[Most people who know him are just beginning to recognize that Dr. Charles A. Briggs is practically a Roman Catholic, and will soon be in that church. We said he would end there when he left the Presbyterian Church and became an Episcopal. The following article, from the New York Sun, printed in the Catholic Mirror, clearly shows where Dr. Briggs and many other so-called Protestant ministers who have left the Bible are trending in their search for “authority.”]
THE Rev. Charles A. Briggs, whose “higher criticism” of the Bible caused his withdrawal from the Presbyterian Church and his entrance into the ministry of the Episcopal Church, seems to be preparing to go a step further in his search for authority and to render adhesion to the pope.
In the last North American Review Dr. Briggs has a significant paper on “Reform in the Catholic Church.” The present pope he looks on as essentially a “reformer.” “Great reforms are in his mind, which ere long will become evident in fact,” and the “fundamental principle of reform” with Pius X., is “to make Jesus Christ Himself the center and mainspring of reform,” and as “this is exactly what the most enlightened Protestants desire for their own churches, what more,” asks Dr. Briggs, “can they ask for from the Church of Rome?” Then comes this significant paragraph:
“The more advanced Protestant scholars have been working for half a century and more to lead Christians back to Jesus Christ, and have only partially succeeded. If now, the pope, as head of the Roman Catholic Church, owing to the reverence and obedience given him by that whole church as the successor of St. Peter and the living representative of our Lord, can succeed in raising up Catholics throughout the world to this exalted position of reforming everything in Christ, there will be ere long the greatest revival and reformation known to history, and the Protestant churches will have to bestir themselves to keep pace with it.”
Here are other remarks of Dr. Briggs which seem to indicate his drift Romeward:
“There are many Protestant theologians who think it [the dogma of the Immaculate Conception] an inevitable consequence of the doctrine of original sin.”
“It was a purely academic question whether infallibility is to be lodged in the Council or the pope.”
“The infallibility of the pope, as defined by the Vatican Council, limits infallibility and so hedges it with conditions that infallible decisions in the past are hard to find, and not likely to occur in the future except in great emergencies.”
“The Catholic Church made an important reform in dogma when Leo XIII. directed that Thomas Aquinas should be used as the standard authority in all Catholic colleges and seminaries.”
“It is doubtful, to say the least, if there would have been such antithesis between the Protestant and Catholic dogma if Thomas Aquinas had been the universal standard of doctrine in the sixteenth century.”
“A more thorough study of the Bible has shown that the Reformers were, all of them, greatly mistaken in their interpretations. Protestant theology has, for the most part, abandoned the high Augustinianism of the Reformers. The common doctrine of the present Protestant theologians would not be recognized by many of the Reformers. The dogmatic differences with Rome either no longer really exist, or are different forms, and concerned with different questions.”
“There is authority in the ancient church for bishops, parochial, diocesan, and provincial, and even for the pope, in the judgment of many historians.”
“The intrusion of the Curia into civil affairs, which was the chief occasion of the Reformation, has been rendered more and more impossible by the providence of God in history.”
“It is of the highest importance that the reform movement has been renewed with so much promise under a pope of such spirituality, simplicity, and open-mindedness; a man who impresses those admitted to his presence and converse as being possessed of unusual grasp of mind, insight, and real moral power.”
Utterances like these seem to suggest that the Rev. Charles A. Briggs, now of the Episcopal Church, is turning his thought in the direction of the church of which the pope is the head on earth. All along it has appeared evident that if he did not follow the lead of his teachings into square rationalism he was bound to fetch up at Rome.
ABUSE OF THE FRANKING PRIVILEGE.
By John D. Bradley
BY JOHN D. BRADLEY.
THE abuse of the public printing and franking privilege in the interests of the work of the church-and-state-lobby at Washington, the International Reform Bureau, not only continues, but seems to be growing. But fortunately it is not escaping some publicity and criticism. The latest news in regard to this abuse is the following article which appeared in the Washington Post of July 23:
Crafts Franks His Books.
Reform Bureau Man Floods the Mails with “Patriotic Studies.”
He Denies That There Is Anything Improper about It, but Says Nothing So Fits Purpose of Franking.
A novel use of the franking privilege, which he justifies because it is in the name of reform, has been started by Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts. A good-sized document styled “Patriotic Studies,” which highly lauds the International Reform Bureau, of which Mr. Crafts is the organizer and head, is being sent extensively through the mails under the franks of Senator J. H. Gallinger, of New Hampshire, and Representative Gillett, of Massachusetts.
Not only is Mr. Crafts sending his book, which weighs seventeen ounces and has 288 pages, with a thin cover, through the mail under these franks, but along with the book he sends a franked envelope. If the recipient does not want the book, he is requested to return it in the franked envelope; if he does want the book, he is requested to send to the International Reform Bureau 35 cents for the good of the cause. “Patriotic Studies” contains a history of many bills that Mr. Crafts has championed in the name of reform. It is said that several officials in the Post-office Department refused to sanction such use of the mails, but finally one high in authority consented, and the books have been going out by thousands. It is charged that 70,000 copies have been so distributed, at least that that number of envelopes have been printed. Mr. Crafts, now in Iowa, has stated that the number is not 70,000, but 2,000. In the same connection Mr. Crafts adds:
“The book ‘Patriotic Studies’ is made up not partly, but wholly, of frankable public documents; the number is not 70,000, but 2,000. It is not devoted to the work of one reform or one society, but records the work of all reforms, all societies, all senators, all congressmen who have helped in public documents. The Bureau is not making money out of the books, which cost over 50 cents each for reprinting, while those sold bring but 25 cents as part payment, and the larger number are given away. Nothing ever sent in franks has so exactly fitted the purpose for which the franking privilege was established, namely, the education of public sentiment on great public questions; for this book reprints, for use of such congressmen as choose to use the Bureau’s clerks as their own to send it out, government documents on divorce, Mormonism, temperance, gambling, prize-fights, immigration, the Sabbath, popular election of senators, and the referendum.”
The fact that this book may be made up of so-called frankable public documents does not prove that its printing and carriage through the mails at public expense is not an abuse of the public printing and franking privilege, but rather points to the fact that there is a compound abuse in the matter, and that one abuse has opened the way for another.
Matter that was nothing else than Reform-Bureau matter has been printed as public documents through the same means by which Mr. Crafts is now enabled to perpetrate the abuse of having a book containing these documents and other Reform Bureau matter printed and mailed at government expense as a public or governmental document. An instance was the printing as a senate document a year or two ago of a report of the work of the Reform Bureau, written by one of its officials, a clergyman. A description and advertisement of this book, “Patriotic Studies,” has a prominent place in an eight-page circular catalogue issued by the Reform Bureau, and headed, “Literature of the International Reform Bureau;” and it is there stated that it was compiled and printed to “signalize” the tenth anniversary of the Bureau, which occurred in April last; and that it consists of “extracts from public documents which show the Bureau’s legislative work and at the same time furnish material for ‘Patriotic Studies,’ which it is a prime purpose of the Bureau to promote as the only secure basis for improved political and moral conditions.” It is also stated that in the book “black type is used to indicate the acts of government that were initiated by the Reform Bureau—the acts drawn by it, the hearings secured by it, the government documents prepared by it, and the petitions prompted by it,” and that “the Reform Bureau had a secondary part in all the other acts of government discussed in this volume except the prohibition of prize-fights in the territories.” It is thus plain enough that the book is as much Reform Bureau literature as anything can be, and yet it is printed and carried through the mails at public expense as a government document. And this pretended government document and the franking privilege are not only employed in promoting the work and aims of the International Reform Bureau (not only a private institution, but one which in some things is devoted to work and ends that are in contravention of fundamental American principles), but also as a means of soliciting and securing money for the Bureau and its work!
It is some satisfaction to know that this abuse is not escaping public comment entirely, and that where comment has occurred it has not been in line with Mr. Crafts’ brazen claim that “nothing ever sent in franks has so exactly fitted the purpose for which the franking privilege was established” as does his book “Patriotic Studies.” One of these books was received by the Hartford (Conn.) Courant recently and elicited from it an editorial, printed on July 4, in which it observed that “Uncle Sam paid for the printing and carries ‘Patriotic Studies’ in the mail bags without any postage stamp remuneration,” and declared that “a worth-while annual saving would be effected at once if a stop could be put to the printing and distributing of such so-called public documents of ‘Patriotic Studies’ at the people’s expense.” This editorial, which was headed “Patriotic Studies” in quotations, was the occasion of another under the same head in the Washington Post a few days later, in which that paper stated that “the President deemed it expedient, in the exercise of his discretion, to refer to such abuses as this incident represents in his first message to Congress,” and that “he is not unlikely to have more to say on the subject.” The Post’s editorial was as follows:
“The Hartford Courant, among whose commendable qualities gratitude for benefits conferred stands forth in conspicuous prominence, acknowledges its indebtedness to the Hon. Frederick Huntington Gillett, Representative in Congress from the Second Massachusetts District, for a handsomely-printed pamphlet of 288 pages, in flexible covers, entitled ‘Patriotic Studies.’ For a reason similar to that which controlled the ratioculation of the girl who ‘knew he was a sailor, for he wore a sailor hat,’ the Courant reaches the conclusion that whatever of frankfulness it owes for this pretty little book is primarily due to Representative Gillett. In the first place, his autograph adorns the upper right-hand corner of the envelope in which the pamphlet was enclosed. In the second place, the upper left-hand corner imparts the information that the pamphlet is ‘Part of Congressional Record’ and ‘Free.’ Our contemporary suggests that the United States Government, custodian of the money raised by taxing all the people, paid for the printing, and carries ‘Patriotic Studies’ in the mail bags without any postage-stamp remuneration.”
“But interest in this incident centers chiefly in the contents of the pamphlet—the material which Mr. Gillett, in these hot midsummer days, is sending7out at the expense of the people to tone up their patriotism. The title page carries the enthusiastic announcement that the following pages contain extracts from ‘bills, acts, and documents’ of the years 1888-1905, a period of seventeen years. The Courant exhibits exceptional courage by carrying its investigation far beyond that announcement, right into the inspiring midriff of the work whose happy fortune it is to be a protégé of Congressman Gillett at the public cost. Having, with conscientious care, inspected many pages, the Courant finds that ‘they preserve for posterity generous samples of the views of Rev. Wilbur F. Crafts, Ph. D., and others, on “Sabbath observance,” the liquor traffic, the opium traffic, gambling, sectarian schools for little Indians, etc.’ And our contemporary mentions another fact that may or may not possess general interest; it is that several of the bills included in the pamphlet were drawn, in whole or part, by Hon. Frederick H. Gillett, of Massachusetts. Having finished its expert analysis of this simple incident in the management of the public printing and the use of the enormously-overworked franking privilege, the Courant remarks:”
“‘The President, as we understand it, thinks that if less money were frittered and fooled away, year by year, to no valuable purpose, there would be more money available for really important national uses. A worth-while annual saving would be effected at once if a stop could be put to the printing and distributing of such so-called public documents as “Patriotic Studies” at the people’s expense. But that’s the people’s own affair—not the President’s. Their congress is the offender, and they alone can enforce a reform.’”
It is true that Congress is more directly responsible for this sort of expenditures than for the printing and franking that are under the immediate supervision of the executive departments. But the President deemed it expedient, in the exercise of his discretion, to refer to such abuses as this incident represents in his first message to Congress. He is not unlikely to have more to say on the subject. The commission appointed by the President to investigate departmental business methods may furnish him texts for instructive discourse.
A good place to begin the reform in the abuse of the public printing and franking privilege would be in this matter of the Reform Bureau; it is certain that no more improper abuse than that can be found in this whole matter. And so a governmental reform could fittingly begin by stopping an abuse that is being participated and perpetrated by a so-called “reform” bureau that has been established in Washington to “reform” the government and the nation! The most unreformed people in the world, so far as public affairs are concerned, and the most inimical to a right conduct of public affairs, are religionists who seek “reform” by political means. For principle they substitute the interests of their “reforms,” which always mean the promotion of their theology, and there is no abuse and no corruption in government that promotion of their “reforms” does not to them hallow and sanctify.
Washington, D. C., July 25, 1905.
ANOTHER PROSPECTIVE TRUST.
THE mania for city life, caused by the growing dislike of honest toil and a desire to live easier lives, is driving the farmers in many parts to seek more labor-saving machinery. A press item says that "a Kansas firm has commenced the manufacture of a farm auto-motor that will do the plowing and harvesting formerly requiring thirty-six to forty-eight horses and a score or more of men. It is expected that the harvesting problem will be solved by next year." Last year there was a great scarcity of harvest hands in various localities, altho there were many idle men in the cities and towns claiming to be seeking employment. The wonderful growth of mechanical invention is enabling a few men to cultivate large areas of land, and the growing dislike of men and women to farm life enables a few men to secure large tracts and so to monopolize the business that poor men with ordinary methods can not compete with them. It is said that the coming trust that will overshadow all others will be the farming trust. Everything seems to point that way, and to favor such a condition. When it comes, as it is likely to come, the men who make a business of forming and manipulating great combines will control the agricultural and horticultural industries of the country as they are doing in other lines.
When the same ring of operators come to control the crops, the mines, the manufactories, the railroads, the banks, the steamship lines, the fuel and timber supplies, etc., the masses will then be at their mercy entirely. And we are almost there. While the majority of the population are looking here and there for easy wage positions, and openings in professional callings, their inheritances in the gifts of nature are fast slipping into the hands of the few men who are shrewd enough to grasp the advantage the possession of these things assures. No form of human government ever yet devised has been able to prevent the cunning and enterprising exploiters from getting hold of the patrimony of the indolent and careless itinerants—a class that seems to be increasing at an astonishing rate.
FRAUDULENT SCHEMES.
By Editor
THEY are everywhere, and nowhere more glaring than in the advertising columns of some of the great papers. Many of these are found out, many are not until thousands are swindled. We are told that the post-office inspectors of Uncle Sam unearth, on an average year in and year out, one a day of these fraudulent advertisers. A writer in Printer's Ink gives us samples of these fraudulent advertisements, among which are "The Work at Home Scheme," "The Letter-writing Dodge," "The Matrimonial Lure," "The Ring Game," "The Automobile Swindle." Here are some of the advertisements:
Home work, $9.00 to $15.00, no canvassing; $5.00 to $6.00 weekly, working evenings; experience unnecessary. Enclose stamps for instructions, sample, etc. Address, — — —
Ladies: earn $20 per hundred writing short letters. Stamped envelope for particulars. Gem Mfg. Co.,
In answer to the first of these, the writer is told she must purchase an outfit, it may be to do gilt painting of store cards, at $1.10. The $1.10 is sent; a little bottle of gilt paint, a brush, and a few cards, with instruction, worth about ten cents, are received. The agent is told she can get $2.50 per hundred for these cards. Work is sent in, but the answer is that the work is unsatisfactory, and that is all there is to it. The would-be money earner pays $1.10 for a ten-cent bottle of bronze paint and a brush, and lots of experience. There are others after the same fashion.
The letter-writing fraud offers twenty cents a letter, but after your dollar has been sent, you are told that you are to write these letters and send them out, and that for every person to whom they are sent who purchases some humbug advertised, you will receive twenty cents.
The matrimonial "ad" runs thusly:
A refined American girl, attractive, well educated, and very wealthy, would like kind, honest husband. No objection to poor man. Address May, — —.
A middle-aged bachelor in comfortable circumstances would like cheerful, home-loving wife. No objection to poor woman. Address Walter, — —.
But those who answer these "ads" will have to pay from three to five dollars to get an introduction, and that is the last of it.
The ring fraud, through which you can purchase a ring worth perhaps ten cents or less, is as follows:
DEAR MADAM: In going over the repair department of a large jewelry concern which we have just purchased, we find a number of rings, watches, etc., of whose ownership we are uncertain. One ring bears your name, hence we infer it belongs to you. If such is the case, please send us 85 cents for repair and refinishing charges, together with fourteen cents to pay cost of sending by registered mail, and we will send the ring to you at once.
Here is another one which also takes hold of the cowardly dishonest:
MONEY—F. A. M. $2.00 bill sent to any address for 25 cents; will give $25.00 to any one who can detect it.
Send your quarter and you may get as follows:
KIND FRIEND: The name of the $2.00 bill comes from eight twenty-five cent receipts, which I enclose—total bill of receipts $2.00.
Here is the automobile fraud:
DEAR SIR: I am about to put on the market a new breakfast food and want a good name for it. I am told that the great Uneeda was a layman's idea, and in the hope of unearthing another such I offer to a few the following: Suggest a good name for the food, one with advertising possibilities. If I decide to use your idea I will give you as payment a Winton Automobile, your only expense to be the freight to your home. Answer at once, as I shall use the first good name received.
Here is a sample reply:
DEAR SIR: I have decided to use your idea of U-Auto-Eat [or whatever the name suggested happened to be] it fits all "ad" plans. The auto is yours. I will ship it to you on receipt of the freight ($20.00). Excuse brevity, but I am rushed to death.
What is the lesson?—It is that every questionable, quick-rich scheme should be shunned as dishonest and fraudulent. The multiplication of so many artifices and devices of this sort demonstrate the truth of the scripture: "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived."
Wireless Telegraphy and Distance
Wireless telegraphy continues to triumph over distance. While the cruiser Brooklyn was bringing to this country the body of John Paul Jones, experiments during the daytime were successfully conducted over a distance of 640 sea miles. At night this distance was increased to 1,100 miles. At the latter distance the messages came in so strong that it was believed communication could have been carried on over a much greater distance.
Cigarette Sale Prohibited at Ellis Island
The sale of cigarets has been prohibited at the immigrant landing station of Ellis Island, New York. The order was issued at the request of the authorities of several western states which have recently passed laws prohibiting the sale of cigarets within their borders. It had been found that immigrants were bringing large quantities of cigarets west to supply their friends and relatives who were unable to buy them.
Russian and Japanese Peace Envoys Meet
The peace envoys of Russia and Japan met on President Roosevelt's yacht, the Mayflower, on August 5, and were introduced by the President. The envoys greeted each other with all the outward marks of cordiality. The envoys for Russia are M. Sergius De Witte and Baron Rosen; and for Japan, Baron Jutaro Komura and Kogora Takahira. The negotiations between the envoys will be carried on at Portsmouth, N. H.
Increase of Intemperance Among Women
"Increase of Intemperance among Women" was the theme of a lecture by Rev. Harvey Wood at Ocean Grove, N. Y., on July 29, in which he declared that there had been an increase of fifty per cent. in drunkenness among women in the last few years; and there is a vast amount of drinking among women, as well as men, that is never brought to notice in the shape of drunkenness.
Telegraphers Strike on Northern Railways
A great strike of telegraphers on the Great Northern and Northern Pacific Railways was inaugurated on August 2. The strikers are confident of their ability to tie up the traffic on both lines; and the railways declare they will not be seriously handicapped by the walkout. Trains continue to run on both lines, and new men are being installed at the keys.
Plot Against the Sultan of Turkey
An extensive plot against the life of the Sultan of Turkey has been brought to light in Kustenji, Rumania. A search of houses occupied by Turks revealed large quantities of rifles, revolvers, cartridges, and compromising documents. Rumanian officials subsequently discovered cases of rifles hidden in the hold of a Turkish steamship at Kustenji.
The Moroccan Question
The Moroccan question continues to cause alarm in European circles. It is now reported that the Sultan of Morocco has decided that he does not wish a conference over the affairs of his country. This is thought to be due to British influence. He has been made to fear that a conference might result in the division of his territory.
European Royal Conferences
Within a few days' time the Emperor of Germany has held conferences with the Czar of Russia and the king of Denmark. A few weeks ago he held a conference with the king of Sweden. It is reported that Emperor William has stated his willingness to see a Danish prince on the throne of Norway.
Zionist Congress Rejects East African Land
The Zionist Congress being held in Basle, Switzerland, has decided by a large majority not to accept the offer of the British Government of a large tract of land in East Africa. The congress is still firm for the establishment of a Jewish colony in Palestine.
New Rival to Standard Oil
A great rival of the Standard Oil Trust has been created in Pittsburg, headed by H. C. Frick, former partner of Andrew Carnegie. This combination will constitute the strongest oil company in the United States outside of the Standard Oil Company.
Yellow Fever in New Orleans
Yellow fever seems to have secured a firm grip upon the city of New Orleans. The number of cases to date, since the beginning of the epidemic, is 505, and the total deaths to date 97. Every day new points of infection are discovered.
Coal-Mining Combination Formed
A great combination of coal-mining interests was consummated at New York on July 27. The amount of capital involved is placed at $50,000,000.
The Trail to Open on Sunday
By virtue of a court injunction that portion of the Lewis and Clark Exposition known as The Trail will be permitted to keep open on Sunday.
FORETOKENS OF OUR LORD'S RETURN
By Prof. George W. Rine
BY PROF. GEORGE W. RINE
THE UNIVERSALITY OF GRAFT.
WHEN the 1899 edition of the Century Dictionary went to press the word "graft" was tabooed as slang and therefore unworthy of serious recognition. But the thing itself, since that date, has become so notoriously prevalent that the acceptance of the term has been forced into current literary language. Mr. W. J. Ghent defines the term as "the act of practising extortion." Congressman Robert Baker of New York gives this informal definition: "In the last analysis it is the obtaining of something for nothing—through collusion." In truth, the word expresses several of the multifarious manifestations of the greed with which present-day society has become infiltrated.
It is hardly necessary to say that in every state, county, city, township, and hamlet, in the United States, graft flourishes. Mr. Ghent recently declared that an adequate history of graft in the United States would require a greater quantity of print than that contained in the latest edition of the "Encyclopedia Britannica." A recognition of the universality of graft in private business, as well as in public affairs, has everywhere found its way into the public prints. A noted writer on economics declares that a few years ago it would have been regarded as both anarchy and treason to even mention the universality of graft; "but that the growing consciousness of the fact makes silence no longer possible."
Graft in Private Business.
All candid, competent observers admit that the genius of graft asserts itself in nearly all branches of human activity. "Wherever something can be got for nothing, wherever a pinch or a squeeze of extra profit can be made in a transaction, wherever falsehood can be made to do duty for truth, or pretense for accomplishment or service, there is observed a metamorphosis of the protean genius of graft." We have become so accustomed to read of graft and other forms of fraud in political affairs that new revelations of such graft no longer surprise or even interest most of us. Should you therefore ask the average citizen whether private or public business is the more corrupt, he will promptly answer that public business is the worse. He would most probably point to the recent post-office and Indian management scandals. But, without a single exception, those who have made a thorough study of graft, most emphatically declare the reverse to be true. Mr. Steffens has proved conclusively that private corporate business is responsible for the corruption of politics in Pittsburg; that it has so far perpetuated political debauchery in Philadelphia; and that it financed the return of Tammany to power in New York City. In short, wherever political interests have been prostituted, we invariably find that the arch offender was some "big business." It is safe to say that approximately the entire domain of commercial production and distribution has become perforated with the dry-rot of graft.
That prince of journalists, the editor of the Massachusetts Springfield Republican, after briefly depicting the low moral tone of the political world, says that similar, if not worse, conditions prevail in the realm of trade and finance. He declares in fiery terms that the morality of "business" is the morality of the flesh-eating carnivora, curbed and bitted, so far as may be, by those restraints of civilization, the criminal laws. Men call the results "the survival of the fittest," a phrase borrowed from biological laboratories, really signifying the triumph of ruthless force and the strongest intellect unswerved by the emotion of pity or the spirit of love. The question that "Business" asks is not, Is it right? but, Is it possible without getting into the clutches of the law? We may rest assured, too, that business never puts its questions to moral philosophers, but to crafty lawyers who know the hide-and-seek convolutions of the criminal code. Such is the muddy business morality that has obtained well-nigh universal vogue.
Graft in Buying and Selling.
Somewhat more than a year ago the treasurer and selling agent of a great corporation declared that in the West it is notorious that the purchasing agents of great railways, as a rule, become rich in a few years on a yearly salary of $2,000. They have been known to build $25,000 houses out of the surplusage of one year's income. The selling agent of a car-manufacturing company confessed to the writer that nine-tenths of his orders were got by tactfully bribing the purchasing agent and sometimes the president or other high official of railway companies. The bribe, he said, often consisted of a sealskin sacque for the wife of the agent or other officer. In one instance it was a horse and carriage, in another a costly yacht.
The treasurer of another firm, dealing in railway supplies, admitted that whenever he knew that the purchasing agent of a given railway was about to place an order for supplies, he promptly remitted his personal check to said agent. The check—ranging from $500 to $1,000—was wondrously "potent," as the agent's order was invariably "nailed down" the next day. He added, with great gusto, that one of these impressionable agents, who never fail to succumb to the argument of graft, was a fine-looking, white-haired Scotchman, elder in a Presbyterian Church, and universally respected. This same self-confessed grafter made bold to affirm that this subtile species of graft has proved so "efficacious" that the temptation to exploit it has become irresistible throughout the world of trade. These few illustrations of graft in "business" are by no means sporadic instances, but are simply typical of a condition that is now everywhere chronic.
Justifying Commercial Dishonesty.
Of all the facts incident to business graft, the saddest, the most deplorable, is that men, otherwise honest and respectable, seriously attempt to justify dishonest practises in business life. They protest that they are driven to dishonest methods by virtue of the fact that their competitors do not scruple to use the tortuous methods of the serpent. The crux of their casuistical reasoning may be expressed thus: Because my competitor is tricky and dishonest I must be tricky and dishonest, or be forced out of business.
In the Independent, March 19, 1903, Mr. O. K. Stuart says: "The rigid chain of competition literally binds him [the honest trader] to use all the desperate means of his business rival—the lowest obtainable scale of wages, the most improved machinery, the most nearly automatic methods, and the same refined mendacity and mountainous exaggeration. And in many lines the exaggeration and mendacity are as necessary tools of trade as the improved machinery and automatic methods."
Mr. E. A. Philbin, formerly District Attorney of the city of New York, recently wrote: "Merchants of the greatest respectability will do a thing as a good, shrewd business stroke, that according to ordinary standards of morality would be positively wrong."
The adopted maxim of practically the whole realm of trade is, "Necessity knows no law." In reference to conscienceless corporations, Alfred Henry Lewis writes: "If unchecked in their law-breaking, they, by the very profits of their malefactions, compel honest folk in the same commercial walk to a choice between bankruptcy and the adoption of their felon courses."
In making so sweeping a statement, Mr. Lewis is most assuredly in error. For no man, not of men, or any other power, can possibly compel "honest folk" to seek business success by immoral methods. The really deplorable fact is that there are so very few "honest folk" in these days of passionate money-getting.
A Typical Illustration.
Mr. Lewis tells the readers of The Cosmopolitan that he was once in the soft-coal region about Pittsburg in search of information touching mines. The coal-miners, he affirms, were being obviously robbed by the mine-owners, through company stores, lying scales, and crooked screens. The robbery of the miner by the coal operator was the rule. One of the mine-owners was good enough to explain to Mr. Lewis, about as follows:
There are but few honest men among coal-mine operators, and yet there are fewer still who would not prefer to deal honestly with the men, if they could. This is the trouble: Assume that I am an honest operator, and do not in any fashion gouge or skin my miners. My coal, then, at the tipple, will cost me sixty cents per ton. Suppose that next to me is a rival mine-operator who is robbing his miners by company stores, company cottages, diamond screens, and fraudulent scales, and that the aggregate of his robberies reduces the expense of mine-operation, so that he gets his coal to the tipple for fifty cents per ton. You will see that such a condition gives him an advantage over me in the market of ten cents a ton. Do you realize what that advantage means? It means one of three things. I must either quit the business, drift into bankruptcy, or rob the men. That is why the mine-operators cheat the men. The thievish small per cent, among the operators go into it of their own evil will, the others are thereby driven or dragged into it to save themselves.
What wretched sophistry! what sickening drivel! Of course they must "save themselves" even if in so doing they must "rob the men." What moral ninnies these "captains of industry" show themselves to be! They must quit the business, drift into bankruptcy, or rob the men. A choice of three courses, here. No deliberation; no hesitation. The decision is instantly struck off: "I'll rob9the men." "In the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves." 2 Tim. 3:1.
[The remainder of this article deals with the iniquitous practices of the money lenders, of "fake" corporations, the prevalence of "graft" in city taxes, and city offices, and the significance of these things to the child of God. It will be published in our next.]
