SERMONS ON PROFITEERING

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 259, 29 July 1919, Page 6

SERMONS ON PROFITEERING

Sir,—lt is regrettable that a gentleman in the responsible position occupied by the Kev. J. G. Chapman should icisquoto Holy Writ; and on that misquote tion build up a high-sounding denounce* ment of wealth. In my Bible I read: "For the earth is the Lordjs and the fullness thereof." i Earth is not "wealth," but all wealth fames from the earth—the mother. Labour is Dot wealth, but all wealth is won by labour—the father. So> earth being the "jnother" and labour the "father" of wealth, wealth must 1)3 the' child of Earth and Labour, How then win it be a bad thing to have? Tho earth has he given to the children 1 , of men; not to some children but to all of them. Why are they not in possession? Why are they huLgrj-i' The cause of distress,' of high prices, of profiteering, of all uncharitableness, lias its base in the private ownership—by a few—of the earth that belongs to all tlw children of men. Seeing that labour wins from, the earth all wealth, \vhy does not labour own all this wealth? ' Because he allows those .who "toil not and spin not to (misappropriate the.bulk of it by means; of rent, Customs taxes, income taxes, stamp duties, etc. The astonishing part of' it is that the labourer—the .winner of all wealth—is in favour of this base system under which we exist; and ministers of the Gospel of St. Paul—not of Jesus—truckle to their prejudices by denouncing the middleman profiteer—a creature of circumstances—instead of pointing out the cause, and the remedy. A little book, price Is., anv stationers, called "Progress and Poverty," will explain the whole plan,—l am. etc., HETKGDIST.