The herald., 1895-04-10
DR.. HERON AND APPLIED CHRISTIANITY
James q. Clark on DR.. Browns Criticism

| or three items which may interest you
| practically bearing out what | have sal
about the absolute need of intelligent an
capable people looking into this question
as it affects the very poor.
The very poor in New York pa.
! double the rent that we do. | have ha,
several measurements made of tenement
and the houses of well-todo people il
| New York. | had one of the worst court
| | know in the district where | hav,
been-l have been working in the Tentl
ward-measured | had one of the mos
beautiful parks overlooking Central parl
measured. and the people in the stinkint
court-a little, narrow, miserable court
not more than about fifteen or eighteer
feet across and some forty feet long, into
which 127 people breathe their breatf
every single night in the hot summer OF
the cold winter. The rooms off that
wretched place fetched per cubic foot ex,
actly twice as much rent as the beautiful
apartments overlooking Fifth avenue
brought. | say the po)r pay per cubic
foot generally twice as much rent. l say
they pay their taxes more honestly, per
haps because they cannot help it. but
they can't help it. There is no dodglng
taxes among the poor. They cannot
change their domicile; they cannot have
a lodge in New Jersey or home in West
chester or an estate in Long Island where
they pay their taxes.
n And that is a burning question that
we have all got to look fairly and squarely
in the face. ] know gentleman myself
in New York who is worth-and feels
this thing too-certainly more than w.
100000, and pays on quite as large pro-
portion Of his income of his property as
anybody else does, only he has happened
to be my confidant and told me what M the
amount was. He pays taxes on $3O, 00O
And know another man who is certainly
worth over $50, 900, 000 and think if |
were to mention his name you would
make it nearer $100, 600, 600, and who pays
taxes on 500, 600. That is the way we
do things in the City of New York.
But the poor man, gentleman, pays up to
the limit every time. That Is our sys-
tenn of indirect taxation. | suppose we
don't agree about that. Laughter. The
poor man pays $l5 ton for his coal and
IN New York he pays 200 per cent for his
water. You may not know that. but it is
true. His streets are not cleaned and all
the reek and all the possibility of epi-
demic that pours out from the nasty little
back interior tenements and out through
the narrow gates onto the snow and lies
there till it soaks off by some kindly rain
into the gutter, it is not removed for him.
He has to breathe it there and his children
and his wife wet their feet every time
they pass it. breathing it's nasty malarial
exhalations every time they open their
windows. 1t is not removed for him.
His streets are not cleaned. His water
tax is 200 per cent; his coal is $l5 n ton;
his banker is the pawnbroker and charges
him 80, 60 and 80 per cent. This is the
state OF things that goes on In our great
cities and this is the lot of the unskilled
aborer Now, gentlemen, we have got to
face these things. The sooner we face
them the better. And I am not simply
speaking of New York. | know something
/ bout Pennsylvania. 1 have been over
hose coal and coke fields in Pennsyl-
,ania, and | can tell you the very same
story only the illustrations may be differ
mt. | have seen these narrow, little wat
led houses-you can scarcely cali them
lnythiEg else, only novels; and | have
een the peoples poor furniture pushed
light out in the mud there, when there
we're no such things as sidewalks or any
hing else; pushed out IN the mud;
hose men not even allowed to own those
oyels as homes, il you could venture to
all them homes.''.
The foregoing by man whose wide ex
,erence and sympathetic observation
ualify him to Judge correctly, and whose
vord cannot be impeached, may. per-
laps. open DR.. Browns eyes-unless he
vilfully shuts them-to some OF the meth
IDS by which rich men like the Astors
md other tenement house landlords prey
lpon the poor.
OF course Prof. Heron ''means that in
crest is Iobebry.' - and that King Solo
non was right when he said: The rich
ule over the poor, and the borrower is
ervant to the lender" And did not
Brother Browns Saviour mean about the
anne thing when, he scotIrged the money
from the temple and when he
aid: 'Ye cannot serve God and Nam
non." And did not Moses and the pro-
'hets, without exception, regard usury in
precisely the same light, and does not
Rev. Brown look upon all these as au-
horitative if not infallble guides,
whom to repudiate or disregard is in
idelity, if not eternal damnation? In
hort, does he or does he not believe that
,hrist m cant what he said in the parable
If the ich man and in the sermon on the
mount? Or does he, like the puzzled red
nan, consider himself right and all these
and mile stones of the ages
ost?
In fact, is not Rev. Brown IN reality
lenying his Master in order to warm his
,wn hands and feet at the high priests
ire? 1t looks thus. But perhaps the
rowning item in the bill of indictment
lrawn by DR.. Brown against Professor
Heron is the one that inv Olives the ter
ible social heresy that the party of the
people sh .uld own the means of produc-
ion
This overwhelmingly awful proposition
Gems no less novel, startling and IAN
rchistIc" to the loyal, law and order low
ng soul of Brown than was to the court
# King George the Third the equally rev.
,lutionaTy and reasonable one that "All
nen are created free and ,qual and en-
lowed with an inaienable right to life.
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
But if the produ :ers themselves do not,
~ natural inheritance and "the law OF
natural selection" possess the first right
20 the instruments of production. who, in
he name of heaven does? If Mr.. Brown
succeeds in solving this conundrum to his
,wn satisfaction, perhaps he will then be
.ble to reveal to the world what outside
,arty has lawful right to own the pa
,er, ink, desk. fingers and brains through
which are evolved DR.. Browns sermons.
,roverb, Afraid to say his soul is his
)wn."
Finally the most witherng blast poured
,ut by Brown upon Heron is the charge
hat Dennis kearny and the Grinnell
professor agree on certain cardinal prin-
.iples OF social and civil economy. Allow
ng this to be true, is it not Just that
much better for Dennis. while non, the
worse for Heron? Or. to make the mat
er clear to Brother Browns vision, is a
,ood thing or sclf-evident truth any
,etter or any worse because sand-lotters.
" what Mr.. Brown styles .he ''mob,
discern and enjoy 1T in common with
and their clerical cham
,ions? Because Dennis KeaIny walks
Up and down Market street on his feet
Tl. - Ian