Torch of reason., December 17, 1903, Image 1

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KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI, THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, E. M. 303 (1903.)
VOL. 7.
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Only Paper of Its Kind
T h e T orch of R eason is p u b lish ed w eekly by th e
L ib e ra l U n iv e rsity O rg a n iz a tio n iu th e in te r e s t of
P u re S cience, a p p lie d to E d u c a tio n , R eligion an d
P ra c tic a l L ife.
Thaddeus B. W a k em a n ..........................Editor
Pearl W . Geer .................................... Manager
E n te re d M arch 21, 1903, a t K a n sas C ity , Mo., as
2d-class m a tte r, u n d e r A ct of C o n g re ss Meh 3, 1879.
(S u b s c rip tio n a n d a d v e rtis in g ra te s on p a g e !.)
T H IS TORCH sheds light on the following subjects :
BY CURRENT EDITORIAL COMMENT
Poem, “ HEAVEN BUILDING”
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.
Page i
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b y M . C .P .
by Col. Ingersoll
by J. W. Cooper
“ WORKING GIRLS” Continued
“ WHAT IS MIND?”
“ SOCIOLOGY, SOCIETY BUILDERS,”
Intellectual Forces
by Prof. Lester F . Ward
“ COLUMBIA’S REAL TROUBLE,”
by Raul Perez
3
“ IS THERE A GOD ?” by A. N. Mote and Jas. G. Lewis
3
6
EDITORIAL D E P A R T M E N T ........................................... 4
Escape of Herbert Spencer; The Other Side, Liberal or
Christian, Which Should Emigrate? Correspondent and
Editor; Aaron Burr, the Organizing General of Dem­
ocracy; Turn Almshouses, E t c ., into Peoples Homes;
“ C lass” Socialists “ F a n ta s y ,” Both Sides Agree?
Goethe’s Tale, a Study in Constructive Sociology.
INGERSOLL’S GEMS Half Price for the Holidays
. .
THE BIRTH, WORK and VICTORIES OF TAMMANY,
Burr and Hamilton’s Work . by Alfred Henry Lewis
LIBERAL CLASSICS
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7
7
NEWS, NOTES AND C O M M E N T S.....................................
DR. ROBERT’S EVOLUTION OF RELIGION
8
THE SOUTHERN VOTE CUT OFF
8
C. T. W. EMERSON QUOTATIONS
GLEANINGS OF FREETHOUGHT by W. E. Berry
INGERSOLL CHAIR FUND, Financial
8
8
WORKING FUND
Advertisements
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“
8
8
8
6, 8
We are not “at peace with the whole world
and the rest of mankind,” as our warrior
President, Zachary Taylor,
OUR
told us in his first message,
BAD BITS OF
soon happily corrected. Our
WARS.
away off war is still with the
Philippines. General Wood, our Command­
er there, now awaiting confirmation as Major
General over very many whose regular ad­
vance is the very substance of life to them,
has recently “qualified” by ending three hun­
dred of “the enemy.*” Our middle war is on
the Isthmus, where we have landed the first
detachment to meet the still, crafty, but in­
coming Colombians. Our war at home is the
“Martial Law” and “Labor War” over the
mines of Cripple Creek, Colo. What makes
these little wars real bad is that each has a
kind of tap root, which it seems almost im­
possible to pull up or kill. In the Philip­
pines it is the union of secret societies, in
which duplicity and treachery is a “religion.”
A friend who has fought them from the start
and now- just returned, thinks it will take
another generation educated in our schools,
together with a large emigration, before a re­
liable peace will be possible. In Colombia
we are to have a similar bush and mountain
war in a similar bad climate; and the tap-root
is our guarantee in the Treaty of 1846 of the
integrity of Colombia. This seems to place
U. S. in the wrong, so that appeal to “The
Hague” or to arbitration means defeat. Yet
our little mining Labor War may become the
' —
most difficult of all, unless Public Ownership
or control, with a merit instead of the wage-
system of labor, production and distribution,
can be made to bring U. S. peace. The Peo­
ple and Press must actively and vocally in­
sist that the President and Congress make it
the very first object to secure peace by pro­
viding for it, ami getting on the right side of
every question involved. Then there need
be neither retreat or defeat.
Blackstone was eloquent over the fact that
no Englishman could be deprived of either
Liberty or Property except
WE MISS
upon the indictment of a
THE GRAND
Grand, and the verdict, after
JURY.
fair trial, of a Petit Jury of
his neighbors, to be selected under his chal­
lenge and with the approval of the Court.
Most of the States of the U. S. retain these
fundamental conditions of the Common Law’,
but Missouri has substituted “Informations”
by officials and others in the place of the
Grand Jury. One of the blundering results
of the change is that all of the boasted con­
victions of the St. Louis Boodlers and many
others—even murderers—may enjoy a gen­
eral jail delivery. Of course the Grand Jury
is not free from trouble and danger, but the
use of it in New York has made its neople
glad that no abolition of it has been effected.
It represents the general common sense and
discretion of the community, as Blackstone
said, and that is just what it needed. Be­
sides its finding is impersonal like the ver­
dict of the Trial Jury, and that quality pre­
vents private malice, revenge and bitterness,
a great object to be preserved in the admin­
istration of the Criminal Law. Everything
goes to show* that the T orch was right in
saying, “Better drop the attempts to punish
past boodling; it is too much and too many,
and our State has neither the Law nor Law­
yers fit to do it.” Let us turn over a new
leaf, make some good Laws, and get some
careful Lawyers to enforce them; and now
all preach the new’ Secular Religion and
Morals, that pure and effective public ser­
vice is the highest human obligation, duty
and honor!
Thanks to the friends who have sent us the
many newspaper accounts of the great meet­
ing at the Cooper Union, pro­
THE
testing against the proceed­
DANGER OF
ings, and decision of U. S.
ANARCHY.
Judge Lacombe, in the John
Turner “Anarchy case.” The Brief of Law­
yer Pentecost seems conclusive; that the word
“anarchy,” without legal definition by words
or deeds, cannot be the base of action, in
effect criminal, under our Constitution. Who
and what is an “Anarchist?” There are any
number of answers, and until the Statute
makes one, to prosecute a man for “Anarchy”
is the very best possible illustration of the
thing itself. All such hazy laws are tyranny
and breed a sense of wrong and injustice sure
to bring the very evils they were intended to
prevent. Anarchy laws of this indefinite
kind are the sure parents of Anarchy. Those
who are really opposed to Anarchy should
petition Congress without delay to have these
laws repealed or modified. The people of the
country generally are strangely indifferent to
the dangers they are sure to bring.
NO. 45.
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F o r th e T o rc h of Reason.
HEAVEN
B U IL D IN G .
BY M. C. P.
QUERY.
T H O U G H T of th e love of sages,
All th a t th e ir w isdom sa ith ,
Of th e folly of h u m an e n d eav o r,
A nd th e sh o rtn e ss of h u m an b re a th ,
An<l of how th e long p ro ce ssio n
H a s gone o ’e r th e h ills of d e a th :
I
Som e to th e d im N irv a n a ,
Som e to E ly sia n Helds,
Som e to th e fierce V a lh a lla
B orne on th e ir d rip p in g sh ie ld s,
A nd som e to th e C h ris tia u H eaven
T h a t th e tree of h ealin g y ield s?
Now o u t of p rim al flre-m ist,
O u t of p ro to p la sm ic cell,
T h a t S cience of th in e h a th fash io n ed
No o th e r H eaven o r H ell?
ANSWER.
N ot tr u e r is th e iu s tin c t
Of th e n eed le to th e pole,
T h m we to o u r place iu N a tu re —
Tht* dead to th e ir d e stin e d g o a l:
?»nd who decides th a t M other
H a th n o t evolved a so u l?
T he E n g in e e r who ele cted
To die to save his tr a in ;
T he N u rse am o n g h er lep e rs
D isd a in fu l of d e a th a n d p a in —
Oh! M yth th a t ev er d iv id e th ,
S u c h b u ild heke H eaven again.
W O R K IN G
G I R L S ! — Continued.
BY ROBERT G . IN G E R SO L L .
(F ro m D resd en E d itio n , Vol. 8.)
T would be hard to over estimate the good
that might be done by the millionaires if
they would turn their attention to send­
ing thousands and thousands into the country
or to building them homes miles from the
city, wdiere they could have something like
privacy, where the family relations could be
kept with some sacredness. Think of the
“homes” in which thousands and thousands
of young girls are reared in our large cities.
Think of what they see and what they hear;
of what they come in contact with. How’ is
it possible for the virtues to grow’ in the
damp and darkened basements? Can we ex­
pect that love and chastity and all that is
sw’eet and gentle will be produced in these
surroundings, in cellars and garrets, in pov­
erty and dirt? The surroundings must be
changed.
Q uestion . Are the fathers and brothers
blameless who allow’ young girls to make
coats, cloaks and vests in at atmosphere poi­
soned by the ignorant and low-bred?
A nswer . The same causes now brutaliz­
ing girls brutalize their fathers and their
brothers, and the same causes brutalize the
ignorant and low-lived that poison the air in
which these girls are made to work. It is
hard to pick out one man and say that he is
to blame, or one woman and say that the
fault is hers. We must go back of all this.
In my opinion, society raises its own failures,
its own criminals, its own wretches of every
sort and kind. Great pains are taken to raise
these crops. The seeds, it may be, were
sown thousands of years ago, but they were
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