The Opelousas courier., 1895-04-13
TRINITY AND ITS LANDED
PROPERTY.

HdiA again discusses the DUTY
or the Church Trustees.
To the Editor of the Tribune:
SIR: In my letter entitled MAY DC
What 1t Will with Its Own" to which
you reply editoria1ly, 1 showed that
our laws impose 4 fine in the shape OF
extra taxes, on those who improve
ths.rInements; that the secular Off
GERS id Trinity corporation are legally
oouna to such lawful administration
OF their trust as may result in the best
fettt4n to the corporation, and are not
1ustlhed IN lndulging their charitable
impulses at the loss of their revenue as
trustees; that, unless it is shown that
the moral right of the corporation to
the rent of land is not absolute, or up-
less we admit the difference alleged BY
some economists between property in
lano and other property, we must &C
knowledge that the trustees are doing
only what is required of the trustees of
a great landlord. Finally, | showed
That the church, as "Dr. Jekyll,"
should attend to the unjust tax system
which makes good buildings less profit
able than slums, rather than attempt
to serve both God and mammon, with
the compromise of "Philanthropy and
S per cent" in its own tenements.
L did not think it necessary to point
out that the trustees of Trinity church
are blamed, not for breaking any law,
nor because they are bad landlords, but
because, representing a church, and
keeping within the law, they are no
better than many other landlords.
You say "if Mr.. Halls theory, (mean-
ing Chancellor Kent's theory,) that a
corporation is not a moral agent, (see
Commentaries Vol. 2, Sec. 2s) is the true
one, there is nc reason why the church
(meaning the corporation) should not
be a pawnbroker and wiring the last
cent possible from the needs of the
poor Except by going into a bust
ness which is a monopoly, the church
could not wiring V the first cen
from the needs of the poor; on the con-
trary, its added competition would
bring easier terms within the reach of
the poor. Of this DR.. Greer takes ad-
vantage in his benevolent loan shops.
If the owning of slums or exclusive
Ownership of the earth, on which
the poor must live, is right in any case,
is as right for Trinity corporation as
it is for the Astors. If, on the other
hand, monopoly of land and specula-
ton in land are the creators of the
then it is no more virtuous to
build good tenements, which bring in
high rents, but are bad investments,
than it is to buy poor ones, which
bring in low rents, but are good invest
It may be even that the only thing
the trustees, as such, a do toward
repeating bad laws is to enforce, rather
than to mitigate, their necessary on
sequence. The true business of the
church, in its religious capacity, should
be to examine and tocorrect the unjust
social conditions which force our fellow
creatures to live in slums, and which,
rent or land, whether paid to indi-
RITUALS or to corporations, do in fact
'extract the last cent from the needs
If the poor"
Do not let The Tribune forsake its
ogic, because, until better conditions
ire established, eve a religious cor
must conduct its business at
in a business way. And do not
ct its readers close their eyes to the
act that the present condition of the
,oor is intolerable to us, if not to
The poor themselves, and that it is not
he tenements, but the conditions
which create tenements which need re-
,orm. Bolton HALL.
(The question is not the proper law
# ownership, but the moral right of
human beings composing a corpora
ion. secular or religious, to use their
mpersonal power as a corporation to
10 moral wrong to other human beings.
ED. Trihune.l