The Savannah morning news., 1903-11-09
DIFFERSWITH MAYOR
HIS VIEWS ON SEAPORT TOWNS
PECULIAR, SAYS REV. A. NJ.
WILLIAMS.
THE ETHICS OF EXCEPTIONS
NAME APPLIED TO MORAL SYSTEM
IN TAMMANY INTERVIEW.

The Ten Comma ndments Have No
FOOt-NOte Reading "These Are
Not to BE Observed in Seaport
Gowns" Mayor Myers ideas
Characterized rs Neither Original
or New-Were Probably Used by
the Mayor of SOdom when Lot
Attempted to Reform the Old
Town.
In a sermon from the subject How
Far Can a Man Get from God?" Rev.
A. NJ. Williams, pastor of Trinity
Church, criticised the interview of
Mayor Myers on the recent Tammany
successes in New York. The sermon
also touched upon the recent article Of
graft" published in the Morning News.
The statements of Mayor Myers were
criticised in many respects, and the
sermon was filled with bits of sarcastic
humor. In treating of the subject, Rev.
Mr.. Williams said:
IN his article in the Brooklyn Eagle
Mayor Myers advocates the teaching
of an adherence of graft. That is
good as far as it goes. He overlooks
the fact that life teaches more than
schools The Mayors system of NOR
ais is peculiar. We may call it, judg-
ing from his interview on Tammany's
success, the ethics of exceptions. Graft
is bad and prevails everywhere except
in the South. Morals are good, and
may be inculcated except in the sea-
port towns.
ION this graft matter / am rather
amused. Many things in our city look
like graft. 1t is at least hard to ac-
count for them on any other theory.
Yet the Mayor says there is
none of it in the South.
Some people have peculiar eyes.
] rather think a straightforward look
at conditions might reveal to his honor
something that looks very much like
The Open-TOwn Theory.
But l have nothing to do with the
graft interview. With the open-town
theory. however, l do want to disagree.
The substance of that interview is
that you cannot expect a seaport town
to be governed by the same rules as
the balance of the world. The doc
trine is to bring your law down to the
demands of the seaport town. In the
mandments l find no foot-note that
reads: These are not to be observed
in seaport towns
''The Mayors interview would make
the Ten Commandments read some
what as follows: Thou shalt not steal
except in a city by the sea-. Thou
shalt not kill except in seaport
town Thou shalt not commit adult
cry except where there is a cosmo-
politan population The growth of
this form of immortality under the
open town policy is alarming. ! have
figures in my possession which would
startle you If l were to announce them
Instead of license, reform, restraint
revolution is demanded if ruin is to be
averted.
Ideas Are Not New.
The position which the Mayor takes
on these exceptions, the seaport towns,
is absurd. But l must defend the
Mayor at one point. His ideas are not
original or new Indeed, they are al
most trite. They have been used till
they are hoary with age. l have no
means of finding who used them first
Il am sure that it was a staple ar
gument in Sodom. When old Lot went
there to reform things the Mayor and
liberal people replied You old Puri-
tan, don't you know that this is
seaport town? You can't run this place
like they do Bethel They kept up
the racket until nearly everybody be-
lieved it. Then all moral restraint was
removed, and just before the city was
destroyed there We're not ten righteous
persons found in it.
mo, brethren, we had better stick
to God. He knows what is best for
us. His ideals must not be supplanted
by our compromises, His standards
replaced by our surrenders, His COM
lnandments by our notions"
The sermon closed with an argument
designed to show the nearness of God
to man and His willingness to help him
raise himself from the depths of sin
into which he has fallen. A strong ap-
peal was made for cleaner lives, clean
er officials and cleaner government