The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1906-05-03
A Poor Business For Churches.

A Poor Business For Churches.
There is again very general COM.
plaintzamong candidates of what they
call church grating or church hold
ups. It is in effect nothing but
species of blackmail, the injustice and
Fharmfulness of which is not lessened
by the fact that it has been resorted to
by thoroughly honest and we'll mean
ing persons for the very worthiest of
causes. This form of grating takes
a multitude of shapes and is for
multitude of objects. There are
countless tickets to church fairs and
church entertainments circulated.
There is a great deal of personal
| solicitation for contributions. There
has even been a case where the can
didates were lined up and coolly
asked by the pastor of a church for
very considerable sums to help build
| new church. Sometimes young
girls are sent out soliciting and some
times the pastor and the governing
body of the church takes a hand.
The evil is confined to no sect.
This is an activity to which
churches and charities should put an
immediate end. They would, if they
realized the essential immortality of
the business, the corrupting effect that
it has and the reproach that it casts
upon them among all candidates and
many who are not candidates. Christ
ian men and women ought not to be
engaged in a business INDUCED in
by the lowest and most cOntemp-
tible type of political camp followers.
They ought not to lend their respect
ability to practices that no self-re-
specting individual countenances for
any other purpose. Only thoughtless-
ness, of course. is to blame for the
practice. Yet the fact is that one
might almost as we'll hold up man
at the muzzle of pistol as to extort
money from him through his fear of
otfense. There is no difference in
principle between the two kinds of
hOldups. In one case a man would
rather give up a purseful to avoid
physical injury and in the other he
would rather give a dollar or two
than run the risk Of political injury
by appearing niggardly and not in
sympathy with good works.
| Nor is this practice confined to the
weeks of campaign, though that is
the time when it most houris
There is a steady stream of solicitors
going through the city hall from one
end of the year to another. A very
large percentage of the salary of any
of the leading city or county officials
is wrung from them in this way. It is
true that they ought to have the moral
courage to refuse; but neither ought
they to be put to any such test. And
to make matters worse it is not in
frequently intimated to them that un-
less they are generous they will lose
votes.
Among the hundreds of churches in
the city there are, of course, compar-
atively few that are guilty of these
practices in their milder or their
ranker forms. But one would be too
many. There ought to be none at all.
No church or any other organization
has any claim on any candidate as
such or any public official as such
greater than it has on any other class
OF individuals. It is a demoralizing
influence to extort money from them
under a more or less implied threat of
political punishment, and even where
no such threat is not implied a church
or charity that tolerates a canvass of
candidates or officials lays itself open
to the charge of attempted extortion.
Candidates and officials should be
let alone by solicitors of all kinds.
Few of them are overpaid. They have
at the best heavy election expenses to
meet and when they are compelled to
give away large amounts in the ag-
gregate to this, that and the other OBJ
ject the weak ones among them are
subjected to an additional temptation
to recoup themselves at the expense of
the public. When weak men see them
selves preyed upon by decent and re-
spectacle persons they are reader to
prey upon the general public. Pho
neer Press.
Fish That Fall Upwards.