Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-26
CLERGY CALLED
TO LARGER TASK
PRISON QUESTION MUST BE
TREATED BROADLY
Deterrent Principle Under Attack by
Scientists All Along the Line.
Church Must Take
Definite Stand


me" is the variation of well known
text that the st. Louis Mirror recon- :
mends to the clergy for discourse on
Prison Sunday, the last in OCTOBER
The Mirror calls special attention 10
the movement for q national opselN-
ance of Prison Sunday, which is pelhe
agitated by the Prison Reform league
and says, in part: !,
"The idea seems a good one, to
which the clergy. who are oelng cII-
cularized throughout the country
might wisely lend an ear For the
clergy, be it noted, are much under
fire at the present moment. Apart from
the revelations made by Harold boIce
in the Cosmopolitan, as to the sap
pers' and miners work that is pelnS
directed in our universities again the
Rock of Ages" Ray Stannard BAKER
has been saying number OF Vastly
discomforting things in the America .,,,,
magazine. in the articles upon The
Faith of the Unchurched,' and backing
them I'D with awkward figures. Inc
Pilgrim Staff department of that pub
ncation is following these articles up
with letters from clergymen and cler-
ical periodicals of reputation admit
ting that it is sadly thus, and that
the church must take hold OF some OF
the actual Unchristianity brought, by
the secular, so prominently TO lhe
front, if it Is to regain its hold upon
the masses. This situation our Los
Angeles friends seem to have seized
upon and to have the intention OF
working with vigor. They have put
it suuarely up to the ministry that
Christ was the special friend of the
sinner, and that his modern represen-
tatives are resting supine, while MS
children are being coldly tortured by
our modern Torquemadas. The tor
ture question is dragged remorselessly
TO the front, the league, which had It's
chief representative at the Seattle
convention of the American Prison
association, having promptly quar-
relied with that august body for haV-
ing side-stepped the ominous issue.
We don't know whether the church
will have the get-up to take this sug-
gested topic we'll in hand, but 1t
strikes US that it has been presented
with an opportunity which brains
would jump at I was in prison and
We tortured me-, Is slight variation
of a we'll known text that offers ora
torical chances such as do not present
themselves every day"
Kindness Ono Factor
Naturally the Prison Reform league
has no quarrel with these sentiments;
1t considers that no better selection
for a universal text could be made
than that suggested, and 1t reiterates
the reminder contained in its call to
the clergy, issued more than a month
ngo, viz, that by all its traditions the
church is bound to the side of mercy,
But it also reiterates Its statement
that the clergy, as a class, seem to
have but slight quaintance with
vaSna0finp HTin1p
and the treatment Of criminals, the
work they do as a whole being directed
almost entirely to pouring oil on
wounds already inflicted.
1t Is we'll to play the Good Samari
tan, for this world evolves from saw
agery by slow degrees, and every ac
of kindness aids in the evolution OF
those nobler and more sympathetic
qualities which must attain a sturdy
growth before a higher civilization Ii
possible. 1t is we'll to aid discharged
convicts and assuredly the Prison
Reform league and the man who main
ly brought it into existence have moi
left that field untitled. 1t is well tc
form prisoners aid societies, to erect
homes and to visit the incarcerated
For, to quote the immortal Ballad oi
Reading Gaol,"
Never a human voice comes near
To speak a gentle word;
And the eye that watches through the door
Is pitiless and hard;
And by all forgot, we rot and rot
with soul and body marred.
The Larger Charity
All these things, in our opinion, am
we'll, but they represent only the
smallest fraction of the task in hand
which is not SO much the healing Of
the sick as the institution of condi'
tions that shall restore humanity t
health. And for this, the larger anG
truer charity, there is required not the
maudlln sentimentality which too otter
succeeds only in insulting the unfor'
tunate, but that unflinching inVesti
cation which will generate accurate
thought and enable us to face the
situation as it actually is. To oper
mems eyes, to make them understand
how barbarous and stupid are the in
stitutions under which they live, how
unworthy of their creedS and profes
sions such institutions are, how they
cripple humanity instead of develop
ing it, how they give the lie to the
basic facts of life imposed on us By
the very constitution of our being
from which there is no escape; to sci
this out in clear and simple statement
so that he who runs may read--to dc
this is the heart of the prison re-
charity to which it should be the duty
Of the clerical profession in particular
to devote itself For the Christ, by
preaching whom they live, passed
many a sanity Pharisee by that ht
might pour out his sympathy on the
sinner. And most assuredlv in him
there was nothing in common with
what has been cuttingly described a.
''the organized charities. scrimped anC
iced, in the name of cautious, sta
tistical Christ"
We are moved to these reflections by
the correspondence we have received
from sympathizers, principally women
who have been exerting themselves to
procure the observance of Prison Sun
day. 1t Is a correspondence that
strikes again and again the detecting
note that the difficulty is that the
clergy know nothing of the prison
question. And this note is reinforced
by letters we have received not from
California alone but from the far east
and south, in which ministers them
selves ask us to forward literature. as
they know little of the subject. That
their curiosity and sympathies are
aroused is a healthy sign, but why
do they not know? Why should any
man, who calls himself educated, not
know, when the magazines and daily
press TEEN with articles exposing the
monstrosities of our treatment of crime
and criminals?
Appeal to Fear
Capital punishment is a question on
which surely those whose occupation
is speaking with authority from the
pulpit, and giving advice and consola-
tion IN the AFFLICTED. might be expect