MATERIALIST COLUMN
A REPLY TO MR. PIIEI.PS.
By Olin J. Ro»».
I would like to huve »puce fol' space
in The Journal with Mr. Phelps, but
»pacu is limited to us, and there are
several Mutvralisls who would like to
• at our religious champion.
n a recent issue he “corrects” me
by idlrging that the British Asnociu-
tion for the advancement of Belem e
ha* repudiated the chief purls of Dur-
winism. 1 do not huve the report ut
hand, but 1 mistrust the quotation, for
Mr. Phelps is careless, to suy the leant,
of his usMcrtion». Even if the quota­
tion is correct It doos not prove Dar­
winism false, for there has always
been a dispute a* to the truth of evo­
lution. Since Sir Oliver Lodge has
come to the front us the champion of
spiritism, he huving become u convert
to the claims of the spiritualistic me­
dium, Mudam Palladina, whom Hugo
Munsterberg, Professor of Psychology
ut Harvard, exposed, as shown in his
long article in the Metropolitan Mug-
uzine for Fobruury or March, four or
live year» ago, why, it muy be true thut
he und others of like faith und abil­
ity murshalled a mujorily ut the con­
vention, and had evolution “over­
thrown." But their repudiation of
Durwinism doe* not overthrow it, not
uny more Dian the crqwd that crucified
Christ overthrew Christ. The New
^ork Truth Seeker, not long ago, went
Plto an inquiy us to how eminent men
stood on evolution, and the array of
names, even among the clergy, which
included Dr. Elliot, president Emeritus
of Harvard in support of it was start­
ling. Like us one Wendell Phillips
was worth ull the unti-sluvury orators
of the country, and a» one Voltaire,
the autocrat of Europeun letters for
nigh two generations, the pcrsonul
friend of Frederic the Great und of
Cuthurine of Russia, was worth all the
priests and preachers of Christendom
as agulnst superstition, cruelty, per­
secution, torture and witchcruft, so
that old man al the University of
Jena, Prof. Ernst Haeckel, is w rth
u thousand Sir Oliver Lodges und his
class of thinker».
As to Haeckel, following his regulur
methods of argument, Mr. Phelps un­
dertakes to set against the life work
of this man a disconnected sentence as
to spontaneous generation, just us he
undertook to discredit the life work of
Huxley by picking out a single sen­
tence in his earlier writings.
g Any child can usk questions winch
no man can answer, and in the *ame
wuy Mr. Phelps may occasionally ask
u question as to how certain phen­
omena are produced, phenomena, too,
which science is still at work trying
to explain. He wants the people to
forget that science has practically
answered very many of the questions
that were former'y usked by the be­
liever» in the thing culled God, and
which because they could not lie an­
swered then were insisted upon a.
proofs of the existence of u God.
Where God was once regarded us the
maker and doer of certain things, it
has been discovered that they are the
products of nature, und that there was
no occasion for un intelligence of any
kind to manifest itself, or give direc­
tion». For instance, gold is malleable.
To my mind gold always was malle­
able, and no God, no intelligence was
r quired tc uppear and order it to lie
malleable.
A »tone fails from the
:liff to the sea beneath. Mr. Phelps,
according to what he says, can imag-
ne a time when a stone would not do
that unless it was ordered to do so
by a God. Here is a mountain range
that was up'ifted at some remote date.
Mr. Phelps would certainly say thut
the mountain got up at the request
of a god, and thut the god had in mind
the especial welfare of Mr. Phelps and
other».
N<jw, we know practically, how the
mountains were uplifted, which wus
one of the impenetrable mysteries,
»foretimes; and so science has gone
the rounds of many of these old mys­
teries. Religion hus expluined none
of them. In other words, science has
been driving the God, or this alleged
intelligence, into ths dim background
of nature where there are still unex-
plained mysteries. Not being able to
fully explain ceitain things were and
¡are done, our Divine joyously jumps
to the conclusion that that is infallible
proof that they were and are done his
way. In much the same way he could
prove that a river, a painting on the
window by Jack Frost, a rainbow, a
dew drop or a snow flake were pro­
duced by supernatural agencies.
Mr. Phelps puts me in mind of the
fluttering bird which seeks to lead
the hunter from its nest. He seldom
answers the points the Materialist
makes, but starts off on a new tack,
hoping probably that the reader will
forget the point that was made. At
least, I do not think that he has an­
swered anything I have said, though
he 1 as a way of arrogantly asserting
that he has "floored” you, when the
truth is he has sidestepped or gone
off on a ta.igent.
In the issue for December 18th he
rnnkos a great ado about the saving
power of Jesus and then points to
Jerry McAuley and others as proofs
that there is a God and that Jesus is
hl« son. But the putting of a drunkard
on bis feet does not prove the exis­
tence of a God, nor even of Jesus, not
my more than tho “hollering at a man
and the saving of him from being run
down by the 1H hour Limited from
New York to Chicugo proves the ex­
istence of God and of the saving power
of Jesus. During the Washingtonian
movement and the Francis Murphy
Meethigs
thousands of notorious
drunkards were saved from their cups
and put onto their feet without any
“Conversion." If one confirmed drunk-
urd can reform himself with the aid
of friends, without getting God and
Jeuus to leave their alleged thrones,
It proves thut every one of them,
with like circumstance, could have
done the same. Of course, some of
them tilled up on religion, which is
the sume thing as filling up on sup< r-
stition, and then imagined, under the
instructions of other believers, that
God und Jesus were doing what their
own wills and pleasunt environments,
with the assurances of sympathetic
friends, were doing. A man could fill
up with faith in a rabbit’s foot, and
U"der the same conditions it would ac.
complish like results. Over in Africa
u mi*n will get this same kind of u
"witness of tlie spirit,” a feeling of
safety, etc., by carrying a fetisch, or
by having around u good quality of ju
ju. When you come to examine the
credulity of the African and the de­
vout Christian you will find that each
is made out of the same kind of stuff.
If the black, jungle man gets saved
from u big snake he promptly gives
the credit to the ju ju or the fetisch.
If the good Christian gets saved from
the devi* or unything else, he promptly
gives the glory to the virtues of a
man who died about 1900 years ago.
This giving of credit p.oves that this
dead man is still alive; that there is a
God and that Jesus 1« his son, for on
what other bus is can you account for
the aforesaid saving? Rats ! Ruts !
If Mr. Pheps will let me talk to him
like as he talks to Materialists, I
would say, "Phelps, why don’t you
reason und analyze?”
Columbus, Ohio, December 26th.
By Guy Eitch Phelps
(Continued from Page 2, Col. 6)
harmony of the gospels. Grant may
have been u sceptic, if so he perjured
himself when he took his oath of of-
lice with his hand on the Bible. If
Lincoln did write a book against the
Bible in his undeveloped youth, he
changed. Mr. Wulker, who wrote the
philosophy of the Plan of Salvation,
a book 1 recommend to infidels, was
an infidel, lie began reading the Bible
to pick it to pieces, but changed his
vie^v» and wrote the book I have men­
tioned instead. 1 am amused that Mat-
erialist!c Evolutionists, who say there
is no God will persist in claiming
Washington, a member of a church,
and u man who believed in God. And
Torn Paine himself believed in God.
Yet these people who declare that such
a belief is superstition, still tight to
number these men among them. Those
who believe there is a God and those
who do not are as far apart as the
east and west. Don't forget, Mr. Ross,
that Tom Paine preached as a Metho­
dist. Some day when the notion strikes
me 1 will quote some of the sayings
of Lincoln anil Washington and show
how much truth there is in the claims
of sceptics as to those men.
1 asked the evolutionists to change
a cow into a horse by evolutionary
processes, because 1 hold that if such
is impossible with man and his reason
to do the selecting, it is foolishness
to believe that the haphazard methods
of nature did what man cannot do. I
will get to natural selection before
long, and we will Bee just how un­
reasonable it is. Mrs. Bliven demands
that I pray and get power to create
cows and hoises so that she and her
infidel companions will believe. But
God lias created millions of them, and
they are here to look at and yet she
does not believe. Neither would she
believe if I could create a cow through
prayer. But this is foolish throughout.
G <1 has the creating power in his own
hands. She shows hoiw little she knows
about prayer when she says God has
pledged himself to answer prayer. We
are commanded to ask “ACCORDING
TO HIS WILL.” Think you that God
would give a man power to make
horses just to convince a sceptic who
would hate him more bitterly if he
did because the infidel would find him­
self cornered? If Mrs. Bliven wants
to discuss the subject of whether God
answers prayer or not I shall be
pleased to take the matter up with her.
Watch the date after the name on
the little green label and if you want
the Silverton Journal another year re­
new your subscription promptly.
Dr. Heisley’s days in Silverton,
Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays.
Office over Preston’s Sh p, leave calls
at the shop. At Woodbum othei
days.
SOCIALIST COLUMN
And it does well if it doe» not the
giver al»o. For, the giver is placed
in a patronizing position which is mor­
ally unwholesome.
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE IT YOUR­
A prominent social settlement work­
SELF ?
er »ays that he ba* been accused of
being like the drunken man who coulu ,
By John N. Work.
riot help his partner up, and therefore
UapilaluMU compel» nulhous of peu-
»at down in the gutter beside him say- .
pie to accept degrading charity.
ing, “1 can't help you up, Bill, but 1
How would you like it yourself to
can sit down in the mud with you any. i
tie con polled to uccept chanty I
how!” This prominent settlement
would you use it, for example,
worker deme» the accusation, but *t
to have a bunch ol patronizing peo­
come» perilously near being true.
ple, intent upon perloriuing an act of
The pity and sympathy which ac-1
chanty, conueacend to bring you a ban-
luate charity workers are admirable,
net oi tmng» lor Cnnutnia» .'
and in so far a* they help indviduais
Just consider it u moment.
tc a better life they are to be com­
Hoc eat, now, how would you like
mended.
it?
But in the larger sense, their work
You would feel degraded and in­
is utterly hopeless. Every essential
sulted, wouldn't you?
feature of tne present social system
'Jt course.
lias its dagger out to stab their effort*
I nut’» the way every self-respecting
to death. The results of their work ]
person feel» under »uch circumstance*.
are extremely puny, it is not suf- ,
But, you »ay, there aro people who
iicent to try to regenerate individual». |
ur* in need and they must be helped. it is to alter the condition* which
Unfortunately, ye*.
blight the mass.
But it 1» entirely unneco»»ary for so­
it would be too bad to neglect the
ciety to permit anyone to bo in that individuals whom these people help.
terrible condition.
They needed not do so. But, in addi­
^Socialism propone* to guarantee
tion to that work, they should use
every man and woman an opportunity their iirst hand knowledge of condi­
to earn a living, and to receive their
tions to scourge the system which pro­
ful1 earning». Socialism a'» propote*
duces those conditions, and thus help
tc e*tabl»h kick and accident insurance
to change the system.
and old ago pension».
in other words, these sentimental
Then, degrading charity will cease, altruist*' should become practical by
Meantime, charity 1» a necessary joining the Socialist movement and
evil.
help to abolish capitalism and intro­
Go ahead and take the basket to duce Socialism.
the de»tilu‘'h
I hereby lay hold of their intellect­
But do not plume yourself and im­ ual collar and urge them into the So­
agine that you are doing a meritorious
cialist movement.
vltriblian act when you do »o.
The sentimental altruists have a
On the contrary, you will be insult­ great spiritual passion lor humanity - |
ing the memory of Jesus Christ unless But they fool away moot of then |
you do it with the knowledge that the lives working for super iicialiues. inej
recipient* are victim* ot social crime, attempt to uplift particular individ­
and with the intention of doing all in
uals.
your power to abolish the present crim.
They need to be shown as plain as
Inal social system which wreaks such daylight h- w barren and useless their
hideous injustice upon its victims.
methods are — at the same time gen­
Unless you do it with this knowl­ erously giving their organized chari­
edge and with this intention, you will ties, their social settlements, their
have totally failed to catch the spirit leagues and societies and committees
of Jesus.
and crusades of various kinds, their
Yes, tike the basket.
due.
But take it with a rebellious heart—
But how pitifully little their due is!
rebel'ious against the industrial sys­
It is because they want to reach
tem which produces such human down and “uplift” the working mas­
wreckage — and determined to re­ ses, instead of working with them for
place it with a higher and better one. their emancipation. The working class
And do not impose your embarras­ has fortunately reached the stage of
sing presence upon the recipients.
partial self-respect. It does not want
Do not impose your staring eye-, to be patronized. It wants justice.
upon them.
But, how frightfully hard it is for
Do not impose your condescending the sentimental altruists to work with
munner» upon them.
the workers, instead of patronizing
Do not mortify them and gloat over
them!
their pitiful pleasure by staying to
They spend thousands of dollars
see them enjoy the contents.
and years of time that get nowhere—
If you have a self-satisfied feeling efforts whose results are immediately
that you are doing a noble act, and a effaced by the cruel system which
hankering to give them an opportunity causes all social misery.
to pour out their gratitude to you —
They do not strike at the root.
be ashamed of yourself.
Their efforts have no definite ulti­
They are entitled to receive justice
mate end in view.
instead of charity.
They have no consecutiveness.
You are only giving them a tiny
So, they cannot even hold what they
crumb, whereas they are entitled to
grin.
have full-1 afed justice.
These people naturally come into
No, no! Take the basket gently.!
the Socialist movement as soon as
Take it softly. Leave it without be­ they learn what Socialism really is,
ing seen if possible. For it is degrad­ because they then discover that So­
ing.
cialism affords them the opportunity
Unfortunately, it is not merely at to do their greatest good, by working
Christmas or Thanksgiving that char- along with the workers for their
ty is needed or given. It is in full emancipation, instead of reaching down
blast the year around, easing up a to them. They bring their idealism
little but not disappearing during the and their passion for humanity with
summer months.
them. The movement is a great gainer
One evening I chanced to be in a thereby. They also bring the persis­
certain industrial center just before tence, the patience, the enthusiasm
the closing hour. When it was time to and the tireless energy, Horn of a high
close, I saw the most ragged and purpose. Some of them afterward go
wretched looking bunch of boys and through a stage of impossibilitism and
girls, sprinkled with women and old loftily scold those of us who were
men, come in at the door that I had working for Socalism when they were
ever seen in all my life. They had fooling away their lives on superficial­
market baskets on their arms. They
ities. But, in due time, they come out
went up to the lunch counters, and the of this attack of scarlet fever. After
waiters put the day's scraps in their that, they settle down and become
baskets.
most valuable workers, uniting their
As I passed out the door I saw an intellect, their efficiency, their com­
old woman,crippled, haggard, oblivious mon sense, and their passion for hu­
to her surroundings, looking intently manity, in a persistent fight for the
through the glass door to see if her
goal of Socalism.
little boy or girl would succeed in get­
Meantime, they need not abandon
ting anything in the basket for sup­ their charity and settlement work.
per. This particular restaurant is one
The necessity for charity is caused
of a chain of lunch rooms which make by the fundamental injustice of the
it a practice to pass the day’s scraps present cap’talist system of industry.
over the counter every evening at
The men who do no useful work —
closing tin»«. And there is always a the men who have money invested
bunch of people on hand at each place from which they draw incomes — the
to receive them. Passing along the
n en who through their invested cap­
street any evening, you can see them ital have a suction pump by which
waiting outside with their baskets.
they draw into their own coffers most
What sort of citizens are we — so­ of the earnings of the rest of t’ne eo-
ciety — making out of those boys and ple — these men are rolling in wealth
girls?
which they did not earn.
Consider it carefully and conscien­
All because they are permitted to
tiously. Ask yourself if we are doing
own the industries.
our duty by them. We, the people,
Give us the collective ownership
are responsible. There is no escaping of the industries, so that we can
our responsibility.
guarantee every man and woman an
In every city and town there are opportunity to earn a living and to re­
organizations whose object is to pro- ceive their full earnings — and char- ;
vide food, raiment nn 1 «heiter for ity orgaizations can disband forever.
those who are reduced to absolute
want; to dole out charity to social
Do you want to buy a beautiful plot >
victims to whom society jUgn. to
guarantee an opportunity to earn a of ground w th fruit and berries al- I
living; and to extend the influence of ready in bearing, with wood shed built ,
and two tent houses ? This is a bar­
culture to the down-trodden.
Such luxuries come high, but it gain on the installment plan. The
seems that we must have them. Char- property is three blocks from car line
ty is necessary under the present that runs into Portland. Price $1800,
$100 down, $15 per month. Now’s the
system.
But it always degrades its recipients time and The Cascade Real Estate Co.
are the people. Come and see!
just the same.
I
utr::tn»nn :Ttttni i »uu i :i i i i »niMKi»ii ii iii»»»:ni i iiH i mw u
OUR OBJECTS
AND OUR
PLAN OF CAMPAIGN
FOR A FREE PRESS
We have been browbeaten, maligned, assault­
ed, boycotted, denied our rights in Court, im­
prisoned and robbed of the privilege of editing
our paper while in jail, all for trying to make the
world better by publishing the truth. This only
makes us stronger in the fight! But, as we have
been robbed through boycott, of the where-with­
all to continue our work, we are forced to change
our plans, and this advertisement is to let the
lovers of liberty, justice and truth know that they
are hereby given the privilege to help in our Cam­
paign. Are you in favor of our continuing in this
work? Here are our objects:
f
:
In order to make the world better for our hav­
ing lived, and with malice toward none and charity
for all, we wish to make public:
1. The doings of individuals who are posing
as good citizens, but who are continually commit­
ting crime secretly.
2. The grafting schemes and self protecting
sycophancy of our public officials.
3. The hypocritical and absurd pretentions and
confidence games of all humbug religious fakers.
4. The effort to destroy our public schools,
our other American institutions of civil and rel­
igious liberties, free thought, free speech and free
press, by the foreign power known as the Roman
Hierarchy, and its treasonable efforts to destroy
the American government and prevent our prog­
ress in perfecting “a more perfect union.”
5. The cause of poverty and crime and the
remedy by the destruction of political trickery and
false hero worship and how to establish universal
knowledge of the true principles of government
on the basis of equality of opportunity and the
inalienable right of every citizen to an equal
chance to life, liberty and the pursuit of hap­
piness.
6. The awful effects of the use of stimulants
and narcotics on the human race and the best
methods of emancipation from their destructive
slavery.
7. The principles of the universal (genuine
Catholic) religion of righteousness, and a true,
progressive and modern Protestant faith of de­
stroying ancient errors, which have held us in
bondage; and that the salvation of our race de­
pends on the solid rock of “the brotherhood of
man.”
We have faith that there are enough thinking
people in the United States to save our work from
the destroyer’s hands, and we are using this space,
formerly occupied by advertising which made it
possible to publish our paper, to call on all who are
interested to join us in the work. Do you believe
in a free press? Do you believe in our objects?
If so, help us establish
A Fund for Defensive
and
Aggressive Warfare
4
Do all you can and get others to help!
Send us facts that should be published!
That we are alive and willing to work is
our opportunity. Do not wait!
R. Richard Carr
C. R. Zacharias
H. H. Dewall ...
H. Gill .............
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