Hellraisers Journal – Sunday September 21, 1902
Scriptures for Mr. Baer, President of Reading Railroad by Divine Grace
From the Appeal to Reason of September 20, 1902:
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Scripture for Mr. Baer.
While Mr. Baer, president by divine grace of the Reading railroad, is diligently searching for a title to the life, liberty and happiness of his employes, he might get more light on the subject by reading the following selections from the bible.
Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;
To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!
And what will ye do in the day of visitation and in the desolation which shall come from afar? to whom will ye flee for help? and where will ye leave your glory?
Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
-Isaiah, chapter X., verses 1 to 4.
Go to, now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.
Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.
Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.
Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
-James chapter v, verses 1 to 6.
It might also be profitable for Mr. Baer, whose intimacy with the scriptures is unquestioned, to meditate upon the statement therein contained concerning the rich man, the camel and the needles’ eye.
[Emphasis added.]
The Appeal to Reason further opines regarding Divine Rights Baer:
At last we have one who speaks with authority. Mr. Baer announces that he holds the coal mines by Divine Authority. The preachers and other religionists will now have some definite intermediary with Deity. Send up your prayers to Baer. It is evident that the possession of money is not an evidence of intelligence.
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The Northwestern Christian Advocate does not support Mr. Baer in his claim to divine connection, but endorses the statement of a Chicago paper which says that he is a member of one of the most persistent and offensive law breaking organizations in the country.
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If Mr. Baer and God are in partnership in the railroad and mining business would it not be a good thing to place the better talent of the two in control of the business and let Mr. Baer get out among the hands and rustle with a pick and shovel?
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Standing Prosperity.
A wise man once said in response to the toast, “Prosperity;”
“Here’s to, your, prosperity, may you stand it like a man.”
“That’s a better sentiment than you think it is,” said he. “It takes a clever man to stand prosperity. Any fool can stand adversity; he has to.”
[…..]
Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad, and this latter day madness for money that makes a slave of the laborer, an insatiable brute of the capitalist and a blasphemer of such as Mr. Baer, can result only in the total discomfiture of those who can not stand prosperity that has come to them through the machine-making genius and patient toil of labor.
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[Emphasis added.]
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SOURCES & IMAGES
Quote Divine Rights Baer July 17, 1902
https://ehistory.osu.edu/exhibitions/gildedage/1902AnthraciteStrike/content/Baer
Appeal to Reason
(Girard, Kansas)
-Sept 20, 1902, pages 1, 3 & 4
https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/appeal-to-reason/020920-appealtoreason-w355.pdf
See also:
Hellraisers Journal – Friday September 12, 1902
George F. Baer Expounds Upon the Divine Rights of the Capitalist
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