inheritance taxes are a partial application of this principle. Our conceptions both of charity and of justice need revision. What the wealthy as a class bestow as charity is but a fraction of what would be, as Immanuel Kant long ago observed, simply a just return to society for their use of the social field and plant in fortune-making. When our present embryonic morality," as Professor Bowne calls it, comes to adolescence, this will be confessed. All reputable economists now agree that the equitable distribu 66 tion of the enormously increased wealth Is Hara-Kiri Ever a Min produced by the industrial revolution of the nineteenth century is the most baffling problem of their science. What the State can do toward its solution is doubtful. It is not doubtful that the Church can do much toward it by sharpening moral discrimination between what is and what is not strictly one's own in social equity, although one's own in law. The spirit of Christianity in St. Paul asks, "What hast thou that thou didst not receive?" Confucianism declares, "Religion is reciprocity." Meum and tuum may be, as Luther said, "not Christian words." But meum and vestrum are such, and will be shown as such in that just distribution between individual and social rights through which the moralization of property will bring into being the ideally co-operative society of the future. Cynical Optimism In contiguous columns on its editorial page the New York "Evening Post" prints two statements as follows: Business men sit twice a Sunday under the tremendous utterances of prophet and apostle, only to go out and all the week cheat, if not with holiness and zeal, at least with entire unconsciousness that their religion has anything to do with the exchange and the counting-room. Hosts of sincere worshipers find church tolerable because they can close their ears to the droning exhortation, and commit to memory a hymn or two. According to what moral or economic law does it happen that when business ister's Duty? Dr. Crapsey's article on another page on " Honor Among Clergymen "is a vigorous and timely protest against a doctrine which The Outlook has often condemned. If a minister finds himself differing on important points from the Church in which he is an ordained teacher, it is his duty neither to withdraw nor to be silent. It is his duty, with real, not assumed, respect for the opinions which he no longer entertains and for those who entertain them, to preach the truth as he sees it, and to leave those who differ with him to determine whether the difference is so great that they are no longer willing that he should remain a recognized teacher in their fellowship. This was the method of Wesley, of Luther, of Paul, of Jesus Christ. It is a wise and right method for every perplexed preacher in the Church, whatever that Church may be. We do not agree with Dr. Crapsey in his interpretation of the "fundamental verities" of Christianity. We do not think that these are summed up in the "two great commandments of the law, in the Lord's Prayer, and in the five laws of righteousness, as we find them written in the Sermon on the Mount." The two great commandments Christ's summary of the Jewish law, the five laws of righteousness are his spiritual interpretation of that law, and the Lord's Prayer is his interpretation of the universal needs of humanity. What is distinctively characteristic of Christianity is not its law, but its gospel; not the teaching of Christ respecting are God's requirements of us, but his teaching respecting what God will do for us. The distinctive message of Christianity is to be found rather in the parable of the Prodigal Son than in the five laws of righteousness in the Sermon on the Mount. We should also supplement Dr. Crapsey's article with a statement in no wise inconsistent with it and with which very probably he would entirely agree. That statement is this: In every theological error that has ever gained a wide influence among men there has been a spiritual truth, and it is this spiritual truth that has given the error its acceptance. Behind the doctrine of Papal Infallibility is the truth that there is in the common ministers. If he pursues this course, he will not escape caustic criticism; but if he pays no attention to it and goes on his way serenely, there is no great danger in our time that he will suffer even the mild martyrdom of an ecclesiastical trial; and if he does, it should not require any great degree of heroism to enable him to endure it. There are many things we can profitably learn from the Japanese; but their custom requiring a condemned official to commit suicide is not one of the number. It may sometimes be the duty of a Christian minister to submit uncomplainingly to execution; it is never his duty to perform hara-kiri. consensus of Christian faith an invalu- The Spectator on the able corrective of the idiosyncratic experiences of the individual. Behind the adoration of the Virgin Mary is a sense of reverence for idealized womanhood which only the adoration of the Virgin could have kept alive during the savagery of the Middle Ages. It is not the intellectual form, it is this ill-expressed spiritual truth, that makes the creed sacred to the hearts and inspiring to the lives of men and women. For this reason such creeds ought not to be ruthlessly attacked. Religious iconoclasm is a poor substitute for religious reform. The minister who finds himself dissenting from the creed of the Church should neither be silent nor withdraw. But he is not shut up, as his sole alternative, to an attack upon the Creed. That may sometimes be necessary; but the occasions will be rare. Let him look beneath the words of the creed, whatever the creed may be; let him seek to understand the spiritual truth of which it is a traditional though a poor expression; let him give his own expression to that spiritual truth in forms which appeal to the modern mind and are effective with the modern conscience. In doing this let him always, with charity toward all and malice toward none, utter the truth as God gives it to him to see the truth, not for the purpose of destroying an old theology nor for the purpose of building up a new theology, but for the purpose of building up in Christlikeness of character the men and women to whom he Doing of Things' Oh, Mr. Spectator, what a shot! what a wild shot! Clear off the target, though it be as large as a barn; and your shaft has gone wandering away, lost in a wilderness where nothing grows save the poor incapables, thorny cacti, financiers and the hearts of millionaires. But the average man-the common, garden man-would you deprive him of one of the purest joys of life? Go to! What is that you ask? Why, the power to think, plan, contrive, circumvent circumstance, defy fate, and boss your own job! What is the value of a decrepit tin kettle compared to that? Moreover, why deem that kettle wasted? To begin with, as it stands it is not a thing of worth. It might even pay you to dump it and get another, newer model. All mechanical America is built on middens of discarded things, and is successful because our men have had the courage thus to dump a good machine when the right time came to put in a better one. But granted that the kettle has been expended-expended, I say, not spoiled. An egg-shell we do not say is spoiled because 'tis broken when we need its contents. Expended, then to what gain? Why, lessons in temper, selfcontrol, self-limitations, the knowledge of what you can't do. And if you be a I See The Spectator in The Outlook for August 19 true man of your hands, you do not leave that kettle till you have mastered the problem wrapped in its tinny shell, and have a new fact stored in your resources which may come in play in matters of more moment than a kettle's spout. Is not that of more value than a hecatomb of plumber's bills? Your sink-vent plugs; helpless, you send for the man of solder and hot iron. He comes, and with him luxurious help ers, who stand around and wait, to the increase of the plumber's scheduled time. But you, if you have brains, watch and reason. Then, when again it happens, you simply bring in a section of the garden hose, screw one end on the coldwater faucet, and stick the other down the offending pipe, with a cloth packing around it. Then turn the water on. And, lo! it bores out the stoppage clean in the twinkling of a wink. And that night Madame suggests that you have four dollars available for theater purposes that the plumber did not get. Also, the joy of no longer paying those useless, luxurious plumber's helpers for their society! Is this satisfaction to be thus lightly ruled off from the assets of a happy life? A blind breaks loose, and needs a tool to repair it. You have none. Shall you send for a workman with his kit, and pay him seventy-five cents, or buy the tool for thirty-five cents, repair the blind, and have the tool to boot, and the pleasure of doing something outside of the ordinary life-routine? In time you will thus acquire a kit of your own. With such an acquired resource, you may, as I did, glance around for some new world to conquer, not too obvious to the scornful passer-by. I found mine in my cellar. I ordered lumber from the mills of Maine; and the time I found in hours before breakfast, for one full and happy month. There I planned and hammered and bored and sawed, and now and then broke into matutinal song, while before me rose the walls and shelves of a noble storage-closet: shelves not hung on treacherous cleats of carpentry, but slung from sturdy lengths of telegraph wire, those for the lower shelves passing upward through appropriately bored holes in their superiors. Many a cunning device of ventila tion and storage was there devised in silent moments of reflection, while sitting, like a St. Simeon Stylites in reduced circumstances, on a nail-keg. Should that pleasure of planning for the happiness of Madame's domain be left to the unfeeling souls of hirelings? Would they think of a Dutch door, with a window in it? or that a steam pipe can be dodged by making a desired upper door to fold up on itself on hinges like a Japanese screen? Then as to turnips: what though "Dennis can raise more and better ones than I-which he can't on the same ground, nor any of his tribe or race— shall I, for that theory, deprive myself of the practice, and no longer enjoy the sight of mine own plantings growing, nor seek to meet the requirements of mine own turnip-taste? Not so? Not while my pocket edition of a garden gives me, "off my own hoe," all my summer and winter vegetables, save potatoes, for something less than five dollars for fertilizer and seed. Not while it gives me the needed incentive to rise at 5 A.M. and enjoy the morning freshness for hours before breakfast-time, with just enough exercise to stimulate the happy appetite. Perchance you see me at that hour now gazing thoughtfully turnip-ward. Think you it is reflection of sordid profits or fat-production? Not at all. I am enjoying to the full that daily morning marvel the silver-frosting rime of the dew against the tender green of the plant's graceful arches. I have just marked a water-hung, ten-foot spiderline, a suspension bridge fit for a fairy, and wondered how it was flung across its little gulf-breeze-wafted, probably. Beyond me stands the corn. Am I calculating the ears in my four rows? Far from it. Beyond the boundary reaches my neighbor's in jungle density, and through the trembling spires the blue haze of autumn drifts and shrouds the further outlines till the low forest seems to continue clear to the distant woodland, each spire agleam with dew in the morning sun. Beautiful! Shall all this be left to "Dennis "? Not so. His name is Dennis. Propitious omen! JOHN PRESTON TRUE. From a Staff Correspondent In HEN one wants authoritative prudent and not altogether respectful information in any department, remarks. Brusque in manner, and, as one goes to the head of that Sir Donald says, incapable of brooking department. The heads of the depart- contradiction, he made many enemies, ment of diplomacy at the Portsmouth and doubled the number when his colPeace Conference are Sergius Witte and leagues fancied that he was encroaching Jutaro Komura, the ranking plenipo- on their provinces. He had already tentiaries. The first has been Russian made enemies of the agrarians and of Finance Minister; the latter is Japanese the anti-capitalistic doctrinaires, the Foreign Minister. ultimate causers of his downfall. 1898 he angered a third class, the jingoists, by protesting against the seizure of Port Arthur. Two years later he disturbed them by his conferences with Marquis Ito. Japan's greatest statesman was then seeking a foreign alliance for his country. He had come to St. Petersburg before going to London. Had the Czar followed Mr. Witte's idea, there might have been a Russo-Japanese instead of an Anglo-Japanese alliance, and the present unnecessary war might have been prevented. Indeed, had the Czar followed Mr. Witte's outspoken and strenuous counsel another two years later, there would have been no war. The Russian ranking plenipotentiary stands, mentally as well as physically, head and shoulders above other Russian statesmen. Thus he seems the one most favorably to represent his country at this conference. His achievements are what one might expect from a giant in mind and will. He has established (1) a gold-standard currency, thus creating a stable credit; (2) many and diversified industries, thus bringing Russia's resources into line with those of modern nations; (3) the Trans-Siberian Railway, with its branches, a total length of nearly six thousand miles, connecting Moscow with the Pacific coast at Vladivostok; and (4) the vodka, or Russian whisky, monopoly, by which enormous and usurious private gains have been diverted into a source of steady and large public income. During his ten years' service as Finance Minister Mr. Witte doubled the Government's rev Thus, if any man ever deserved well of the Russian Government, it is Sergius Witte. But two years ago the Czar relieved him of his duties as Finance Minister and gave him instead the rather empty honor, comparatively, of the Presidency of the Council. Instead, the Czar might well have made Sergius Witte Chancellor of the Empire. The proximate reason for the Czar's action, I learn from Sir Donald Wallace, who is here and speaks from a residence of many years in Russia, was hardly so much the financial and commercial crisis of 1900, which, rightly or wrongly, had been attributed to Mr. Witte's stimulation of the industries at the apparent expense of agriculture, as to some im Russia's ranking plenipotentiary seems, therefore, incomparably Russia's best man to end war and make peace, for no one suspects him of being a jingo. But he is not for peace at any price, certainly not at the price which the Japanese envoys demand. The Russian mission is composed of carefully selected plenipotentiaries, secretaries, and advisers in law, finance, and trade. In choosing men of the first rank and in sending them at great expense half-way around the world to become the guests of our Government, the Czar must have been actuated by the high ideal which moved him some years ago to summon the nations to another and more general Peace Conference, the result of which is the universally and increasingly respected Hague Tribunal. The Russians agreed to eight out of the twelve Japanese demands as precedent to a cessation of hostilities. They refused the remaining four. A dead lock followed. It was liable to end the conference in disaster. The carnage would continue. In the interest of humanity, therefore, President Roosevelt, backed, it is believed, by the neutral Powers, personally and praiseworthily offered his good offices. At his instance and for the sake of the world's peace, Japan magnanimously made concessions. Russia declined to consider them. "But this may be Japan's irreducible minimum," I said to a Russian of high standing. "Do you want to lose all your Pacific posessions? The Japanese have already made a landing on Kamchatka." "Let them," he answered. "Better so than that we should pay indemnity, no matter how disguised. In another year the position of the Japanese will be much worse than it is now. They know it, and that is why they want peace. We have over half a million men in the field. Our generals are confident of ultimate victory; they advise a continuance of the war. But suppose the fortunes of war to be adverse to us. We could quietly retire into Siberia and say 'Come on.' We could lure the Japanese far from their base of supplies. Could they follow us into Russia proper? Could they even follow us to Irkutsk ? No. They could not keep up their lines of communication. When a soldier falls, we do not feel his loss as much as they do. We have a population of 136,000,000, they of 47,000,000. We can better afford to continue the war than they can, both in lives and money. If they should follow us towards Russia proper, the war would cost them far more a day than we would be paying, even supposing the financial resources of Russia and Japan to be equal. But they are not equal. We have vast unmortgaged resources; theirs are mostly mortgaged. "Yes," confirmed Mr. Witte. "There are our immense crown domains, forests and mining lands, our customs dues, the vodka monopoly which I established myself, the petroleum fields-though operated by private companies and about forty thousand versts of railway. A mile is about a verst and a half, you know. Last year we had an income of over two hundred million rubles-a ruble is about fifty cents in your money—from our customs; but my vodka monopoly brought in three hundred and eighty million rubles. Japan's resources are well known and pretty well mortgaged. Russia's are not so well known; they are potentially infinitely great, and on them we can raise all the money we require. Besides, from the time of Peter the Great, Russia has never repudiated a single obligation." "Then there is a good chance for American capital to be employed in Russia and Siberia, if it were not for your supposedly exclusive corporation provisions." They are not exclusive," interposed Mr. Gregory Wilemkin, the Russian Financial Attaché, who had entered the room; "any one from any nationality may be on a board of directors. Our only requirement is that the managing director shall be a Russian." "In the board meetings, however, does his vote not count for more than that of any other director?" "Not at all," was the prompt reply. "One man's vote is as good as another's. Under our present laws you will see that Russian prosperity will mean the prosperity of many men from many nations. In my opinion, there is more money to be made in Russia and Siberia by a clever American, who has both brains and capital, than anywhere else in the world." "But this can be only under peaceful conditions. The Duma may be a prominent factor in bringing that about," I suggested, to which Mr. Witte nodded his head vigorously. I then asked: "Is not the Czar's promulgation of a Duma a wise act as affecting Russia's internal tranquillity, but especially at this time as affecting a united Russian front in face of external peril?" 66 Yes," answered his Excellency. "There are some peasants among our 136,000,000 people who have not even heard that a war exists. Some others, peasants and those of higher station, are opposed to it. The Duma is the seed of unification, not immediate, but ultimate." Finally I inquired: "Do you still maintain your attitude regarding the latest Japanese proposals ?" |