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; ki the Great Change.
_ up our voices, the bells and I, to sound the joy of Christmas,
THE
YERSDALECOMMERCIAL.
VOL XXXVIII
MEYERSDALE, PA, DECEMBER 20. 1917
NO. 50
SOCIALISM---THE HOPE OF THE WORLD
BY HELEN KELLER
Hear, oh, hear! ' The Christmas bells are ringing peal
upon peal, chime upon chime! Full and clear they ring, and
the air quivers with joy. What is the burden of their music
as it floats far and wide? Awake! Awake! it says. A
great Change is coming—peace upon earth, good-will to all
men.
Together the bells and I call aloud, and we are not
afraid! Peace upon earth, good-will to all men! Awake!
Awake! We shall not rest again until good-will reigns,
voice of the angels is heard in all the circuits of the earth.
We shall not slumber until light ariseth to all who sit in
darkness, neither shall we sleep again until there is peace
and gladness and content in the hearts of men. For a
Great Change is coming, a wondrous Change, a World-change
that shall fulfill all joy in a happy humanity,
Ring the Great Change, O Bells! Hear, oh, hear, all peo-
ple! Long and confident the Christmas bells are ringing.
Above our houses and through our open doors their voices
fly. And they say: Awake! Awake! The night of man’s
captivity is at an end, the dawn of peace between man and
man hasteneth to come and it shall not tarry!
The bells and I are strong with a new hope, vibrant with
expectancy of this Great Chanze. Already men and women
are working and thinking and living for this Great Change,
and their efforts are mighty with the might of intelligence
«nd good-will. For them the bells of a world-Christmas are
ringing, and shall not cease with the brief hours of one glad
day. Every day, every year, these men and women plan
work, and dream, rand their works are the heavenly mes-
sage of the sweet-toned bells!
Hear, oh, hear the bells! For ages the Christmas bells
havd rung their message of peace upon earth and good-will
to all men. For ages they have summoned the sleeping world
to a new life, a new ideal, a new joy. But too often they
have sounded in ears sealed wi‘h igrorance. - Too often has
their glad news passed unheeded: “O children of men, your
happiness lies but your will away from you. Unite, love,
serve all, and ye shall grasp it.”
Now, here and now, the bells and I will be heard! Not
once a year, but from morning to morning we will be heard
singing exultant, sure of our message. Let the sun pour its
sar -somg- up and down and all-around; our song
Too long men turned their faces from
their tasks, from the needs of the common day, and fixed
their eyes upon a better life, instead of bringing that life
into their earthly days. The Great Change ushers a true
religion into the world, now and here—-services for all men
equally, devotion of each to the good of all alike:
Hear, oh, hear the Christmas bells as they greet the
sun, the frost, the sailing cloud, the roving wind! Are they
not the bells of your childhood’s dearest joy, the bells of your
brightest memories, the bells of your highest hope? Do
they not voice your silent, baffled wish that all things shall
be made new, that there shall be no more cramped, darken-
ed lives, no more cruel customs, no more misery which
grinds the beauty, the sweetness out of the human soul? If
this wish came true, would it not be Christmas , indeed —
Christmas for all men, Christmas all the year?
Hear! To-day the bell and 1 call you to the Christmas
of mankind. For it has begun and we shall not falter nor
turn back until every man and woman and child in this land
and in every land has a chance to live happily and to develop
his mind and do the best of which he is capable. ‘Generation
after generation has learned from its mother’s lips the story
of the birth of Christ, and slowly the wecrds have borne
flowers—and the fruit is the Great Change. The Great
Change is the new faith, the new effort to secure for every
man his full share of the means, the comforts, the health,
the knowledge, the virtue, which humanize life. As we lift
we call to you: Approach this new faith with open hearts.
Let us follow it fearlessly, wherever it may lead us, even
though it lead us far from the old and cherished beliefs.
Dear they are indeed and hard to part with; but this new
faith is too appealing, too bou ad up with all that is deepest,
most. tender, most necessary in human experience to be put :
aside.
"SIGNIFICANT STATEMENTS not end in vindictive action of
BY PRESIDENT WILSON any kind; that no nation or,
people shall be robbed or pun-
Hear, oh, hear the Christmas bells! How they answer !
one another from end to end of the country, peal upon peal,
chime upon chime! From every ‘spire and tower they utter
the good tidings of great joy, the tidings of the Great Change
the cry that no humane heart can ‘resist: “Brotherhood!
Brotherhood! Brotherhood! :
Listen! Heed! For this is the’ harvest time of Iove.
Souls are closer drawn to other souls. All that we have read
and thought and hoped comes to fruition at this happy time.
Our spirits are astirr. We feel within us a strong desire to
serve. A strange, subtle force, a mew kindness, animates
man and child. A new spirit is growing in us. No longer
are we content to relieve pain, to sweeten sorrow, to give the
crust of charity. We dare to give friendship, service, the
equal loaf of bread, the love that knows no difference of
station. {
Hear, oh, hear the Christmas bells! Everywhere, every-
where they remind the world: Forget not the poor, nor let
the hope of the needy fail. &
The bells and I sing and are glad for Christmas, the day
of all these who labour and kzep the world alive. For them
we sing and we shall not be still. The bells and I sing the
workers of the world, on the Day of Him who was a boy in
the carpenter’s shop. This is the pirit of Christmas, that
they whose lives are useful, whose deeds are good should re-
ceive the gift of gold, frankincense and myrrh. Should they
stop their labour for a season, the world would starve. The
stars would lock down upon a world of silent cities, upon a
devastated earth. Punctual as the bells the workers come
and go. In winter’s cold and summer's heat they hasten to
the work of the world. Nothing halts them—sickness, fatigue
grief nor death. The mills of the w rld turn hourly, daily.
We can tell the minute of their coming and going to their
tasks; day after day, month after month, year after year the
procession of the workers pas:ecs our doors. Through thous-
ands of years have they been faithfpl, and Christmas shall
open our hearts and let us say that jn their lives the whole
world lives. i
Listen! Between the swelling peals of the Christmas
bells do you not hear the tramp of ¢ ountless feet? Behold
the workers have marched in the night toward the land of
their hearts’ desire. In the night of long ages they have
heard the call of the Great Change and at length they have
answered. Through darkness, through anguish and horror
they have risen to the awful height of manhood. Century
by century they have grown in po er and intelligence. For-
.ver and forever onward chimz thd hells. T has be
no halting in the’ vast juorney mankin as come.
has been wasted, nothing has been lost. Every effort has
counted. Eevery purpose, every pulse has fulfilled its task;
incessantly men have moved onward to the dawn of the
Great Change.
Can you not see the wonders which the Christmas bells
herald? Do they not sing to you of world-systems evolving
and dissolving, coming and going like leaves upon the trees,
like the human generations? And again they shall evolve
into the Great Change. Asthe notes of the bells rise, blend,
and melt away, so have the life-songs of old civilations swell-
ed to the heavens, echo upon echo, and sunk into silence.
Persia, Greece, and Rome have flourished and decayed. The
civilization of Briton, Frenchman, German, American is
passing, changing into the broader, nobler ideals of the
Great Change—liberty, equality, and brotherhood.
Listen with your hearts. Ina land put your will away
from you, hear, oh, hear the Christmas bells ring, the winds
blow, the rivers run, the earth break forth into flowers and
the trees burst into leaf! Hear the birds singing and mating,
and hear children freed from labour shouting in the streets;
young men and maidens smiling and marrying, old people
praising God that the Great Change, has come in their day.
“We have died to live again. We have suffered that we may
rejoice and be glad. What matters it—all upheavals, all
revolutions, all systems sent to wreck, if the Great Change
comes afterward?”
Then ring. all the bells on earth!
in the morning of brotherhood. Ring man’s great joy from
pole to pole, from sea to sea! Tug with mighty arms at the
bell rope that the sound may ring out full and far and long!
Light .the world’s Christmas tree with stars. Heap offerings
upon its mighty branches. Bring the Yule-log to the world-
fireplace. Deck the -world-house with holly and mistletoe
and preclaim everywhere the Christmas of the human race!
'Tis Christmas Day
| $ iis :
cracy must first be shown the ple who enjoy no privilege and| SAD ACCIDENT
utter futility of its claims to] have very simple and unsophis-
power or leadership in the] ticated standards of right and |
modern world. It is impossible wrong, is in the air and all|
BY EBER K. COCKLEY
Yes, Socialism is the hope of the world.
the way for the coming Monarchy of Man.
Order of Humanity. It regards human lives above sacred
dividends. It protests against little children being dragged
from the school and playground and tender women being
forced from the home to fill the coffers of the parasites.
It opposes, condemns, the institution, the party, the creed
which demands that it must be served and obeyed; crowned
with flowers, starred and studded with gold, while the peo-
ple become starving paupers, homeless, friendless, shivering
in mildewed tatters.
It regards seriously the general truth in history that
men ought to be free and recognizes that this freedom
should be complete, absolute—essential freedom is the right
to differ and that right must be sacredly respected as well as
the right of free thought, free inquiry and free speech to all
persons, everywhere. :
; It seeks to create a universal citizenship by means of
universal education. It encourages, demands, the develop-
ment of a high degree of intzlligence as an indispensable
condition of its strength and perpetuity. It contends that
where every person, by the discipline of virtuous schools, has
been in youth rooted and grouaded in the fruitful soil of
knowledge, the salutary principles and practices of self-
restraint and generous ways of freedom—here indeed has
neither the military leader with his blood-stained sword,
the political demagogue with his fallacy, nor the king with
his crown and divine right, any longer a place or vocation
among the people.
It proposes equal opportunity for everyone and provides
for the full and unlimited natural development of everyone,
recognizing the historical fact that when man’s heart, his
brain and limbs are unbound, he straightway begins to flour-
ish, to triumph, to be glorious.
What for centuries has been the dream, the hone of
suffering humenity is now about to be realized. g Our race
has ‘risen by ages of toil and sorrowful evolution into the
empire of promise. The mass=: are awakening.
It is preparing
It is the New
All things whatsoever ye would that men should do unto
you do ye even so unto them.— Christian philosophy.
Do as you would be dois by.— Persian.
One should seek for others the happiness one ‘desires ?
for one’s self.—Buddhist Bik
What you would not wish done to yourself do mot do
unto cothers.—Chinese. Fog
‘Let none of vou trest his brother in a way he himself
en x ; aaa . ;
Nothing | would dislike to be treated. —" howmedan. =
Do not that to a neighbor which you would take ill from
him.—Grecian. § i
The Law imprinted on the hearts of all men is to love the
members of society as themselves.—Roman. : alias
Whatsoever you do not wish your neighbor to do to you
do not unto him.—Jewish. "is
Sa
BY CARDINAL GIBBONS
There is something radiczlly wrong in our social and
economic conditions when the employer becomes suddenly
rich while. the toiler with the utmost thrift and economy
can scarcely keep the wolf from the door.
BY ABRAHAM LINCOLN
To insure to every worker the full product of his labor,
as nearly as possible, is a worthy object of any good govern-
ment. : :
BY FRANCIS E. WILLARD
I believe that competition is doomed. The trust, whose
single object is to abolish com petition, has proved that we
are better without than with it, and the moment corporations
control the supply of any product, they combine. What the
Socialist desires is that the corporation of humanity should
control all production. Beloved comrades, this is the friction-
less way; it is the higher way; it eliminates the motives for
a selfish life; it enacts into our every day living the ethics of
Christ's gospel. Nothing else will do it; nothing else can
bring the glad day of unmiversai brotherhood.
Oh that I were young again, and it weuld have my life!
It is God’s way out of the wilderness and into the promised
land. It is the very marrow of Christ's gospel. It is Chris-
tianity applied,
knocking her down on the track
AT BOYNTON and inflicting the above men-
tioned personal injuries. The
On Monday morning, be- janch crew. was notified by
Quoted from the President’s ished because the irresponsible
Address
cember 4th.
to Congress De-|
“When the German people
have spokesmen whose word
we can believe and when those|
spokesmen are ready in the]
name of their people to accept
the common judgement of the
nations as to what shall hence-
forth be the bases of law and
of covenant for the life of the
world—we shall be willing and |:
glad to pay the full price for
peace and pay it ungrudgingly.
“We know what that ‘price
will be. It will be full, impar-
tial justice—justice done at
every point and to every nation
the final settlement must af-
fect, our enemies as well as
our friends.”
The Voice of the People. |
“You catch, with me, the]
voices of humanity that are in!
the air. They grow daily more
audible, more articulate, more |
persuasive, and they come from |
the hearts of men everywhere. |
They insist that the war shall
to apply any standard of jus-|
: ; tice so long as such forces are
eves Seve deep and ‘rihecked and undefeated as|
9, ny a Tr that has! the present masters of gor
1s thi 0 "man command. Not until that]
been expressed in the formula, | has been done can Right be.
‘no annexations, no contribu-' get yp as arbiter and peace-|
tions, no punitive indemnities.’| maker among the nations. But!
Just because this crude formula! when that has been done—as, |
expresses the Instingtive Judger God willing, it assuredly willl
ment as to right oi plain Men je__we shall at last be free to]
everywhere, it has been made| 3o an unprecedented thing and
diligent use of by the masters| this is the time to avow our
of German intrigue to lead the! purpose to do it.” |
people of Russia astray—and 3 |
the people of every other Renounces Secret Diplomacy,
country their agents cou “Statesmen must by this]
reach in order that a préma-|time have learned that the
ni pages might be broggit opinion of the world is every-
about before autocracy has) where wide awake and fully
been taught its final and con-| comprehends the issue in-
vincing lesson and the people|volved. No representatives of |
of the world put in control of| any self-governed nation will
their own destinies. dare disregard it by attepting,
“But the fact that a wrong| any such covenants of selfish-,
use has been made of a just| nee S9G CHRMIINEE Cr oof
Re a Ne aie | Vienne, aw
It might be brought under the | “The thought of the plain
patronage of its real friends.| people here and everywhere!
Let it be said again that auto-! throughout the world, the peo-|
rulers of a single country have
|
|
governments must henceforth| tween 8 and 8:30 o’clock, Mrs.
breathe if they would live. It, Richard Somerville, of Boynton
is in the full disclosing light| was instantly killed at that
of that thought that all policies| place, when the night Branch
must be conceived and execut-| train on the Baltimore and!
ed in this midday hour of the| Ohio railroad run her down on,
world’s life. the track and cut her head off |
“German rulers have been|and one hand also. The night]
able to upset the peace of the| crew had placed their empty!
world only because the Ger-: cars at the Hamilton mine and!
man people were not suffered | were running back to the water,
under their tutelage to share|plug to water the engine.
the comradeship of other peo-| While they were approaching!
ples of the world either in the P. and M. street car cross-|
thought or in purpose. They | ing in Boynton Mrs. Somer-!
were allowed to have no opin-| ville, who had just came out
jon of their own which might| of the postoffice, attempted to
be set up as a rule of conduct cross the track at the crossing,
for those who exercised auth-|but upon being warned by the]
ority over them. But the con- train crew not to cross, she;
gress that concludes this war <tepped back and walked down |
will feel the full strength of alongside of the track. She |
the tides that run now in the| made a second atempt to cross
hearts and consciences of free|in front of the approaching |
men everywhere. Its conclu-| train and was again warned to]
sions will run witth those] keep off the track until the|
tides.” | train passed. She stepped back]
el Eee ' off the track, but after going|
Beautiful Chinaware for, 2a little further down, leaped]
Christmas presents, i onto the track in front of the
at HABEL & PHILLIPS: caboose, which struck her,|
Mr. Somerville to take the
corpse to Meyersdale to be
dressed and put in shape for
burial. Her remains were
brought to her home here on
the 10:20 trolley Tuesday
morning, and Wednesday noon
were laid to rest in Hay’s ceme-
tery at Hay’s Mill. Funeral
services were conducted by the
Rev. F. B. Carney, the under-
taker was Mr. Reich, of Mey-
ersdale.
Mrs. Somerville was aged
71 years, 6 months and a few
days.
ELECTION NOTICE
The annual meeting of the
shareholders of the Second
National Bank of Meyersdale,
Pa., will be held at their bank-
ing house on Tuesday, January
gth, at 2:00 P. M., for election
of directors and the transac-
tion of any. other business that
may come before the meeting.
J. H. Bowman, Cashier.
OYSTERS, $1.75 per gal.,
at HABEL & PHILLIPS
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