Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

l },//Z-oX-S. I (~x ® ¥|o^jyi&^^iJ®!W j @|llh > 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.) ONE DOLLAR AND FIFTY CENTS A YEAR :: FIVE CENTS A COPY