The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1905-06-13


But to the application to the Rookie
Teller gift or to similar gifts 1 de-
cidedIy object.
In the first place, how are you able
to determine whether or no Mr. Rookie
felIer's money is smeared by the cor
rupt use of power? We live in a land
of law and order, where, in theory at
least, TO man is prejudiced, and every
man is presumed to be innocent until
proved to be guilty. There are meth
DDS. too through which an accurate
judgment can be reached. But, when
pinned down to the fact, what DO you
or I know about Mr.. Rockefeller? So
far as the elements of fair judgment
are before me, he may be one of the
best men in the United States. 1 am
quite aware that there has been much
clamor over Standard Oil management,
tests Suppose we suspend criticism
until the statements made are Invested
of immaterial and extraneous matter,
and the ultimate truth incorporated in
to decision. This would be consonant
with experience, with the civilization
of the age, and with that soundness
of mind, which, in it's relation to judg
ment St. Paul has so powerfully
described.
In the next place, when, if ever, the
Standard Oil Company has been con-
ly immoral, the question will still re-
main, unless formally included in the
investigation. of the extent to which
Mr.. Rockefeller is personally involved.
And, if he be identified with any vio-
fation of the Moral Law by the spolia-
ton of communities, the further ques-
money given to the American Board
come from-was it a part of Standard
Oil dividends or the result of other and
legitimate investments?
L do not presume to sit in judgment
upon Mr. Rockefeller or any other
AIoll, I4Cu VI pun, III ci0N e1iiNC VI ~ OICL
charges. relevant and material evil
dence, and deliberate conclusions. But
L go further and say that there are
many conditions, under which money
from tainted sources should be receiv-
ed and distributed by Christian organ
izations Take the extreme case of the
spoils of thief, a highway robber, a
burglar, a forger or an embezzler. 1t
may be assumed that there are in
stances in which restitution is impos-
sible. Suppose money, taken in this
way and in this situation. is offered to
a charitable society or to a parish
should it be refused? 1 think not. The
money itself is a mere circulating me-
dunn, which can be exchanged for
shelter and food for the destitute, for
medicine and attendance for the sick,
for good books and for the services of
good men, in the propagation of truth
and the improvement of the race, col
lectively and individually. 1t is not
infected with the germs of crime. 1t
is the love of money!" not money
itself, that is the root of all evil
Why, if the opportunity comes, should
it not be beneficially employed?
The Church should guard the poor,
but should not repudiate the rich. 1t
has its visible and its invisible as
poets, connected it is true, but it is a
practical business, in a higher sense,
and still just as truly, as a commercial
house or a bank. 1t needs money in
order to help the bodies and the souls
of men, What are the great Cathe-
drals of Europe, the magnificent edi-
fees of the United States, consecrated
to Christian work, but the massive re-
suits of giving, not only by the lowly ,
but by those who fill the more in
fluential stations in life! If every dol
lar in these numerous investments for
humanity could be traced, how many
would be found to represent meanness,
avarice, foul dealing, vice Or crimei
If a gambler wins million at Monte
Carlo and sends a hundred thousand
to rector and a vestry, should it be
refused? Surely not. The gift may
have originated in conscience. in fear
in a false conception of barter, but
that is matter between the gambler
and his God. 1t does not condone his
moral guilt, no portion of which at
taches to the ecclesiastical body that
is thus enabled to work the better for
Inc argument against the acceptance
Of Mr.. Rockefeller's gift, pushed to it's
logical outcome would require the
destruction of every church edifice and
structure in the world,
in which the dollars of the unclean
had been consciously spent. 1t would
require the ceremonial of the Church
and its dignitaries to be discarded. and
the successors of the apostles and their
hocks to go through the streets and
literally without purse or
scrip" as Christ sent forth His dis
ciples. This is not what Christ meant.
What he did mean, and enforced by
was pure lives, humility of
the soul, the uplifting of the poor and
the degraded, simplicity of teaching,
the original equality of men before
Sod. sincerity of conviction the as
,endancy of spiritual conceptions, the
endurance of suffering without COM