The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-04-30
WILSON, SOCIALIST.
NO RED FLAGS, NOT EVEN on THE
HALL, WHEN HE PREACHED.

Got Over Sixty 10 Hear Him, while Only q
Few Persons Attended His Old Church
His First Sermon Proved TO BE Very
Much Like a Good Many Other Sermons.
The usual Sunday calm pervaded Ridge
field Park, n. j., yesterday, although a
larger crowd turned out to hear the Rev.
Albert l.. Wilson in the Town Hall than
WIS wont to attend the services in the
little Methodist Church, before the Social
istic larson had lost caste with the -better
element" Of that organization.
The village lay green and in the sunshine
without a red flag to dot II. Neither was
there a red flag on the Town Hail nor on the
house of Mr.. Wilson in Brirkerhof street,
and despite tho late unplcasantness' in
/ Methodist circles and the proximity Of
May Day there were no signs Of the violent
I disturbances which had been heralded
by the opponents Of Mr.. Wilson as sure to
I show themselves now that he had taken
the bit in his teeth and resolved to be en-
tirely independent.
The shutters of the Town Hall where the
new Peoples Church convened for worship
and the bright hued clay Of the Jersey roads
4 excepted. there was no red in sight. Out
! eide the gatherirCs az the various churches,
I Of which Ridseficld Park boasts some
/ half dozen, no crowds were observed.
! although a knot of seven or eight persons
! held a long session during the afternoon
/ at one Of the three saloons Of the village.
The proprietor denied, however, that this
l was anything unusual.
4 Sixty-Udd persons gathered in the town
! hall at the morning service. If the OPP
1901 60 NJ U"tIf,n nU1a,toJ that he
I would say anything i~ncendiary they were
I disappointed, To say nothing OF Social
ism. the preacher did not mention even
! labor and capital in his sermon. Once or
( twice he did make references to Mammon 4,
{ but he did not locate him in a Wall Street
{ Office. He made no reference whatever
! to what the faction opposed to him and led
/ by William Donald and the Abbott family,
I Amos B. and Warren H., said was a trivial
| matter and ore not worth discussing.
/ At the Methodist church the Rev. Dr..
I f. Frank Fowler1was equally sef-contained
In his sermon, though it was very evident
1 that both the minister and the only two of
| the old hoard of trustees who have not
!, gone over to the new Peoples Church
we're deeply c~hagrined by the very small
attendance at both the morning and eve
ming services. Scarcely a sixth of the
sittings in the Methodist editice. which
number between 1E5 and $50, we're occupied
and many of the auditors were children.
Until the Rev. MIR. Wilson seeded, the av-
erage attendance each Sunday had been
between sixty and seventy-ive.
Whatever bitterness was manifested yes
terday came from members who have stuck
to the old church. Mr.. Wilson said yester-
day that he had no hard feelings either
against the Local bouy or against the gen.
eral orgauiza ton OF the Methodist Church.
While he declares that be is q Socialist he
asserts he has never preached in the church
any doctrine that was not in entire harmony
with the tenets OF Mcthodism. He says,
though, that the Organization of the Method
list Church is ranged on the side of NAM
mon and the dollar and is blind to the real
issues of the day. So he preferred to get
out before the Church was disrupted, an
outcome which he predicts as certain
TO occur in twenty-five years at most.
Beyond bis socialistic affiliations Mr..
Wilson is now said to be entirely too demo-
cratic and too punctiiious in carrying his
beliefs on the brotherhood of man into
practice. II tie former minister Of the
Methodist Church hid confined his utter
ances to the pulpit, it was said yesterday
by one OF his opponents, there would have
been no SPLIT in the Church, but there was
decided objection to the admission of mig
gers and other undesirable elements.
The "niggers" referred to were the colored
principal of one of the negro schools il
New York city and his family, who re-
Gently became residents of hidgefield Park
and were welcomed by Mr.. Wilson into the
Church, to the great disnlay of some of the
members. The "niggers" were on hand at
tibet town hall at botn services yesterday.
Outside of the church the 81 M athv
Of the community seems TO be with the
Rev. Mr.. Wilson. Although the reoTle
at large, do not an, owe of his T|ol'tical
oDini0uE they like him personally ard nre