does well to run twenty- four millions of barrels of oil in a year ; but New York City will do as much in two small rooms in one week, and the Petroleum Exchanges sold altogether last year two thousand million barrels."! Such facts indicate
• I Tim. vi, 9.
t Henry D. Lloyd, North American Review , Aug., 1883, p. 118.
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tow small a portion of the transactions of the '• Ex- change " is legitimate business, and how large a pro- portion is simple gambling. Mammonism is corrupt- ing popular morals in many ways. Sunday amusements of every kind — horse-racing, base-ball, theaters, beer- gardens, steamboat and railroad excursions — are all provided because there is money in them. Licentious literature floods the land, poisoning the minds of the young and polluting their lives, because there is money in it. Gambling flourishes in spite of the law, and actually under its license, because there is money in it. And that great abomination of desolation, that triumph of Satan, that more than ten Egyptian plagues in one — the liquor traffic — grows and thrives at the expense of every human interest, because there is money in it. Ever since greed of gold sold the Christ and raffled for his garments, it has crucified every form of virtue be- tween thieves. And, while Mammonism corrupts mor- als, it blocks reforms. Men who have favors to ask of the public are slow to follow their convictions into any unpopular reform movement. They can render only a surreptitious service. Their discipleship must needs be secret, " for fear of the " customers or clients or patients. It is Mammonism which makes most men invertebrates. When important Mormon legislation was pending, certain New York merchants telegraphed to members of Congress : " New York sold $13,000,000 worth of goods to Utah last year. Hands off!" The tribe of Demetrius, the Ephesian silversmith, is every- where ; men quick to perceive when this their craft by which they have their wealth is in danger of being set at naught. " Nothing is more timorous than a million dollars — except two millions." Mammonism ic also corrupting the ballot-box. The
PEEILS. WEALTH. 119
last three presidential elections have shown that the two great political parties are nearly equal in strength. The vast majority of voters on both sides are party men, who vote the same way year after year. The re- sult of the election is determined by the floating vote. Of this, a comparatively small portion is thoroughly intelligent and conscientious ; the remainder is, for the most part, without convictions, without principle and thoroughly venal ; hence the great temptation to brib- ery, to which both parties yield. And if the two par- ties take distinct issue on economic questions — which seems likely — each believing that the success of the other would involve great financial disaster, corrup- tion money will become an increasingly important po- litical factor. Moreover, the influence of great corpo- rations, which so often controls legislation, is moneyed influence. That this influence is likely to be potent in the United States Senate may be inferred from its com- position. The Chicago Tribune stated, last year, that of seventy-six senators, twenty were millionaires, while enough more were connected with great corporations to give control to the interests of concentrated capi- tal.
2. Again, by reason of our enormous wealth and its rapid increase, we are threatened with a gross material- ism. The English epithet applied by Matthew Arnold to Chicago, "too beastly prosperous," has a subtile meaning, which perhaps was not intended by the dis- tinguished visitor. Material growth may be so much more vigorous than the moral and intellectual as to have a distinctly brutalizing tendency. Life becomes sensuous ; that is deemed real which can be seen and handled, weighed and transported ; and that only has value which can be appraised in dollars and cents.
120 PERILS. WEALTH.
Wealth was intended to minister to life, to enlarge it; when life becomes only a ministry to enlarge wealth, there is manifest perversion and degradation. Says
Mr. "Whipple :* " there is danger that the nation's
worship of labors whose worth is measured by money will give a sordid character to its mightiest exertions of power, eliminate heroism from its motives, destroy all taste for lofty speculation, and all love for ideal beauty, and inflame individuals with a devouring self- seeking, corrupting the very core of the national life." We have undoubtedly developed a larger proportion of men of whom the above is a faithful picture than any other Christian nation ; men to whom Agassiz's re- mark, " I am offered five hundred dollars a night to lecture, but I decline all invitations, for I have no time to make money," is simply incomprehensible ; it dazes them.
There is a "balance of power" to be preserved in the United States as well as in Europe. Our safety demands the preservation of a balance between our material power and our moral and intellectual power. The means of self -gratification should not outgrow the power of self-control. Steam-power would have been useless had we not found in iron, or something else, a greater power of resistance. And, should we discover a motor a hundred times more powerful than steam, it would prove not only useless but fearfully destructive, unless we could find a still greater resisting power. Increasing wealth will only prove the means of destruc- tion, unless it is accompanied by an increasing power of control, a stronger sense of justice, and a more in- telligent comprehension of its obligations.
There is a certain unfriendliness between the mate-
* " Character and Characteristic.Men," p. 142.
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rial and spiritual. The vivid apprehension of th^ one makes the other seem unreal. When the life of the senses is intense, spiritual existence and truths are dim; and when St. Paul was exalted to a spiritual ecstasy, the senses were so closed that he could not tell whether he was " in the body or out of the body." A time of commercial stagnation is apt to be a time of spiritual quickening, while great material prosperity is likely to be accompanied by spiritual dearth. A poor nation is much more sensitive to the power of the gos- pel than a rich one. So Christ taught : "How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God !" "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the King- dom of God !"* Words as true now as when they were first uttered, and harving a fuller meaning in the nine- teenth century than in the first.
3. Again, great and increasing wealth subjects us to all the perils of luxuriousness. Nations, in their be- ginnings, are poor ; poverty is favorable to hardihood and industry; industry leads to thrift and wealth; wealth produces luxury, and luxury results in enerva- tion, corruption, and destruction. This is the historic round which nations have run. "Nations have de- cayed, but it has never been with the imbecility of age." f " Avarice and luxury have been the ruin of every great state." J Her American possessions made Spain the richest and most powerful nation of Europe ; but wealth induced luxury and idleness, whence came poverty and degradation. Home was never stronger in all the seeming elements of power than at the mo- ment of her fall. She had grown rich, and riches had corrupted her morals, rendered her effeminate, and
* Mark x, 23, 25. t Charles Surnner. t Livy.
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made her an easy prey to the lusty barbarian of the North. The material splendor of Israel reached its climax in the glory of Solomon's reign, in which silver was made to be in Jerusalem as stones ; but it was fol- lowed by the immediate dismemberment of the king- dom. Under all that magnificence, at which even Oriental monarchs wondered, was springing a discon- tent which led to speedy revolt. Bancroft has wisely said that " Sedition is bred in the lap of luxury."
The influence of mechanical invention is to stimulate luxurious living. One man, by the aid of steam, is able to do the work which required two hundred and fifty men at the beginning of the century. The ma- chinery of Massachusetts alone represents the labor of more than 100,000,000 men ; as if one-half of all the male workmen on the globe had engaged in her ser- vice. When we remember that this machinery is an enormous producer of the necessaries, comforts, and luxuries of life, but is not a consumer of the same, we see how immensely the average consumption per caput has increased. As luxuries are thus cheapened and brought within the reach of an ever- widening circle, there is an increasing tendency toward self-indulgence. Herodotus said : " It is a law of nature that faint- hearted men should be the fruit of luxurious countrie3 ; for we never find that the same soil produces delicacies and heroes." Is there not danger that our civilization will become tropical? The temperate zone has pro- duced the great nations, because in it the conditions of life have been sufficiently hard to arouse energy and develop strength. Where men are pampered by na- ture, they sink to a low level ; and where civilization is of the pampering sort the tendency is the same. By means of coal, which Mr. Emerson calls a "portable
PEEILS. WEALTH. 123
climate," together with increasing wealth and luxuries, we are multiplying tropical conditions here in the - North.
The splendor of our riches will doubtless dazzle the world ; but history declares, in the ruins of Babylon and Thebes, of Carthage and Rome, that wealth has no conserving power ; that it tends rather to enervate and corrupt. Our wonderful material prosperity, which is the marvel of other nations, and the boast of our own, may hide a decaying core.
4. Again, another danger is the marked and increas- ing tendency toward a congestion of wealth. The enormous concentration of power in the hands of one man is unrepublican, and dangerous to popular insti- tutions. The framers of our government aimed to se- cure the distribution of power. They were careful to make the several departments — executive, legislative, and judicial — operate as checks on each other. An executive, chosen by the people and responsible to them, may exercise but little authority ; and after a short period he must return it to them. But a money- king may double, quadruple, centuple his wealth, if he can. He may exercise vastly more power than the governor of his state ; but he is irresponsible. He is not a constitutional monarch, but a czar. He is not chosen by the people with reference to his fitness to administer so great a trust ; he may lack utterly all moral qualifications for it. We have, indeed, some rich men who are an honor to our civilization ; but the power of many millions is almost certain to find its way into strong and unscrupulous hands. Our money- king must not, after two or four years, return his power to the people; he has a life tenure of office, provided only his grip upon his golden scepter be
124 PERILS. — WEALTH.
strong. Less than thirty years ago, Emerson wrote for our wonder : " Some English private fortunes reach, and some exceed, a million dollars a year." At least • one American has an income of $1,000,000 a month ; and others follow hard after him. A list of Mr. Van- derbilt's stocks, bonds, and securities, makes his aggre- gate wealth a little over $201,000,000. The assessed valuation of the aggregate property, real and personal, of four great states of the Union, having a territory of nearly 350,000 square miles, falls short of this one for- tune by several millions of dollars. And there are fourteen states which separately return less property, real and personal, than this modern Midas. He owns one two-hundred-and-eighteenth of the wealth of the nation.
Superfluity on the one hand, and dire want on the other — the millionaire and the tramp — are the comple- ment each of the other. The classes from which we have most to fear are the two extremes of society — the dangerously rich and the dangerously poor ; and the former are much more to be feared than the latter. Says Chancellor Howard Crosby : " The danger which threatens the uprooting of society, the demolition of civil institutions, the destruction of liberty, and the desolation of all, is that which comes from the rich and powerful classes in the community." * " The great estates of Koine, in the time of the Caesars, and of France in the time of the Bourbons, rivaled those of the United States to-day ; but both nations were on their way to the frenzy of revolution, not in spite of their wealth, but, in some true sense, because of it." f We have seen? in the preceding chapter, that mechan-
* North American Review, April, 1883, p. 346. t Editorial in Christian Union, Oct. 16th, 1884.
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ical invention tends to create operative and capitalist classes, and render them hereditary. It is the ten- dency of our civilization to destroy the easy gradation from poor to rich which now exists, and to divide so- ciety into only two classes — the rich and the compara- tively poor. In a new country almost any one can do business successfully, and broad margins will save him from the results of blunders which would else- where be fatal. But, with growing population and in- creasing facilities of communication, competition be- comes severe, and then a slight advantage makes the difference between success and failure. Accumulated capital is not a slight, but an immense, advantage. "To him that hath, shall be given." There will, therefore, be an increasing tendency toward the cen- tralization of great wealth in corporations, which will simply eat up the small manufacturers and the small dealers. As the two classes of rich and poor grow more distinct, they will become more estranged, and whether the rich, like Sydney Smith, come to regard poverty as "infamous," it is quite certain that many of the poor will look upon wealth as criminal.
"We have traced some of the natural tendencies of great and increasing wealth. It should be observed that these tendencies will grow stronger, because wealth is increasing much more rapidly than popula- tion. Remarkable as the growth of the latter is, it be- ing four times the European rate of increase from 1870 to 1880, and three times that of England or Germany, the multiplication of wealth has been even more re- markable. Since 1850, in one generation, our national wealth has increased more than six fold, and, notwith- standing the growth of population, the wealth per caput has increased nearly three fold. There is reason
126 !>EErLS. WEALTH.
to believe that this rate of increase will be sustained for years to come. If it is, the danger from Mammon- ism, materialism, luxuriousness, and the congestion of wealth will be a constantly increasing peril.
It remains to be shown that the dangers of wealth are greater at the West than at the East. There is more of Mammonism there. With rare exceptions, the West is being filled with a selected population, and the principle of selection is the desire to better their worldly condition. Nineteen men of every twenty (and the twentieth is either an invalid or a home mission- ary) will tell you that they went there for the express purpose of making money. Where land is being rap- idly taken, and real estate of all sorts is rapidly appre- ciating in value, men make every possible present en- deavor with reference to the future. Under such con- ditions the race after wealth becomes peculiarly eager. The gambling spirit which always prevails in mining regions exerts a wide influence, even in agricultural states. Farmers often rent land, put their entire cap- ital into a great acreage, and stake everything on a single crop. The sudden wealth often realized in the mines stimulates the general haste to be rich. And where riches are almost the sole object of endeavor, their possession gives greater power. In the Rocky Mountains a man may be to-day a caterer or bar- tender, fit for that and nothing more; to-morrow, without any good wit of his own, a millionaire ; next day, because "Mammon wins his way where seraphs might despair," a lieutenant-governor or United States senator. The demoralizing atmosphere of the New West is seen in the fact that there are everywhere church-members who seem to have left their religion behind when they crossed the Missouri. Many men
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who lived reputable Christian lives in the East are there swept into the great maelstrom of worldliness.
As a comment on our gross materialism here in the United States, and especially in the far "West, I will quote a short passage from the note-book of the mu- sician, Gottschalk. Being ill for three days in a town in Nevada, and finding himself utterly deserted, he gives vent to his feelings in these words: "I defy your finding, in the whole of Europe, a village where an artist of reputation would find himself as isolated as I have been here. If, in place of playing the piano, of having composed two or three hundred pieces, of having given seven or eight thousand concerts, of hav- ing given to the poor one hundred and fifty thousand dollars, of having been knighted twice, I had sold suc- cessfully for ten years quarters of salted hog, my poor, isolated chamber would have been invaded by adorers and admirers."
There is more danger of luxuriousness at the "West, a greater extravagance than among Eastern people of like means. Money comes faster and goes faster. There is little of that strict economy which is so often practiced at the East. A western town of ten thous- and inhabitants will boast of " carrying all the style" of an eastern city of fifty thousand. New villages are likely to have more electric lights and telephones than many of the great cities of Europe. The millionaires of the West v, ere not many of them born to wealth. They have made their riches within a few years ; and such are the men to spend money freely. They be- come the social legislators, and help to create customs of free expenditure.
The striking centralization of capital which has al- ready taken place at the West was sufficiently noticed
128 PERILS. THE CITY.
in the preceding chapter. Enough has been said to show that the West is peculiarly exposed to the dan- gers with which wealth threatens the nation.
CHAPTEE X.
PERILS. THE CITY.
The city is the nerve center of our civilization. It is also the storm center. The fact, therefore, that it is growing much more rapidly than the whole population is full of significance. In 1790 one-thirtieth of the population of the United States lived in cities of 8,000 inhabitants and over; in 1800, one twenty-fifth; in 1810, and also in 1820, one-twentieth ; in 1830, one sixteenth; in 1840, one-twelfth; in 1850, one-eighth; in 1860, one-sixth ; in 1870, a little over one-fifth ; and in 1880, 22.5 per cent., or nearly one-fourth.* From 1790 to 1880 the whole population increased twelve fold, the urban population eighty-six fold. From 1830 to 1880 the whole population increased a little less than four fold, the urban population thirteen fold. From 1870 to 1880 the whole population increased thirty per cent., the urban population forty per cent. During the half century preceding 1880, population in the city increased more than four times as rapidly as that of the village and country. In 1800 there were
* " Compendium of tne Tenth Cengus," Part 1., pp. xxx and 8.
PERILS. THE CITY. 129
only six cities in the United States which had a popu- lation of 8,000 or more. In 1880 there were 286.
The city has become a serious menace to our civili- zation, because in it, excepting Mormonism, each of the dangers we have discussed is enhanced, and all are focalized. It has a peculiar attraction for the immi- grant. Our fifty principal cities contain 39.3 per cent, of our entire German population, and 45.8 per cent, of the Irish. Our ten larger cities contain only nine per cent, of the entire population, but 23 per cent, of the foreign. While a little less than one-third of the pop- ulation of the "United States is foreign by birth or parentage, sixty-two per cent, of the population of Cin- cinnati are foreign, eighty-three per cent, of Cleveland, sixty-three per cent, of Boston, eighty-eight per cent, of
New York, and ninety-one per cent, of Chicago.*
Because our cities are so largely foreign, Eomanism finds in them its chief strength.
For the same reason the saloon, together with the intemperance and the liquor power which it repre- sents, is multiplied in the city. East of the Missis- sippi there was, in 1880, one saloon to every 438 of the population ; in Boston, one to every 329 ; in Cleveland, one to every 192 ; in Chicago, one to every 179 ; in New York, one to every 171; in Cincinnati, one to every 124. Of course the demoralizing and pauper- izing power of the saloons and their debauching influ- ence in politics increase with their numerical strength. It is the city where wealth is massed ; and here are
* The Compendium of the Tenth Census gives the number of persons, foreign-born, in each of the fifty principal cities, but does not give the native-born population of foreign parentage. We are enabled to compute it, however, by knowing that the total number of foreigners and their children of the first generation is, according to the Census, 2.24 times larger than the total number of foreign-bom.
130 PERILS. THE CITY.
the tangible evidences of it piled many stories high. Here the sway of Mammon is widest, and his worship the most constant and eager. Here are luxuries gathered — everything that dazzles the eye, or tempts the appetite ; here is the most extravagant expendi- ture. Here, also, is the congestion of wealth the se- verest. Dives and Lazarus are brought face to face ; here, in sharp contrast, are the ennui of surfeit and the desperation cf starvation. The rich are richer, and the poor are poorer., in the city than elsewhere ; and, as a rule, the greater the city, the greater are the riches of the rich and the poverty of the poor. Not only does the proportion of the poor increase with the growth of the city, but their condition becomes more wretched. The poor of a city of 8,000 inhabitants are well off compared with many in New York ; and there are no such depths of woe, such utter and heart-wring- ing wretchedness in New York as in London. Bead in " The Bitter Cry of Outcast London," a prophecy of what will some day be seen in American cities, pro- vided existing tendencies continue: "Few who will read these pages have any conception of what these pestilential human rookeries are, where tens of thou- sands are crowded together amidst horrors which call to mind what we have heard of the middle passage of the slave-ship. To get into them you have to pene- trate courts reeking with poisonous and malodorous gases, arising from accumulations of sewage and refuse scattered in all directions, and often flowing beneath your feet ; courts, many of them which the sun never penetrates, which are never visited by a breath of fresh air. You have to ascend rotten staircases, grope your way along dark and filthy passages swarming with vermin. Then, if you are not driven back by
3PE&ILS. THE CITY. 131
the intolerable stench, you may gain admittance to the dens in w! ioh these thousands of beings herd to- gether. Eight feet square ! That is about the aver- age size of very many of these rooms. Walls and ceil- ing are black with the accretions of filth which have gathered upon them through long years of neglect. It is exuding through cracks in the boards; it is every- where. . . . Every room in these rotten and reeking tenements houses a family, often two. In one cellar, a sanitary inspector reports finding a father, mother, three children, and four pigs. . . . Mere are seven people living in one underground kitchen, and a little dead child lying in the same room. Elsewhere is a poor widow, her three children, and a child who had been dead thirteen days.* Her husband, who was a cabman, had shortly before committed suicide. . . . In another apartment, nine brothers and sisters, from twenty-nine years of age downwards, live, eat, and sleep together. Here is a mother who turns her chil- dren into the street in the early evening, because she lets her room for immoral purposes until long after midnight, when the poor little wretches creep back again, if they have not found some miserable shelter elsewhere. "Where there are beds, they are simply heaps of dirty rags, shavings, or straw; but for the most part these miserable beings find rest only upon the filthy boards. . . . There are men and women who lie and die, day by day, in their wretched single rr jm, sharing all the family trouble, enduring the hun- ger and the cold, and waiting, without hope, without a single ray of comfort, until God curtains their staring eyes with the merciful film of death. "f Says the
* The investigations here reported were made in the summer. \ " The Bitter Cry of Outcast London," pp. 3, 4, 10,
132 PERILS. THE CITT.
writer : " So far from making the most of our facts for the purpose of appealing to emotion, we have been compelled to tone down everything, and wholly to omit what most needs to be known, or the ears and eyes of our readers would have been insufferably out- raged. Indeed, no respectable printer would print, and certainly no decent family would admit, even the driest statement of the horrors and infamies dis- covered in one brief visitation from house to house." Such are the conditions under which hundreds of thousands live in London. So much space is given to this picture, only because London is a future New York, or Brooklyn, or Chicago. It gives a very dim impression of what may exist in a great city side by side with enormous wealth. Is it strange that such conditions arouse a blind and bitter hatred of our social system ?
Socialism not only centers in the city, but is almost confined to it ; and the materials of its growth are multiplied with the growth of the city. Here is heaped the social dynamite ; here roughs, gamblers, thieves, robbers, lawless and desperate men of all sorts, congre- gate ; men who are ready on any pretext to raise riots for the purpose of destruction and plunder; here gather foreigners and wage-workers ; here skepticism and irreligion abound ; here inequality is the greatest and most obvious, and the contrast between opulence and penury the most striking ; here is suffering the sorest. As the greatest wickedness in the world is ! o be found not among the cannibals of some far oft coast, but in Christian lands where the light of truth is diffused and rejected, so the utmost depth of wretched- ness exists not among savages, who have few wants, but in great cities, where, in the presence of plenty and
PEEILS. THE CITY. 133
of every luxury men starve. Let a man become the owner of a home, and he is much less susceptible to socialistic propagandism. But real estate is so high in the city that it is almost impossible for a wage-worker to become a householder. The law in New York re- quires a juror to be owner of real or personal property valued at not less than two hundred and fifty dollars ; and this, the Commissioner says, relieves seventy thous- and of the registered voters of New York City from jury duty. Let us remember that those seventy thous- and voters represent a population of two hundred and eighty thousand, or fifty-six thousand families, not one of which has property to the value of two hundred and fifty dollars. " During the past three years, 220,976 persons in New York have asked for outside aid in one form or another."* Said a New York Supreme Judge, not long since : " There is a large class — I was about to say a majority — of the population of New York and Brooklyn, who just live, and to whom the rearing of two or more children means inevitably a boy for the penitentiary, and a girl for the brothel, "f Under such conditions smolder the volcanic fires of a deep discon- tent.
We have seen how the dangerous elements of our civ- ilization are each multiplied and all concentered in the city. Do we find there the conservative forces of so- ciety equally numerous and strong? Here are the tainted spots in the body-politic ; where is the salt f In 1880 there was in the United States one Evangelical church organization to every 516 of the population. In Boston there is one church to every 1,600 of the popu- lation ; in Chicago, one to 2,081 ; in New York, one to
* Mrs. J. S. Lowell, in The Christian Union, March 26th, 1385. t Henry George's " Social Problems," p. 9&
134 PEBILS. — THE CITt.
2,468; in St. Louis, one to 2,800. The city, where the forces of evil are massed, and where the need of Christian influence is peculiarly great, is from one- third to one-fifth as well supplied u ith churches as the nation at large. And church accommodations in the city are growing more inadequate every year. Includ- ing church organizations of all sorts, Chicago had in 1840 one church to every 747 of the population. In 1851, there was one to every 1,009; in 1862, one to 1,301; in 1870, one to 1,599; in 1880, one to 2,081. I am not aware that the case of Chicago is exceptional. In that city " There is a certain district, of which a careful examination has been made; and in that dis- trict, out of a population of 50,000, there are 20,000 under twenty years of age, and there are Sunday- school accommodations for less than 2,000; that is, over 18,000 of the children and youth are compelled to go without the gospel of Jesus Christ, because the Christian churches are asleep. Mr. Gates says: ' What wonder that the polioe arrested last year 7,200 boys and girls for various petty crimes ?' The devil cares for them. There are 261 saloons and dago shops, three theaters and other vile places, and the Christian church offers Sunday-school accommodation to only 2,000 !"* The writer has found similar destitution in the large cities of Ohio. And the statistics given above indicate that in the large cities generally it is common to find ex' ensive districts nearly or quite destitute of the gospel. South of Fourteenth street, New York, there is a population of 541,000, for whom there is but one Protestant church to every 5,000 souls. That is, here are half a million people only one-tenth as well sup- plied with moral and Christian influences as the whole
* Rev. H. A. Scfcauffier'8 Address at Saratoga, June, 1884.
PERILS. — THE CITY. 135
country at large. There are wards in New York and other large cities where there is but one Protestant church to every ten or fifteen thousand souls : which means that those wards are from one-twentieth to one-thirtieth as well sup- plied with churches as the whole land. In Ohio, even includ- iDg the cities, more than one-fifth of the population is in Evangelical churches; in Cincinnati, by the latest estimate of the population, only one in twenty-three.
If moral and religious influences are peculiarly weak at the point where our social explosives are gathered, what of city government f Are its strength, and purity so exceptional as to insure the effective control of these dangerous elements 1 In the light of notorious facts, the question sounds satirical. It is commonly said in Europe, and sometimes acknowledged here, that the government of large cities in the United States is a failure. " In all the great American cities there is to- day as clearly defined a ruling class as in the most aristocratic countries in the world. Its members carry wards in their pockets, make up the slates for nominat- ing conventions, distribute offices as they bargain to- gether, and — though they toil not, neither do they spin — wear the best of raiment and spend money lav- ishly. They are men of power, whose favor the am- bitious must court, and whose vengeance he must avoid. Who are these men 1 The wise, the good, the learned — men who have earned the confidence of their fellow-citizens by the purity of their lives, the splen- dor of their talents, their probity in public trusts, their deep study of the problems of government? No; they are gamblers, saloon-keepers, pugilists, or worse, who have made a trade of controlling votes and of buying and selling offices and official acts."t It has t " Progress ana Poverty." p. 382,
136 PERILS. THE CITY.
come to this, that holding a municipal office in a large city almost impeaches a man's character. Known in- tegrity and competency hopelessly incapacitate a man for any office in the gift of a city rabble. In a certain western city, the administration of the mayor had con- vinced good citizens that he gave constant aid and comfort to gamblers, thieves, saloon-keepers, and all the worst elements of society. He became a candidate for a second term. The prominent men and press of both parties and the ministry of all denominations united in a Citizens' League to defeat him ; but he was triumphantly returned to office by the " lewd fellows of the baser sort." And now, after a desperate strug- gle on the part of the better elements to defeat him, he has been re-elected to a third term of office.
Popular government in the city is degenerating into government by a "boss." During his visit to this country Herbert Spencer said : " You retain the forms of freedom ; but, so far as I can gather, there has been a considerable loss of the substance. It is true that those who rule you do not do it by means of retainers armed with swords ; but they do it through regiments of men armed with voting papers, who obey the word of command as loyally as did the dependents of the old feudal nobles, and who thus enable their leaders to override the general will, and make the community sub- mit to their exactions as effectually as their prototypes of old. Manifestly those who framed your Constitution never dreamed that twenty thousand citizens would go to the polls led by a 'boss.' "
As a rule, our largest cities are the worst governed. It is natural, therefore, to infer that, as our cities grow larger and more dangerous, the government will be- come more corrupt, and control will pass more com-
PERILS. THE CITY. 137
pletely into the hands of those who themselves most need to be controlled. If we would appreciate the sig- nificance of these facts and tendencies, we must bear in mind that the disproportionate growth of the city is undoubtedly to continue, and the number of great cities to be largely increased. The extraordinary growth of urban population during this century has not been at all peculiar to the United States. It is a characteristic of nineteenth century civilization. In England and "Wales two-thirds of the entire popula- tion are found in cities of 3,000 inhabitants and over, and the urban population is growing nearly twice as rapidly as that of the country. And this growth of the city is taking place not only in England and Germany, where the increase of population is rapid, but also in France, where population is practically stationary, and even in Ireland, where it is declining. This strong tendency toward the city is the result chiefly of manu- facturers and railway communication, and their influ- ence will, of course, continue. If the growth of the city in the United States has been so rapid during this century, while many millions of acres were being set- tled, what may be expected when the settlement of the West has been completed? The rapid rise in the value of lands will stimulate yet more the growth of the city ; for the man of small means will be unable to command a farm, and the town will become his only alternative. When the public lands are all taken, immigration, though it will be considerably restricted thereby, will continue, and will crowd the cities more and more. This country will undoubtedly have a population of several hundred millions, for the simple reason that it is capable of sustaining that number. And it looks as if ibe larger proportion of it would be urban. There
138 PEEILS. THE CITY.
can be? no indefinite increase of our agricultural popu- lation. Its growth must needs be slow after the farms are all taken, and it is necessarily limited; but the cities may go on doubling and doubling again. Unless the growth of population is very greatly and unex- pectedly retarded, many who are adults to-day will live to see 200,000,000 inhabitants in the United States, and a number greater than our present population — over 50,000,000 — living in cities of 8,000 and upwards. And the city of the future will be more crowded than that of to-day, because the elevator makes it possible to build, as it were, one city above another. Thus is our civilization multiplying and focalizing the elements of anarchy and destruction. Nearly forty years ago De Tocqueville wrote : " I look upon the size of cer- tain American cities, and especially upon the nature of their population, as a real danger which threatens the security of the democratic republics of the New World." That danger grows more real and imminent every year.
And this peril, like the others which have been dis- cussed, peculiarly threatens the West. The time will doubtless come when a majority of the great cities of the country will be west of the Mississippi. This will result naturally from the greater eventual population of the West ; but, in addition to this fact, what has been pointed out must not be forgotten, that agricul- ture will occupy a much smaller place relatively in the industries of the West than in those of the East, be- cause a much smaller proportion of the ]and is arable. The vast region of the Rocky Mountains will be inhab- ited chiefly by a mining and manufacturing population, and such populations live in cities.
1. In gathering up the results of the foregoing
tEBILS. THE CIT*. 139
cussion of these several perils, it should be remarked that to preserve republican institutions requires a higher average intelligence and virtue among large populations than among small. The government of 3,000,000 people was a simple thing compared with the government of 50,000,000 ; and the government of 50,000,000 is a simple thing compared with that of 500,000,000. There are many men who can conduct a small business successfully who are utterly incapable of managing large interests. In the latter there are multiplied relations whose harmony must be preserved. A mistake is farther reaching. It has, as it were, a longer leverage. This is equally true of the business of government. The man of only average ability and intelligence discharges creditably the duties of mayor in his little town; but he would fail utterly at the head of the state or the nation. If the people are to gov- ern, they must grow more intelligent as the popula- tion and the complications of government increase. And a higher morality is even more essential. As civ- ilization increases, as society becomes more complex, as labor-saving machinery is multiplied and the divis- ion of labor becomes more minute, the individual be- comes more fractional and dependent. Every savage possesses all the knowledge of his tribe. Throw him upon his own resources, and he is self-sufficient. A civilized man in like circumstances would perish. The savage is independent. Civilize him, and he becomes dependent; the more civilized, the more dependent. And, as men become more dependent on each other, they should be able to rely more implicitly on each other. More complicated and multiplied relations re- quire a more delicate conscience and a stronger sense of justice. And any failure in character or conduct
140 PERILS. THE CITY-
under such conditions is farther reaching and more disastrous in its results.
Is our progress in morals and intelligence at all comparable to the growth of population? From 1870 to 1880 illiteracy decreased. While population increased thirty per cent., the illiterate increased only ten per cent. There were in the United States, in 1880, 1,908,801 illiterate voters, "genuine agnostics," who cannot write their own name. At present, only one voter in six is illiterate ; but, judging from a report of the Senate Committee on Education, the proportion will soon increase. That committee estimates the school population of the United States at 18,000,000, of which number " 7,500,000, or five-twelfths of the whole, are growing up in absolute ignorance of the English alphabet." The nation's illiteracy has not been discussed, because it is not one of the perils which peculiarly threaten the "West ; but any one who would calculate our political horoscope must allow it great influence in connection with the baleful stars which are in the ascendant. But the danger which arises from the corruption of popular morals is much greater. The republics of Greece and Rome, and, if I mistake not, all the republics that have ever lived and died, were more intelligent at the end than at the be- ginning ; but growing intelligence could not compen- sate decaying morals. What, then, is our moral prog- ress? Are popular morals as sound as they were twenty, or even ten, years ago ? There is, perhaps, no better index of general morality than Sabbath observ- ance ; and everybody knows there has been a great in- crease of Sabbath desecration in ten years. There was three times as much intoxicating liquor used per caput in the United States in 1883 as there was in
PERILS. THE CITY. 141
1840. Says the Kev. S. W. Dike :* « It is safe to say that divorce has been doubled, in proportion to mar- riages or population, in most of the Northern States within thirty years. Present figures indicate a still greater increase." And President "Woolsey, speaking of the United States, says : f " On the whole, there can be little, if any question, that the ratio of divorces to marriages or to population exceeds that of any country in the Christian world." While the population in- creased thirty per cent, from 1870 to 1880, the number of criminals in the United States increased 82.33 per cent. It looks very much as if existing tendencies were in the direction of the dead-line of vice. The city, wealth, socialism, intemperance, Mormonism, Romanism, and immigration are all increasing more rapidly than the population. Are popular mor- als likely to improve under their increasing influ- ence f
2. The fundamental idea of popular government is the distribution of power. It has been the struggle of liberty for ages to wrest power from the hands of one or the few, and lodge it in the hands of the many. We have seen, in the foregoing discussion, that cen- tralized power is rapidly growing. The "boss" makes his bargain, and sells his ten thousand or fifty thous- and voters as if they were so many cattle. Centralized wealth is centralized power; and the capitalist and, corporation find many ways to control votes. The liquor power controls thousands of votes in every con- siderable city. The president of the Mormon church casts, say, sixty thousand votes. The Jesuits are all under the command of one man in Washington. The
* Princeton Review ', March, 1884, p. 170.
t North American Review, April, 1883, p. 814.
1.42 PERILS. THE CITY.
Catholic vote is more or less perfectly controlled by the priests. That means that the Pope can dictate some hundreds of thousands of votes in the United States. Is there anything unrepublican in all this? And we must remember that, if present tendencies continue, these figures will be greatly multiplied in the future. And not only is this immense power lodged in the hand of one man, which in itself is perilous, but it is wielded without the slightest reference to any policy or principle of government, solely in the inter- ests of a church or a business, or for personal ends.
The result of a national election may depend on a single state ; the vote of that state may depend on a single city ; the vote of that city may depend on a " boss," or a capitalist, or a corporation ; or the elec- tion may be decided, and the policy of the government may be reversed, by the socialist, or liquor, or Romish, or immigrant vote.
It matters not by what name we call the man who wields this centralized power — whether king, czar, pope, president, capitalist, or boss. Just so far as it is abso- lute and irresponsible, it is dangerous.
3. These several dangerous elements are singularly netted together, and serve to , strengthen each other. It is not necessary to prove that any one of them is likely to destroy our national life, in order to show that it is imperiled. A man may die of wounds no one of which is fatal. No sober-minded man can look fairly at the facts, and doubt that together these perils constitute an array which seriously threatens our free institutions ; especially in view of the fact that their strength is concentrating in the West, where our de- fense is weakest.
These dangerous elements are now working, and will
PERILS. — THE CITY. 143
continue to work, incalculable harm and loss — moral, intellectual, social, pecuniary. But the supreme peril, which will certainly come, eventually, and must proba- bly be faced by multitudes now living, will arise, when, the conditions having been fully prepared, some great industrial or other crisis precipitates an open struggle between the destructive and the conservative elements of society. As civilization advances, and society be- comes more highly organized, commercial transactions will be more complex and immense. As a result, all business relations and industries will be more sensi- tive. Commercial distress in any great business center will the more surely create wide-spread disaster. Under such conditions, industrial paralysis is likely to occur from time to time, more general and more pros- trating than any heretofore known. When such a commercial crisis has closed factories by the ten thou- sand, and wage-workers have been thrown out of em- ployment by the million ; when the public lands, which hitherto at such times have afforded relief, are all ex- hausted ; when our urban population has been multi- plied several fold, and our Cincinnatis have become Chicagos, our Chicagos New Yorks, and our New Yorks Londons ; when class antipathies are deepened ; when socialistic organizations, armed and drilled, are in every city, and the ignorant and vicious power of crowded populations has fully found itself ; when the corruption of city governments is grown apace ; when crops fail, or some gigantic "corner" doubles the price of bread ; with starvation in the home ; with idle work- men gathered, sullen and desperate, in the saloons ; with unprotected wealth at hand ; with the tremendous forces of chemistry within easy reach ; then, with the opportunity ', the means, the fit agents, the motive, the
144 THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY SETTLEES.
temptation to destroy, all brought into evil conjunction, THEN will come the real test of our institutions, then will appear whether we are capable of self-govern- ment.
CHAPTEB XI.
THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY SETTLERS.
OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES, on being asked when the train ing of a child should begin, replied: "A hundred years before he is born." Not only should it begin then, it does; for inheritance, together with that which necessarily accompanies it, is the great conservative in- fluence which perpetuates national characteristics, and preserves the identity of races. In the case of nations, education, though it may modify the results of inherit- ance, is, itself, for the most part, determined by in- heritance. What is the difference between North and South America ? It is the difference between the An- glo-Saxon race and the Spanish race. What is the difference between Massachusetts and Virginia ? It is the difference between the Pilgrim and the cavalier. How unlike are Boston, New York, Philadelphia, New Orleans, Montreal, and Quebec ? Religiously, morally, intellectually, socially, commercially, in enterprise and spirit, they differ to-day pretty much as their founders differed generations ago. It is true of the city and nation as of the herb, that its seed is in itself, after its kind.
THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY SETTLERS. 145
Communities and commonwealths, like men, have their childhood, which is the formative period. It is the first permanent settlers who impress themselves and their character on the future. Powerful influences may, in later years, produce important modifications ; but it is early influence which is farthest reaching, and is generally decisive. It is easier to form than to re form ; easier to mold molten iron than to file the cold cast.
Look at a few illustrations of the above truths. On the Western Reserve are two adjoining townships, which were settled by men of radically different char- acter. The southern township was founded by a far- seeing and devoted home missionary. He had become convinced that he could do more to establish Christian institutions on the Reserve " by one conspicuous ex- ample of a well organized and well Christianized town- ship, with all the best arrangements and appliances of New England civilization, than by many years of des- ultory effort in the way of missionary labor." The set- tlers were carefully selected. None but professing Christians were to become land-holders. As soon as a few families had moved into the township, public wor- ship was commenced, and has ever since been main- tained without interruption. A church was organized under the roof of the first log cabin. At the center of the township, where eight roads meet, was located the church building, fitly representing the central place oc- cupied by the service of God in the life of the colony. Soon followed the school-house and the public library. And there, in the midst of the unconquered forest, only eight years after the first white settlement, the people, mindful of higher education, and true to their New England antecedents, planted an academy. At a very
14G THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY SETTLERS.
early period several benevolent societies were organ- ized, and here was opened the first school for the deaf and dumb in the State of Ohio.
The northern township was first settled by an infidel, who seems to have given to the community not only his name, but, in large measure, his character also. He naturally attracted men of the same sort. He ex- pressed the desire that there might never be a Christian church in the township ; and, so far as I know, there has never been organized within its limits an Evangel- ical church. Though one of the best colleges in the West was founded within five miles, I am unable to learn that any young man from this township has ever taken a college course. A few* have entered profes- sional life, none of whom has gained a wide reputation. On the other hand, the southern township is widely known to-day for its moral and religious character, its weal thf and liberality, and for the exceptionally large number of young men and women it sends to colleges and seminaries. It has furnished many members of the state legislature and senate. It has been fruitful of ministers and educators, some of whom have gained a national reputation. From this little village of a few hundred inhabitants have gone forth men to college professorships east and west, to the Supreme Bench of the state, and to the United States Congress. The general character of these two townships was fixed at the beginning of the century. Their founders placed a stamp upon them which abides.
* I can gain definite knowledge of only seven, though it is quite likely there have been more.
t Though the northern township had the advantage of a better sol1, the assessed valuation of real and personal property in the southern nov ex- ceeds that of the other by fifty-six per cent. Godliness is profitable t *he life that now is.
THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY SETTLERS. 147
The town of Boscawen, New Hampshire, was settled in 1734, by a colony of Massachusetts people. Scarcely were they settled, when they took steps to secure " some suitable man and a Christian learned" to preach the gospel. The original stock was good, and the for- mative influences were Christian. We now find that its collegiate and professional record contains more than 130 names, among which there are those of two missionaries, six journalists, twenty- one lawyers, thirty- five physicians, and forty-two ministers. From this town came General John A. Dix, Professor Moses Far- mer, John P. Farmer, William Pitt Fessenden, Nathaniel Green, Colonel Thomas Gordon Green, Daniel Webster, and Ezekiel Webster.
When Northampton, Massachusetts, was settled, in 1654, it was " way out west" on the frontier. Among the early settlers in the then wilderness, who shaped the character and history of the town, were the Aliens, Bartletts, Bridgmans, Clapps, Dwights, Elliotts, Haw- leys, Kings, Lymans, Mathers, Parsons, Stoddards. Strongs, Tappans, and Wrights. The town early be- came distinguished for its marked religious character and its educational advantages. For a century and a quarter the entire population, save the very old and the very young, the sick and their attendants, were found in the church every Sabbath. In 1735, during the pastorate of Jonathan Edwards, over 600, out of a population of 1,100, were members of the church. For seven generations the impress given by the early set- tlers has remained. Their influence upon the commu- nity, and that of the community upon the state and the nation, may be, in some measure, estimated from the" following record.* Among the natives and residents * « Northampton Antiquities," by Rev. Solomon Clark,
148 THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY SETTLEB8.
of the town are about 354 college graduates, besides fifty-six graduates of other institutions, one hundred and fourteen ministers, eighty-four ministers' wives, ten missionaries, twenty-five judges, about one hun dred and two lawyers, ninety-five physicians ; one hun- dred and one educators, including seven college presi- dents and thirty professors, twenty-four editors, six historians, and twenty-four authors, among whom are George Bancroft, John Lothrop Motley, Professor W. D. "Whitney, and J. G. Holland; thirty-eight offi- cers of state, among them two governors, two secre- taries of the Commonwealth, seven senators, and eigh- .teen representatives; twenty-one army officers, includ- ing six colonels and two generals ; twenty-eight offi- cers of the United States, among them a Secretary of the Navy, two Foreign Ministers, a Treasurer of the United States, five senators, eight members of Con- gress, and one President.
If a community produces or fails to produce good citizens and able men, the records of the founders will rarely fail to afford an explanation, for the influence of the early settlers continues operative until their de- scendants are displaced by some other stock. It is true the glory is departing from, many a New England village, because men, alien in blood, in religion, and in civilization, are taking possession of homes in which were once reared the descendants of the Pilgrims. But the fact that the character of New England is un- dergoing important changes is no proof that the im- press now being given to the new communities of the "West will not be permanent. There is no likelihood that the foreign immigration now pouring in upon us is ever to be supplanted by another stock. Instead, it will be reinforced until there is an equalization of pop-
THE INFLUENCE OF E^LRLT SETTLEBS. 149
ulation between the Old World and the New, and then it will cease. Beyond a peradventure, the character, and hence the destiny, of the great "West, for centuries to come, is now being determined.
" I hear the tread of pioneers, Of nations yet to be ; The first low wash of waves, where sooa Shall roll a human sea.
" The rudiments of empire here Are plasMc yet, and warm ;, The chaos of a mighty world Is rounding into form."
What the final form of that western world is likely to be, we may infer from the forces which are at work shaping it. How do they compare with the influences which molded New England institutions'? The Pil- grim fathers sought these shores not simply as refu- gees, but also as missionaries. "A great hope and inward zeal they had of laying some good foundation (or, at least, to make some way thereunto) for propa- gating and advancing the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world." They came not for gold ; but for conscience sake and soul's sake. The early settlers of New England were suf- ficiently homogeneous to enable them to labor har- moniously and successfully to make religion, learning, liberty and law, the four corner-stones of their civiliza- tion. New England ideas gave form to the national government, and shaped the institutions of the Mid- dle States ; but does any one suppose they are domi- nant to-day in the great territories of the West? Is there no danger that an alien and materialistic civiliza- tion will spring up in the Rocky Mountains and beyond*?
The population of the frontier is thoroughly hetero- geneous. In a town in Montana of about 7,000inhabi-
150 THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY SETTLEBS.
tants, a religious census discovered, in addition to the usual Protestant sects, evangelical and otherwise, 3,000 Catholics, several members of the Greek church, three Mohammedans and 360 Buddhists. In a single con- gregation there were representatives of fifteen states of the Union, scattered from the Atlantic to the Pa- cific, and the following nationalities : German, French, Italian, English, Scotch, Irish, "Welsh, Norwegian, Swedish, Greek and Russian, besides a native of Alaska. The "West is being settled by well-nigh every variety of race, representing every type of religion and irreligion — peoples different in antecedents, language, customs, habits, ideas and character. The one thing in which a frontier population agrees is the universal and unbending purpose to make money.
We have already seen that the West is peculiarly exposed to the dangers of Mammonism, materialism, luxuriousness and the centralization of wealth; that conditions are exceptionally favorable to the spread of socialism ; that the relative power of the saloon is two and a half times greater in the far West than in the East ; that Mormonism is rapidly growing ; that Komanism, as compared with the population, is about three times as strong in the territories as in the whole United States; and that into the West is pouring seventy-five per cent, of immigration. These forces of evil, which are severely trying the established institu- tions of the East, are brought to bear with increased power upon the plastic and formative society of the West. It is like subjecting a child to evil influences, for resistance to which the full strength of mature years is none too great.
We have seen (Chap. IV.) that nearly all of the per- ils which have been discussed are greatly enhanced
THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY SETTLERS. 151
by the presence of the foreign element. It is of the utmost significance that this element constitutes so large a proportion of the settlers who are now shaping the future of the great commonwealths of the West. Those of foreign birth or extraction * were, in 1880, 38.2 per cent, of the population of Washington Terri- tory. Of Montana,, they constituted 48.8 per cent, of the population ; of Wyoming, 50.5 per cent.-; of Utah, 51.9 per cent.; of Idaho, 53.2 per cent.; of Arizona, 55.2 per cent.; of Dakota, 66.5 per cent.; of the State of Nebraska, 43.5 per cent.; of California, 59.9 per cent.; of Nevada, 63.3 per cent., and of Minnesota, 71.6 per cent. Not including Alaska, New Mexico, or the Indian Territory, 53.9 per cent, of the population of the territories was, in 1880, of foreign birth or ex- traction. The population of New Mexico, though al- most wholly native, is essentially foreign — foreign in race, language, education (or rather the lack of it), in religious ideas, habits and character. It is much more difficult to assimilate than any of the European races. The same is true of the population of the Indian Ter- ritory. Counting these peoples, then, as foreign, 66 per cent, of the population of the territories is of for- eign birth or extraction ; and these territories include nearly 44 per cent, of all the land between the Missis- sippi and Alaska. If we add California, Colorado, Min- nesota, Nebraska, Nevada and Oregon, these states, together with the territories, constitute nearly two- thirds of all the West, and 58.9 per cent, of their in- habitants are of foreign extraction or birth.
We have seen that dangerous influences are being
* By foreign extraction is meant natives, one or both of whose parents were foreign-born. See " Compendium of Tenth Census," Part II, pp. 1408 and 1409.
152 THE INFLUENCE OF EAELY SETTLERS.
brought to "bear upon the new settlements of the West with peculiar power. Are the neutralizing and saving influences of the Christian religion equally strong? According to Dr. Dorchester, the evangelical church membership of the United States in 1880, was one- fifth of the entire population ; but in Oregon, the same year, only one in eleven of the population was in some evangelical, church ; in Dakota, one in twelve ; in "Washington, one in sixteen ; in California and Colora- do, one in twenty; in Idaho, one in thirty- three ; in Montana, one in thirty-six ; in Nevada, one in forty- six; in Wyoming, one in eighty-one; in Utah, one in 224 ; in New Mexico, one in 657 ; in Arizona, one in 685.
If, as Milton says, "Childhood shows the man as morning shows the day," what will be the manhood of the West, unless the churches of the East are speedily aroused to some appreciation of their opportunity and their obligation?
Important changes are taking place in the East and South, but they do not possess the almost boundless significance which attaches to beginnings. East of the Mississippi, state constitutions and laws were formed long since ; society is no longer chaotic, it has crystallized ; religion has its recognized institutions which are thoroughly established. A vast work remains to be done, especially in the South and the cities of the North — a work which sustains important relations to our national welfare ; but it is the West, not the South or the North, which holds the key to the nation's future. The center of population, of manufactures, of wealth, and of political power is not moving south, but west. The Southern States will never have a majority of our population ; the West will. To-day, the consti-
THE INFLUENCE OF EARLY SETTLERS. 153
tutions and laws of many of the future states of our western empire are unformed. Those great territo- ries, as Edmund Burke once said of the nation, are yet "in the gristle "; society is still chaotic ; religious, ed- ucational and political institutions are embryonic ; but their character is being rapidly fashioned by the swift, impetuous forces of intense western life. "Know thy opportunity."
CHAPTER XII.
THE EXHAUSTION OF THE PUBLIC LANDS,
THOMAS CABLYLE once said to an American : " Ye may boast o' yer dimocracy, or any ither 'cracy, or any kind o' poleetical roobish ; but the reason why yer laboring folk are so happy is thoth ye have a vost deal o* land for a verra few people." Carlyle was not the man to take an unprejudiced view of republican institutions; but he was not mistaken in finding great significance in the fact that heretofore our land has been vastly greater than its population. The rapid accumulation of our wealth, our comparative immunity from the con- sequences of unscientific legislation, our financial elas- ticity, our high wages, the general welfare and content- ment of the people hitherto have all been due, in very large measure, to an abundance of cheap land. When the supply is exhausted, we shall enter upon a new era, and shall more rapidly approximate European condi- tions of life. The gravity of the change was clearly
154 THE EXHAUSTION OF THE PUBLIC LANDS.
foreseen by Lord Maeaulay, and expressed in his well- known letter to Hon. H. S. Randall, in 1857 — a letter which General Garfield said startled him " like an alarm bell in the night." "Your fate," says Macaulay, "I believe to be certain, though it is deferred by a phys- ical cause. As long as you have a boundless extent of fertile and unoccupied land, your laboring population will be far more at ease than the laboring population of the Old World. . . . But the time will come when New England will be as thickly peopled as Old England. Wages will be as low, and will fluctuate as much with you as with us. You will have your Man- chesters and Birminghams. And in those Manchesters and Birminghams hundreds of thousands of artisans will assuredly be some tune out of work. Then your institutions will be fairly brought to the test. . . . Through such seasons the United States will have to pass in the course of the next century, if not of this. I wish you a good deliverance. But my reason and my wishes are at war, and I cannot help foreboding the Worst."
What is the extent of these public lands whose oc- cupation means so much I The public domain west of the Mississippi, not including Alaska, is estimated to have been, in 1880, 880,787,746 acres.* This includes
* The following table, showing the location of public lands, is compiled from " Spaulding on Public Lands," pp. 6, 7.
Surveyed and Unsurveyed.
Unsold Acres. Acres. Total.
Arizona 1,561,231 61,098,366 68,659,591
Arkansas 4,620,120 .... 4,623,120
California 25,250,680 48,643,592 73,894,272
Colorado 20,489,312 40,651,670 61,146,982
Dakota 12,225,492 71,422,103 83,647,595
Idaho 3,925,237 47,7 9,: 68 61,664,605
Indian Territory 17,150,250 17,150,250
Kansas 28,049,731 .... 28,049,731
THE EXHAUSTION OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. 155
land necessary to fill railroad grants, estimated at 110,- 000,000 acres, also private land claims estimated* at 80,000,000 acres, together with military and Indian res- ervations estimated at 157,356,952 acres. Supposing all of the military and Indian reservations to revert to the public domain save 57,000,000 acres, there remained of the public lands west of the Mississippi, in 1880, yet to be disposed of, about 633,787,746 acres. This seems an almost inexhaustible supply, but we must remember the magnitude of the demand. In 1881, tlie govern- ment parted with 10,893,397 acres ; in 1882, 14,309,- 166 ; in 1883, 19,4^0,032 ; and in 1884, 27,531,170— a slice considerably larger than the State of Ohio, in a single year, and a total in the four years of 72,163,765 acres, leaving in the hands of the government at the present time about 561,623,981 acres. Not only is the amount annually disposed of enormous, but, as we have seen, it is very rapidly increasing. Even if the increase should cease, the demand for 1884, steadily continued, would exhaust the supply in twenty years. It must not be forgotten that these 561,000,000 acres include the great mountain ranges, and all the barren lands. Only a comparatively small portion is arable. The farming lands of the "West, therefore, will all be
Louisiana |
2,130,000 |
2,130,000 |
|
Minnesota |
13,383,813 |
13,510,423 |
26,894,236 |
Missouri |
1,000,000 |
.... |
1,000,000 |
Montana. |
5,TT9,452 |
80,651,676 |
86,431,128 |
Nebraska |
23,958,652 |
7,052,207 |
31,010,859 |
Nevada |
8,337,671 |
58,436,698 |
66,774,269 |
New Mexico |
6,042,409 |
67,024,990 |
73,067,399 |
Oregon |
12,906,700 |
37,908,340 |
50,815,040 |
Utah |
5,685,054 |
44,282,680 |
49,967,734 |
Washington |
9,088,338 |
28,836,985 |
37,925,323 |
Wyoming |
5,645,121 |
53,381,485 |
59,026,606 |
Public Land strip , |
6,912,000 |
6,912,000 |
|
Grand total. |
..880,787,746 |
* George W, Spaulding,
156 THE EXHAUSTION OF THE PUBLIC LANDS.
taken before the close of this century. And under private ownership they will appreciate in value with the increase of population. Senator Wade, of Ohio, predicted, in the United States Senate, some twenty years ago, that, by 1900, every acre of good agricultural land in the Union would be worth at least fifty dollars. However that may be, it is certain our wide domain will soon cease to palliate popular discontent, because it will soon be beyond the reach of the poor.
But the settlement of the public lands has a further and even deeper significance. The first permanent settlers, as we have seen in the preceding chapter, im- press their character on the community and common- wealth for generations and centuries ; and this abiding stamp is to be given to the great West in the course of the next fifteen or twenty years. True, the land is not settled as rapidly as it is disposed of by the govern- ment. Many acres have passed into the hands of wealthy syndicates 01 individual capitalists, and are held by them for a rise in value ; but this can delay actual settlement for a short time only, and does not modify the general statement that the great West is to be settled by this generation. Robert Giffen, Presi- dent of the London Statistical Society, in an address on "World Crowding,"* after following several lines of reasoning to the same conclusion, says: "Whatever way we may look at the matter, then, it seems certain that, in twenty-five years' time, and probably before that date, the limitation of area in the United States will be felt. There will be no longer vast tracts of virgin land for the settler. The whole available area will be peopled agriculturally, as the Eastern States are now peopled." Suppose the entire region west of " * " Topics of tlie Time," Vol. L, No. 1, p. 36.
THE EXHAUSTION OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. 157
the Mississippi — not excepting bald mountains and alkaline deserts — were divided into townships six miles square. From 1870 to 1880 the transmississippi population increased a little more than sixty-one per cent.* If that ratio of increase is sustained to the close of the century (and there is abundant reason to believe that it will rise), in 1900 there will be a popu- lation of 30,165,000 — sufficient, if it were evenly dis- tributed, to place 530 souls in every township west of the great river. The natural distribution of such a population would manifestly result in the settlement of all the habitable regions. Consider the location of the unoccupied land. It is not a vast island, like Aus- tralia, separated by thousands of miles from its sources of population. It lies close to one of the greatest peo- ples on the earth ; and not on our north or south, but on our west, which is important, because great migra- tions move along lines of latitude. Moreover, this . great territory is gridironed with transcontinental railways. Every circumstance favors its rapid occupa- tion.
"We must note, also, the order of settlement. In the Middle States the farms were first taken, then the town sprung up to supply their wants, and at length the railway connected it with the world; but in the West the order is reversed — first the railroad, then the town, then the farms. Settlement is, consequently, much more rapid, and the city stamps the country, in- stead of the country's stamping the city. It is the cities and towns which will frame state constitutions, make laws, create public opinion, establish social
* During the same period the average per cent, of increase of population in all the states of the Union was 29— in the territories, 11. Idaho increased 117 per cent., Wyoming, 127, Washington, 213, Arizona, 318, Dakota, 853.
THE EXHAUSTION OF THE PUBLIC LANDS.
usages, and fix standards of morals in the West. The character of the West will, therefore, be substantially determined some time before the land is all occupied.
In 1880, fifty-three per cent, of our national domain (not including Alaska) contained only six per cent, of our population. That is, one-half of our territory was, for the most part, uninhabited. The character of this vast region, equal in area to Great Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, Norway and Sweden, together with a dozen of the smaller European states, is to be determined during the last twenty years of the century. Suppose all of Western Europe were prac- tically uninhabited, that to-day the pioneer were pitch- ing his tent by the Thames and the Seine, and building his log cabin on the banks of the Tiber. He takes with him not the rude implements. of centuries ago, but the locomotive, the telegraph, the steam-press, and all the swift appliances of modern civilization. Suppose the countries named above were all to be settled in twenty years ; that, instead of the slow evolutions of many centuries, their political, social, religious, and educa- tional institutions were to be determined by one gen- eration ; that from this one generation were to spring a civilization, like Minerva from the head of Jupiter, full-grown and fully equipped. What a period in the world's history it would be, unparalleled and tremen- dous! Yet such a Europe is being created by this generation west of the Mississippi. And within the bosom of these few years is folded not only the future of the mighty West, but the nation's destiny ; for, as we have seen, the West is to dominate the East.
THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLDS FUTURE. 159
I CHAPTER XIII.
THE ANGLO-SAXON AND. THE WORLD'S FUTURE.*
EVERY race which has deeply impressed itself on the human family has been the representative of some great idea — one or more — which has given direction to the nation's life and form to its civilization. Among the Egyptians this seminal idea was life, among the Persians it was light, among the Hebrews it was pu- rity, among the Greeks it was beauty, among the Ro- mans it was law. The Anglo-Saxon is the representa- tive of two great ideas, which are closely related. One of them is that of civil liberty. Nearly all of the civil liberty in the world is enjoyed by Anglo-Saxons : the English, the British colonists, and the people of the United States. To some, like the Swiss, it is permitted by the sufferance of their neighbors ; others, like the French, have experimented with it; but, in modern times, the peoples whose love of liberty has won it, and whose genius for self-government has preserved it, have been Anglo-Saxons. The noblest races have al- ways been lovers of liberty. That love ran strong in early German blood, and has profoundly influenced the institutions of all the branches of the great German family ; but it was left for the Anglo-Saxon branch fully to recognize the right of the individual to him- self, and formally to declare it the foundation stone of government.
The other great idea of which the Anglo-Saxon is the
* It is only just to say that the substance of this chapter was given to the public as a lecture some three years' before the appearance of Prof. Fiske's " Manifest Destiny," in Harper's Magazine, for March, 1885, which, contains some of the same ideas.
160 THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLD'S FUTURE.
exponent is that of a pure spiritual Christianity. It was no accident that the great reformation of the six- teenth century originated among a Teutonic, rather than a Latin people. It was the fire of liberty burning in the Saxon heart that flamed up against the absolu- tism of the Pope. Speaking roughly, the peoples of Europe which are Celtic are Catholic, and those which are Teutonic are Protestant ; and where the Teutonic 'race was purest, there Protestantism spread with the greatest rapidity. But, with rare and beautiful excep- tions, Protestantism on the continent has degenerated into mere formalism. By confirmation at a certain age, the state churches are filled with members who generally know nothing of a personal spiritual experi- ence. In obedience to a military order, a regiment of German soldiers files into church and partakes of the sacrament, just as it would shoulder arms or obey any other word of command. It is said that, in Berlin and Leipsic, only a little over one per cent, of the Protest- ant population are found in church. Protestantism on the continent seems to be about as poor in spiritual life and power as Catholicism. That means that most of the spiritual Christianity . in the world is found among Anglo-Saxons and their converts ; for this is the great missionary race. If we take all of the German missionary societies together, we find that, in the num- ber of workers and amount of contributions, they do not equal the smallest of the three great English mis- sionary societies. The year that Congregationalists in the United States gave one dollar and thirty-seven cents per caput to foreign missions, the members of the great German State Chui;ch gave only three-quar- ters of a cent per caput to the same cause.* Evident-
* Cnristlieb's " Protestant Foreign Missions," pp. 34 and 37.
161
ly it is chiefly to the English and American peoples that we must look for the evangelization of the world.
It is not necessary to argue to those for whom I write that the two great needs of mankind, that all men may be lifted up into the light of the highest Christian civilization, are, first, a pure, spiritual Chris- tianity, and, second, civil liberty. Without contro- versy, these are the forces which, in the past, have con- tributed most to the elevation of the human race, and they must continue to be, in the future, the most effi- cient ministers to its progress. It follows, then, that the Anglo-Saxon, as the great representative of these two ideas, the depositary of these two greatest bless- ings, sustains peculiar relations to the world's future, is divinely commissioned to be, in a peculiar sense, his brother's keeper. Add to this the fact of his rapidly increasing strength in modern times, and we have well nigh a demonstration of his destiny. In 1700 this race numbered less than 6,000,000 souls. In 1800, Anglo- Saxons (I use the term somewhat broadly to include all English-speaking peoples) had increased to about 20,500,000, and in 1880 they numbered nearly 100,000,- 000, having multiplied almost five-fold in eighty years. At the end of the reign of Charles II. the English colonists in America numbered 200,000. During these two hundred years, our population has increased two hundred and fifty-fold. And the expansion of this race has been no less remarkable than its multiplication. In one century the United States has increased its ter- ritory ten-fold, while the enormous acquisition of foreign territory by Great Britain — and chiefly within the last hundred years — is wholly unparalleled in his- tory. This mighty Anglo-Saxon race, though compris- ing only one-fifteenth part of mankind, now rules more
162 THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLD'S FUTURE.
than one-third of the earth's surface, and more than one-fourth of its people. And if this race, while grow- ing from 6,000,000 to 100,000,000, thus gained posses- sion of a third portion of the earth, is it to be supposed that when it numbers 1,000,000,000, it will lose the dis- position, or lack the power to extend its sway?
This race is multiplying not only more rapidly than any other European race, but far more rapidly than all the races of continental Europe. There is no exact knowledge of the population of Europe early in the century ; we know, however, that the increase on the continent during the ten years from 1870 to 1880, was 6.89 per cent. If this rate of increase is sustained for a, century (and it is more likely to fall, as Europe be- comes more crowded), the population on the continent in 1980 will be 534,000,000 ; while the one Anglo-Saxon race, if it should multiply for a hundred years as it in- creased from 1870 to 1880, would, in 1980, number 1,343,000,000 souls; but we cannot reasonably expect this ratio of increase to be sustained so long. What, then, will be the probable numbers of this race a hun- dred years hence? In attempting to answer this ques- tion, several things must be borne in mind. Hereto- fore, the great causes which have operated to check the growth of population in the world have been war, famine, and pestilence ; but, among civilized peoples, these causes are becoming constantly less operative. Paradoxical as it seems, the invention of more destruc- tive weapons of war renders war less destructive; commerce and wealth have removed the fear of famine, and pestilence is being brought more and more under control by medical skill and sanitary science. More- over, Anglo-Saxons, with the exception of the people of Great Britain, who now compose only a little more
THE ANGLO-SAXON AND 1-HE WOBLDVS tfUTTTBE. 163
than one- third of this race, are much less exposed to these checks upon growth than the races of Europe. Again, Europe is crowded, and is constantly becoming more so, which will tend to reduce continually the ratio of increase ; while nearly two-thirds of the Anglo- Saxons occupy lands which invite almost unlimited ex- pansion— the United States, Canada, Australia, and South Africa. Again, emigration from Europe, which is certain to increase, is chiefly into Anglo-Saxon coun- tries ; while these foreign elements exert a modifying influence on the Anglo-Saxon stock, their descendants are certain to be Anglo-Saxonized. From 1870 to 1880, Germany lost 987,000 inhabitants by emigration; in one generation, their children will be counted Anglo-Saxons. This race has been undergoing an un- paralleled expansion during the eighteenth and nine- teenth centuries, and the conditions for its continued growth are singularly favorable.
We are now prepared to ask what light statistics cast on the future. In Great Britain, from 1840 to 1850, the ratio of increase of the population was 2.49 per cent.; during the next ten years it was 5.44 per cent.; the next ten years, it was 8.60; and from 1870 to 1880, it was 10.57 per cent. That is, for forty years the ratio of increase has been rapidly rising. It is not unlikely to continue rising for some time to come; but, remembering that the population is dense, in making our estimate for the next hundred years, we will suppose the ratio of increase to be only one-half as large as that from 1870 to 1880, which would make the population in 1980, 57,000,000. All the great colonies of Britain, except Canada, which has a great future, show a very high ratio of increase in popula- tion; that of Australia, from 1870 to 1880, was 56.50
164 THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLD'S FUTURE.
per cent.; that of South Africa was 73.28. It is quite reasonable to suppose that the colonies, taken to- gether, will double their population once in twenty- five years for the next century. In the United States, population has, on the average, doubled once in twen- ty-five years since 1685. Adopting this ratio, then, for the English colonies, their 11,000,000 in 1880 will be 176,000,000 in 1980. Turning now to our own country, we find in the following table the ratio of in- crease of population for each decade of years since 1800:
From 1800 to 1810 36.38 per cent.
" 1810 « 1820 34.80 " "
« 1820 " 1830 33.11 " "
« 1830 " 1840 32.66 " "
« 1840 « 1850 35.87 " "
« 1850 " 1860 35.58 " "
« 1860 " 1870 22.59 « "
« 1870 « 1880 30.06 « "
Here we see a falling ratio of increase of about one per cent, every ten years from 1800 to 1840 — a period when immigration was inconsiderable. During the next twenty years the ratio was decidedly higher, be- cause of a large immigration. It fell off during the war, and again arose from 1870 to 1880. Increased immigration is likely to sustain this high ratio of in- crease for some time to come. If it should continue for a hundred years, our population in 1980 would be 697,000,000. But suppose we take no account of im- migration, leaving it to offset any unforeseen check upon growth, we may infer from the first forty years of the century that the ratio of increase would not fall more than about one per cent, every ten years. Be-
THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLDS FUTURE. 165
ginning, then, with an increase of thirty per cent, from 1880 to 1890, and adopting this falling ratio of in- crease, our population in 1980 would be 480,000,000, making the total Anglo-Saxon population of the world, at that time, 713,000,000, as compared with 534,000,000 inhabitants of continental Europe. And it should be remembered that these figures represent the largest probable population of Europe, and the smallest prob- able numbers of the Ajiglo-Saxon race. It is not un- likely that, before the close of the next century, this race will outnumber all the other civilized races of the world. Does it not look as if God were not only pre- paring in our Ajiglo-Saxon civilization the die with which to stamp the peoples of the earth, but as if he were also massing behind that die the mighty power with which to press it I My confidence that this race is eventually to give its civilization to mankind is not based on mere numbers — China forbid ! I look for- ward to what the world has never yet seen united in the same race ; viz., the greatest numbers, and the high- est civilization.
There can be no reasonable doubt that North Amer- ica is to be the great home of the AjQglo-Saxon, the principal seat of his power, the center of his life and influence. Not only does it constitute seven-elevenths of his possessions, but his empire is unsevered, while the remaining four-elevenths are fragmentary and scat- tered over the earth. Australia will have a great pop- ulation ; but its disadvantages, as compared with North America, are too manifest to need mention. Our con- tinent has room and resources and climate, it lies in the pathway of the nations, it belongs to the zone of power, and already, among Anglo-Saxons, do we lead in population and wealth. Of England, Franklin once
166 THE ANGLO-SAXON AND TflE WORLD'S FUTURE.
wrote : " That pretty island which, compared to Amer- ica, is but a stepping-stone in a brook, scarce enough of it above water to keep one's shoes dry." England can hardly hope to maintain her relative importance among Anglo-Saxon peoples when her "pretty island" is the home of only one-twentieth part of that race. With the wider distribution of wealth, and increasing facilities of intercourse, intelligence and influence are less centralized, and peoples become more homogene- ous ; and the more nearly homogeneous peoples are, the more do numbers tell. America is to have the great preponderance of numbers and of wealth, and by the logic of events will follow the scepter of controlling influence. This will be but the consummation of a movement as old as civilization — a result to which mei? have looked forward for centuries. John Adams re- cords that nothing was " more ancient in his memory than the observation that arts, sciences and empire had traveled westward ; and in conversation it was always added that their next leap would be over the Atlantic into America." He recalled a couplet that had been " inscribed, or rather drilled, into a rock on the shore of Monument Bay in our old colony of Plymouth :
' The Eastern nations sink, their glory ends, And empire rises where the sun descends.'"*
The brilliant Galiani, who foresaw a future in which Europe should be ruled by America, wrote, during the Eevolutionary War, " I will wager in favor of America, for the reason merely physical, that for 5,000 years genius has turned opposite to the diurnal motion, and traveled from the East to the West."f Count d'Aranda, after signing the Treaty of Paris of 1773, as therepre-
* John Adams' Works, Vol. IX, pp. 59T— 599. t Galiani, Tome II, p. 2T5.
THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WOBLD?S FUTURE. 167
sentative of Spain, wrote his king : " This Federal Re- public is born a pigmy. ... a day will come when it will be a giant, even a colossus formidable in these countries."
Adam Smith, in his " Wealth of Nations," predicts the transfer of empire from Europe to America. The traveler, Burnaby, found, in the middle of the last cen- tury, that an idea had " entered into the minds of the generality of mankind, that empire is traveling west- ward ; and every one is looking forward with eager and impatient expectation to that destined moment when America is to give the law to the rest of the world." Charles Sumner wrote of the " coming time when the whole continent, with all its various states, shall be a Plural Unit, with one Constitution, one Lib- erty and one Destiny,'1 and when "the national ex- ample will be more puissant than army or navy for the conquest of the world." * It surely needs no prophet's eye to see that the civilization of the United States is to be the civilization of America, and that the future of the continent is ours. In 1880, the United States was the home of more than one-half of the Anglo-Saxon race ; and, if the computations already given, are cor- rect, a much larger proportion will be here a hundred years hence. It has been shown that we have room for at least a thousand millions. According to recent figures, there is in France a population of 180.88 to the square mile ; in Germany, 216.62 ; in England and Wales, 428.67; in Belgium, 481.71 ; in the United States — not including Alaska — 16.88. If our popula- tion were as dense as that of France, we should have, this side of Alaska, 537,000,000 ; if as dense as that of Germany, 643,000,000 ; if as dense as that of England
* See The Atlantic , Vol. 20, pp. 275— 306»
168 THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLD'S FUTUBE.
and Wales, 1,173,000,000 ; if as dense as that of Bel- gium, 1,430,000,000.
But we are to have not only the larger portion of the Anglo-Saxon race for generations to come, we may reasonably expect to develop the highest type of Anglo- Saxon civilization. If human progress follows a law of development, if
" Time's noblest offspring is the last," our civilization should be the noblest ; for we are
" The heirs of all the ages in the foremost flies of time," and not only do we occupy the latitude of power, but our land is the last to be occupied in that latitude. There is no other virgin soil in the North Temperate Zone. If the consummation of human progress is not to be looked for here, if there is yet to flower a higher civilization, where is the soil that is to produce it? Whipple says : * " There has never been a great mi- gration that did not result in a new form of national genius." Our national genius is Anglo-Saxon, but not English, its distinctive type is the result of a finer nervous organization, which" is certainly being devel- oped in this country. " The history of the world's progress from savagery to barbarism, from barbarism to civilization, and, in civilization, from the lower de- grees toward the higher, is the history of increase in average longevity,! corresponding to, and accompanied by, increase of nervousness. Mankind has grown to be at once more delicate and more enduring, more sensi- tive to weariness and yet more patient of toil, impressi- ble, but capable of bearing powerful irritation ; we are
* Atlantic for Oct., 1858.
t " It is ascertained that the average measure of human life, in this coun- try, has been steadily increasing during this century, and is now considerably longer than in any other country." Dorchester's "Problem of Religious Progress," p. 288.
THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WOELD^S FUTURE. 169
woven of finer fiber, which, though apparently frail, yet outlasts the coarser, as rich and costly garments often- times wear better than those of rougher workman- ship."* The roots of civilization are the nerves ; and other things being equal, the finest nervous organiza- tion will produce the highest civilization. Heretofore, war has been almost the chief occupation of strong • races. England, during the past sixty-eight years, has waged some seventy-seven wars. John Bright said recently that, during Queen Victoria's reign, $750,000,- 000 had been spent in war and 68,000 lives lost. The mission of the Anglo-Saxon has been largely that of the soldier ; but the world is making progress, we are leaving behind the barbarism of war ; as civilization advances, it will learn less of war, and concern itself more with the arts of peace, and for these the massive battle-ax must be wrought into tools of finer temper. The physical changes accompanied by mental, which are taking place in the people of the United States are apparently to adapt men to the demands of a higher civilization. But the objection is here interposed that the " physical degeneracy of Americans " is inconsist- ent with the supposition of our advancing to a higher civilization. Professor Huxley, when at Buffalo he addressed the American Association for the Advance- ment of Science, said he had heard of the degeneration of the original American stock, but during his visit to the states he had failed to perceive it. We are not, however, in this matter, dependent on the opinion of even the best observers. During the War of the Con- federacy, the Medical Department of the Provost Mar- shal General's Bureau gathered statistics from the ex- amination of over half a million of men, native and * " Beard's American Nervousness," p. 287.
170 THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLD'S FUTURE.
foreign, young and old, sick and sound, drawn from every rank and condition of life, and, hence, fairly rep- resenting the whole people. Dr. Baxter's Official Ke- port shows that our native whites were over an inch taller than the English, and nearly two-thirds of an inch taller than the Scotch, who, in height, were supe- rior to all other foreigners. At the age of completed growth, the Irish, who were the stoutest of the for- eigners, surpassed the native whites, in girth of chest, less than a quarter of an inch. Statistics as to weight are meager, but Dr. Baxter remarks that it is perhaps not too much to say that the war statistics show " that the mean weight of the white native of the United States is not disproportionate to his stature." Ameri- cans were found to be superior to Englishmen not only in height, but also in chest-measurement and weight. Such facts afford more than a hint that the higher civ- ilization of the future will not lack an adequate physi- cal basis in the people of the United States.
Mr. Darwin is not only disposed to see, in the supe- rior vigor of our people, an illustration of his favorite theory of natural selection, but even intimates that the world's history thus far has been simply preparatory for our future, and tributary to it. He says :* "There is apparently much truth in the belief that the won- derful progress of the United States, as well as the character of the people, are the results of natural se- lection; for the more energetic, restless, and coura- geous men from all parts of Europe have emigrated during the last ten or twelve generations to that great eountry, and have there succeeded best. Looking at the distant future, I do not think that the Kev. Mr. Zincke takes an exaggerated view when he says : ' All * "Descent of Man," Part L, page 142.
AtfGLO-SAXOtt AffD THE WORLDS FUTURE. 171
other series of events — as that which resulted in the culture of mind in Greeces and that which resulted in the Empire of Rome — only appear to have purpose and value when viewed in connection with, or rather as subsidiary to, the great stream of Anglo-Saxon emi- gration to the West.' "
There is abundant reason to believe that the Anglo- Saxon race is to be, is, indeed, already becoming, more effective here than in the mother country. The marked superiority of this race is due, in large measure, to its highly mixed origin. Says Rawlinson:* "It is a gen- eral rule, now almost universally admitted by ethnolo- gists, that the mixed races of mankind are superior to the pure ones"; and adds : " Even the Jews, who are so often cited as an example of a race at once pure and strong, may, with more reason, be adduced on the op- posite side of the argument." The ancient Egyp- tians, the Greeks, and the Romans, were all mixed races. Among modern races, the most conspicuous example is afforded by the Anglo-Saxons. Mr. Green's studies show that Mr. Tennyson's poetic line, " Saxon and Norman and Dane are we,"
must be supplemented with Celt and Gaul, Welshman and Irishman, Frisian and Flamand, French Huguenot and German Palatine. What took place a thousand years ago and more in England again transpires to- day in the United States. "History repeats itself"; but, as the wheels of history are the chariot wheels of the Almighty, there is, with every revolution, an on- ward movement toward the goal of his eternal pur- poses. There is here a new commingling of races ; and, while the largest injections of foreign blood are substan-
* Princeton Review, for Nov., 1878.
172 THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLD'S FUTURE.
tially the same elements that constituted the original Anglo-Saxon admixture, so that we may infer the gen- eral type will be preserved, there are strains of other bloods being added, which, if Mr. Emerson's remark is true, that " the best nations are those most widely re- lated," may be expected to improve the stock, and aid it to a higher destiny. If the dangers of immigration, which have been pointed out, can be successfully met for the next few years, until it has passed its climax, it may be expected to add value to the amalgam which will constitute the new Anglo-Saxon race of the New World. Concerning our future, Herbert Spencer says : " One great result is, I think, tolerably clear. From biological truths it is to be inferred that the eventual mixture of the allied varieties of the Aryan race, form- ing the population, will produce a more powerful type of man than has hitherto existed, and a type of man more plastic, more adaptable, more capable of under- going the modifications needful for complete social life. I think, whatever difficulties they may have to surmount, and whatever tribulations they may have to pass through, the Americans may reasonably look for- ward to a time when they will have produced a civili- zation grander than any the world has known."
It may be easily shown, and is of no small signifi- cance, that the two great ideas of which the Anglo- Saxon is the exponent are having a fuller development in the United States than in Great Britain. There the union of Church and State tends strongly to paralyze some of the members of the body of Christ. Here there is no such influence to destroy spiritual life and power. Here, also, has been evolved the form of gov- ernment consistent with the largest possible civil lib- erty. Furthermore, it is significant that the marked
THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WOELD's FUTUBE 173
characteristics of this race are being here emphasized most. Among the most striking features of the Anglo- Saxon is his money-making power — a power of increas ing importance in the widening commerce of the world's future. We have seen, in a preceding chapter, that, although England is by far the richest nation of Europe, we have already outstripped her in the race after wealth, and we have only begun the development of our vast resources.
Again, another marked characteristic of the Anglo- Saxon is what may be called an instinct or genius for colonizing. His unequaled energy, his indomitable perseverance, and his personal independence, made him a pioneer. He excels all others in pushing his way in- to new countries. It was those in whom this tendency was strongest that came to America, and this inherited tendency has been further developed by the west- ward sweep of successive generations across the conti- nent. So noticeable has this characteristic become that English visitors remark it. Charles Dickens once said that the typical American would hesitate to enter heaven unless assured that he could go further west.
Again, nothing more manifestly distinguishes the Anglo-Saxon than his intense and persistent energy; and he is developing in the United States an energy which, in eager activity and effectiveness, is peculiarly American. This is due partly to the fact that Ameri- cans are much better fed than Europeans, and partly to the undeveloped resources of a new country, but more largely to our climate, which acts as a constant stimulus. Ten years after the landing of the Pilgrims, the Kev. Francis Higginson, a good observer, wrote : "A sup of New England air is better than a whole flagon of English ale." Thus early had the stimulating
174 THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLD'S FUTURE.
effect of our climate been noted. Moreover, our social institutions are stimulating. In Europe the various ranks of society are, like the strata of the earth, fixed and fossilized. There can be no great change without a terrible upheaval, a social earthquake. Here society is like the waters of the sea, mobile ; as General Gar- field said, and so signally illustrated in his own expe- rience, that which is at the bottom to-day may one day flash on the crest of the highest wave. Every one is free to become whatever he can make of himself ; free to transform himself from a rail-splitter or a tanner or a canal-boy, into the nation's President. Our aristoc- racy, unlike that of Europe, is open to all comers. Wealth, position, influence, are prizes offered for en- ergy; and every farmer's boy, every apprentice and clerk, every friendless and penniless immigrant, is free to enter the lists. Thus many causes co-operate to produce here the most forceful and tremendous energy in the world.
What is the significance of such facts 1 These tend- encies infold the future ; they are the mighty alphabet with which God writes his prophecies. May we not, by a careful laying together of the letters, spell out something of his meaning ? It seems to me that God, with infinite wisdom and skill, is training the Anglo- Saxon race for an hour sure to come in the world's future. Heretofore there has always been in the his- tory of the world a comparatively unoccupied land westward, into which the crowded countries of the East have poured their surplus populations. But the widening waves of migration, which millenniums ago rolled east and west from the valley of the Euphrates, meet to-day on our Pacific coast. There are no more new worlds. The unoccupied arable lands of the earth
THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLDS FUTURE. 17£
are limited, and will soon be taken. The time is com- ing when the pressure of population on the means oi subsistence will be felt here as it is now felt in Europe and Asia. Then will the world enter upon a new stage of its history — the final competition of races, for which the Anglo-Saxon is being schooled. Long before the thousand millions are here, the mighty centrifugal tendency, inherent in this stock and strengthened in the United States, will assert itself. Then this race oi unequaled energy, with all the majesty of numbers and the might of wealth behind it — the representative, let us hope, of the largest liberty, the purest Christianity, the highest civilization — having developed peculiarly aggressive traits calculated to impress its institutions upon mankind, will spread itself over the earth. If I read not amiss, this powerful race will move down up- on Mexico, down upon Central and South America, out upon the islands of the sea, over upon Africa and be- yond. And can any one doubt that the result of this competition of races will be the " survival of the fit- test"? "Any people," says Dr. Bushnell, "that is physiologically advanced in culture, though it be only in a degree beyond another which is mingled with it on strictly equal terms, is sure to live down and finally live out its inferior. Nothing can save the inferior race but a ready and pliant assimilation. Whether the feebler and more abject races are going to be regen- erated and raised up, is already very much of a ques- tion. "What if it should be God's plan to people the world with better and finer material? Certain it is, whatever expectations we may indulge, that there is a tremendous overbearing surge of power in the Christian nations, which, if the others are not speedily raised to some vastly higher capacity, will inevitably submerge
176 THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WOULD7 S FUTUBE.
and bury them forever. These great populations oi Christendom — what are they doing, but throwing out their colonies on every side, and populating them- selves, if I may so speak, into the possession of all countries and chines f ' * To this result no war of ex- termination is needful ; the contest is not one of arms, but of vitality and of civilization. "At the present day," says Mr. Darwin, "civilized nations are every- where supplanting barbarous nations, excepting where the climate opposes a deadly barrier ; and they succeed mainly, though not exclusively, through their arts, which are the products of the intellect ?" f Thus the Finns were supplanted by the Aryan races in Europe and Asia, the Tartars by the Russians, and thus the aborigines of North America, Australia and New Zea- land are now disappearing before the all-conquering Anglo-Saxons. It would seem as if these inferior tribes were only precursors of a superior race, voices in the wilderness crying : " Prepare ye the way of the Lord !" The savage is a hunter ; by the incoming of civilization the game is driven away and disappears be- fore the hunter becomes a herder or an agriculturist. The savage is ignorant of many diseases of civilization which, when he is exposed to them, attack him before he learns how to treat them. Civilization also has its rices, of which the uninitiated savage is innocent. He proves an apt learner of vice, but dull enough in the school of morals. Every civilization has its destructive and preservative elements. The Anglo-Saxon race would speedily decay but for the salt of Christianity. Bring savages into contact with our civilization, and its destructive forces become operative at once, while
* "Christian Nurture," pp. 207, 213. t "Descent of Man," Vol. I, p. 154.
THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WOBLD^S FUTUBE 177
years are necessary to render effective the saving influ- ences of Christian instruction. Moreover, the pioneer wave of our civilization carries with it more scum than salt. Where there is one missionary, there are hundreds of miners or traders or adventurers ready to debauch the native. Whether the extinction of inferior races before the advancing Anglo-Saxon seems to the reader sad or otherwise, it certainly appears probable. I know of nothing except climatic conditions to prevent this race from populating Africa as it has peopled North America. And those portions of Africa which are unfavorable to Anglo-Saxon life are less extensive than was once supposed. The Dutch Boers, after two centuries of life there, are as hardy as any race on earth. The Anglo-Saxon has established himself in climates totally diverse — Canada, South Africa, and India — and, through several generations, has preserved h\s essential race characteristics. He is not, of course, superior to climatic influences; but, even in warm climates, he is likely to retain his aggressive vigor long enough to supplant races already enfeebled. Thus, in what Dr. Bushnell calls "the out-populating power of the Christian stock," may be found God's final and complete solution of the dark problem of heathenism among many inferior peoples.
Some of the stronger races, doubtless, may be able to preserve their integrity; but, in order to compete with the Anglo-Saxon, they will probably be forced to adopt his methods and instruments, his civilization and his religion. Significant movements are now in progress among them. While the Christian religion was never more vital, or its hold upon the Anglo-Saxon mind stronger, there is taking place among the nations a wide-spread intellectual revolt against traditional be-
178 THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WORLDS FUTURE.
liefs. uin every corner of the world," says Mr, Froude,* "there is the same phenomenon of the decay of established religions. . . . Among Mohanu medans, Jews, Buddhists, Brahmins, traditionary creeds are losing their hold. An intellectual revolu- tion is sweeping over the world, breaking down es- tablished opinions, dissolving foundations on which historical faiths have been built up." The contact of Christian with heathen nations is awaking the latter to new life. Old superstitions are loosening their grasp. The dead crust of fossil faiths is being shattered by the movements of life underneath. In Catholic coun- tries, Catholicism is losing its influence over educated minds, and in some cases the masses have already lost all faith in it. Thus, while on this continent God is training the Anglo-Saxon race for its mission, a comple- mental work has been in progress in the great world beyond. God has two hands. Not only is he prepar- ing in our civilization the die with which to stamp the nations, but, by what Southey called the "timing of Providence," he is preparing mankind to receive our impress.
Is there room for reasonable doubt that this race, unless devitalized by alcohol and tobacco, is destined to dispossess many weaker races, assimilate others, and mold the remainder, until, in a very true and im- portant sense, it has Anglo-Saxonized mankind ? Al- ready " the English language, saturated with Christian ideas, gathering up into itself the best thought of all the ages, is the great agent of Christian civilization throughout the world ; at this moment affecting the destinies and molding the character of half the human
* North American Review, Dec., 1879.
THE ANGLO-SAXON AND THE WOBLD's FUTURE. 179
race."* Jacob Grimm, the German philologist, said of this language : " It seems chosen, like its people, to rule in future times in a still greater degree in all the corners of the earth." He predicted, indeed, that the language of Shakespeare would eventually become the language of mankind. Is not Tennyson's noble prophecy to find its fulfillment in Anglo-Saxondom's extending its dominion and influence —
" Till the war-drum throbs no longer, and the battle-flags are furl'd In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world." t
In my own mind, there is no doubt that the Anglo- Saxon is to exercise the commanding influence in the world's future ; but the exact nature of that influence is, as yet, undetermined. How far his civilization will be materialistic and atheistic, and how long it will take thoroughly to Christianize and sweeten it, how rapidly he will hasten the coming of the kingdom wherein dwelleth righteousness, or how many ages he may re- tard it, is still uncertain ; but it is now being swiftly determined. Let us weld together in a chain the vari- ous links of our logic which we have endeavored to forge. Is it manifest that the Anglo-Saxon holds in his hands the destinies of mankind for ages to come? Is it evident that the United States is to be the home of this race, the principal seat of his power, the great center of his influence ? Is it true (see Chap. HE.) that the great West is to dominate the nation's future! Has it been shown (Chapters XI. and XH.) that this generation is to determine the character, and hence the destiny, of the West ? Then may God open the eyes of this generation ! When Napoleon drew up his troops before the Mamelukes, under the shadow of the Pyramids, pointing to the latter, he said to his soldiers:
* Bev. N. a Clark, D.D. t "Locfcsley Hall"
180 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
"Remember that from yonder heights forty centuries look down on you." Men of this generation, from the pyramid top of opportunity on which God has set us, we look down on forty centuries! We stretch our hand into the future with power to mold the destinies of unborn millions.
" We are living, we are dwelling, In a grand and awful time, In an age on ages telling— To be living is sublime !»
Notwithstanding the great perils which threaten it, I cannot think our civilization will perish ; but I be- lieve it is fully in the hands of the Christians of the United States, during the next fifteen or twenty years, to hasten or retard the coming of Christ's kingdom in the world by hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of years. We of this generation and nation occupy the Gibraltar of the ages which commands the world's future.
CHAPTER XIV.
MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
PROPERTY is one of the cardinal facts of our civiliza- tion. It is the great object of endeavor, the great spring of power, the great occasion of discontent, and one of the great sources of danger. For Christians to apprehend their true relations to money, and the rela- tions of money to the kingdom of Christ and its
MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 181
progress in the world, is to find the key to many of the great problems now pressing for solution.
Money is power in the concrete. It commands learning, skill, experience, wisdom, talent, influence, numbers. It represents the school, the college, the church, the printing-press, and all evangelizing ma- chinery. It confers on the wise man a sort of omni- presence. By means of it, the same man may, at the same moment, be founding an academy among the Mormons, teaching the New Mexicans, building a home missionary church in Dakota, translating the Scriptures in Africa, preaching the gospel in China, and uttering the precepts of ten thousand Bibles in India. It is the modern miracle worker; it has a wonderful multiplying and transforming power. Sarah Hosmer, of Lowell, though a poor woman, sup- ported a student in the Nestorian Seminary, who be- came a preacher of Christ. Five times she gave fifty dollars, earning the money in a factory, and sent out five native pastors to Christian work. When more than sixty years old, she longed to furnish Nestoria with one more preacher of Christ ; and, living in an attic, she took in sewing until she, had accomplished her cherished purpose. In the hands of this conse- crated woman, money transformed the factory girl and the seamstress into a missionary of the Cross, and then multiplied her six- fold. God forbid that I should attribute to money power which belongs only to faith, love, and the Holy Spirit. In the problem of Chris- tian work, money is like the cipher, worthless alone, but multiplying many fold the value and effectiveness of other factors.
In the preceding chapter has been set forth the won- derful opportunity enjoyed by this generation in the
182 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
United States. It lays on us a commensurate obliga- tion. We have also seen (Chap. IX.) that our wealth is stupendous. If our responsibility is without a prece- dent, the plenitude of our power is likewise without a parallel. Is not the lesson which God would have us learn so plain that he who runs may read it I Has not God given us this matchless power that it may be applied to doing this matchless work ?
The kingdoms of this world will not have become the kingdoms of our Lord until the money power has been Christianized. " Talent has been Christianized already on a large scale. The political power of states and kingdoms has been long assumed to be, and now at least really is, as far as it becomes their accepted office to* maintain personal security and liberty. Architec- ture, arts, constitutions, schools, and learning have been largely Christianized. But the money power, which is one of the most operative and grandest of all, is only beginning to be ; though with promising to- kens of a finally complete reduction to Christ and the uses of His Kingdom. . . . That day, when it comes, is the morning, so to speak, of the new crea- tion."* Is it not time for that day to dawn ? If we would Christianize our Anglo-Saxon civilization, which is to spread itself over the earth, has not the hour come for the church to teach and live the doctrines of God's Word touching possessions ? Their general ac- ceptance on the part of the church would involve a ref- ormation scarcely less important in its results than the great reformation of the sixteenth century. What is needed is not simply an increased giving, an enlarged estimate of the " Lord's share," but a radically differ- ent conception of our relations to our possessions, * Buslmell's "Sermons on LiTing Subjects," pp. 264, 265.
MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 183
Most Christian men need to discover that they are not proprietors, apportioning their own, but simply trust- ees or managers of God's property. All Christians would admit that there is a sense in which their all be- longs to God, but deem it a very poetical sense, wholly unpractical and practically unreal. The great majority treat their possessions exactly as they would treat property, use their substance exactly as if it were their own.
Christians generally hold that God has a thoroughly real claim on some portion of their income, possibly a tenth, more likely no definite proportion ; but some small part, they acknowledge, belongs to him, and they hold themselves in duty bound to use it for him. This low and unchristian view has sprung apparently from a misconception of the Old Testament doctrine of tithes. God did not, for the surrender of a part, re- nounce all claim to the remainder. The Jew was taught, in language most explicit and oft-repeated, that he and all he had belonged absolutely to God. " Be- hold, the heaven and the heaven of heavens is the Lord's, thy God, and the earth also, with all that there- in is." (Deut. x, 14). " The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell therein." (Ps. xxiv, 1). " The silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord." (Hag. ii, 8). "Behold, all souls are mine ; as the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine." (Ezek. xviii, 4). "When the priest was consecrated, the blood of the ram was put upon the right ear, the thumb of the right hand, and the great toe of the right foot, to indicate that he should come and go, use his hands and powers of mind, in short, his entire self, in the service of God. These parts of the body were selected as representa-
184 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
tive of the whole man. The tithe was likewise repre- sentative. "For, if the first fruit be holy, the lump is also holy." (Rom. xi, 16). Tithes were devoted to certain uses, specified by God, in recognition of the fact that all belonged to him.
THE PRINCIPLE STATED.
God's claim to the whole rests on exactly the same ground as his claim to a part. As the Creator, he must have an absolute ownership in all his creatures ; and, if am absolute claim could be strengthened, it would be by the fact that he who gave us life sustains it, and with his own life redeemed it. "Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price." (I Cor. vi, 19, 20). Manifestly, if God has absolute ownership in us, we can have absolute ownership in nothing whatever. If we cannot lay claim to our own selves, how much less to that which we find in our hands. When we say that no man is the absolute owner of property to the value of one penny, we do not take the socialistic posi- tion that private property is theft. Because of our in' dividual trusts, for which we are held personally re- sponsible, we have individual rights touching property, and may have claims one against another; but, be- tween God and the soul, the distinction of thine and mine is a snare. Does one-tenth belong to God I Then ten-tenths are his. He did not one-tenth create us and we nine-tenths create ourselves. He did not one- tenth redeem us and we nine-tenths redeem ourselves. If his claim to a part is good, his claim to the whole is equally good. His ownership in us is no joint affair.
MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 185
We are not in partnership with him. All that we are and have is utterly his, and his only.
When the Scriptures and reason speak of God's ownership in us they use the word in no accommodated sense. It means all that it can mean in a court of law. It means that God has a right to the service of his own. It means that, since our possessions are his property, they should be used in his service — not a fraction of them, but the whole. When the lord re- turned from the far country, to reckon with his serv- ants to whom he had entrusted his goods, he demanded not simply a small portion of the increase, but held his servants accountable for both principal and interest — " mine own with usury." Every dollar that belongs to God must serve him. And it is not enough that we make a good use of our means. We are under exactly the same obligations to make the best use of our money that we are to make a good use of it ; and to make any use of it other than the best is a maladministration of trust. Here, then, is the principle always applicable, that of our entire possessions every dollar, every cent, is to be employed in the way that will best honor God.
THE PKINCIPLE APPLIED.
The statement of this principle at once suggests difficulties in its application. Let us glance at some of them,
1. An attempt to regulate personal expenditures by this principle affords opportunity for fanaticism on the one hand and for self-deception on the other ; but an honest and intelligent application of it will avoid both.
186 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
Surely, it is right to supply our necessities. But what are necessities? Advancing civilization multi- plies them. Friction matches were a luxury once, a necessity now. And may we allow ourselves nothing for the comforts and luxuries of life? Where shall we draw the line between justifiable and unjustifiable ex- penditure?
The Christian has given himself to God, or, rather, has recognized and accepted the divine ownership in him. He is under obligations to apply every power, whether of mind, body, or possessions, to God's ser- vice. He is bound to make that service as effective as possible. Certain expenditures upon himself are nec- essary to his highest growth and greatest usefulness, and are, therefore, not only permissible, but obliga- tory. All the money which will yield a larger return of usefulness in the world, of greater good to the kingdom, by being spent on ourselves or families than by being applied otherwise, is used for the glory of God, and is better spent than it would have been if given to missions. And whatever money is spent on self that would have yielded larger returns of useful- ness, if applied otherwise, is misapplied ; and, if it has been done intelligently, it is a case of embezzlement.
A narrow view at this point is likely to lead us into fanaticism. We must look at life in its wide relations, and remember that character is its supreme end. Character is the one thing in the universe, so far as we know, which is of absolute worth, and therefore beyond all price. The glory of the Infinite is all of it the glory of character. Every expenditure which serves to broaden and beautify and upbuild character is worthy. The one question ever to be kept in mind is whether it is the wisest application of means to the
MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 187
desired end. Will this particular application of power in mon?ey produce the largest results in character ?
But what of the beautiful I How far may we gratify our love of it? A delicate and difficult question to answer, especially to the satisfaction of those living in the midst of a luxurious civilization. Our guiding principle holds here as everywhere, only its application is difficult. It is difficult to determine how useful the beautiful may be. Doubtless, at times, as Victor Hugo has said, "The beautiful is as useful as the useful; perhaps more so." The ministry of art widens with the increasing refinement of the nervous organization. There are those to whom the beautiful is, in an im- portant sense, a necessity. God loves the beautiful. Each flower would yield its seed and perpetuate its kind as surely if each blossom were not a smile of its Creator. The stars would swing on in their silent, solemn march as true to gravitation, if they did not glow like mighty rubies and emeralds and sapphires. The clouds would be as faithful carriers of the bounty of the sea, if God did not paint their morning and evening glory from the rainbow as his palette. Yes ; God loves the beautiful, and intended we should love it ; but he does not have to economize his power ; his resources are not limited. When he spreads the splen- dors of the rising East, it is not at the cost of bread enough to feed ten thousand starving souls. Art has an educational value in our homes and schools and parks and galleries; but how far may one who recog- nizes his Christian stewardship conscientiously go in the encouragement of art and the gratification of taste ? If every man did his duty, gave according to ability, there would be abundant provision for all Christian and philanthropic work and substance left for the pat-
188 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
ronage of art. But not one man in a hundred is doing his duty ; hence those who appreciate the necessities of Christian work must fill the breach, are not at lib- erty to make expenditures which would otherwise be wholly justifiable. Many expenditures are right ab- stractly considered. That is, would be right in an ideal condition of society. But the condition of the world is not ideal ; we are surrounded by circumstances which must be recognized exactly as they are. Sin is abnormal, the world is out of joint ; and such facts lay on us obligations which would not otherwise ex- ist, make sacrifices necessary which would not other- wise be binding, forbid the gratification of tastes which are natural, and might otherwise be indulged. Thrice true is this of us who live in this great national crisis and world emergency. It is well to play the violin, but not when Rome is burning.
Here is a large family of which the husband and father is a contemptible lounger (if loafers had any appreciation of the eternal fitness of things, they would die); he does simply nothing for the support of the fam- ily. Exceptional cares are, therefore, laid on the wife and mother. She must expend all her time and strength to secure the bare necessaries of life for her children ; and with the utmost sacrifice on her part they go hun- gry and cold. If her wretched husband did his duty, she could command time and means to beautify the home and make the dress of herself and children at- tractive; but, under the circumstances, it would be worse than foolish for her to spend her scant earnings on vases and flowers, laces and velvets. God has laid upon Christian nations the work of evangelizing the heathen world. He has laid on us the duty of Chris- tianizing our own heathen, and under such conditions
MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 189
that the obligation presses with an overwhelming urgency. If this duty were accepted by all Christians, the burden would rest lightly upon each ; but great multitudes in the church are shirking all responsibility. So far as the work of missions is concerned, these members of the household of faith are loungers. The unfaithful many throw unnatural burdens on the faith- ful few. Under these circumstances he who would be faithful must accept sacrifices which would not other- wise be his duty. That is, the principle always and everywhere applicable, that we are under obligations to make the wisest use of every penny, binds him to a use of his means which, if every Christian did his duty, would not be necessary. Notwithstanding all the sac- rifices made by some, there are vast multitudes, which the established channels of beneficence have placed within our reach, who are starving for the bread of life. As long as this is true, must not high uses of money yield to the highest? It is not enough to be sure that we are making a good use of means ; for, as the Germans say, the good is a great enemy of the best. The expenditure of a large sum on a work of art may be a good use of the money3 but can any one not purblind with selfishness fail to see that, when a thousand dollars actually respresents the salvation of ' a certain number of souls, there are higher uses for the money 1
The purchase of luxuries is often justified by the following fallacy : " I am giving work and hence bread to the poor ; and it is much wiser thus to let them earn it than to encourage them in idleness by bestow- ing the price of the lace in charity." Thus many justify extravagance and make their luxuries flatter their pride into the complacent conviction that they are unselfish.
190 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
An economy in truth — forcing the same act to minister at once to self-indulgence and self -righteousness ! Does it make no difference to the world how its labor is expended, whether on something useful or useless, for high uses or low? "Many hold that an enormous expenditure of wealth is highly commendable, because it * makes trade.7 They forget that waste is not wealth-making; war, fire, the sinking of a ship also 6 make trade,' because by destroying existing capital they increase demand. The wealth thus wasted would, more wisely used, give work to many more people in creating more wealth."*
Again, the advocates or excusers of self-indulgence pose as the vindicators of God's love. They tell us that he gave all good things for the uses of his chil- dren, and that he rejoices in their delight. Yes ', God is even more benevolent than such suppose. So greatly does he desire our joy that he is not content to see us satisfied with the low delights of self-gratifica- tion, but would fain have us know the blessedness of self-sacrifice for others. The writer has no sympathy with asceticism. There is no virtue in deformity ; good taste is not unchristian ; beauty often costs no more than ugliness. Away with the idea of penance . It belies God, and caricatures the Christian religion. It differs from the self-sacrifice which Christ taught and exemplified as widely as the suicide of Cato differed from the heroic death of Arnold von Winkel- ried. Christ did not die for the sake of dying, but to save a world ; and he does not inculcate self- denial for the sake of self-denial, but for the sake of others.
Many practice self-denial, if not for its own sake, * Economic Tract No. X. " Of Work and Wealth," by R R. Bowker.
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only for the sake of saving, and with little or no refer- ence to giving. Let a Japanese heathen show us a more excellent way. I take the following account from The Missionary Herald (Sept., 1883). In a certain place, and generation by generation, the owner and relatives of a certain house prospered greatly. Year by year, those persons, on the second day of the New Year, assembled and worshiped the god IZannin Daimiyo-jin-san. The meaning of the name in Eng- lish is " the great, bright god of self-restraint." After engaging in worship, the head of the house opened the Kannin-bako (self-restraint box), and distributed to the needy money enough to enable them to live in comfort for a time. The money in the box was the annual accumulation of his offerings to his god.
Outsiders, learning of the prosperity, worship, and large giving to the needy, which characterized this family, were astonished, and presented themselves to inquire into the matter. The master of the house, in reply, gave the following account of the practice of his household :
" From ancient times, my family has believed in and worshiped 'the great, bright god of self-restraint.' We have also made a box, and called it 'the self- restraint box,' for the reception of the first-fruits and other percentages, all of which are offered to our god.
"As to percentages, this is our mode of proceeding: If I would buy a dollar garment, I manage by self- restraint and economy to get it for eighty cents, and the remaining twenty cents I drop into * the self-re- straint box'; or, if I would give a five-dollar feast to my friends, I exercise self-restraint and economy, and give it for four, dropping the remaining dollar into the box; or, if I determine to build a house that shall cost
192 MONET AND THE KINGDOM.
one hundred dollars, I exercise self-restraint and economy, and build it for eighty, putting the remain- ing twenty dollars into the box as an offering to ITannin Daimiyo-jin-san. ... In proportion to my annual outlays, the sum in this box is large or small. This year my outlays have been large ; hence, by the practice of the virtues named, the amount in 'the self-restraint box' is great. Yet, notwithstand- ing this, we are living in comfort, peace, and happi- ness." Among us, outlays and benefactions are apt to be in inverse, instead of direct, ratio. I am strongly in- clined to think that Christians could gain easy forgive- ness for a little idolatry of "the great, bright god of self-restraint." And if the " self-restraint box" were marked Home Missions, and the savings resulting from our self-denial were dropped into it, the " million dollars a year" called for by Dr. Goodell, in 1881, would be speedily forthcoming.
The general acceptance, by the church, of the Chris- tian principle that every penny is to be used in the way that will best honor God, would cause every channel of benevolence to overflow its banks, and occasion a blessed freshet of salvation throughout the world. "But," says some one, "that principle de- mands daily self-denial." Undoubtedly; and that fact is the Master's seal set to its truth. " If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross DAILY, and follow me." (Luke ix, 23).
2. And there are no exceptions to this law of sacri- fice; it binds all alike. Christian people will agree that missionaries are called to make great sacrifices for Christ ; but why does the obligation rest on them any more than on all ? Does the missionary belong absolutely to God? No less do we. Do the love
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sacrifice of Christ lay him under boundless obligation? Christ died for every man. Why is not the rich man in America under as great obligation to practice self- sacrifice for the salvation of the heathen as the missionary in Central Africa, provided his sacrifice can be made fruitful of their good? And that is exactly the provision which is made by missionary boards to-day. They establish channels of intercom- munication which bring us into contact with all heath- endom, and make Africa, which, centuries ago, fell among thieves, and has ever since been robbed and sore-wounded, our neighbor. To live in luxury, and then leave a legacy for missions, does not fulfill the law of sacrifice. Every steward is responsible for the disposition of his trust made by will. The obligation still rests upon him to bestow his possessions where, after his death, they will do most for God. Legacies to benevolent societies ought to be greatly multiplied, and would be, if the principle of Christian stewardship were accepted ; but such a legacy cannot compound for an unconsecrated life. If the priest or Levite, who passed by on the other side, wrote a codicil to his will, providing for wounded wayfarers, I fear it was hardly counted unto him for righteousness, was hardly a proof that he loved his neighbor as himself. Christ said : " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel"; and he did not say it to the twelve, but to the whole body of believers. If we cannot go in person, we are under obligations to go by proxy. The rich man has more power to send than the missionary has to go ; he can, perhaps, send a dozen. And why is he not called to make as great sacrifices in sending as the missionary in going?* The obligations of all men rest on the * Glance at some of the sacrifices of missionaries who go to the frontier.
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same grounds. The law of sacrifice is universal. " If AN£ man will come after me "; that means Dives and Lazarus alike ; the terms are all-inclusive. And not only must all men sacrifice, but the measure of sacrifice is the same for all. God does not ask of any two the same gift, because to no two are his gifts the same ; but he does require of every man the same sacrifice. "Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not ALL THAT HE HATH, lie cannot be my disciple.1' (Luke xiv, 33). To give the little all is as hard' as to give the abound- ing all. In both cases the sacrifice is the same ; for it is measured less by what is given than by what re- mains. Only when the sacrifice is all-inclusive is it perfect and entire, It is the sacrifice, not the gift, which is the essential thing in God's eye. What he demands of every soul is a complete sacrifice — the ab- solute surrender of self, of all powers and all posses -
Writing to the Congregational Union for aid to build a parsonage, one says :
"Am sleeping in a shack three miles from town, and taking my meals at the hotel. Not a house or building of any kind to be had to live in. My family are in Ohio, awaiting arrangements for a home. Can you help us ?"
Another writes : " During the first two years' service here, was obliged to live in Seattle, seven miles away, going to and fro on foot. For one year since, have occupied such a building as I could erect in thirty days, with my own hands."
Another : " My wife and myself, with our daughter of six years, have been doing our best to live (if it can be called living) in an attic of a store. It is all unfinished inside. By putting up a board partition we have two rooms. To reach our rooms we have to go around to ihe rear of the store, and make our way among boxes, barrels, tin cans, etc., to the foot of the outside stairway that leads to our attic. We are doing our best to keep warm ; but with mercury twenty degrees below zero we do not find it easy. Then for these accommodations, which are the best and all we can get, we have to pay $10 a month. Our salary is only $500. Cannot the Union loan us $250, to help us build ?"
Another, writing for a loan, says : " My family of seven lived, all summer, in a house twelve by sixteen, having only two rooms."
Many are heroically enduring hardship for the Kingdom, at the front, whose sacrifices would be less if ours were greater, whose sufferings could be relieved if our luxuries were curtailed.
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sions ; not the abandoning of the latter any more than of the former, but their entire surrender to God to be used honestly for him. In George Herbert's noble words :
" Next to Sincerity, remember still,
Thou must resolve upon Integrity. God will have all thou hast ; thy mind, thy will, Thy thoughts, thy words, thy works."
Whatever their occupation, Christians have but one business in the world; viz., the extending of Christ's Kingdom; and merchant, mechanic, and banker are under exactly the same obligations to be wholly conse- crated to that work as is the missionary.
3. One who believes that every dollar belongs to God, and is to be used for him, will not imagine that he has discharged all obligation by " giving a tenth to the Lord." One who talks about the " Lord's tenth," probably thinks about "his own" nine-tenths. The question is not what proportion belongs to God 1 But, having given all to him, what proportion will best honor him by being applied to the uses of myself and family, and what proportion will best honor him by being applied to benevolent uses ? Because necessi- ties differ this proportion will differ. One man has a small income and a large family ; another has a large income and no family at all. Manifestly the propor- tion which will best honor God by being applied to benevolence is much larger in the one case than in the other. God, therefore, requires a different proportion to be thus applied in the two cases. If men's needs varied directly as their incomes, it might, perhaps, be practicable and reasonable to fix on some definite pro- portion as due from all to Christian and benevolent work. But, while men's wants are quite apt to grow
196 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
with their income, their needs do not.* A man whose income is five hundred dollars may have the same needs as his neighbor whose income is fifty thousand.
There are multitudes in the land who, after having given one-tenth of their increase, might fare sumptu- ously every day, gratify every whim, and live with the most lavish expenditure. Would that fulfill the law of Christ, " If any man will come after me let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow me"?
There is always a tendency to substitute form for spirit, rules for principles. It is so much easier to conform the conduct to a rule than to make a principle inform the whole life. Moses prescribed rules; Christ inculcated principles — rules for children, prin- ciples for men.
The law of tithes was given when the race was in its childhood, and the relations of money to the king- dom of God were radically different from what they are now. The Israelite was not held responsible for the conversion of the world. Money had no such spiritual equivalents then as now ; it did not represent the salvation of the heathen. The Jew was required simply to make provision for his own worship ; and its limited demands might appropriately be met by levy- ing upon a certain proportion of his increase. Pales- tine was his world and his kindred the race ; but, under the Christian dispensation, the world is our country, and the race our kindred. The needs of the world to- day are boundless ; hence, every man's obligation to supply that need is the full measure of his ability ; not
* When John Wesley's income was £30, he lived on £28, and gave two ; and when his income rose to £60, and afterwards to £120, he still lived on £38, and gave all tne remainder.
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one-tenth, or any other fraction of it. And no one ex- ercises that full measure until he has sacrificed.
By all means let there be system. It is as valuable in giving as in anything else. Proportionate giving to benevolence is both reasonable and scriptural — "as God hath prospered." It is well to fix on some pro- portion of income, less than which we will not give, and then bring expenses within the limit thus laid down. But when this proportion has been given — be it a tenth, or fifth, or half — it does not follow neces- sarily that duty has been fully done. There can be found in rules no substitute for an honest purpose and a consecrated heart.
4. The principle that every dollar is to be used in the way that will best honor God is as applicable to capital as to increase or income, and in many cases requires that a portion of capital be applied directly to benevolent uses. " But," says one, " I must not give of my capital, because that would impair my ability to give in the future. I must not loll the goose that lays the golden egg." The objection is of weight, especial- ly in ordinary times ; but these are times wholly ex- traordinary ; this is the world's emergency. It may be quite true that giving one dollar now out of your cap- ital would prevent your giving five dollars fifteen years hence. But it should be remembered that, for home missionary work, one dollar now is worth ten dollars fifteen years later. This saying has become proverbial among the home missionaries of the West.
Money, like corn, has a twofold power — that of min- istering to want and that of reproduction. If there were a famine in the land, no matter how sore it might be, it would be folly to grind up all the seed-corn for food. But, on the other hand, suppose, in the midst
198 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
of the famine, after feeding their families and doling out a handful in charity, the farmers put all the in- crease back into the ground, and do it year after year, while the world is starving. That would be something worse than foolish. It would be criminal. Yet that is what multitudes of men are doing. Instead of apply- ing the power in money to the end for which it was entrusted to them, they use it almost wholly to accu- mulate more power. A miller might as well spend his life building his dam high and higher, and never turn the water to his wheel. Bishop Butler said to his sec- retary: "I should be ashamed of myself, if I could leave ten thousand pounds behind me." Many pro- fessed Christians die disgracefully and "wickedlj rich." The shame and sin, however, lie not in the fact that the power was gathered, but that it was un- wielded.
It is the duty of some men to make a great deal of money. God has given to them the money-making talent ; and it is as wrong to bury that talent as to bury a talent for preaching. It is every man's duty to wield the widest possible power for righteousness ; and the power in money must be gained before it can be used. But let a man beware ! This power in money is some- thing awful. It is more dangerous than dynamite. The victims of " saint-seducing gold " are numberless. If a Christian grows rich, it should be with fear and trembling, lest the " deceitfulness of riches" undo him ; for Christ spoke of the salvation of a rich man as some- thing miraculous (Luke xviii, 24 — 27).
Let no man deceive himself by saying : "1 will give when I have amassed wealth. I desire money that I may do good with it ; but I will not give now, that I may give the more largely in the future-" That is the
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pit in which many have perished. If a man IB growing large in wealth, nothing but constant and generous giving can save him from growing small in soul. In determining the amount of his gifts and the question whether he should impair his capital, or to what ex- tent, a man should never lose sight of a distinct and intelligent aim to do the greatest possible good in a life-time. Each must decide for himself what is the wisest, the highest, use of money ; and we need often to remind ourselves of the constant tendency of human nature to selfishness and self-deception.
THE PEINCIPLE NOT ACCEPTED.
The principle which has been stated and briefly ap- plied, and which is as abundantly sustained by reason as it is clearly taught in the Scriptures, is not ac- cepted by the Christian Church. There are many noble gifts and noble givers ; but they only help us to demonstrate that great multitudes in the church have not yet learned the first principles of Christian giving. According to Dr. Dorchester there were, in 1880, ten million members of Evangelical Protestant churches in the United States, who, from 1870 to 1880, gave an- nually for missions, home and foreign, five million five hundred thousand dollars,* an average of fifty-five cents for each church-member. A considerable pro- portion, however, is given by church-goers who are not church-members. We will call it, therefore, an even fifty cents for each of the ten million professing Chris-
« Dorchester's " Problem of Religious Progress," pp. 552—555.
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tians. But many thousands give a dollar each, which means that as many thousands more give nothing. There are some thousands who give ten dollars ; and for every thousand of this class there are nineteen thousand who do not give anything. Dr. Cuyler says he once had a seamstress in his church who used to give a hundred dollars a year to missions. Not a few out of larger means, give as much ; and, for every one of them, there are one hundred and ninety-nine who give nothing. Some give five thousand dollars; and for each of them there are ten thousand church-mem- bers who do not give one cent to redeem the heathen world, for which he with whom they profess to be in sympathy gave his life. There are hundreds of churches that do not give anything to home or foreign missions ; and of those that do many members give nothing. A church in Hartford gave eleven hundred dollars to home missions. One lady said to another : "Didn't we do well this morning f " No ; not as a church," was the reply. " For one lady gave six hun- dred dollars and one gentleman gave three hundred." If church collections were analyzed, it would appear that, as a rule, by far the greater part is given by a very few persons, and they not the most able. The great majority of church-members give only a trifle or nothing at all for the work of missions.
Five million five hundred thousand dollars for this cause sounds like a large sum. But great and small are relative terms. Compared with the need of the world and the ability of the church it is pitiable in- deed. Look at that ability. The Christian religion, by rendering men temperate, industrious, and moral, makes them prosperous. There are but few of the very poor in our churches. The great question has
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come to be : " How can we reach the masses t" Church-membership is made up chiefly of the well-to- do and the rich.* On the other hand, a majority of the membership is composed of women, who control less money than men. It is, therefore, fair to say that the church-member is at least as well off as the average citizen. One-fifth, then, of the wealth of the United States, or $8,728,400,000, was in the hands of church- members in 1880 ; and this takes no account of the immense capital in brains and muscles. Of this great wealth one-sixteenth part of one per cent., or one dol- lar out of fifteen hundred and eighty-six, is given in a year for the salvation of seven or eight hundred mil- lion heathen. If Christians spent every cent of wages, salary, and other income on themselves, and gave to missions only one cent on the dollar of their real and personal property, their contribution would be $87,- 284,000 instead of $5,500,000. In 1880 they paid out nearly six times as much for sugar and molasses as for the world's salvation, seven times as much for boots and shoes, sixteen times as much for cotton and wool- en goods, eleven times as much for meat, and eighteen times as much for bread. From 1870 to 1880 the ave- rage annual increase of the wealth of church-members was $391,740,000. And this, remember, was over and above all expense of living and all benevolences ! That is, the average annual increase of wealth in the hands of professed Christians was seventy-one times greater than their offering to missions, home and foreign. How that offering looks, when compared with their
* The Century says that, of the fifty leading business men of Columbus, Ohio, and Springfield, Mass, (if we are not mistaken in the unnamed cities), four-fifths are attendants upon the churches and supporters of them, while three-fifths are communicants.
202 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
wealth and its annual increase, may be seen on the op posite page.
If the members of our Sunday-schools in America gave, each, one cent a Sabbath to missions, it would aggregate nearly as much as is now secured, with end- less writing and pleading and praying, from our entire church-membership. If each of these professed Chris- tians gave five cents — the price of one cigar — once a week, it would amount in a year to $26,000,000. If each gave one cent every day to that which he pro- fesses is the object of his life — the building of the Kingdom — it would amount to $36,500,000.
Immense sums are invested freely if there is only a chance of large dividends. The Times of India says that "nearly $25,000,000 have been invested in search for gold in India, and that not $2,500 worth of the precious metal has been obtained after three years of labor/' Christians have opportunities to invest, and with perfect security, where they will realize thirty, sixty, a hundred-fold — that is three thousand, six thousand, ten thousand per cent. — yet how few and small the investments !
Seventy business men of New York subscribed $1,400,000, or $20,000 each, toward the Metropolitan Opera House in that city, which was completed two years ago ; and this without receiving or expecting pecuniary return. "Where are the seventy men who will give one-half that amount to home missions'? Is the love of Italian opera a more powerful motive than love of country, love of souls, and love of Christ I
It is commonly agreed that the annual liquor bill of the nation is $900,000,000. As comparatively few women and children use intoxicating drinks, and many men do not, we may safely assume that the most of
Wealth, of Church, JtCem&ers wife Uh&cLjSfato m 1880, *8,7Z8 ,400,000 > |
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MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 4 203
that amount is paid by one-fifth of the population. That is, in 1880, ten million people paid $900,000,000 for liquors, and the same number of professed Chris- tians gave $5,500,000 for missions. Any one that did not know better might naturally infer that the one class loves beer and whisky better than the other loves souls.
The other day a brutal prize-fighter got a purse of $12,000 for pounding an opponent into pulp. Money can be had in abundance for illegitimate uses, but a thousand interests, dear to the Master as the apple of his eye, must languish for the lack of funds. We have seen that there is no lack of wealth ; there is money enough in the hands of church-members to sow every acre of the earth with the seed of truth; bufc the average Christian deems himself a despot over his purse. God has intrusted to his children power enough to give the gospel to every creature by the close of this century ; but it is being misapplied. In- deed, the world would have been evangelized long ago, if Christians had perceived the relations of money to the Kingdom, and had accepted their stewardship. There has been too much of the spirit of an Ohio church treasurer (a professed Christian), who, when his pastor brought his annual contribution to the American Board, said to him : " You ought not to do it. I don't think it's right. You ought to stop giving to missions, and preach for us on a smaller salary"; adding, in conclusion ; " We are heathen." A proposi- tion which few enlightened men would be disposed to controvert, though it is a hard rub on the heathen.
When the heathen come to the light, they are much more Christian in their conceptions of duty and privi- lege, and shame us by their giving. Six native Chri&-
204 i, MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
tians, living on the banks of the • Euphrates, property averaged, perhaps, eight hundred dollars, gave towards their chapel and school-room three hun> dred and eight dollars, an average of more than fifty dollars each. " This contribution," adds the mission- ary, " means for one of those poor mountaineers mor* than one thousand days' work" " It is an amazing circumstance that, in 1881, the 1,200 church-members belonging to the missions of the United Presbyterian Board, in Egypt — most of them very poor men and women — raised £4,546, or more than $17 each, for the support of churches and schools. The Baptists, among the Karens, have done equally well."* Yes; that is amazing ; but it is far more amazing that Christians in rich America should give only fifty cents each to mis- sions. If we gave as much per caput to home and for- eign missions as they gave for churches and schools, our offering would be $170,0005000, instead of $5,500,- 000.
Is it not evident that most of our church-members have failed to learn the first principles of Christian giving ? And many who give most largely do not seem to have grasped fully the idea of stewardship, and to hold themselves under obligations to use every dollar in the way that will most honor God. A wealthy cler- gyman (!), who was a munificent giver, saw, in Paris, a pin that struck his fancy, and gave $800 for it If, in the wide world, he could find no higher use for the money, it was his duty to spend it as he did. Many give largely, and spend as lavishly on themselves ; nor is it strange, in view of the instructions often given. A pastor, whose fame is in all the churches, and justly, writes 0' "I say not, indeed, that it is wrong for a man * Josepli Cook, "Occident," p. 126,
MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 205
to take such a position in society as his riches warrant him to assume, or that there is sin in spending money on our residences, or in surrounding ourselves with the treasures of human wisdom in books, or the triumphs of human art in pictures and statuary ; but I do say that our gifts to the cause of God ought to be at least abreast of our expenditure for these other things." And a worthy secretary of one of our most honored benevolent societies says : " He shall see the travail of his soul and be satisfied — When? Not till beneficence keeps pace with luxury." Will that satisfy him who commended her that cast into the treasury all her liv- ing, who requires of his followers daily cross-bearing, and admits no one to discipleship who has not forsaken "all that he hath"? Is the Master satisfied when a rich man, to gratify "a nice and curious palate," spends ten thousand a year on his table, provided only benef- icence keeps pace with his luxury, and he gives as much more to missions ? Or, is it untrue that God requires every one to make the wisest and best use of all his. money ?
Many churches are never taught that the consecra- tion of all our property to God is no more optional than the practice of justice or chastity or any other duty. Most Christians leave their giving to mere im- pulse ; they give something or nothing, much or little, as they feel like it. They might as well attempt to live a Christian life and be honest or not, as they felt like it. The churches are not adequately instructed as to this duty. They hear too often of the "Lord's share." The reformation must begin with the pulpit. While I would not seem censorious of my brethren, it must nevertheless be said that too many ministers have not laid hold of this truth, or, at least, it has not laid hold of them.
206 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
No, there is no lack of wealth in the churches, even in hard times. When the rod of conviction and con- secration smites the flinty rock of selfishness, it will break asunder and send forth abundant streams of ben- efaction, which shall make glad the waste places and prove the water of life to the perishing multitudes.
ACCEPTANCE OF THE PRINCIPLE URGED.
Having defined the true principle of Christian giving, and glanced at some of the questions of casuistry which spring from its application, and having shown that the church does not act on it, it remains to present briefly some of the considerations which urge its ac- ceptance.
1. Duty. It is common to urge benevolence by ap- pealing to the hope of larger returns, which are assured by many promises of the "Word. And such motives were needed in the childhood of the race ; but with al] our light they should not be needed now. Did not Christ place giving on a higher plane ? He said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive," not be- cause of the return ; but because giving is more God- like. Men urge benevolence as an investment. It is true that the steward whom God finds faithful, he is very apt to honor with a larger trust ; but this should not be the motive of giving. We should " do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again." It is true that honesty is the best policy ; but if this be the motive of honest dealing, there is no real honesty. So when men give because they expect a larger return, there is no real giving. In the region of right and wrong we may
MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 207
not ask what is politic ; we stand under the scepter of the absolute Ought, which does not reason or advise or plead, but simply says : Thou shalt. Whether or not we have learned that only that which we give is truly and forever ours, the duty to give remains the same. The fact that God requires the entire consecra- tion of all our substance, ought, <alone, to be sufficient to move us ; but there are other considerations.
2. The spiritual life and power of the churches de- mand the acceptance of the true doctrine touching possessions. We talk about " our crosses." There is no such expression in the Bible. The word does not occur there in the plural. It has been belittled ; it has come to mean trial, disagreeable duty, anything which crosses our inclination ; but its meaning in the Scrip- tures is never so meager as that. There it always means crucifixion; like the word gallows, in modern speech, it means death. To take one's cross means, in the Bible, to start for the place of execution. " If any man will come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me." Follow him where ? To Golgotha. He in whose experience there is no Calvary where he him- self has been crucified with Christ, knows little of Christian discipleship. Christ demands actual self- abnegation ; but where the Christian name is honored, and its profession confers obvious advantages, self- deception is common and Christian experience is liable to be shallow. As quaint old Kutherford said : u Men get Christ for the half of nothing — such maketh loose work." Too many church-members know little or nothing of self -surrender ; hence the lack of spiritual life and power. At such times the church suffers for the want of some decisive test, the application of which will show men to themselves, and separate, with a good
208 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
degree of accuracy, those who have been crucified with Christ from those who know not what it is to " take up the cross."
In a commercial age, and especially in a luxurious civilization, the form of worldliness to which the church is most likely to be tempted is the love of money. As the means of almost every possible self -gratification it becomes the representative of self; hence the true principle of Christian giving, the actual surrender of all substance to God, is exactly the test for the ap- plication of which the church is suffering to-day. If this test were applied now to every church-member as Christ applied it to the young ruler (and the need is the same, for the human heart is the same, and heaven and the conditions of entrance are the same), would no^ the record in many a case be, " and he went away sor- rowful, for he had great possessions "?
What right has any one, who has light on this sub- ject, to believe he has given himself to God, if he has not given his possessions? If he has kept back the less, what reason is there to think he has given the greater I As Jeremy Taylor says :* " He never loved God who will quit anything of his religion to save his money."
Is not much that the Master said concerning posses- sions a dead letter in the church of to-day 1 " Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth." Is not that exactly what many in the church are doing, and many more striving with eager energy to do ? " The deceit- fulness of riches." How many are afraid of being de- ceived by them ? How many refuse to run the risk ? " How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the
* " Holy Living," p. 184.
MONEY AND THE KiJNi*uOM. 209
Kingdom of Heaven." How many are unwilling to be* come rich or richer ? Multitudes now complain that they have so little who, on the great day of accounts, will mourn that they had so much. The Word declares covetousness to be idolatry; but how many church- members were ever disciplined for this idolatry I There is, however, a sign of the millennium down in Maine, where, about a year ago, a church disciplined five mem- bers because they would give nothing.
The spiritual life and power of the church can vital- ize and save the world only when there is a spirit of consecration sufficiently deep and inclusive to accept the true principle of Christian giving.
3. Again, our safety from the perils which have been discussed demands the acceptance of this principle.
It is not urged as a panacea; specific remedies, which there is no space to discuss, must be applied ; reforms must be pressed ; we need patriotic and wise legislation, and to this end fewer politicians and more statesmen ; but statesmanship cannot save the country. Christ's refusal to be made a king, and his rejection of Satan's offer of the world's scepter, ought to teach those who seek to save the world that moral means are nec- essary to moral ends. Christ saw that the world could not be saved by legislation, that only by his being " lifted up " could all men be drawn unto him. He saw that he could not save the world without sacrific- ing for it ; no more can we. The saving power of the church is its sacrificing power.
The gospel is the radical cure of the world's great evils, and its promulgation, like its spirit, requires sacrifice. Money is the sinews of spiritual warfare as well as carnal, and a sufficient amount of it would en- able us to meet these perils with the gospel.
210 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
Christianize the immigrant and he will be easily Americanized. Christianity is the solvent of all race antipathies. Give the Romanist a pure gospel and he will cease to be a Romanist. It has already been shown that Christian education will solve the Mormon prob- lem. The temperance reform, like all others which de- pend on popular agitation, must have money, and i* being retarded by the lack of it. Concerning the rem- edy for socialism, accept the opinion of an economist who has made it a subject of special study. Says Prof. Ely : " It is an undoubted fact that modern socialism of the worst type is spreading to an alarming extent among our laboring classes, both foreign and native. I think the danger is of such a character as should arouse the Christian people of this country to most earnest efforts for the evangelization of the poorer classes, particularly in large cities. What is needed is Chris- tianity, and the Christian church can do far more than political economists toward a reconciliation of social classes. The church's remedy for social discontent and dynamite bombs is Christianity as taught in the New Testament. Now in all this you will find nothing new. It is only significant in this regard : others have come to these conclusions from the study of the Bible ; from a totally different starting point, from the study of political economy, I have come to the same goal."*
But the acceptance of the Christian doctrine con- cerning property would have a direct, as well as indi- rect, influence on socialism. Let us, therefore, dwell a moment on the subject.
In the popular ferment, a hundred years ago, which
* From a letter by Prof. R. T. Ely to Kev. H. A. Schauffier. I regret that lack of space forbids my quoting the entire letter, wMcli maj be found ix The Home Missionary for Oct., 1884, p. 22T.
MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 211
culminated in the French ^Revolution, the demand was for equal rights and the watchword was Liberty. There is a popular ferment throughout Europe to-day which is more universal and extends to the United States. The popular demand now is equality of condition, and the watchword is Property — a cry the meaning of which the dullest and most earthly can understand. This movement, which is steadily gathering force, re- sults from the two most striking facts of the Nineteenth century : first, the general diffusion of knowledge through the press, which has wonderfully multiplied wants up and down the entire social scale ; and, sec- ond, the creation of immense wealth by means of the steam engine. But this wealth, which is necessary to the satisfaction of these wants, has been massed. In a word, the difficulty is knowledge multiplied and popu- larized, and wealth multiplied and centralized.
The right distribution of property, which is the ker- nel of the social question, is the great problem of our civilization ; and it may well be doubted whether the true solution will be found until the church accepts, both in doctrine and practice, the teaching of God's "Word touching possessions. For the church is re- sponsible for public opinion on all moral questions, and no great question of rights can be settled for the world until Christian men come into right relations with it.
The inexorable law of our present industrial system is that the cost of subsistence determines the rate of wages. This makes no provision for the higher wants of increasing intelligence, and therefore insures an in- creasing popular discontent. It would seem that the solution of the great difficulties between capital and labor must be found in some form of co-operation by which the workman will be admitted to a just share in
212 MONET AND THE KINGDOM.
the profits of his labor. Professor Cairns, who is con- sidered one of the greatest economists England has produced, believes that co-operative production affords the laboring classes " the sole means of escape from a harsh and hopeless destiny" (" Leading Principles," p. 338). Referring to several thousand co-operative so- cieties in England, having some millions of capital, Thomas Hughes says : " I still look to this movement as the best hope for England and other lands." The eminent statistician, Carroll D. Wright, the head of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor, re- ferring to the duty of the rich manufacturer to regard himself as " an instrument of God for the upbuilding of the race," and the promotion of the highest welfare of those in his employ, says : " This may sound like sentiment. I am willing to call it sentiment ; but I know it means the best material prosperity, and that every employer who has been guided by such senti- ments has been rewarded two-fold ; first, in witnessing the wonderful improvement of his people, and, second, in seeing his dividends increase, and the wages of ins operatives increase with his dividends. The factory system of the future will be run on this basis. The instances of such are multiplying rapidly now." Man- ifestly, the acceptance on the part of Christian capital- ists of the scriptural doctrine of possessions would greatly facilitate the introduction of co-operation or any other plan which promised justice to the work- man.
The Christian man who is not willing to make the largest profits which an honest regard for the laws of trade permits is a rare man. But the laws of trade permit much that the laws of God do not permit. Many transactions are commercially honest which ax>
MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 213
not righteous. If, now, a man accepts the truth that his possessions are a trust to be administered for God's glory, he will not consent to increase them by any un- righteous means. And since justice and righteousness, like honesty, will prove to be the best policy, the ac- ceptance on the part of Christian men of a thoroughly righteous plan of co-operation between capital and la- bor would eventually compel its general acceptance. Let Christian men gain a correct conception of their relations to their possessions, let them accept the duty of Christian stewardship, and it would command their getting as well as their spending. There would be no motive to drive a sharp bargain. It would purify trade. It would mediate between capital and labor. It would destroy the foundation on which the rising structure of socialism rests. It would cut one of the principal roots of popular unbelief ; for extended in- quiry in Cincinnati elicited the almost unanimous re- sponse that the reason workingmen neglect the churches is that there are on the church rolls the names of employers who wrong their employes.
The acceptance of the true principle of Christian giving is urged upon us by the fact that money is power, which is needed everywhere for elevating and saving men. It is further urged upon us by the fact that only such a view of possessions will save us from the great and imminent perils of wealth. God might have sent his angels to sing his gospel through the world, or he might have written it on the sky, and made the clouds his messengers ; but we need to bear the responsibility of publishing that gospel. He might mak^ the safe of every benevolent society a gold mine as unfailing as the widow's cruse of oil ; but we need to give that gold. The tendency of human nature, in-
214 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
tensified by our commercial activity, is to make the life a whirlpool — a great maelstrom which draws every- thing into itself. "What is needed to-day is a grand re- versal of the movement, a transformation of the life into a fountain. And in an exceptional degree is this the need of Anglo-Saxons. Their strong love of lib- erty, and their acquisitiveness, afford a powerful temp- tation to offer some substitute for self-abnegation. We would call no man master. We must take Christ as master. We would possess all things ; we must surrender all things.
One of the grave problems before us is how to make great material prosperity conduce to individual ad- vancement. The severest poverty is unfavorable to morality. Up to a certain point increase of property serves to elevate man morally and intellectually, while it improves him physically. But, as nations grow rich, they are prone to become self-indulgent, effeminate, immoral. The physical nature becomes less robust, the intellectual nature less vigorous, the moral less pure. The pampered civilizations of old had to be re- invigorated, from time to time, with fresh infusions of barbaric blood — a remedy no longer available. If we cannot find in Christianity a remedy or preventive, our Christian civilization and the world itself is a failure ; and our rapidly increasing wealth, like the " cankered heaps of strange-achieved gold," will curse us unto de- struction.
But the recognition of God's ownership in all our substance is a perfect antidote for the debilitating and corrupting influence of wealth. It prevents self-in- dulgence, and the apprehension of religious truth im- plied in such recognition affords the strongest possible motives to sacrifice and active effort of which men are
MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 215
capable. A hundred years ago poverty compelled men to endure hardness, and so served to make the nation great. Now that we are exposed to the pampering in- fluence of riches, Christian principle must inspire the spirit of self-denial for Christ's sake, and the world's sake, and so make the nation greater.
Where that spirit obtains, Mammonism and materi- alism, as well as luxuriousness, lose their power, and wealth, instead of being centralized, is distributed. So that Christian stewardship, so far as it is accepted, affords perfect protection against all the perils of wealth.
Our cities, which are gathering together the most dan- gerous elements of our civilization, will, in due tin\e, unless Christianized, prove the destruction of our free institutions. During the last hundred years, the in- struments of destruction have been wonderfully multi- plied. Offensive weapons have become immeasurably more effective. Not so the means of defense. Yout life is in the hand of every man you meet. Society is safe to-day only so far as every man becomes a law un- to himself. The lawless classes are growing much more rapidly than the whole population ; and nothing but the gospel can transform lawless men and women into good citizens.
The number of missionaries in our cities ought to be increased ten or twenty-fold; and their work is ex- pensive. It is usually the densest populations which are most neglected, and in such quarters mission chap- els cannot be built without large expenditures. If our cities are to be evangelized, laymen must greatly en- large their ideas of the demands of the work, and of their pecuniary responsibility for it.
The perils which have been discussed (Chaps. IV. — X.)
216 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
are increasing. And not only has their rate of in- crease since 1800 been greater than that of the whole population, but greater even than that of our evangel- ical church-membership, as may be seen by the accom- panying diagram.* As some of our statistics extend no further back than 1850, let us compare the rates of increase since that date. While the whole population has increased a little over two-fold, and the evangelical less than three-fold, the Catholic population has in- creased nearly four-fold, as has the city population also. Wealth has increased six-fold, the use of malt liquorsf more than eleven-fold, and the Mormon popu- lation in Utah fourteen-fold. Immigration, though very irregular, shows a general increase more rapid than that of population. Immorality and crime also are increasing much more rapidly than church-member- ship. That is, the dangerous and destructive elements are making decidedly greater progress than the con- servative. Our churches are growing, our missionary operations extending, our benefactions swelling, and we congratulate ourselves upon our progress ; but we have only to continue making the same kind of prog- ress long enough, and our destruction is sure.
* This diagram exhibits rate of increase, not relative numbers. The straight perpendicular lines, numbered at the top and bottom of the page, represent fold. Thus, from 1800 to 1850, the evangelical population in- creased ten-fold, and the Catholic population increased sixteen-f old. From 1800 to 1880, the former increased twenty-seven-fold and the latter sixty- three-f old, while the whole population increased somewhat over nine-fold. Dr. Dorchester's diagram No. II, " Problem of Religious Progress," p. 456, is very incorrect and utterly misleading. By his diagram the Catholic pop- ulation increased, from 1800 to 1850, barely three-fold; by his statistics, six- teen-fold ; from 1800 to 1880, by his diagram, six or eight-fold ; by his statis- tics, sixty-three. His mistake lay in attempting to represent, by the same diagram, two entirely different things ; viz., rate of increase and relative numbers.
t Malt and vinous liquors are, in some measure, supplanting spirituous. Taking all kinds of intoxicating drinks together, the people of the United States used three times as much per caput in 1883 as in 1840.
1800
MZ34&78 16
It 4& 56 64,
MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 217
Has not the time fully come when the church must make a new departure of some sort? And is it not evi- dent that what is needed is a true view of the relations of money to the kingdom, and such a spirit of conse- cration as will lay it and all else on the altar ?
4. We have seen, in the preceding chapters, that a mighty emergency is upon us. Our country's future, and much of the world's future, depend on the way in which Christian men meet the crisis. Do you gay: "I trust in God, and therefore have no fear ; I believe what some one has said, ' If God intends to save the world, he cannot afford to make an exception of America.' This country is his chosen instrument of blessing to mankind; and God's plans never fail"? The difference between a true and a false faith is that one inspires action while the other paralyzes it. God saved the nation during the war of the Eebellion ; but it was not by a false faith, which, with folded arms, rehearsed its confidence in the divine decrees. It was by a faith which inspired sacrifice. At the time of Paul's shipwreck, it was revealed to him that they were all to be saved; but, nevertheless, there were conditions with which they must comply, or be lost. Their salvation was certain, but not necessary; it was conditioned. I believe our country will be saved. Its salvation may be certain in the counsels of God ; but it is not necessary. I believe it to be conditioned on the Church's rising to a higher spirit of sacrifice.
When the drum beat the nation to battle, a quarte of a century ago, no sacrifice was too great; wive** gave their husbands, parents gave their sons. A Christian mother had sent seven sons into the Union army. Near the close of the war, the eighth, and only remaining son, paid a visit to his mother, and, speak-
218 MONET AND THE KINGDOM.
ing of the wax, said : " Mother, what would you do if one of the boys should fall in the struggle?" Turning her deep eyes upon him, she said : " God has given me nine noble sons ; one he has taken to himself, seven are in the army, and I want you to understand, my son, that I only hold you as a reserve for your coun- try's defense ; and the first breach that you hear of as being made in our number, go quickly, and fill it ; and may God take care of you, and I will take care of your children." Is it easier to give one's flesh and blood than to give silver and gold? We are engaged in what Lord Bacon called the " heroic work of making a nation"; for which heroic sacrifices are demanded.
And our plea is not America for America's sake ; but America for the world's sake. For, if this genera- tion is faithful to its trust, America is to become God's right arm in his battle with the world's ignorance and oppression and sin. If I were a Christian African or Arab, I should look into the immediate future of the United States with intense and thrilling interest ; for, as Professor Hoppin of Yale has said: "America Christianized means the world Christianized." And "If America fail," says Professor Park, "the worla will fail." During this crisis, Christian work is un- speakably more important in the United States than anywhere else in the world. "The nations whose conversion is the most pressing necessity of the world to-day," says Professor Phelps, "are the Occidental nations. Those whose speedy conversion is most vital to the conversion of the rest are the nations of the Occident. The pioneer stock of mind must be the Occidental stock. The pioneer races must be the Western races. And of all the Western races, who that can read skillfully the providence of God, or can
MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 219
read it at all, can hesitate in affirming that the signs of divine decree point to this land of ours as the one which is fast gathering to itself the races which must take the lead in the final conflicts of Christianity for possession of the world? Ours is the elect nation for the age to come. We are the chosen people. We cannot afford to wait. The plans of God will not wait. Those plans seem to have brought us to one of the closing stages in the world's career, in which we can no longer drift with safety to our destiny. We are shut up to a perilous alternative. Immeasurable opportunities surround and overshadow us. Such, a# I read it, is the central fact in the philosophy of American Home Missions."*
What a consummate blunder to live selfishly in such a generation! What food for everlasting reflection and regret in a life lived narrowly amid such infinitely wide opportunities!
Says a New York daily paper : " A gentleman died at his residence in one of our up-town fashionable streets, leaving eleven millions of dollars. He was a member of the Presbyterian church, in excellent stand- ing, a good husband and father, and a thrifty citizen. On his deathbed he suffered with great agony of mind, and gave continual expression to his remorse for what his conscience told him had been an ill-spent life. 'Oh!' he exclaimed, 'if I could only live my years over again ! Oh ! if I could only be spared for a few years, I would give all the wealth I have amassed in a lifetime. It is a life devoted to money-getting that I regret. It is this which weighs me down, and makes me despair of the life hereafter.' " Suppose so
* From letter read at tbe Home Missionary Anniversary in Chicago, June 9tfl, 1881.
220 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
unfaithful a steward is permitted to enter the many mansions. When, with clarified, spiritual vision, he perceives the true meaning of life, and sees that he has lost the one opportunity of an endless existence to set in motion influences, which, by leading sinners to repentance, would cause heaven to thrill with a new joy, it seems to me he would gladly give a hundred years of Paradise for a single day on earth in posses- sion of the money once entrusted to him — time enough to turn that power into the channels of Christian work.
The emergency created by the settlement of the states and territories of the West — a grand constella- tion of empires — is to be met by placing in the hand of every Christian agency there at work all the power that money can wield. There is scarcely a church, or society, or institution of any kind doing God service there which is not embarrassed, or sadly crippled for lack of funds. Missionaries should be multiplied, parsonages and churches built, and colleges generously endowed. The nation's salt, with which the whole land, and pre-eminently the tainted civilization of the frontier, must be sweetened, is Christian education. The tendency, which is so marked in many of our older and larger colleges, to develop and furnish sim- ply the intellect, is full of peril. Divorce religion and education, and we shall fall a prey either to blunder- ing goodness or well-schooled villainy. The young colleges of the West, like Drury, Doane, Carleton, Colorado, and others, founded by broad-minded and far-seeing men, are characterized by a strong religious influence, and send a surprising porportion of their graduates into the ministry. In view of their almost boundless possibilities for usefulness in their relations
MONEY AND THE KINGDOM. 221
to the future of the "West and of the nation, and in view of their urgent needs, it is a wonder that those who, like Boaz, are mighty men of wealth, can deny themselves the deep and lasting pleasure of liberally endowing such institutions. Said one who had just given fifty thousand dollars to a Western college : " I cannot tell you what I have enjoyed. It is like being born into the kingdom again."
This emergency demands the acceptance of Christian stewardship, that our great benevolent societies may be adequately furnished for their work. They are kept constantly on their knees before the public, and with pleas so pitiful, so moving, the marvel to me is that, when Christian men hold their peace and their purse, the very stones do not cry out. And, notwith- standing all their efforts to secure means, they must, every one, scrimp at every point, decline providential calls to enlarge their work, and even retrench, in order to close the fiscal year without a debt.
The door of opportunity is open in all the earth ; organizations have been completed, languages learned, the Scriptures translated, and now the triumph of the Kingdom awaits only the exercise of the power com- mitted to the church, but which she refuses to put forth. If she is to keep step with the majestic march of the divine Providence, the church must consecrate fche power which is in money.
5. Oh! that men would accept the testimony of Christ touching the blessedness of giving ! He who sacrifices most, loves most ; and he who loves most, is most blessed. Love and sacrifice are related to each other like seed and fruit; each produces the other. The seed of sacrifice brings forth the fragrant fruit of love, and love always has in its heart the seeds of new
222 MONEY AND THE KINGDOM.
sacrifice. He who gives but a part is not made perfect in love. Love rejoices to give all ; it does not measure its sacrifice. It was Judas, not Mary, who calculated the value of the alabaster box of ointment. He who is infinitely blessed is the Infinite Giver; and man, made in his likeness, was intended to find his highest blessedness in the completest self-giving. He who receives, but does not give, is like the Dead Sea. All the fresh floods of Jordan cannot sweeten its dead, salt depths. So all the streams of God's bounty can- not sweeten a heart that has no outlet ; is ever receiv- ing, yet never full and overflowing.
If those whose horizon is as narrow as the bushel under which they hide their light could be induced to come out into a large place, and take a worthy view of the Kingdom of Christ and of their relations to it, if they could be persuaded to make the principle of Christian giving regnant in all their life, their happi- ness would be as much increased as their usefulness.
INDEX.
PAQB.
ADAMS, John 166
ADAMS, Professor H. C 104
AGASSIZ 120
AGRICULTURAL resources of the United States 9-10
Product for 1880, 12, note.
ALASKA, timber lands of 24
ALEXANDER III 34
ALCOHOL, increase in use of 74
AMERICANS, physical degeneracy of. 169-170
ANGLO-SAXONS and the world's future 159-180
Two great ideas represented by 159-160
Multiplication and expansion of, in modern times 161-163
Future growth of 162-165
Becoming more effective in the United States than in Great
Britain 171-175
Characteristics of. 172-174
ARABLE lands of the West 21-23
Of the East 28-2^.
AREA of C hina 9
Of the United States 9
ARIZONA, lands of 19-20
ARKANSAS, timber lands of , 23
ARMIES, cost of standing 114
ARNOLD, Matthew 15-36
ARTESIAN Wells 22
ATKINSON, Edward 10
AUSTRIA 34
BACON, Lord 218
" BAD LANDS " 18
BAILEY, Professor 27
BARROWS, Dr. W. M 61
BAXTER, Dr 170
BEARD, Dr. Geo. M 71-72-73-168
BEAUTIFUL, how far may we gratify our love for the? 187-189
BEECHER, Henry Ward 46
BELLARMINE, Cardinal • 53
BISMARCK 33-51
BLANC, Louis 85
BLANCHARD, Rev. A 29
224 INDEX.
PAGE.
BORUTTAU 94
BOSCAWEN. 147
BOWKER, R R 190
BREWERS' Congress 79-80
BRIGHT, John lf>9
BRITISH Colonies, increase of population in 163-164
BURKE, Edmund 153
BURNABY 167
BUSHNELL, Dr. 175-176-182
BUTLER, Bishop 198
BUXTON 2
CAIRNES, Professor. 103-212
CALIFORNIA, extent of, 16 ; gold, 24 ; iron 26
CAPITAL, consecration of 197-199
CARLYLE 153
CATTLE " Kings " 110
CHINA, area and population of 9
CHURCH Members, proportion of in states and territories 152
Wealth of. 201-202
CITY, the peril of the 128-138
Growth of. 128-129
Proportion of foreigners in 129
Liquor power in 129
Wealth and poverty in 129-132
Socialism in 132
Number of churches to population in. 133
Religious destitution of 133-135
Government of. 135-136
CLARK, Dr. N. G 178
COAL 11-26
COLFAX, Hon. Schuyler 65
COLORADO, gold and silver products of. 24
COMMERCE, domestic 113-114
COMMERCE follows the missionary 14
COMSTOCK, Anthony 84
COOK, Joseph 67-92-95-204
COPPER 26
COTTON-GIN 2
COTTON, C. B., confessions of 81-83
COTTON Exchange of New York Ill
CRIME 41-42-44
CRIMINALS, increase of 141
CROSBY, Dr. Howard 84-124
DAKOTA, 17 ; " Bad Lands *' of 18
D'ALEMBERT 83
D'ARANDA 166
DARWIN, Professor 170-171-176
DEBTS, public, of Europe 37
DENSITY of population in European States and United States 161
INDEX. 225
PAGE-
DESETRT..... 1T-21
DE TOCQUEVILLE 29-36-99-101-138
DIAGRAM, showing wealth of church members and gifts to missions 202
Showing increase of perils.— 2i6
DICKENS 173
DIVORCE 141
DORCHESTER, Dr. D 168
DIKE, S. W 141
EAST of the Mississippi, area IT
Arable lands 23-24
ELY, Professor R. T 87-88-90-210
EMERSON 96-122-124-172
EMPIRE, westward movement of . , 166-167
FAIRBAIRN, William 3
FAWCETT, Professor 35
FOOD, per caput, in United States and Europe 31
FOREIGN-BORN population in United States in 1880, 39 ; in 1900 - 40
FOREIGN-BORN population, tendency toward aggregation of . .... r 44-45
FOREIGN population, proportion of, in western states and territories. . . 161
FRANCE 32-33
FRANKLIN, Benjamin 60-166
FREMONT, J. C 19
FRONTIER population, heterogeneous character of 149-150
FROUDE 178
FULTON'S steamboat , 3
GALI ANI 166
GEORGE, Henry 91-92-133-135
GERMANY 33
GIFFEN, Robert 156
GILMOUR, Bishop 52
GIVING, Christian ; the principle stated 184-185
The principle applied 185-199
The principle is not accepted by the church 199-206
Acceptance of the principle urged 206-222
GLADSTONE 8-13-36-51-98-115
GOLD and silver product of the United States 11-24-25
GOODWIN, Dr. E. P 109-110
GOTTSCH ALK . : 127
GRAZING lands of the West 21
" GREAT American Desert," 17-21
GREAT Britain, land holders in 31
Popular discontent in 35
Local indebtedness of 35
Increase of population in 163
GREAT Columbia Plains 21
GREGORY XVI 65
GRIMM, Jacob 179
GUIZOT 93
HATTON, Joseph 6
HEATHEN, the giving of converted , 203-204
226 INDEX.
PAG*.
HECKER, Father 64
HERBERT, George 195
HERODOTUS 122
HIGGINSON, Francis 173
HOLMES, Oliver Wendell , 144
HOPPIN, Prof 218
HUGHES, Thomas 35-212
HUGO, Victor 36
HUXLEY, Prof 169
IDAHO, extent of, 16 ; gold and silver, 24 ; sulphur 27
ILLITERACY '. 140
ILLITERACY in United States 44
IMMIGRATION, 30-46 ; causes of 30-39
Influence of on morals, 40-43 ; political aspects of 43
INTELLIGENCE, higher, demanded for large populations 139
INTEMPERANCE, 68-85, of West compared with East 77
INTOXICANTS, increase in use of 74
IRON ORE 11-26
ITALY 34
JESUITS 50-58
KANNIN, Daimiyo-j in-san 191-192
KANSAS, alkaline lands of 18
KIMBALL, Heber C 67
"KINGS," Cattle 110
LAFAYETTE 59
LANDS, exhaustion of public 153-158
Location of public 154-155
LEAD 26
LECKY ,. ; 100
LIBERTY, progress of 4
LIFE, increasing valuation of human 5
LIQUOR BILL of the nation 202
LIQUOR Power, the, 78-85 ; wealth of 79
Methods of .81-83
LIQUOR traffic, carried on by foreigners 42-43
LlVY 121
LONDON, Bitter Cry of Outcast 130-132
LOUISIANA, sulphur of 27
LOURDELOT 12
LOWELL, Mrs. J. S 133
LUNT, Bishop 62
LUXURIOUSNESS, one of the perils of wealth 121-123
MACAULAY 101-154
MACHINERY, labor-saving, to increase 38
Influence of 95-96
Power of, in Great Britain 115
Superior in the United States 12
MAMMONISM, 115-119 ; corrupts morals, 118 ; blocks reforms, 118 ; cor- rupts the ballot-box 118-119
MANNING, Cardinal 53-54
INDEX. 227
PAGE. MANUFACTURERS in United States » . » » » , » . 12-15
Progress of 6-13
MATERIALISM, one of the perils of wealth 119-123
MAURICE, Eev. J. F. D 86
MCCLOSKEY, Cardinal .! 52
MECHANICAL invention, influence of, on luxuriousness 122
METROPOLITAN Opera House in New York, subscriptions for 202
MILITARY duty in Europe 36-37
MILTON 152
MINERAL products of United States from 1870—1 880, 11 ; of the West. . . 26
MINNESOTA, timber lands of 23
MISSIONARY, commerce follows the 14
MISSIONS, amount given to 199
MISSISSIPPI and affluents, navigation of 9
MISSOURI, iron, 26 ; lead 26
MONEY, the power of 181
And the kingdom 180-222
MONTANA, extent, 16 ; gold and silver, 24 ; tin 27-
MONTESQUIEU. 28
MORALS, popular 140-141
MORMONISM, 59-68 ; polygamy not an essential part of, 59-60 ; strength
of, 61 ; dangers of, 66 ; remedy for 67-68
MORMONS, designs of, 62-63 ; possessions of, C4 ; increase of, by immi- gration, 64 ; apostacy of 64
MOST, Herr 91
MUDGE, Prof 18
NAPOLEON. . '. 180
NEBRASKA, lands of , 18
NERVOUS belt, the , 71-72
NEVADA, lands of, 20 ; gold and silver, 24-25 ; borax 27
NEW ENGLAND, unimproved lands in 23
NswGlarus 44
NEW MEXICO 16
NEW YORK, unimproved lands in 23
NIHILISTS 34-35
NORTHAMPTON, Mass 147-148
O'CONNOR, Bishop 47
OPIUM, increased consumption of 73
OREGON, iron ore of 26
PARK, Professor 218
PATENTS issued by English Government, 4 ; by United States 12
PENNSYLVANIA, unimproved lands in 23
PERIL, the supreme 143-144
PERILS, increase of 216-217
PETROLEUM Exchange of New York 117
PETTENKOFER, Dr. Max von 76
PHELPS, Prof 1-218
" PHYSICAL Degeneracy of Americans " 169-170
Pius IX, creed of r*
Pius IX ,.,.., ,,, ,,,,,, ffffflftt, 47-48-49-^'
PAGE.
POLYGAMY not an essential part of Mormonism 59-60
POPULATION, density of, in European states and United States 16T
POSSESSIONS, God's ownership in our 184-185
POWER, distribution of; the fundamental idea of popular government. 141
Loom 2
PRODUCE Exchange of New York 117
PuBLiciands, exhaustion of. 153-158
Location of 154-155
RAE, John 31
RACES, competition of 175-179
RAILWAYS, construction of, from 1870 to 1880 38
Of Qreat Britain, passengers conveyed by 3
RAINFALL 22
RAWLINSON 171
RESOURCES, national 7-15
ROMAN Church in the United States, wealth of 54
ROMANISM, 46-59 ; fundamental principles of. 47-54
ROMANISM, attitude of, toward our free institutions 54-55
Growth of in the United States 55-57
In the West 57-59
Responsible for skepticism 55
RUSSIA 34
RUTHERFORD 207
SACRIFICE, the law of. 192-195
SEELYE, Pres. J. H 90-111
SETTLERS, influence of early 144-153
SEWARD, William H : 24
SCHAUFFLER, Rev. H. A 134
SCHOOL population 140
SILVER and gold product of the United States 11-24-25
SLAVERY. 4
SMALLEY, E. V 18-20
SMITH, Adam 105-167
SOCIALISM, 85-112 ; Socialistic Labor Party 86-87
SOCIALISM, International Workingmen's Association 87-88
Chicago socialists, 89 ; increase of, 92-107 ; influenced by immi- gration, 92 ; by individualism, 93 ; by skepticism, 93-94; by devel- opment of classes, 94-100; by discontent, 100-107; conditions of the West peculiarly favorable to the growth of 109-111
SOUTHE Y 178
SPENCER, Herbert 12-85-136-172
SPINNING mule 2
" STAKED Plain " of Texas 18
SUMNER, Charles 121-167
TAXATION in Europe and United States 37
TAYLOR, Jeremy 208
TELEGRAPH lines of the world. 4
TENNYSON 168-171-179
TEXAS, 16 ; capable of supporting present population of United States, . 17
INDEX. 229
PAGE. TEXAS, " Staked Plain " of, 18-19; timber lands of, 23 ; iron, 26; gypsum,
27 ; division of, into several states 28
THOMPSON, Dr. J. P.. 62
THOMPSON, Hon. R. W 52
TIMBER 21-23-24
TIN 27
TITHES, misconception of the doctrine of 183-184
TITHING 195-19T
TRAMPS, taking possession of a town Ill
UNITED STATES, area of, 9 ; agricultural resources of, 9-10 ; increase of
population in, 164 ; the seat of Anglo-Saxon power 165-168
UTAH, lands of, 19 ; iron 26
VANDERBILT, wealth of 124
VIRTUE, higher, demanded for large populations 139
WALL Street Kings 103
WARREN, Rev. Dr. J. H 58
WEALTH, perils of, 112-128 ; per caput in several states, 28 ; produced
from 1850 to 1870, 115 ; meaning of, in the United States, 116 ;
aristocracy of, in the United States, 116 ; congestion of 123-125
WEST, London Times on the rapid development of, 7 ; live stock in, 24 ;
mineral wealth of, 24 ; foreign-born population in 45
WESTERN Reserve, two towns on the 145-146
WHIPPLE 120-16S
WHITTIER 149
WIYES, English sale of 5
WOMANHOOD, increasing honor to 5
WOOLSEY, President 141
WRIGHT, Carroll D 212
WYOMING, iron, 26; sulphate of soda. 27
YOUNG, Brigham 61
American Home Missionary Society,
BIBLE HOUSE, N. Y.
REV. DAVID B. COE, Honorary Secretary.
REV. WALTER M. BARROWS, REV. JOSEPH B. CLARK, Secretaries.
REV. ALEX'R H. CLAPP, Treasurer.
SIXTY years ago tne American Home Missionary Society was organized to assist congregations that are unable to support the Gospel ministry, and TO SEND THE GOSPEL AND THE MEANS or CHKISTIAN EDUCATION TO THE DESTITUTE WITHIN THE UNITED STATES.
It began its work near the commencement of that great " world-movement" described in this volume. In 1826, when Western New York was a frontier region, two -thirds of its mis- sionaries were found in this State.
Now they are laboring in nearly every State and Territory of the Union. Over 1,000 are in States south and west of New York. WHo can estimate the influence they are exerting in building up the new communities on Christian foundations ?
Some idea of the magnitude and scope of the Society's work may be gained from the following facts.
In sixty -one years its missionaries have organized 4,951 churches and brought 2,430 to self-support. They have gathered into these churches 345, 973 members. Cash receipts, $11,586,- 692,20,
During the sixty -first year 1,571 missionaries ministered to 3,063 congregations and 129,350 Sunday-school scholars ; organ- izing 135 new churches and 323 new Sunday-schools ; and re- ceiving into the churches 10,031 members. Cash receipts, $482,979,60.
Never before were the calls for Home Missionary work so loud. Never were the doors so wide open in all parts of the land. Never were our institutions in greater peril. Head in this book of these perils and their remedy. Then let every patriot and Christian ask if he is not responsible for applying this remedy. The average cost to this Society for each of its missionaries is $471 per year.
Are there not many who will each contribute enough to sup- port at least one such Christian worker ?
SAVE AME3ICA TO SAVE THE WORLD !
WHAT INTELLIGENT READERS OF "OUR COUNTRY" SAY OF IT.
"ITS facts, as they are piled up page after page, arrest the attention of all classes of readers who have an interest in the welfare of their country, and the successive chapters furnish a cumulative argument of great power for home mission work. Many pastors have sent for copies for use among their people. Judge Warren Currier of Missouri contributes $25 to help in its circulation, and the home missionary secretaries and many others pronounce it a wonderful book. It can be had of the American Home Missionary- Society at the low price of twenty- five cents in paper, and fifty cents in cloth covers, postage in- cluded. It should by all means be scattered far and wide over the country." — The Congregationalist.
" IN 'Oun COUNTRY/ published by the American Home Mis- sionary Society, Rev. Josiah Strong has given us a book whose value lies in its facts and in the rare ability with which the author has gathered and verified them. In successive chapters he has sketched the spirit of the times, the National resources and Western supremacy. He has depicted the perils from im- migration, from Romanism, Mormonism, intemperance, social- ism and wealth; the dangers from urban population and the exhaustion of the public lands. His final chapter on ' Money and the Kingdom ' reveals the purpose of the book, which is to point Christians of this country to the present time as a critical period in Christ's Kingdom, and to urge upon them the conse- cration of their wealth to the cause of the Redeemer. The book ought to be in the hands of every patriot in the land as a thesaurus of important material facts and as an incentive to stand on higher grounds of civic and religious duty." — The Advance.
"THE purpose of this volume, well accomplished, is to furnish facts and arguments showing the imperative need of
the evangelteation of our land. The statistics are collated with decided skill, and the arguments are masterly. It is a valu- able hand-book on the great practical problems now facing the Church at every turn. Romanism, Mormonism and intemper- ance are handled without gloves. The entire book, indeed, hews to the line. It bravely diagnoses the diseases of society, Church and State, and suggests treatment. The despotism and danger of excessive wealth, especially in monopoly, is for- cibly depicted. At the same time the trouble with the work- ing classes is fearlessly delineated. The closing chapter, on 'Money and the Kingdom, 'is a powerful argument for the cause of benevolence. This work is worthy of a wide circula- tion, and will be sure to accomplish good." — Herald and Pres-
"Ms. STRONG was the successor of Rev. J. D. Davis, of ^apan, at Cheyenne, and recently Home Missionary Secretary of Ohio. He is practically and thoroughly familiar with the home missionary problem in all its phases, and during the past few years has been giving exhaustive study to the elucidation of questions which involve our national existence and well being.
"An introduction by Dr. Phelps, of Andover, sounds a clarion note which the succeeding chapters swell into reverberating tones that both oppress and inspire with a sense of far-reach- ing destiny as springing from what we of to day do or fail to do.
' * These chapters present an array of facts which bear the reader on with a trend well nigh as irresistible as are the warn- ings, the expostulations, the pleadings, and the inspiring pre- dictions of the Hebrew prophets.
" The closing chapter speaks with the voice of aDanielcome to judgment. If professing Christians will recognize the pic- ture and move out on the lines indicated, the beginning of the end will be reached. We will not further particularize. Read
3
the book for yourself. Especially should every pastor season his miad and tone up his convictions by its careful study. "—. Neb. Congregational News.
"MR. STRONG'S admirable book, OUR COUNTRY, is by all odds the best home missionary document that has fallen under my observation . It is full of solid facts and sound sense, and is free from cant. Here are twenty-five dollars to aid in its cir- culation. It ought to be in every Sunday-school and pastor's library throughout Pilgrimdom. I am ready to be one of fifty to pay $100 each, ($5,000) if that is the best way to get the book diffused throughout the land. " — Hon. Warren Currier, of
"I AM glad to hear of the rapid circulation of the book. It cannot help doing good to anybody who has brains and heart enough to take it in. I have seldom read a thing that moved me more deeply. We are living in a torrent of great history.*' —Prof. Austin Phelps, D.D.
' ' IT is a wonderful book. It ought to be read by all the people. It is a great educator. I hope our wealthy men will read it, and see that they cannot put their money to better use than in the home missionary work. It surpasses any novel in interest to any one who cares for his country as a patriot, and for the world as a Christian." — Rev. Stewart Sheldon, of Dakota.
" OUR COUNTRY is truly a wonderful book. It is by far the most notable contribution ever yet made to home mission- ary literature."— Rev. John H. Barrows, D.D., 1st Presb. Ch., Chicago, III.
" It is a splendid book. It thrills me through and through. I wish I could get all the business men in our churches to read it."— Ren. T. 0. Douglass, Iowa.
"OUR COUNTRY is one of the grandest books of this Nineteenth Century. I intend, God willing, to get it into every family in this parish." — Rev. S. R. Roseboro, Rock Creek> 0
" THE book makes a powerful appeal, especially to such as have much property laid up for many years, and can be moved by considerations of self-preservation for themselves and their children. When they have opened wide their purses through fear, ihey will be likely to keep them open for love. Is there no possibility of putting them into all city churches?"— A Gen- tleman in New Haven, Conn.
* ' Too much cannot be said in praise of OUR COUNTRY. For the money herewith please send me four more copies for dis- tribution.''—^ Lady in Greenfield, Mass.
" ' OUR COUNTRY,' a book recently published by the Amer- ican Home Missionary Society, at New York, is as full of sermon matter as an egg is of meat. Prof. Phelps says: ' Its great strength lies in its facts.' These facts should be brought to the notice of every church in America. Pastors may diffuse missionary intelligence, but they must first have some informa- tion to diffuse." — Missionary Record.
" IT is a revelation. It is a thoroughly admirable piece of werk in detail quality, as well as in general sweep and scope." —Gen. A. B. Nettleton, Minn.
" PERMIT me to thank you for your valuable and instructive work. — It contains precisely the information people need. " — Prof. R. T. Ely, of Johns Hopkins University.
" IN a thoughtful little book, entitled ' OUR COUNTRY,' late- ly published [by the American Home Missionary Society] the Rev. Josiah Strong observes that 'the tragedy of our civilization consists in the fact that, while knowledge has been multiplied and diffused, wealth has been multiplied and concentrated in few hands.'"— The Century, for June, 1886.
MODERN CITIES
AND THEIR RELIGIOUS PROBLEMS.
By Rev. SAMUEL LANE LOOMIS.
With an Introduction by Rev. JOSIAH STRONG, D.D,
1 2mo, Cloth, $ 1 .OO.
" For all who love their fellow-men, this book will be a stimulus and a guide. It presents clearly and forcibly the increasingly difficult problem of the modern city, and will prove to be a storehouse of in- formation to all workers in this field. Like * Our Country, ' by Rev. Dr. Strong, this book is one of the most marked books of the current year. Every worker in city or country should read and inwardly digest this suggestive volume." — Rev. A. F. SCHAUFFLER, D.D.
" This volume is in point and substance the companion volume to be read in connection with ' Our Country,' by the Rev. Josiah Strong, D. D. The author's sociology is sound. The chapters on methods of philanthropic endeavor, and especially those which show what has been done, are wise and helpful. We commend the book heartily to our readers." — The Independent.
" This is an important little volume, and a fit companion to place side by side with the remarkable work by Dr. Strong, entitled * Our Country. ' It is a book which will startle many and convince all who read it. It ought to go into every household in the land." — Christian at Work.
"The author has reached more nearly to the true cause of the difficulty, and the proper manner to remove it, than any other author with whose works we are acquainted." — Hartford Post.
"A striking and sensible book — one of the clearest and best things ever written on this live and stirring current question." — Michigan Christian Advocate.
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" The present volume is directly to the point, wise, timely, and earnest. " — Christian Sanctuary.
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I. Social Theories. II. Historical Sketch. III. The Assumptions of Modern Socialism. IV. The Economic Fallacies of Modern Socialism. V. The Rights of Labor. VI. The Responsibilities of Wealth. VII. The Personal and Social Causes of Pauperism. VIII. The Historical Causes of Pauperism and its Cure. IX. The Treatment of the Criminal Classes. X. Modern Socialism, Religion and the Family.
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" It is the first approach to a popular systematic presentation of the principles of the destructive socialism of the day. The questions which it discusses are now so prominent, and their social bearing is so vital, that ministers should deal with them. We commend this volume to them, especially to all who desire to get an intelligent view of one of the burning questions of the day." — Presbyterian Journal.
" The book should be in every home, and we are sure that if the princi- ples which it advocates, and the information which it presents were given to every family in the land, the present disturbances in our country would soon be at an end." — St. Louis Central Baptist.
" If this spring gives America a more timely or useful book, I shall be surprised." — Prof. M. B. Riddle, D. D., Hartford Theological Seminary.
" We need a volume that shall be broad enough to take in the whole field ; one that thinks the subject through, and is not confined to one or more phases of it. This Dr. Behrends gives us."
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THE CRISIS OF MISSIONS;
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BY THE
REY. ARTHUR T. PIERSON, D. D.
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"Surely if the inspiration and the force of this 'Crisis of Missions' were imbibed and felt by the whole sacramental host, there would be a mighty uprising, a grand anointing, and a holy crusade to storm the kingdom of darkness all along the line, and speedily add the crown of earth to Christ's many crowns !" — Homiletical Review.
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"A closely compacted array of facts, arranged under distinct heads and welded together by the strong rivets of logic, vivified and made almost a thing of life by the evident presence throughout its pages of the guiding power of the Holy Ghost." — Right Rev. Wm. Bacon Stevens, Bishop of Pennsylvania .
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INDEX RERUM
BY JOHN TODD, D.D. REVISED AND IMPROVED BY REV. J. M. HUBBARD.
QUARTO, HALF LEATHER, - - $2.50
The Index is intended to supply to those who are careful enough readers to make notes of what they may wish to use again, a book especially adapted to that purpose by a system of paging by letters, each page having a margin for the insertion of the words most express* ive of the subject of the note. It contains 280 pages of quarto size, ruled and lettered, and in the hands of an industrious reader, forms, in the course of years, a perfect index of his reading, as valuable *s he may choose to make it complete. It may be fairly said to be the most useful and convenient book ever devised for the purpose of making permanent the results of the Student's, Writer's, and Professional man's reading. Its system and arrangement are such, that with the minimum of effort it secures a lasting record of every reference mat mav oe thought worthy of preservation in the course of the widest reading.
Says the author : " When you read anything which you may here- after need, place the principal word in the margin under the first let- ter in the word, and the first vowel in it. I will here give some ex- amples as they stand in my own Index. Suppose I wish to note some- thing relating to America. I turn to A and the vowel e, because A is the first letter, and e is the first vowel, thus : —
On page A-*. America 1 Atheism ** /?-<;. Rousseau,
i, page 277. W-i. Wilberforce, X-y. Xylochartion,
supposed to be known in the time of Homer : Thomas's
History Print, volume x, page 20. of France, Picture of: SchlegePs Lecture : Volume a,
page 199. morbid imagination of: Stewart on the mind : Volume
, .
character as a speaker ; Port. Rhet. Reader : Page 250. or bark paper, description of: Am. Quart. Rev. v. a."
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
I have no hesitation in saying that the plan of the l Index Rerum,' by Rev. Di Todd, is better adapted to the object for which it is intended, than any other with which I am acquainted. __ Its great excellence consists in its simplicity, and this ren- ders its advantages so obvious, that to those who want anything of the kind, an inspec- tion of the work must preclude the necessity of any recommendation." — Ex-President MARK HOPKINS, Williams College, Mass.
" It has been in use for over half a century, and exoenence has shown it to be»an in- dispensable part of every literary man's equipment.'* — Chicago Interior. " It is unquestionably the best book of the kind issued." — A Ibany Evening Journal "The * Index Rerum,' as invented and prepared by Rev. Dr. John Todd, is per haps one of the best possible means of arranging the results of one's reading, so as tc make them afterward readily accessible This Index Rerum, or something simi- lar to it, should be studied and used by one who would make his store of learning accessible."— N. W. Christian Advocate.
Sent post-paid, on receipt of price, by
THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO., Publishers,
74O and 742 Broadway, New York,
EVANGELISTIC WORK
In Principle and Practice.
By Rev. ARTHUR T. PERSON, D.D. 12 mo, Cloth, $1.25.
A new book on that method which has been one of the most potent means of building up the Christian Church — Evangelization. It is written by an acknowledged master of the subject.
" This book is preeminently a book for the hour. It is at once a fruit of the reviving evangelistic spirit and a welcome and powerful force for the promotion of that spirit among the disciples of Christ. All who are working for Christ, especially all ministers and teachers, ought to procure and study this book." — Christian Statesman.
" More truth, perhaps, than can be found in any single uninspired book, concerning 'evangelistic work,' is included in a volume with this title, by Arthur T. Pierson, D. D. Truths of the first importance are spoken concerning methods and the treatment of the poor. After having set down the principle as he believes it to be, the author has enforced it in sketches of Whitefield, Howard, Finney, Chalmers, Moody, Bliss, and others. The book ought to have a wide circulation ; it cannot but be productive of the greatest good." — Hartford Post.
"Every phase of the question is discussed, the methods and merits of different evangelists are set forth, apostolic and modern preaching compared, and the causes of failure and success in minis- terial work portrayed. It is a book to be studied by all church workers. " — Indianapolis Journal.
" The book is dedicated to Dwight L. Moody, and would seem to contain nearly all that can be said in the way of information, instruction, example, or exhortation upon the subject. "
— Baptist Standard.
" The chapters on the great Evangelists are delightfully written in a lofty and devout spirit." — Indianapolis News.
" His views will be accepted as of orthodox authority."
— Washington Critic,
Sent) postpaid, on receipt of the price, by
THE BAKER & TAYLOR CO.,
Publishers,
74O and 742 Broadway, New York.