The Birmingham age-herald., 1903-04-29
THEY DON'T WANT TO BE
 YOUNG MINISTER'S WIVES

that the doctor and the lawyer and the registered pharmacist and the bank book Keeper will make the better salary, and when you consider that so many wives of ministers who have not taken a degree are denied the use of the appelIation Of doctor" such as the wife of the dent ist over the drug store may use when speaking of her husband-why, is 1t any wonder that the preacher isn't cutting much matrimonial ice?''
 In Chicago, recognizing that a mother with daughters is entitled in a sense to carry that worldly desire to see them married even Into the church. it may be remarked with assurance that just to the extent that the wother is worldly. to that extent Is the minister eliminated. or the men who have preached In Chl- cago in years past, Dr. Hiram W. Thom- as, pastor emeritus of the Peoples church, may be said to have reached close to the possibilities of the ministry. Yet when he left the Peoples church there was money trouble for 1t at once. Tt is this way" said the venerable [ was pastor of the church I always saw to it that every obligation of the church was met from the churchs income then l took what was left"
 l This from a great preacher. Are there any lawyers of comparative prominence who will say as much. or who need to say as mucA? Any physicians or sur geons, or promoters, or general managers. or presidents, or vice-presidents?
 Ten thousand dollars year is big salary for a Chicago preacher For the 600 or more preachers in Chicago the av- craze salary would much more nearly approach the pay of the patrolman of the first grade.
 Take the United States census for 1t and you will have the status of the preacher in his worldly sense," said prominent layman. There are III, ,6SS ministers of the gospel In the country and against these there are 114. .46o law yers 132,0O2 physicians and surgeons. 92.- 14 musicians and teachers of music. 446.- 133 teachers and professors in schools, 9O,03S Journalists, 29,644 dentists and 130.- 59O policemen, watchmen and firemen. You will see that there are nearly as many preachers to minister to the spir- itual needs of the people as there arc to take care of the physically sick and ail- 1 ing" he said. Perhaps as many are real l ly needed, but at the same time the doc- | tor of medicine is called with good deal more of haste and concern than is the doctor of divinity. and he is surer of 1 his fee.
 But while we are looking to the status l of the minister we might look to the l source of the ministerial supply. Chicago today Is one of the greatest medical cen- ters In the world. having a greater en- rollment of medical students in it's col- l loges than any other city on the conti- nent But the roll of divinity students in It's schools is by no means striking | ly large.
 'The truth is, that aside from the ham dicap of salary, the young minister of to- l day finds a handicap of opportunity in | the pulpit While there is more doctrinal liberality than ever before in the pulpit | 1t means something when every day there is a pressure exerted exacting more of this freedom; and on top of the disposi- tion to grant this freedom we see every year the desertion of pulpits on the part of preachers of attachments, and find them going to the universities and col- leges and to many other secular posi- tons and places.
 From a worldly point of view I should have no hesitancy in saying that the minister of today is by no means de- sirable sort of son-in-law."