The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1904-05-24
a PIr1FuL oRJEcr lEssoN.


Of the city who went not astray in the
matter of mixing in city politics are
indicated, as they were sure to be.
by the miserable plight of at least one
gentleman who thought himself wiser
than the centuries. He is now in a
pitfful position, sinking one foot more
| deeply into the mire with every effort
that he makes to draw the other out.
He committed himself unwisefy so far.
under the bad advice of counselors
whose insight was clearer and whose
motives less sincere than his own, that
he is now unable to draw back. and
his pulpit is being devoted to the same
sort of matter, uttered in the same
sort of spirit, that We find in the aver
age political campaign meeting. This
is not helpful to politics, not accepta-
| BILE to any congregation and 4is'ntterly
destructive of religious influence.
! We refer to this gentleman now
| principally because his own follies have
was inevitable that he must finally.
reach, of accusing everybody who does
not agree with him of being totally de-
| based. and corrupt He made public
/ charges that could not be sustained,
and the public quietly turned him
! down-him and those who stood with
1 s0y-
1000 votes. He volunteered more spe-
cific accusations in his Generalization
and wrath and was invited by the
| grand jury to substantiate them. Nat
urally enough he was unable to pro-
| duce evidence Men who attack, public
/ problems in his spirit never have the
least idea of what evidence is or of
what proof must consist. Their hys-
| tericaI appeal to law invariably rests
upon methods that require the conn
pletest defiance and destruction of law
| itself. Inundated by another failure
he learns nothing, but accuses the
grand jury itself, practically, of SUBJ
lection to corrupt or improper infiu-
enee.
This we leave to the grand jury and
to the court to consider 1t comes
perilously near to being contempt of
court, and it would be only the natural
sequence of events if the impulsive and
hot-headed gentleman should find him
self within the tolls of the law that he
! has made his own shfbboleth. That
he has been guilty of plain and wanton
falsehood in his reflections upon the
grand jury we have every reason to
believe. No man on that body can
| protect another or any interest This
the clergyman in question should know
| if he understands at all the law under
| which the grand jury acts, and the fact
that it takes many votes to prevent an
istration needs somebody to protect it,
after it has just been supported by
popular majority of 1900 votes after a
most bitter campaign, could come from
| no other source. 77't+
The whole affair, which is to be dep
/ recated and regretted, is valuable ex-
| aetly for the reasons that we have
stated; as an illustration of what in
evitably happens, according to the
laws of human affairs, when the pulpit
is dragged into politics. The sincerest
and best meaning man Of the clergy
rarely has the temperament or the in
formation requisite for political ac-
tivity. The tone ana method of or
binary pulpit discourse are utterly at
| variance with those not only admissi-
BILE, but required in political discussion.
The instant that a clergyman leans to-
ward active politics he is target for
the shrewd politician, is played upon
in a thousand ways for political effect,
and ends by becoming the dupe Of
some more despicable political agent
than those whom he hates and perhaps
blackguards with all the fervor of his
! misguided soul. No confidence game
played upon the unwary in any of our
great cities is SO common, so complete
and so successful as that which the
politician plays upon the clergyman
whenever he gets a hearing.
We believe that all St. Paul is sorry
for the exhibition that at least two
clergymen have made of themselves.
Not even as pulpit advertising was it
worth while. The result will not be
| total loss if it shall, as we think it
will, reinforce beyond the possibility of
future breaches the instinctively sound
>rule of the clergy that their reforming
work lies in the strengthening and re-
creation OF individual character: and
that the pulpit and politics cannot
embrace without some injury anc
shame.
The attention OF those negroes who
are going to hold convention in Ten
/ voccan Car tfza -~,.,.,.oO<