MEETING OF WORKING MEN. The first of a series of meetings of the working men of San Francisco, to discuss the relations of Capital and Labor, emyloyers and employed, laws affecting production. and exchange, etc., etc., was held at Dashaway Hall on Sunday afternoon last. B. F. French was called to the chair, and Pat. J. Healy briefly stated the objects of the meetings it is proposed to hold. He said they are for the purpose of discussing the best means of equalizing conditions among men. "Our object is not to tear down, but to investigate into the causes of inequalities which it is evident are not inherent in the nature of things, but are the results of a false system adopted by a small minority of mankind, and which the majority have been induced by fraud and force to accept as the established order of things. If a remedy is not applied an upheaval must come." We are not, he said, in favor of violence; we do not want war; but the conditions now existing will necessarily terminate in that, unless some peaceful method is soon adopted to obviate this alternative. The United States government, poor as it is, is the best in the world, but it is grossly corrupt, and is the foster mother of injustice. We have the remedy in our own hands, without resorting to war, and we mean to apply the remedy. It is for this purpose these meetings are held-to educate and arouse the people. Mr. Hatch dealt with the general principles which should govern the attempt to utilize the results of our civilization for the benefit of the producers. Civilization is so applied as to pamper, pet and spoil a few drones in the social hive, whereas its legitimate aim is to elevate and dignify the great army of the workers. He defined civilization as the improved condition of man, resulting from the establishment of social order in place of absolute individual independence, and the lawlessness of savage or barbarous life. Isolation and selfish aggrandizement, the aristocracy of wealth, and class legislation, are all foreign to the spirit of true civilization, which regards the general good. It is for the interest of the rich that they be workers, and not drones and butterflies. There were several other speakers, but we failed to get a report. A similar meeting will be held in the same place to-morrow afternoon, the 25th. RENEW YOUR SUBCRIPTIONS. Three numbers more will complete Vol. 1 of COMMON SENSE. As it is much trouble to take names out of our mailing list, and replace them again, subscribers who intend to renew their subscriptions will please do so without delay. They will then be sure to receive all the numbers. Otherwise they may miss some, and it will be impossible for us to replace them, as we print only the number required from week to week. The prospects of the paper were never better than at present. Hattie J. French, trance and test medium, started for California, March 22d, and is to stop in Philadelphia, Chicago, Ogden, Salt Lake City, Elko, Reno and Truckee to lecture and give tests. Written for Common Sense. BENEATH THE OAK. BY ERNEST C. STOCK. It might have been the staff from whence to-day Round which the dead on fields of battle lay, I might have been the throne of queens or kings, Where men and women are but menial things- It might have been the old arm chair, that stood Our strong defence and shield, which left but good It might have been a cradle, wherin lay A child, whose smiles and tresses It might have been a casket, yet to hold The hand which neath these branches gray and old, Ah yes "it might have been " thus shall they say, Of him, whose song beneath the oak to-day, I turn-farewell old oak-and go where sin My name, ah well, it might-it might have been "RELIGION AND SCIENCE, or Christianity, Religion and the Bible versus Philosophy and Science," is the title of a pamphlet of thirty-two pages published by Dr. Pilkington, who is well known to the attendants at the Liberal meetings, where the Doctor frequently speaks. The little work has for its motto: "The truth shall make you free," and it contains many good and truthful ideas, although clothed in somewhat crude English. The Doctor does not profess to be a fine writer, nor even a profound thinker, but merely a plain, common sense man of practical ideas. He briefly reviews Bible history, for the purpose of showing that the Fathers of the church" were ignorant men, and never sought for the foundation of their opinions, and hence their goodness, even to this day, has not atoned for their ignorance, as it has resulted in a despotic religion so much to the detriment of the human family." The work is mainly historical, containing in epitome the prominent facts given in Draper's History of Civilization, and "The Conflict between Science and Religion," by the same author. The Doctor is evidently hopeful of the future; he believes "Nature is bound to assert her rights," and says t has already come to this, that "Catholicism, orthodoxy and science, as adhered to by their advocates, are perfectly incompatible? They cannot live together-one or the other must yield. Mankind will make their choice, as intelligence, interest or individuality predominates. For sale at the bookstores. Price 25cts. Would it not be well for the "Spiritualists' Union" to come down from the fourth story of their present location, and take Charter Oak Hall, now, while they can get it? No large society can ever be built up in a location so near heaven and so difficult of access as the one they now occupy. Come down, Zacheus, come down! BARBARIAN MONEY. From The Index. The use of substances of intrinsic value as the materials of a currency is a barbarism.-RUSKIN. How long shall it dwell in the bosom of civilization to poison the fountains of its life? All national money was first barbarous-is now semibarbarous; and while it continues we can never attain a higher state than semi-civilization. We cannot call society civilized where men prey upon or live upon the labor of others. We must have a money to correspond with our progress in science and the mechanic arts, or "history will continue to repeat itself" "world without end," because the same causes will always produce the same results. God is not mocked." If we were called upon for the first time in the world's history to devise a medium of exchange or money, should we be likely to go to digging into the bowels of the earth or hunting in the gorges of mountains for metals the most scarce, or diving into the depths of the ocean for pearls most difficult and dangerous to obtain, to find it? This was appropriate enough to barbarians, with their meagre cerebral development, their fondness for trinkets and glitter of diamonds; but would it be becoming a people professing to be civilized? Should we not be likely to search our intellects instead of the mountains and the ocean's bed-draw upon our knowledge of science and the arts, and see if something could not be devised better for a medium of exchange than pieces of a metal so scarce as to set everybody scrambling for their possession? thing better even than parchment money based exclusively upon a metal? Should we not seek to relieve mankind of this disease called avarice, and try to save our souls from contamination and our bodies from want and suffering? It seems to me, if the thing was now for the first time proposed, the task would be easy; but our minds are mystified and stultified by the use of a false money. some in the hands of responsible parties, where they could be delivered at the labor cost of production and exchange estimated in the number of hours of labor, and not in the turns of the currency. The parties holding these deposits, whether individuals or agencies established (or sanctioned, as the post-office or express companies are sanctioned) by the people, could issue certificates to depositors to one-half or two-thirds of the amount of the labor cost of production, risk, and exchange, entitling the holder of each certificate to a specific kind, quality, and quantity of these deposits, at the same time giving him a receipt for the full amount deposited. This would furnish the money required, and plenty of it. The "volume" of such money in circulation would not would always be redeemable in gold, silver, copper, or need regulating by the financial wisdom of legislators. It some other equally "valuable" merchandise, except temporarily and locally in case of fire or some other accident, which would be covered by insurance. It would never be above or below par. It could not be monopolized, nor could interest be obtained upon it, and there could be no fluctuation in prices, but only a steady diminution in prices as the labor cost of production should be diminished by the introduction of scientific methods and labor-saving machinery. But, owing to prejudices and false habits, some modification of this proposition must be made, or people could not be persuaded to believe it was money at all, it is so simple. Yet the money of the future must contain the elements proposed in the foregoing, or it would not secure the emancipation of labor, which is the object in view. The money now in use is elementarily the same in character that money has always been. It is adapted only to speculative purposes; i. e., to buying and selling for gain," which is a crime against society denounced by the Bible and condemned by the wise and good of all ages. It is not adapted to, nor can it be used to effect an equitable exchange of labor or service; yet the character of a circula- . ting medium must be such as to effect that, or labor will continue to be plundered and enslaved. No analytical statement is required to prove this, for we have only to look at the world's history and its condition to-day to see that those who do the work of the world and create its wealth (except the natural wealth which God has created, and which should bear no price) are always poor, and vastly the larger number suffering extreme poverty. Those who build all the houses, own, comparatively, no houses. Those who make all the clothing and fancy goods have only the coarsest of the former and shabbiest of the latter to use, and scant at that; and because men do not always work with alacrity, all the day time, under these circumstances, they are often called lazy by those who never performed a useful day's work in their lives. O Shame, where is thy blush! The first question we should be likely to ask ourselves would probably be: What function do we want a medium of exchange, or money, to perform? Do we want it to enable the cunning and crafty to enrich themselves by the labor of the simple and honest? Do we want it to be an instrument in the hands of the more intelligent by which they may appropriate from two to four fifths of the laborproducts of the less intelligent? Do we want it to enable a Stewart or an Astor to own half a city like New York? Or to enable the Scotts and Vanderbilts to become kings of highways [highway men are not so dangerous]; or a few men to own Fall River, Boston, Lowell, Lawence, the State itself; or a Slater to own three villages, and virtually the inhabitants thereof, in Webster, Worcester County, Mass? I think we want none of these. But do we want justice and equity established in this nation-in this world of ours?"money [of the past] is the root of all evil." But I hear If we do, then the answer to the first question is simple and easy: A medium of exchange, or money, should enable all persons to exchange either labor or service (or laborproducts, which is practically the same thing) one with another, the world over, with no loss to either, but with all the equal and mutual advantage to each by which two farmers or carpenters now "change works.' وو There are a variety of ways in which this could be done; and if there was no false system of money to be superseded, the following, I think, would be best adapted to equitable and universal exchange: Let depositories (or warehouses) be established in sufficient numbers, and in locations to suit the public convenience, where every kind of staple articles, not subject to immediate decay, could be deposited No adage is more true than the one which says that some one say, It is not the money, but the love of it that does the harm. But if money was but the representation of Truth, Justice, and Equity, would the love of it harm any one? And such is the kind of money we must have, or labor is doomed to be enslaved in the future as it has been in the past, with all the direful train of consequences. Is such a kind of money possible? Yes. Can it be introduced in the midst of a false civilization and in the presence of a false money? Yes, as easily as railroads were introduced in the midst of streets and turnpikes, or telegraphs in the presence of post-horses and ocean-mails, if only the intelligent and conscientious people of the nation will it. E. D. LINTON. A year ago, as the reader remembers, a temperance crusade was inaugurated by some pious women, and praying bands, supported by the clergy, visited the saloons, and a great excitement was kicked up, At that time the following verses were written; but as COMMON SENSE is in favor of temperance, they were not published, we being willing to have good done, by whatever means and however inconsistently. Now the storm has passed. The atmosphere is less turbulent, but no purer than it was before the furore. Liquor selling still goes on, in perfect harmony with our Christian civilization, and only now and then is there a remonstrative yelp against it from the pulpit of some honest dog, who, like poor Tray, has fallen into bad company, and might as well make the best of the religion they are all pledged to sustain, though it naturally leads to intemperance, to dishonesty, to mental imbecility and moral degradation. No matter; they are all to be regenerated some day, through the blood of Christ: Domine dirige nos. Sweet Jesus! couldst thou now behold The rage that frets thy prophets bold, And see each virgin of thy band How would it grieve thy heart to see Didst not thou at that marriage feast Brew several hogsheads, at the least, Till men" well drunk " drank well t'the last? In that blessed cup, which henceforth stood By swallowing with his daily food Deep draughts of this most precious blood? At least if rich enough to drain After they've gobbled up thy corse, Although they may indulge, perhaps, Loves Christ, and takes his whiskey "straight," Till "Rum and True Religion "bless Like Nicodemus, is new born." Lose opportunities to swill, That all the world may know that we Than we deny onrselves to be SHERRY COBBLER. Young Men's Christian Ass., Sutter st., April 15, 1874. THE WONDERFUL HEALER AND CLAIRVOYANT MRS. C. M. MORRISON. This celebrated Medium is the instrument or organism used by the invisibles for the benefit of humanity. The placing of her name before the public is by request of her Controlling Band. They, through her organism, treat all diseases and cure in every instance where the vital organs necessary to continue life are not destroyed. Mrs. Morrison is an UNCONSCIOUS TRANCE MEDIUM, CLAIRVOYANT AND CLAIRAUDIENT. From the very beginning, hers is marked as a most remarkable career of success, such as has seldom if ever fallen to the lot of any person. No disease seems too insidious to remove, nor patient too far gone to be restored. Mrs. Morrison, becoming entranced, the lock of hair is submitted to her control. The diagnosis is given through her lips by the Band, and taken down by her Secretary. The original manuscript is sent to the Correspondent. When Medicines are ordered, the case is submitted to Mrs. Morrison's Medical Band, who give a prescription suited to the Her Medical Band use vegetable remedies, (which they magnetize) combined with a scientific application of the magnetic healing power. case. Diagnosing disease by lock of hair, $1.00. (Give age and sex.) SPECIFIC FOR EPILEPSY AND NEURALGIA. Address MRS. C. M. MORRISON, Boston, Mass., Box 2519. For the very best Photographs go to Bradley & Rulofson's Gallery, with an elevator, 429 Montgomery Street, San Francisco. Subscribers and Advertisers who change their residence without notifying the Business Manager are sxpected to pay the full amount agreed upon. Those suffering from that most annoying of the minor miseries of human life-a cold in the head-or from catarrh in any form, should try Dr. Evory's Diamor d Catarrh Remedy. Just try it-that's all. Sold at this office, and by all druggists. Send Austin Kent one dollar for his pamphlets on Free Love and Marriage, etcHe has been seventeen years physically helpless, confined to his bed and chair, is poor and needs the money. He sends four or five well-written essays for one dollar. His address is AUSTIN KENT. Stockholm, St. Lawrence Co., N. Y., Box 44. DR. R. P. FEELOWS, THE GREAT HEALER.-This distinguished Magnetic Physician has been before the public for many years, during which time he has performed the most astonishing cures ever recorded in the history of healing, ancient or modern. He is now permanently located at Vineland, N. J., where he is devoting himself to healing the sick in every State in the Union by his Magnetized Powders. The cures that are being performed almost daily by the powder, speak volumes in its favor. It can be procured of the Doctor at $1 per box, or $5 for six boxes. Why remain in your diseased condition? A Journal of Live Ideas. SPIRITUALISM, ITS PHENOMENA AND PHILOSOPHY, SOCIAL REFORM, WOMAN SUFFRAGE, ETC. SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., SATURDAY, MAY 1, 1875. VOL. 1. Signs of the Times. The town of Sutro, Nevada, has one hundred inhabitants and four saloons. Mrs. Mary A. Livermore is expected to visit California this summer. She is now lecturing in Ohio. Mr. Lick has expressed his willingness to have the tenants of his property pay over their monthly rentals of some $20,000 to the original trustees. There has been an unusual increase of dementia among the inmates of the Liverpool Workhouse, which is attributed to religious excitement. At the last annual meeting of the Index Association, the Directors were authorized to change it from a weekly paper to a monthly magazine, should they deem it expedient. Since blonde hair has become fashionable it is interesting to know that dark hair can be turned blonde, that is killed, by washing frequently in a weak solution of soda twice a day. It is a significant fact that the Boston News, which is the only out-spoken Woman Suffrage daily paper in Boston, also takes the lead in assailing the fraud and jobbery which disgrace the state and municipal government. The free training schools established by the Woman's Educational Society, New York City, are accomplishing much good, enabling girls to get a knowledge of housework, etc., so as to render them self-supporting. An incorporation has been organized in San Francisco to provide for women the medical aid of competent women physicians, and to assist in educating women for nurses, and in the practice of medicine and kindred professions. The institution is called the Pacific Dipsensary for women and children. The Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Mrs. Minor of St. Louis, recently decided that women are citizens, but that the right to vote does not attach to citizens under the Constitution of the United States, therefore they have not that right in States the laws of which do not confer on them the right. Vineland has grown in twelve years to be a community of over twelve thousand inhabitants, and has never been cursed with a single place where liquor was sold as a beverage. As a consequence there are no destitute, no business for criminal courts, a light tax for municipal purposes and the best of educational facilities. The founders of the town of Lompoc, Cal., have followed the example of Vineland. One of the queerest signs of the times is the avidity with which church people seek to make it appear that Spiritual manifestations are all frauds-thus attempting to knock away all the foundation millions have for a belief in the other life. M. D. Conway writes from London a ridiculous story about the "exposure" of a medium, and adds: "There is not a medium of any fame in London whose fraud has not been exposed to the satisfaction of all except the large class of those who wish to be deceived." No. 50. The New York Tribune has now an average daily circulation of 50,000 copies. Ruth Ellis, a maiden lady of Central New York, is said to be the writer of the Saxe Holm stories. James Lick gave $2,500 to aid the Centennial exhibition in Philadelphia, and expects to give more. The Michigan House of Representatives has defeated a bill to tax church property when in excess of fifteen thousand dollars. In California no church property is exempt from taxation. The Sacramento Record justly says our present mode of education is a failure. It has not increased intelligence, has not helped good morals, culture, courtesy or civilization generally. It is merely the exercise of the memory on words. Geo. Jacob Holyoake's book, the "History of Co-operation in England," is dedicated to Wendell Phillips "whose voice, confronting dangerous majorities, animating forlorn hopes, has ever been raised in behalf of the slave, black or white, in bondage to the planter or capitalist." Christian papers mention as a proof of virtue the fact that Sir Arthur Helps resigned his office as clerk to the council on the ground that a poor man like himself ought not to hold a position where he would be exposed to temptation. To our mind this, instead of a proof of virtue, is a confession of weakness, a want of virtue. The Presbyterian Relief Fund for Disabled Ministers is $45,000 in debt, and cases of suffering among its beneficiaries are reported. The New York Independent intimates that the Society is not worthy of support, and says every communicant sent as a pauper to the poor-house is a living witness that the church of which he is a member is not worthy to bear the name of Christ. Talmadge, the clerical clown of Brooklyn, referring to the newspaper accounts of the Beecher trial, said, "Three daily papers came into my house to-day, containing 123 feet of printed pollution." In the same sermon he said to his hearers, "Kick the infernal stuff out of your house." Example is better than precept, but it is precept, not example, that Talmadge deals in. Hammond is drawing crowded houses in Oakland. It is pitiable to see a man demean himself as Hammond does on the platform, more pitiable to see learned clergymen sustaining such a mountebank, but most pitiable to see the crowds of people flocking after this coarse, vulgar swaggerer. Such a It is most pitispectacle excites contempt for our fellow men. able, indeed. Dr. A. L. Stone, Rev. Robert Patterson and twenty other San Francisco clergyman, signed a card printed in the New York Tribune denying the truth of the Chronicle's reports of Hammond's meetings, and recommending in high terms Hammond and his method. Every unprejudiced person who attended the meetings know that the reports were true, and that Hammond's "method" is simply contemptible. MY CHURCH. BY J. W. MACKIE. For Common Sense. About fourteen years ago, in an obscure part of Sonoma county, a friend and I were offered on very liberal terms the care of a farm, by an elderly gentleman who had a short time before been made a widower. He was a member of a Methodist church, and probably hearing that we were not quite orthodox, orthodoxy being requisite to successful farming, he paid us a visit, and proposed asking me a few questions, before the bargain was ratified, to which I assented. "Have you any objections to prayer in the house?" "Certainly not; this is a free country, and I would not be worthy of the country, if I objected to any person praying anywhere." You do not understand me; I mean are you willing that we should all join together around one common altar, before retiring for the night, and together supplicate the Throne of Grace?" "That does indeed change the question. I am willing that all men should pray when and where it suits them, but I do object to being forced to pray myself, or to enter into any contract to pray." "Are you a member of a church?" "Yes.' "Which Church?" My church is a large one; entrance into my church does not depend on the second birth, but on the first. Being born the first time ensures a membership in my church, and nothing but death can cut a person off from my church." This seemed to shock the old man, and I added: “I have yet left me a reverence for grey hairs; it is not my purpose to shock your feelings, only I must be truthful to you and myself, for I would not accept a deed of your farm and be a hypocrite. I am an Infidel, having no fear of hell and no hope of heaven." The old man arose, saying that he thought it best not to let us have the farm; so I was deprived of the experience which would have proven whether I would have been a suc cess as a farmer. But while the church universal includes every human being, and has for its object every human purpose and aspiration, yet we must be sectarian enough to work with subdivisions, to associate ourselves with those who can assist us in accomplishing certain ends, or in promoting our peculiar growth. Whatever association assists us in our progressive development, public or secret, in the theatre or ball-room, the lodge or sewing circle, church, chapel or cathedral, synagogue or mosque, or wherever men and women meet for a common purpose, that is where our branch of the church universal is located. But while associations can be made subservient to our good and growth, So soon as they become a hindrance it becomes our duty as members of the higher church to sever the connection and pass on to higher ends and nobler purposes. In doing so the association to which we have belonged will probably look upon us as an enemy; especially what are called religious churches or associations, each one of which considers itself the church, the ne plus ultra. This is called bigotry, and is not confined to Christian churches. It seems to be rather an infirmity of human nature, rather than a peculiarity of any denomination. Christianity must be bigoted in its dogmatical teachings, claiming, as it does, the ipse dixit of the Infallible as the source of its teachings; but Infidelity, with less pretension, is often quite as bigoted. Who is more bold, and asserts with greater pertinacity, the boundary line of thought and doctrine than do many Infidels or freethinkers? Free Thought! how many Infidels are there who have liberality enough to admit that another man's free thought led him to believe in Christianity, in Judaism, Mohammedanism or Buddhism? We who dare to lay claim to the holy name of Freethinkers or Liberals should be willing to accede to others what we claim for ourselves, the unbounded liberty to think in any direction we please, as we please. Is my brother or sister a spiritualist? so he or she has a right to be, and I have no right to question their honesty, as they have no right to question mine when I declare that I am not. Yet I have seen Spiritualists and Materialists, as I have seen Christians, abuse a brother or sister because a difference of opinion was expressed. Each one sees his own truth so clearly that he will not believe in the blindness of those who do not see it, as also he will not believe there can be any imperfection in his own vision. But in the great universal church, my church, all views are right, though partial and fragmentary; and if my little section of truth seems to conflict with another section seen by some one else, instead of playing the bigoted fool by denouncing the man or woman, or their truth, I should be content to allow them to view truth as they please,or as they can. No soul will accept as truth any doctrine or any church if there be nothing in that doctrine or church which it needs. In every form of doctrine ever given by men to men there must have been contained something which satisfied the demands of the human soul. It may have been false in fact, erroneous in logic, and in many respects detrimental to human progress and happiness, yet it must have contained a germ of truth needed by those who received it. Freedom to think, freedom to speak, and freedom to act in every sense of the word, where such freedom does not interfere with the like freedom of others, is the issue of the age, and is the only issue of a liberal Liberalism. place no member of the universal church, my church, has We must each and all of us abdicate the papal chair, a a right to occupy. |