The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1897-03-30
Clerical Alarmists.

We find the subjoined passage in q report
published yesterday by the Herald of q dis.
course delivered on Sunday morning by the
Rev. JOHN HALL of the Fifth Avenue Pres.
b~yterian Church,:
DIR HALL then repeated the statement which took
his hearers so much by surprise. He said that ON Q
recent visit to one Of the church's missions downtown,
no had been told by the superin tendeut that, in his
Judgment the greatest menace to the nation was to
be found not in the possibility of war with foreign
Countries. hut in the discomfort existing among those
with whom he daily came into contact. They envy
the wealthy their homes and property. he said. and
coret the possessions OF the more fortunate OF our
citizens. The danger OF war with q foreign nation
sTid the superintendent. is not nearly 90 threatening
rs is the feeling OF those who have little against those
who have much.'"
1t is noticeable that ak of this kind is
most frequently heard from clergymen. 1t
was the Rev. DIR. RAINsFoRD, for example,
who denounced in advance the Bradley
Martin fancy dress ball, as an ostenta-
tions display of wealth calculated to excite
the luminosity of the poor against the rich !;
and his incendiary utterances might have
provoked an assault upon the guests at the
ball if ample police precautions had not
been taken to prevent it. 1t is cIergymen
' Dy obSSA Suiuoyy hOlu w Duo
rich to execration, and apologize for the
hatred and the envy with which, they say,
the less favored by fortune regard them.
Now comes a mission superintendent, and,
through DIR. HALL as his m%outhpiece, pro-
mulgatcs the same anarchistic idea.
All these clerical alarmists overlook the
fact that the rich among us are few in num-
bor and that the poor constitute the vast
multitude. If what they say is true, there.
fore, the mass of the citizens of this country
envy the handful who have acquired wealth,
and are ready to rise up and rob them of 1t
by violence. We resent the charge and
pronounce 1t false.
Inc TACT IL that clergymen, mission su-
perintendents, and agents of charitable Or
CARNATIONS generally, come In contact al
most exclusively with dependents upon
charity, Of whom some are rendered what
they are by unavoidable misfortune, but of
whom the majority are chronic beggars,
who prefer begging to working, and who
naturally represent themselves as victims
OF a corrupt social system. Their almoners
hear their complaints, and unrefiectingly
assume that the whole population Of the
country shares their sentiments. 1t L. as
though dispensary physicians should con-
clude, from the condition of the patients
whom they treat, that everybody In the
world is suffering from like diseases.
That, as a whole, our people arc poor,
compared with tho few who are conspicu-
GUS for their riches, Is true, and it Is also
true That they would like to be richer; but
they know full well that, with rare excep-
tions, those who arc now rich were once az
poor as they are. and that the road to
wealth is still open to all who are able to
travel 1t. That, as DR.. HALLS mission su-
perintendent says, they covet the posses
sions OF the rich, n hat their discomfort
Is likely to lead to disturbances worse thar
q foreign war, is too absurd a proposition
to be seriously controverted.