Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1908-03-10
CT EAR. CRISP AND CLEAN
OUR RESPONSIBILITY

n EV. ROBERT j. BURDETTE has
X. performed a public service in call
"a ing attention in his graphic style
to the responsibility of one-half of the
population of the United States to the
other half. The responsibility to So
ciety of people who are we'll provided
for, especially those who are extra well
provided for or overprovided for and in
consequence are burdened with great
riches, is the most serious as well as
the most neglected in the country. If
we were bowling savages or Mohamme
dan Moors or careless apes gibbering in
tropical tree tops it would not matter
much. But on every hand are to be
seen the evidences of our information,
evidences of the fact that when we sin
against our brother we also sin against
the light.
The story of Cain and Abel, in the
book of Genesis, may be categorical,
representing the sociological tragedy in
the primitive world, or it may be liter
ally true. The Cain and Abel natures
are still exhibited. Cain, rich capital
list, killed Abel, a poor herdsman, be-
cause he became aware that Abel's Of
ferings were more acceptable to God
than his. Cain was not condemned be-
cause he was wealthy. Not at all. But
Abers Offering was as acceptable as
that of the poor widow centuries later
because it was made in pure heart
and with right spirit. SO Cain slew
Abel. Are conditions improved today?
Is Cain any less Cain? Is he any less
prone to repudiate responsibility and to
ask, Am l my humber brothers
keeper" when the Lord God calls on
him to make an accounting?
We cannot improve DR.. Burdette's
language: Taxes are exacted from a
poor widow with five children living in
the meanest part of town in a bungalow
about the size of a herder's tent. She
hasn't enough to dodge with nor to lie
about and hide, so the United States of
America, numbering about S0,000000
people and owning some 1861, 500 square
miles of real estate with property esti-
mated in value five years ago at $107,
04,192, 410, manages to get a strange
hold on her and wrest about 50 year
out OF her little property. The man
with five homes howls louder and lies
harder over his taxes than the man
with one house-and that's a stand up
bungalow painted with roses.
"One hundred and one of every hun
bred thousand of our people are actual
paupers in the almshouses. And we
are in debt to every one of them. We
are in debt to every convict that enters
prison or reformatory. We who have
education and any money are in debt
all over the country. They are dun
ming us with their crimes, their poverty,
their sunken cheeks, ignorance, shabby
garments and weary eyes; their chill
dren, prematurely old, crying to us TO
give them back their fresh, young sweet
faces God gave them and inhuman
power wrung from them; girls with the
look in their eyes from which pure
women shrink, call those women TO
give back to them THE LOOK THEIR
MOTHERS LOVED. drunkards, liars,
thieves and gamblers stop us on the
street with defiant eyes that say, Pay
me what thou owest, thou disciple of
the Christ who died for me- Jesus
Christ gave more than that TO one of
us on a cross of shame Those are the
people to whom we are debtors. In
Gods name let US pay our debts"