Morning journal and courier., 1881-08-20
Saturday Morning, August 20, Iss1.'

TAXATION OF CHURCH PROPERTY.
 In the current number of the North 4n,<7.- ico1e Reuieao Rev. E. E. Hale discusses the
 important question 'fShall Church Property
 be Taxed ?'' in sharp and interesting way.
 MT. Hale thinks the whole question before
 our Legislature to-day, regarding the taxa
 tion of churches in America, is an effort to
 decide whether they are public or private
 charities. Up to recent time they were
 universally regarded as public charities. On
 the ground that they are public charities they
 have been generally exempted from taxation.
 But there has been change, for which MT.
 Hale believes the churches are themselves
 responsible. Many ministers are not 'tser-
 wants unto all" "When it happens that a
 clergyman, asked to bury poor actor, an-
 swers that it is none of his business, because
 the man does not belong to his parish when
 he-says , 44alfevss there is little church
 around the corner where they do such
 things, but that, really, he cannot, nor his
 church, that remark of his indi-
 cates new period, when churches
 are beginning to consider themselves private charities, and not public charities D
 The great Roman Catholic Church, MT. Hale charges, has. in this country, dropped
 wholly into this narrow habit, which con- siders churches as clubs, instituted for the benefit of their members. Thousands of Protestant clergymen have spent and been spent in the physical relief of poor persons belonging to the Roman communion. But who can name ten instances in America, where the Roman Catholic priest, in any neighborhood, has lifted 8 finger for Prot estant beggar? This church worships in 8 foreign language, maintains a foreign clergy, and-by an almost affected isolation-stands apart from the school system, the lyceum system, the public hospitals, and all general charities of America. They must be Roman Catholic institutions, or this church will have none of them" Then there has grown up habit, in our large towns, of building up what would be called in England "private chapels, where an attached, well educated 8 brilliant, learned and pious minister to serve it. 'In practice this thing amounts to this that that chapel is their private religious clubhouse, and the minister is the conse- crated steward of the club''
 These and other similar things, Mir. Hale believes, have made the public begin to doubt whether the churches ought to be exempted from taxation. He thinks, moreover, that many of the churches ought not to be ex- empt and proposes 8 novel scheme which will, in his opinion, do justice to all con- cerned. He says: 'In more equitable dis tinction we should tax all churches in form, and should exempt in practice those which proved their right to exemption. Let the test of this right be in the expenses of the charities of church outside the families of the organized corporation. What the social science people call outdoor relief is pre- cisely the side of charity which most disturbs the public functionaries of the State. It is precisely the side of charitable work on which churches, from their very nature and tradi- tions, can and ought to engage. Let every organized congregation, then, show to the assessing officers every year a precise account of the money it has spent in public charities as in it's poor relief, in it's hospitals, or similar public cares. No account can be more easy to prepare and audit Let every church be credited for this payment, and ex- empted, in proportion, from the tax on it's And let it's exemption go no far ther."
 This is fine theory, but we have no idea that it would work In New Hampshire the State discriminates between rich churches and poor. It taxes church property where it exceeds ten thousand dollars and exempts it where it is below that sum. Mir. Hale con- demns this plan, but we are inclined to think 1t would work better than his By his plan every church society would come before the board of assessors each year, and innumer- able hearings would have to be given those that should present claims for consideration on the ground of public ohari- ties. The impracticability of such a method would become apparent very soon.