Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1908-11-19
Outside Point of View

Outside Point of View
The results of the late election, seem
to prove conclusively two things: First
the American people have too much
good sense to allow any mans religious
belief, or non belief to be an essen
tial for public office. Secondly, the
American laborer, i. e., mechanic or
tradesman, has also the good sense to
prevent his being led into any polit-
ical party and voted according to the
wishes of union official. State 1T
another wayne do not in these Unit
ed States mix politics and religion
any more than we do labor unions
and politics.
| Since the election Of Mr.. Taft, Pres
ident Roosevelt has given out for pub
| location a letter written several weeks
ago He wisely prevented such pub
licity till it had no significance as a
political document. He writes to a
man that objected to Taft because the
latter was a Unitarian.
ITO discriminate against a thorough
ly upright citizen because he belongs
to some particular church, or because
like Abraham Lincoln, he has not
avoided his allegiance to any church,
is an outrage that liberty of con-
science which is one Of the foundations
of American life.
"You are entitled to know whether
a man seeking your SURFACES is n
! man and upright life and has the
rs o111 o,,14 ;ortrf 70 hnp
orable in all his dealings with his
purpose to do we'll in the great office
for which he is a candidate. but you
are not entitled to know matters which
| lie purely between himself and his
Maker
"If 1t is proper or legitimate to OPP
pose a man for being Unitarian =
as was John Quincy Adams, for in
stance, as is Rev. Edward Everett
| Hale, at the present moment chaplain
of the senate. and an American Of
| whose life all good Americans are
proud then it would be equally
/ proper to support or oppose a man
| because of his views on justification
| by faith or the method of administer
| ing the sacrament or the gospel Of
salvation by works. If you once en-
ter on such career there Isl abso-
lutely no limit at which you can legit-
imately stop.
| $50 much for your objections to Mr..
| Taft, because he is a Unitarian. Now,
for your objections to him because
you think his wife and brother to be
Roman Catholics AS it happens, they
are not, but IL they were, or if he
were a Roman Catholic himself, 1t
ought not to affect in the slightest de-
gree any mans supporting him for the
position Of president.
~.y+
"You say that the mass Of the vot-
lers that are not Catholics will not
support man for any office, especially
for president Of the United States
who is Roman Catholic I believe
! that when you say this you foully
SANDER your fellow countrymen.
do not for one moment believe that
the mass of our fellow citizens, or
that any considerable number Of our
fellow citizens. can be Influenced by
. such marrow bigotry as to refuse to
vote for any thoroughly upright and
fit man because he happens to have a
particular religious creed
sss
Mr. Gompers was undoubtedly sin
cere In doing his best for the election
of Mr.. Bryan, but the result the coun-
try over is a tremendous rebuke to his
interference, as we'll as a reflection on
his good Judgment. In the cities where
80 per cent. of the labor unions are
successful there was big increase in
the Taft vote, and consequent loss to
Bryan. The members of the labor un-
, ions the country over by their votes
virtually said to Mr.. Gompers, you
don't know what you are talking
about" Again these level headed me-
! chanics and tradesmen said plainly by
refusing to follow the political leader
ship of Gompers, we dc not propose
to have politics get into unionism. We
know that the successful secret So
cities, to say nothing of church organ
izations, are successful, grow and are
prosperous, because politics so-called,
are rigidly barred.
And glancing over the returns, 1t
would seem as tho the prohibittonists
of this country are not holding their
own as a political narty, notwithstand-
ing their great gains as a moral force.
The liquor men learned this lesson long
ago. They are republicans in the
southern states when fighting prohi-
bition and democrats in the north.
Paradoxical as it may seem, slavery
was abolished at the time when the
democratic party defended It, and the
idea of the abolition of slavery made
comparatively small impression when
advocated by a political party.
OF course many reasons can be given
for failure in the formation Of one
idea political party to produce results,
In a general sort of way it can be
said such failure comes, because OF
inability to agree on details of pro-
cedure Think of the temperance peo-
pie of this country all agreeing on one
plan Liquor selling would end In one
day. So while our countrymen retain
their present keen reasoning power, II
can be assumed that no religious fana-
tic, nor self constituted uniorQ labor