University of Wisconsin Superior - Gitche Gumee Yearbook (Superior, WI)

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GITCHE GUM EE this recognition, America could never have experienced her marvelous growth in material wealth, nor her unprecedented moral influence among the powers of the world for the betterment of mankind. A deviation from the spirit of fairness and honesty in our present industrial and political life is what threatens our democracy this very hour. Men in their scramble for material wealth have not properly observed the principles upon which this nation was founded. In the field of industry, competition has been relied upon solely to secure economic justice. That individualism has given to the American people a material wealth surpassing all precedent, there is no doubt; but it has also resulted in the widest inequality in the distribution of that wealth, and in the most undesirable and shameful practices. Our material prosperity has gone hand in hand with immorality and spiritual degeneration. Selfish considerations, too frequently, have sought to justify chicanery and deception. The present factory system amply illustrates an undue regard for private advantage. The avaricious employer is judicious in every calculation that concerns his own interests, but unmercifully thoughtless of the welfare of his employes. Private gain, from the standpoint of the greedy capitalist, justifies the subjugation of fellow-men. When adverse to the goal of his ambition, the life and welfare of the wage earner are shamefully ignored. When dangerous machinery can be operated with profit, the lives of the employed are put in jeopardy. When women and children can do the work of men, they arc employed. So, today, nearly two million children are deprived of the education essential to the development of real manhood and womanhood. The ranks of the unfortunate in our hospitals, insane asylums, and penitentiaries arc continually recruited by men and by women sacrificed for ill-gotten wealth. Is it surprising, then, that the laborer retaliates in order to ameliorate his condition? Is it to be wondered at that he is driven to revenge when unscrupulous employers use means more despotic in their nature than did Napoleon in his career of conquest? The centralization of wealth and power in the hands of such ruthless men is one of the gravest dangers in our republic. This avaricious spirit dominating the lives of not a few of our industrial leaders is responsible for the wretched condition of many of our citizens. This same spirit accounts for the hardships and the suffering throughout our land during the Pennsylvania coal strike, and the scenes of mob violence of common occurrence on the streets of our large cities. Unless passion gives way to reason and blind egoism is replaced by a sense of obligation to society, these conditions will continue to be a curse and a stain upon our national life. It is not, however, the ability to organize and manage business concerns that should alarm us. This very ability, legitimately used, is of the highest benefit to society. Every effort put forth in any service for the general good should be encouraged. The complete devotion of one’s honest effort to the work in which he is engaged is the highest duty that can be conceived. But when a man in any enterprise labors exclusively for self, and places the lives of others in jeopardy, and holds a considerable number of our future citizens in ignorance, right and justice must assert themselves. There must be aroused a public sentiment that will restore to the oppressed the sacred rights of free citizens. While, on the one hand, the large combinations of capital tend to enrich the few, on the other hand they contribute in no small measure to the prosperity of the many. It is well to scrutinize closely all industrial organizations under the selfish PACE EIGHTEEN

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WHITE WA TEF+. GIT CHE GUM EE EGOISM VS. ALTRUISM EASTON JOHNSON ISTORY tells of a long stride in the progress made by man. As the ages have passed, his ideals and aspirations have been wonderfully elevated and perfected. A worthy ambition has ceaselessly sought to establish the proper interdependence of man. Co-operation, the subordination of self to the good of society, is now recognized as an important goal of human endeavor. In harmony with this supreme conception, the greatest achievement that has been effected to insure human progress is the relation established between man and man, individual and society, citizen and nation. Before the Christian era, egoism wielded its despotic sway unchecked, and nations maintained their supremacy thru sheer physical force. Power was sought by the use of the sword, and the earth was repeatedly drenched with human blood. Conquest was the watchword of the strong; subjugation and misery, the fate awaiting the weak; while, too often, deceit and treachery permeated the lives of the leaders of men. What cruelties were inflicted upon the pagan world that history might claim the names of Alexander, Hannibal, and Caesar 1 Was the world always to bestow imperishable fame upon men for their deeds of violence and for their insatiable love of domination? Was the gratification of a selfish ambition always to defy the cardinal virtues of love, mercy, and justice? Ah! no. Behold in the East, the incarnation of a new faith, proclaiming the birth of a new world—a world where the conscience and not the sword was destined to rule mankind. Since that day, nineteen centuries have witnessed the growth of a power that in sublimity of purpose surpasses all others, a power that aims at the complete emancipation of man from the shackles of ingratitude, ignorance, malice, and superstition. This power is the spirit of altruism. Many have been the contributions made by different peoples and by different nations to the civilization of their age. Bitter and severe have been the persecutions suffered by sincere and devout men of every time in the vindication of great principles. In our survey of the world’s great benefactors, we must ever hold in high veneration the founders of our own republic. Our forefathers endured hardships and untold suffering in securing our political and religious freedom. Often and justly have we heard them praised for their physical courage; but were our tribute to end here, we should do injustice to their memories. Our indebtedness is rather for their unswerving loyalty to principle, for their zealous desire to found free institutions, and for their establishment of a government that acknowledges the equality of man under the law and before his Creator. These invaluable contributions are beyond human comprehension ! These chosen leaders, moreover, recognized the purity of the home, the sacrcdncss of free institutions, and the moral perfection of man as supreme. Without PACE SEVENTEEN

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influence of a money king; but such organizations, if under the management of benevolent, trustworthy men, could always be viewed with confidence and trust. Combination in production is not objectionable. In fact, it is highly desirable. As surely as water seeks its level, just so surely an intelligent self-interest finds the most economical means in production. But do the farmer, the wage-earner, and the professional man now receive a proportionate benefit from the combination? Do the railroads combine to lessen the cost of production to the general public? Is it the policy of the Standard Oil Company to charge the lowest price for oil consistent with a legitimate profit? What methods arc employed in large corporations, where men arc not greatly influenced in their conduct by the eye of the public? Too often, under the cover of the corporation, individuals devise every means within their power to further their own interests, regardless of the injury to the public good. The height of their ambition is to amass a fortune. Actuated by selfish motives, they dismiss any consideration that has not in view corporate power. They fear only the law, which, moreover, they undertake to evade. They flagrantly disregard public faith, public honor, public trust, and reveal a nature given over to self-aggrandizement. Nor arc men of our day satisfied to limit their nefarious practices to the industrial field alone; they shrewdly endeavor to obtain special privileges by combining their own private business with the interests of the corrupt politician. This combination, above all others, utterly defeats the sovereign will of the people.- The functions of government ordained “to promote the greatest good to the greatest number” are used, too often, to promote the greatest good to combinations of capital. Because of their powerful interests, corporations fill many official positions—legislative, executive, and judicial—with men of their own choice. Before the election, the boss and the machine artfully deceive the unintelligent classes of society by masquerading as custodians of their rights. After the ballots arc counted, corporation managers and their representatives frame measures, carry them to their subservient officials, and to them make known their selfish desires. Such arc the monstrous evils that exist in our high places of trust and honor while a majority of the American people accept the false standards of egoism as their code of ethics and morality. Happily for America’s future, this unbridled egoism has met with earnest opposition. Public spirited men have unsparingly denounced “successful dishonesty.” Cunning and deceitful encroachments upon the rights and privileges of free citizens have been fearlessly attacked in the pulpit and in the press. The present administration has put forth every effort to make the powerful few responsible to the people. Searching investigations have probed into combinations designed solely for private advancement. Those guilty of high-handed dishonesty have been compelled to feel the smart and the sting of public opinion for disloyalty to their fellow-men and to their God; while righteous conduct of the poor and rich alike has been met with the heartiest approval. This movement is salutary, for imperative is the demand for stringent and impartial enforcement of law; but fruitless is the attempt to suppress action that is inimical to society, merely by law. Man restrained wholly by the fear of law and by the application of force will never realize his highest possibilities. The salvation of mankind requires the awakening of a conscience and a moral judgment that will always rule supreme in the human heart. If the American nation is to march onward and upward, that movement must be characterized by sound morality. Mere denunciation and condemnation of wrong-doing can not lay the foundation for a future greatness. GITCHE GUMEE PACE NINETEEN