The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-26
ACTION OF THE MINISTER'S WHO
MARCHED In THE LINCOLN
PARADE.
so SAYS REV. w. B. WILLARD.
HE INFORMS HIS CONGREGATION
SPECIFICALLY THAT HE DID
NOT MARCH,
TENDS TO WIDEN THE BREACH
Already Existing Between the
Masses of Labor and the Chris
tian Church.

Rev. Watson B. Willard, of the Ply
mouth Congregational church, Waba-
sha street and Summit avenue, fired
a shot at the marching preachers last
evening when to his congregation he
said with some little show Of feeling:
THE only result of this ministers
procession will not be the winning of
votes. 1t will be In the intensified
bitterness between the church and the
working people. 1t will be a bitterness
that will require time to reduce" e
Rev. Mr.. Willard was considerably
worked up over the matter and before
concluding his sermon upon Bad
Boys he thought it necessary to clear
his own skirts Of stain by informing
his audience that he was not among
the marchers, and that he did not
approve of those who did march
II feel that 1 owe a personal ex-
PLANTATION to my audience. and I wish
to state that I did not march with the
ministers l feel that it is necessary
for me to say that 1 think it was I'M
wise for the ministers to take the posi-
ton they did, in the way they did.
am strenuous advocate of the
right of individual thought and strong
convictions, but it seems to me that
for ministers to march in a political
procession in a body is emphasizing
the ministerial profession as such too
strongly, and lessons the influence of
the clergy. I believe that it is all
right for pastors to march as citizens
and individuals perhaps, but not as
a body Of men.
When we think of the oppression
which the laboring man has endured,
and then of the crime in high places,
and the bitterness between the classes.
and the peculiar position which the
ministry bears to the laboring class,
we cannot but see that such actions as
those will only tend to enhance the
bitterness already secretly felt and
openly expressed.
What would you say If the judges
of the supreme and district benches
should have formed in line and march
ed at the head Of that procession /?
Would you not have been astonished =?
Yet it seems to me that the ministry
should in certain lines assume a
judicial position and stand between
the forces, without arraying itself
on either side, as a body or a profess
sion.
I think it was unwise and injudi-
cious for the ministry to have taken
the position it did, and the result will
not all be in the winning of votes, but
it will also be in the increased bitter
ness of the classes. Again wish to say
that I did not take part in the pro-
cession on Saturday.
1t was difficult to tell just how the
audience took the declaration from the
pulpit, but there were sundry mods
Of approval and shrugs of disapprova1
Many seemed to indorse the sentiment
that it was all right for the ministers
to march as Individually citizens if
they wanted to. but that it was un-
wise to march in a body
Rev. Mr.. Willard devoted the second
half of his address to the subject of
the training of the youth of the
cities.
The speaker cited at the outset the
execution of the two boys who were
executed in Ramsey county Jail two
years ago for murder. The speaker
called it a judicial murder. He said
the court, the jury, the sheriff and
those who OBLIGATED at the execution
were not at fault, but that it was the
great body polite which had blundered.
The fault was with the people
and the parents Rev. Mr.. Mil
lard quoted extensively from the
sketch of one of the young muir
derers written several days before his
execution. The story in intense pathos
attributed the life of crime to the lack
of a happy home. The young man, after
he was ten years old, had been driven
from home. He lost his position, grew
Respondent as he grew older because
poverty stricken, and then committed
the offense of stealing a loaf of bread
From that he went to further lengths
and wound up in murderer's cell.
Rev. Mr.. Willard attributed the breed
ing of young criminals and bad boys
to four causeS-first, to poor parentage;
second, to insufficient and Indifferent
municipal protection; third, to con-
tact with wickedness and the influence
of elders, and fourth, to the efforts of
over-zealous detectives and police
officers in bounding down a man who
has once been under sentence and who
may be striving to reform
Each of the four reasons was a great
factor in the breeding of young offend
ers. Children thrown into contact
with immoral and profane elders re-
ceive suggestion of evil The speaker
cited a report by Judge Kerr, showing
how boys who become messengers are
sent on errands and messages to places
which would make their parents blush
with shame. Rev. Willard made a
strong plea for closer attention to the
young boys in the home He believed
that better attention should be given
by the municipal government to the en-
forcement of the compulsory education
law, the curfew law, the saloon laws.
and others of q similar nature