Show CAUSES OF NATIONAL dissolution THE following from the brooklyn eagle embodies some of the most moat striking statements and ad views of existing conditions in this country we have encountered in any journal the circumstances cum stances under which the ideas were expressed render them all the more forcible there has probably never been another sunday school lesson in the clay city just like that taught by the rev dr R R meredith to td his bible claib last night the lesson lessen was the eighth chapter df amos where the prophet foretold dire punishment of the children ot of israel for their sins the peculiarity of mr mere diehs treatment lay in the fact that he paid very little attention to amos and not much more to the children of israel but instead drew a peppery comparison between the israelites rich dishonest and oppressors of the poor and the united states of today he told the teachers to point nt out to their boys and girls that the ty t way y of salvation for this country lay through civil service re reform forni punishment for not voting and restricted strict otric ed ted immigration ile he denounced the sugar trust and the standard oil trust by name and when some of the class undertook to defend the standard oil trust of course every one in the room knew that one of the standard oil millionaires was lying dead in the city dr meredith redoubled his denunciations and included the coal barons and other stock watering corporations which he did not call by name these denunciations were vigorously applauded by the people who weed agreed with them those who who disagreed with him were too polite to hiss some of them tried to got get in a word of protest edgewise but they did not make much headway against the ahe flood of dr merediths meredithe hs excited eloquence in his introduction dr meredith said that the lesson was given to show how god deals with nations and was needed by su sunday n day schoolchildren school children the teachers must not let them get the idea that god was waa in the affairs of israel more than in those of the united states or great britain or france the best beat way to get it out was to summarize the history of israel beginning with the promises in genesis xv kv and sketching it rapidly to show how faithful god was and how faithless they were until they wrought their own destruction st then he asked what were the prevalent sins to which amos referred ferr T 14 voices dishonesty in business oppressing the poor Ii religion greed for men money 2 dr edward beecher aboy love god supremely and love their neighbors as themselves dr meredith did they love god at aut aa dr beecher I 1 should say not dr meredith I 1 say not too the root of the matter was their greed to be rich not to hoard but to get money to feed their vices and support their luxuries they lived in ivory palaces and luxurious houses and they swallowed up the poor and showed no mercy they wanted the holy days cut short so that they could have inore more time to make money in no nation could stand that was so undermined by and honeycombed by immorality but israel seemed as secure then as an this country does now she had large revenues and was in her second century of prosperity she never saw a third century and gud only knows whether we shall god governs this nation and will wipe us out for our sins as quickly as he did israel teach the children that they need it by what nation was israel de destroyed voices by assyria 1 by rome borne by themselves dr meredith why you say t that h s thirst first the point of the lesson no nation was ever destroyed from the outside A voice how about poland dr meredith carlyle says lays that poland hid hd become so corrupt and immoral that she had to be wiped out for the general health of europe no nation of honest god fearing men was ever wiped out spain crush the dutch austria the swiss or turkey the greeks public luxury and private dishonesty are the foes to national life prosperity is no sign of permanence you might multiply our area our population and our wealth all by three and make us weaker than we are teach the children that so 80 long as the public service is a sub subject t of party rt y spoils our nation is in eger danger aher there e Is i not a worse government on earth than that of new york olty city and brooklyn to is not so much better that we can laugh at them we are taxed taxed taxed yet we cant got get decently clean streets because there is so much thieving the truth if bribed bribery is to make void our laws it pu public lie corruption is to sap our vitality while atheism stalks abroad corrupting the hearts of the young it is god gods 09 truth that this nation cant go on I 1 choose this lesson but its here to be taught and it to is one to make good citizens with the rich israelites at this time were swindling the poor and amos gives their methods Is their anything in our system that robs the pooi poor in the same way A voice the institution of trusts second voice do they dr meredith well do they talk all of you this theology and you ought not to be afraid third voice they do because they are a monopoly monopole lv 11 fourth voice s every everybody body likes to have his hand in a monopoly if he can laughter dr meredith does that make it right I 1 A voice the standard oil trust has haa been a blessing it has reduced the price of oil and they pay better wages than other peo people ae 11 second voice let him start in the oil business and see me third voice wages are rising and the cost of living is coming down I 1 fourth voice where did man inan live when he saw that third voice in brooklyn when I 1 saw wages rising dr meredith been the effect oft of the he sugar trust on sugar it has put up the price of sugar 50 per cent until the courts declared it illegal the fact lets have an end of the nonsense applause A voice the price sugar toda today dr meredia meredith because the courts have knocked the trust out A voice its ILs been reorganized in jersey dr meredith meradith jerseys Jersey ls a good place for it we dont want it here I 1 dont want to denounce my fellow men I 1 believe that there are j justas hone in business today as there ever were or ever will be I 1 also believe that it is 18 possible to have a trust organized purely ao reduce duce the cost coat of production that should be a great blessing and that we have bave several such we have others that are purely selfish and care for nobody but those in iii the ring the coal barons get together yearly in elegant offices in now new york and declare I 1 hat bat no more than a fixed quantity of coal shall be produced in order to protect their profits somebody somebody talked about oil where did the Z ou come from god sent it rolling out of the earth like water so that when they handled it in barrels it would have been money in the OR oil mens pockets if barrels had burned u up when coal miners are thrown out IT of work and prices are raised on the suffering fiering su poor of the cities when it is shut out of the market for the profit of rich men is it any wonder berthat that the working people say may god put that coal and oil in the earth it Is ours as much as it is theirs and we will have it 2 A voice how are they going to got get it dr meredith show you a way I 1 dont say it to is right B but u t I 1 say it is natural for working people to think th in aai that thing thine under the circumstances and that if things dont change they ath will act on it A voice labor more tyrannical than capital ever was mr meredith it is learning pretty fast but it is learning from capital when 9 corporation waters watern its stock four times and nd then pays dividends on W of capital ahe I 1 somebody ly getting Ms his share skare A voice eHas anybody got a show there who own stock dr meredith yes the laborer has youve got to face that I 1 talking ir at random I 1 know one company that on of invested capital has watered its stock to and another that has made a capital of out of of investment A voice a man go into the oil business independently dr meredith no I 1 dont like the standard oil operations I 1 dont like anything that tries to smash down other people when I 1 see the coal barons limiting production my blood boils and tb there ere are rich men who own tenements that I 1 should like to make them uve live in applause there are several 1116 instances of profit sharing in this country which ye sze dividing among their employee emp loyes perhaps not all they could afford to out but handsome dividends a sign of the times timed what we are coming to we cant go on any other way there IB 18 a god in israel he cares no more for a poor man than a rich one but he cares a good deal more for an honest uan man than for a rogue and he will see the honest man protected orime crime is in increasing here 2 per cent faster than our population lation grows our boasted power of assimilation I 1 should like to see nee a law lav f pawed passed that no one could got get in here bore without a passport from a special american consul consul corp certifying that the man was good material tor lor a fir first st claw class american citizen then I 1 should like to see another law that no citizen could use our courts to collect a debt who had failed to vote such a law would sweep tammany from the face of the earth these things r have got to come and they will come I 1 im m not a pessimist I 1 believe this thin country Is going to be saved but it wont be saved the way it is ia going now |