Upton Sinclair, ed. (1878–1968). The Cry for Justice: An Anthology of the Literature of Social Protest. 1915. COMPLIMENTS OF BARTLEBY.COM The Reluctant Briber By Lincoln Steffens (American writer upon social problems, 1866–1936. The president of a powerful public service corporation has become disturbed in conscience, and calls in a student of social conditions) “YOU’RE unhappy because you are bribing and corrupting, and you ask my advice. Why? I’m no ethical teacher. You’re a churchman. Why don’t you go to your pastor?” 1 “Pastor!” he exclaimed, and he laughed. The scorn of that laugh! “Pastor!” 2 He turned and walked away, to get control, no doubt. I kept after him. 3 “Yes,” I insisted, “you should go to the head of your church for moral counsel, and—for economic advice you should go to the professor of economics in——” 4 He stopped me, facing about. “Professor!” he echoed, and he didn’t reflect my tone. 5 I was serious. I wanted to get something from him. I wanted to know why our practical men do not go to these professions for help, as they go to lawyers and engineers. And this man had given time and money to the university in his town and to his church, as I reminded him. 6 “You support colleges and churches, you and your kind do,” I said. “What for?” 7 “For women and children,” he snapped from his distance. Savonarola (Italian religious reformer, 1452–1498; hanged and burned by his enemies) BUT dost thou know what I would tell thee? In the primitive church, the chalices were of wood, the prelates of gold. In these days the church hath chalices of gold and prelates of wood. The Preacher (From “The Canterbury Tales”) By Geoffrey Chaucer (Early English poet, c.1340–1400) THAN peyne I me to strecche forth my necke, And est and west upon the people I bekke, As doth a pigeon, syttyng on a loft; Myn hondes and my tonge move so oft, That it is joye to see my busynesse. 5 Of avarice and of suche cursedness Is al my preching, for to make hem free To give their pence, and namely unto me.… Therfor my theem is yit, and ever was, The root of evils is cupidity. 10 Thus can I preche agayn the same vice Which that I use, and that is avarice. But though myself be gilty in the same, Yit can I maken other folks to blame. Twentieth Century Socialism By Edmond Kelly (American lawyer and Socialist, 1851–1909) IT seems inconceivable that the same civilization should include two bodies of men living in apparent harmony and yet holding such opposite and inconsistent views of man as economists on the one hand and theologians on the other. To these last, man has no economic needs; this world does not count; it is merely a place of probation, mitigated sometimes, it is true, by ecclesiastical pomp and episcopal palaces; but serving for the most part as a mere preparation for a future existence which will satisfy the aspirations of the human soul—the only thing that does count, in this world or the next. So while to the economist man is all hog, to the theologian he is all soul; and between the two the devil secures the vast majority. The True Faith (From “A Lay Sermon to Preachers”) By Henry Arthur Jones (English dramatist, 1851–1929) I BELIEVE—I stand accountant for the words to That which gave me the power of thinking and writing them—I believe that if the time and money and thought now given in England to the propagation of wholly incredible doctrines, which are no sooner uttered in one pulpit than they are repudiated in another—if this time and money and thought were given to the understanding and scattering abroad of the simplest laws of national economy, of physiology, of health and beauty, in another generation our England would be greater and mightier than she has ever been. I believe a knowledge of the necessity of fresh air, of the value of beauty, of the certain disease and national corruption and deathfulness hidden in our present commercial system, to be worth far more than all the books on theology ever written. I believe faith in constant ventilation and constant outdoor exercise to be a greater religious necessity than faith in any doctrine of any sect in England today. God in the World (From “Gitanjali”) By Rabindranath Tagore (Most popular of Hindoo poets, who recently achieved international fame, and received the Nobel prize) LEAVE this chanting and singing and telling of beads! Whom dost thou worship in this lonely dark corner of a temple with doors all shut? Open thine eyes and see thy God is not before thee! 1 He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where the pathmaker is breaking stones. He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust. Put off thy holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil! 2 Deliverance? Where is this deliverance to be found? Our master himself has joyfully taken upon him the bonds of creation; he is bound with us all for ever. 3 Come out of thy meditations and leave aside thy flowers and incense! What harm is there if thy clothes become tattered and stained? Meet him and stand by him in toil and in sweat of thy brow. Priests (From “Songs for the New Age”) By James Oppenheim (American poet and novelist; born 1882) PRIESTS are in bad odor, And yet there shall be no lack of them. The skies shall not lack a spokesman, Nor the spirit of man a voice and a gesture. Not garbed nor churched, 5 Yet, as of old, in loneliness and anguish, They shall come eating and drinking among us, With scourge, pity, and prayer. Brotherhood (From “The Book of The People”) By Robert de Lamennais (French philosopher and religious reformer, 1782–1854) YOUR task is to form the universal family, to build the City of God, and by a continuous labor gradually to translate His work in Humanity into fact. 1 When you love one another as brothers, and treat each other reciprocally as such; when each one, seeking his own good in the good of all, shall identify his own life with the life of all, his own interests with the interests of all, and shall be always ready to sacrifice himself for all the members of the common family—then most of the ills which weigh upon the human race will vanish, as thick mists gathered upon the horizon vanish at the rising of the sun.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 12:49:00 +0000
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