BOSTON MONDAY LECTURES.
SOCIALISM,
WITH
PRELUDES ON CURRENT EVENTS.
BY JOSEPH COOK.
“It
is wicked to withdraw from being useful
to the needy, and
cowardly to give way to the worthless.” — EPICTETUS.
AUTHOR'S POPULAR EDITION.
HODDER AND STOUGHTON,
27, PATERNOSTER ROW.
MDCCCLXXXI.
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CONTENTS.
I ..........................................................................................2
SOCIALISM AND UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE............. 2
II. ......................................................................................20
SOCIALISM A POLITICAL BLUNDER.................... 20
III......................................................................................38
SELF-HELP, NOT STATE-HELP, THE HOPE
OF THE POOR. ............................................................ 38
IV. ....................................................................................58
CO-OPERATION THE HELP OF THE POOR. .......... 58
V.......................................................................................76
CO-OPERATIVE SAVINGS
BANKS IN
GERMANY................................................................... 76
VI. ....................................................................................94
DEATH-TRAPS AND FEVER-DENS IN CITY
SLUMS. ........................................................................ 94
VII. .................................................................................115
HIGH
SCHOOLS
AND
A
UNITED
CITIZENSHIP............................................................. 115
VIII.................................................................................136
TRAMPS, SUNDAY LAWS, AND THE POOR....... 136
IX. ..................................................................................159
ALCOHOL AND THE HUMAN BRAIN. ................. 159
X.....................................................................................179
SOCIALISM, TEMPERANCE, AND WOMAN'S
VOTE. ......................................................................... 179
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I
SOCIALISM AND UNIVERSAL SUFFRAGE.
PRELUDE ON CURRENT EVENTS.
IT is an Arabian legend, that, when the ostrich was told
to carry a load, it answered, “I cannot, I am a bird;” and, when
it was told to fly, it answered, “I cannot, I am a camel.” It is
also an Arabian legend, that, when the rats were taxed, the bat
said, “I am a bird;” and, when the birds were taxed, the bat said,
“I am a rat.” The National Liberal Infidel League says it is not
the Free Religious Association,
and the Free Religious
Association says it is not the National Liberal League. I am
perfectly aware that they are two organizations, and that they
are no more nearly connected than father and son. But why is
the Free Religious Association now anxious to disown the
National Liberal League?
In the city of Berne, in Switzerland, there is a statue of
a hideous ogre eating a child. The pockets of the monster are
filled with girls and boys waiting for the cracking of their bones
and the extraction of their marrow between the teeth of the
cannibal. This ghastly figure is a fit representation of the god
which American infidelity, in clamorously demanding the
repeal of all laws against the infamous use of the mails, has
lately set up for public worship. It is a matter of painful
notoriety, that, according to the testimony of an alarmed and
protesting minority, a large majority of the National Liberal
League of infidels have formally entered the service of this god
of the slimiest part of the pit. Their lecturers and newspapers
are his hierophants. The youth of the land, so far as he can
reach them, are between his teeth. Unspeakably loathsome and
abominable men and women, whose trade is the corruption of
the young, dare to petition Congress,
in the name of a free
press, to abolish all laws against a debauched use of the mails;
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JOSEPH COOK.
I
that is, to allow this fiend, as odious as Astarte and as cruel as
Baal, to reach his prey without let or hindrance. A majority of
the National Liberal League of infidels seconds this desire. The
greed of the pocket and the greed of the teeth are combined.
1. Of course it is evident, even to a mind uneducated in
the law, that there must be a federal regulation concerning the
use of
the mails,
if we
are to keep the United States
Government itself from assisting moral cancer-planters.
Whoever sells
infamous publications in any State of the
American Union becomes amenable to the laws of that State. If,
however, a ghoul of the slums sends his wares from one State to
another by the mails, it is in most cases difficult or impossible
to convict him under the laws of either. Even when the laws
allow such conviction,
it usually becomes impracticable on
account of the difficulty of proof, and of ferreting out and
securing the offender. Venders of infamous literature, therefore,
do their business as much as possible through the mails. Purify
the post-office
from
this
traffic, and you confine
it
comparatively narrow limits. The shield of State rights
to
is
greatly coveted by the corrupters of youth, and their scheme is
to clamour against any federal regulation as to the transmission
of their wares through the mails.
In 1873 Congress passed an excellent law forbidding
venders of infamous literature to tamper with the national
mails, and appointing an efficient postal expert, specially
charged with the duty of exposing the violators of the statute.
It
is highly significant that nobody complained, and
nobody thought of complaining, of the law, except infidels, free
religionists, and corrupt publishers.
A petition was sent to Congress in 1878, in favour of
the repeal of the postal law of 1873. The New York agent of the
Society for the Prevention of Vice was very much surprised to
see, in the list of signatures to it, the names of several important
firms who had usually been his
friends. He asked these
personally, if it was indeed true that they had petitioned for the
repeal of the regulations of 1873. “We have never put our
names down on any such petition,” was the reply. “Are you
willing to say so in writing?” They were of course not unwilling
to place themselves outside the black ranks of those who had
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JOSEPH COOK.
I
signed this petition. The leading firms gave him written
authority to say that
their names on the document were
forgeries. He appeared before a committee of Congress with
this evidence, and in a very short speech defeated the petition.
In New York so much forgery of this kind is done, that the
procedure is regarded as an old trick; and, if public attention
has not been called to it through newspaper discussion, it is
because fraud of the sort has been so frequently attempted by
corrupt publishers and infidel societies in large cities.
An
official
document,
in which a committee of
Congress recommends that the postal laws of 1873 should not
be changed, contains, as a fly in amber, and in the evil
conspicuity of an irreversible public record, the name of the
foremost infidel lecturer in the United States.
“Forty-fifth
Congress,
second session: House of
Representatives, Report No, 888. Repeal of certain sections of the
Revised Statutes. May 31, 1878, laid on the table, and ordered to be
printed.
Mr. Bicknell, from the committee on the Revision of the
Laws, submitted the following report: —
The committee on the Revision of the Laws, to whom was
referred the petition of Robert G. Ingersoll and others, praying for the
repeal or modification of sections 1785, 3878, 3893, 5389, and 2491,
of the Revised Statutes, have had the same under consideration, and
have heard the petitioners at length.
In the opinion of your committee, the post-office was not
established to carry instruments of vice or obscene writings, indecent
pictures, or lewd books.
Your committee believe that the statutes in question do not
violate the Constitution of the United States, and ought not to be
changed: they recommend, therefore, that the prayer of said petition
be denied.”
The unimpeachable authority of this document shows
what was asked for, and who asked for it, and why it was not
granted.
Under the law of 1873, it is possible to prevent the
sending of corrupt matter from State to State, or by mail at all.
If you can only execute the federal law against the corrupt use
of the mails, you can do much to confine the corrupting of
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