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Vol. 5.
POTEAT’S POWERFUL ADDRESS
BRILLIANT PRESIDENT OF FURMAN UNIVERSITY ELECTRIFIES SEVEN HUNDRED LAYMEN AT A ‘ BOOZELESS” BANQUET IN
ATLANTA—THE STEWARDSHIP OF WEALTH SEEN FROM A NEW ANGLE.
E have seen banquets and banquets, and
we have heard speeches and speeches
—all the way from the diurnal glories
of high noon to the nocturnal splendors
W
of clinking sounds and shimmering scenes —
beyond “midnight’s holy hour."
But for a banquet that sprinkled
beauty and radiance from start to
finish, and for a speech that made
the “goose bumps” come out even
on the commend
us, ladies and gentlemen, to the re
cent laymens’ banquet at the city
auditorium in Atlanta, and the
speech of President Edwin M. Po
teat, of Furman University, on “The
Stewardship of Wealth.”
The picture of several hundred
Christian business men and preach
ers attended at the tables by three
hundred beautiful Christian women
was enough to inspire an “Egyptian
mummy”; the fact that it was not
necessary to enliven the banquet by
the sparkle of champagne to make
it a success afforded a mighty fine
lesson for “young America” and so
cial and commercial circles every
where. And as to President Po
teat’s address, no report on paper
can do it half justice. In resjponse
to the enthusiastic demand for its
publication on the part of those who
gathered about him, Dr. Poteat has
furnished The Golden Age with the
substance of his address. It is strik
ing, cogent, convincing, but the
printed message suffers greatly from
the absence of the magnetic person
ality of the speaker. Every man
and woman who wants to bless the
wor d ought to preserve this Speech
and study it as a boy would study
his grammar. It wi 1 help divorce the reader
from the selfish fascination of 44 g01d with its
yellow glare":
Poteat on the “Stewardship of Wealth.’’
The next great generalization in the history
of thought will be a definition of wealth. We
have reached a generalization as to God; a
“ON TO WASHINGTON”—THE TIME H/.S COME.—Page Six.
ATLANT A, GA., MARCH 27, 1913
■ ■ ?
PRESIDENT EDWIN M. POTEAT.
generalization as to man ; but we have not yet
reached a generalization as to man in his rela
tions to man in the control of the. earth and
its material resources. This latter is a theme
of great importance and difficulty, and it is
engaging serious minds everywhere. Socialism
in its varied forms is symptomatic of this
widespread interest. It proposes common own
ership of all capital. Its propaganda makes
progress, but on’y slow progress because the
right of private property appears to most men
as inalienable. Most people agree with a state-
ment of Mr. Justice Brown of the United
States Supreme Court, who said, “Whatever
social readjustments the twentieth century
may witness, the right of private property will
not be invaded.”
Take a few quotations as indicat
ing the complexity of the subject
and the variety of opinions heltj
about it: , Isaac Barrow, one of the
greatest moralists of the English
race, said: “Mine and thine are
pestilential words.” Blaise Pascal,
one of the most penetrating minds
in all history,sail 1 11:! 1 : “That dog in
the street is mine; that area in the
sun is mine; behold the beginning
and the end of all usurpation.”
Did he mean to say that private
property in a dog is a form of usur
pation? Henry George contended
that private 'property in land is
wrong. Proudhon said: “Property
is theft.” Ruskin hoped the time
might come when England would
cast all thought of “progressive
wealth back to the barbaric ages
from whence it came.” He also
raised a question whether it might
not be better to call wealth ill th as
tending to our ill-being rather than
to our well-being. Tolstoi reached
the conclusion that “Money is in it
self an evil.” Psalm 24 says, lhe
earth is the Lord’s!” Jesus said,
“It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than
for a rich man to enter the kingdom
of heaven.” He, however, recog
nizes the right of private property.
Many of His sayings, and some of
His parables, have their meaning
cnly on the assumption of this
right; as, for example, the Parable
of the Talents; the Husbandman, etc. He did
not question the right of private posses
sion, but He did say “A man’s life consisted
not in the abundance of the things that he pos
sesseth.” Peter recognized Ananias’ light to
the land which he sold and to the proceeds of
' (Continued on page 2.)
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