davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-20
THE SHERMAN LAW.
Experience of Group of Eastern Man-
ufacturers With Taft.

In his article entitled " Big Business
and the Sherman Law in the March
Century Oscar King Davis relates this
incident:
mot long ago delegation of eastern
manufacturers called upon President Taft
upon such an errand. They were in a
combination; that is, they had made an
agreement among themselves as to soma
things which they would or would not
do. The manner in which the govern
ment was proceeding against certain
concerns for violation of the Sherman
law. and the recent decisions of the
courts in such cases, had set them to
thinking about themselves. They were
worried They did not believe that they
were doing anything Illegal, but they
had begun to suspect that the govern
ment might think they we're. So they
went to the President about it.
''They took with them several of their
contracts. which they wished to submit
to the President for his personal perusal
They diated upon their misfortune In
being unable to secure from any author
itative source an accurate charting OF
the boundary between legal and Illegal
business operations. There must be some
such line, they were sure. But the de-
partment of justice would not point 1t out
for them, and nowhere could they get re-
sponsible advice Their spokesman adj
dressed the President substantially thus:
+" Mr. President we do not feel that
We are doing anything wrong. but we
want to know. We are engaged in le-
Ultimate business. in what we think is a
legitimate way. We do not burn, steal
or exact rebates or false weights.
Now, we should like to have you look at
our contracts and see for yourself Just
what WEI are doing. Ii seems to us that
there must be some line that business
can get within and be safe, and we want
TO know where IL is. The department OF
justice cannot give us advice, and so we
have come to you
But the President did not read their
contracts. He merely asked them two
questions. The first was. DO you seek to
control prices? and the second was. DO
you seek to limit or control output?'
ITO both of these questions the answer
was in the affirmative. Thereupon the
President spoke to this effect:
That's all j wish to know.I don't need
to read your contracts. You ask If you
come under the Sherman law. / can tell
you right now. on the answer you have
just given. that you do
"Of course In putting these words In
quotation marks il is not intended to
convey the impression that they exactly
reproduce all that conversations but they
do give substantially and fairly the gist
OF what was said on botn sides.
THE Presidents callers were surprised
and disturbed at what he told them. but
they were more surprised and more dis
turbed when he went on to say that there
was only one recourse for them. and that
was to quit fooling around about what
your competitors are trying to do and
get back to the good old system OF doing
business contemplated by the law, where
competition has its free and unntcrrupt-
ed play"
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-20
SOME SCATTERING SHOTS-By J. c. Hiden, D. d.

indignation. Caiaphas was a superlative
The facts are allowed to tell their own
terrible tale, and the narrators fall quiet
ly into the background. The. story seems
almost to tell itself. And this is one of
the most powerful internal evidences of
the good faith as well as the competency,
of the narrators.
Indeed, as a noted infidel once con-
fessed THE only objection to this book
Qaying his hand on the Bible) is a bad
life" and our Lord Himself emphasizes;
this thought when He said: Light is
come into the world, and men loved dark
ness rather than light because their deeds
were evil.p
A religious paper published in Boston
in notice of George Elot's Life, as
related in her journal and letters, says:
"Of original intellectual force she seems
to have had no great share" Such a
sentence as this, from any source that
can fairly be called literary, is truly as
founding ] can adopt the following crit
icism with emphasis:
Somebody told us once of a certain
Bostonian to whom a friend loaned a
copy of Shakespeares plays. Some time
afterwards his friend met him and asked
him what he thought of the plays. They
are very good, indeed, said the critic;
in fact, | doubt If there are 20 men in
the city of Boston who could write plays
so good. We have read George Eliot s
Life. and after careful and protracted
study of a number OF her most famous
books, we really doubt If there is one
man or woman in the city of Boston who
has so great share of original intel
lectual force as had the author of Adam
Bede and The Mill on the Floss
And from the same critical correspond
ent comes the following paragraph. which
will probably inform some readers and
amuse others:
In the Library Magazine We find an
article on the 'Talmud.' copied from the
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-20

good that hardly one illiterate revivalist
fail to give valuable data to our Amer
lean psychologist and his presumably
English ally The cheering fact in the
one case is that the poet did find Gene
SIS and even recognized its greatness,
and in the other case that the Univer-
sity of Harvard has actually learned to
reverence Mr.. Moody, Gypsy Smith, and
even Jerry McAuley or "Bowery Ike
This, to my mind, IS as significant as
Halley's comet or Wright's aoroplane.
And it is especially significant, because
it arrives at the very moment when
churches whose main strength has APP
parently been the annual revival are
turning to other methods with more
hope
What does it portend? Precisely this:
The passing of religious individuality,
which in evangelical churches has been
carried to excess. For the only new
birth about which modern mind can
ever grow enthusiastic must be a very
practical thing, the actual emergence
of the soul from its old selfish shell,
its actual devotion to larger issues than
its own survival. Just as the boy
energies into manhood, becoming a ma
tional asset, so the soul energies from
the flesh-life into the spirit-life, and be-
comes an asset in the kingdom of God.
Now, this is not a sermon. 1t is, on
the other hand. an appreciation of those
souls that have emerged. Nothing in
history is grander than the modern re-
birth of American Christian manhood.
And the amazing thing about 1t is that
it sweeps along, almost regardless of
church boundaries uniting in its tidal
flow Hebrew and Gentle, orthodox and
hereto. 1t is apparently the present
counterpart of the forms of revival fire.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-20

quent in past years They were individ-
ualist but this is social, civic, cooper
alive. They ended by landing men in
the church. This ends in setting men to
work for the kingdom of heaven on
through the victory of the spirit over
the flesh. which is Christ over Belial.
among the worlds toiling millions.
What is urgently needed everywhere is
an educative worlds fair of applied re-
ligion, an exhibition of the activities of
the reborn laymen In the mass it would
be stupendous. Just such an exhibit
ton on narrower lines is with us today
in Birmingham, and is appealing to the
alert reverence of the whole city. 1t is
all the more impressive because it is not
sectarian not even wholly Christian in
the technical sense. Only its spirit is
the spirit of Jesus of Nazareth, who
went about doing good and preaching
the gospel of the kingdom 1t is two
fold.
l. Here, for instance, is the laymen S
missionary movement, in which a score
of keen and busy Birmingham men have
for three solid weeks been toiing. What
for? Simply to awaken all the churches
to adequate sacrifice for all denomina-
tonal missionary work. The cry of
Macedonias citizen which awoke Paul
to evangelize Europe is today the cry
of every land. from Labrador to New
Guinea, awaking the Christian business
man to lift the burden of financial need
form the bruised shoulders of the
great missionary organizations. These
are the men that have heard that cry.
| With 1t comes the assurance of bust
ness economy in the conduct of the mis-
sions, OF the division of territory. of the
scornful reputation of sectarian ends.
of the formation of United churches in
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-20

mission fields, of the conduct of united
theological schools for native preachers,
and united hospital effort for the care
physicians. 1t is the outcome Of several
ecumenical councils ON missions, and it
grandly honors those great leaders in
Christian craftsmanship whom a little
while ago Mark Twains rather cheap
wit held up to ridicule-the missionaries.
This is re-birth indeed the renaissance
of the church member masculine! Men
are doing what they used to leave for
their wives and daughters to do. They
have found that virility and intelligence
and manifest consideration have gener-
ally distinguished the calling OF the mis-
sionary. that he has been the greatest
civiizer the greatest dlscoverer, the
greatest promoter of commerce and in
ternational knowledge that the past CEN
fury produced, besides being the most
Christlike product of the modern church.
1t is precisely 100 years since the Amer
lean board inaugurated the American
foreign missions. Comparatively little
money has been spent on the enterprise.
which has. of course, spread through all
the churches. Yet a dspassonate OBJ
server. like Frank Carpenter, writes
home to tell how China is following
Japan in the path of representative in
stltutions, modern science humane and
honest administration. And the grea t
empire of Turkey has come, by an almost
boodless revolution. out of all the dead
Hest racial and religious hate into prac-
teal search for the common good. Mr..
Carpenter and Mr.. Creelman and other
observers agree. one and all in saying
t.. -.
who have wrought these changes and
many more. No wonder the men of
America are taking stock In missions,
] The enrolment of converts in Corea, af-
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-20

born again" They can unquestionably
find illustrations of the worldwide
social significance of it in the Red In
dian as we'll as in the Greek. in the
Japanese as well as in the Hebrew, and
religiously in the Hebrews hardly any
less than in the Christians.
In some form or another it is recog-
nized in all the churches as part of the
Catholic or universal faith. Baptism,
confirmation church membership, are
all recognitions of this scientific and
evangelical fact, of this stage in the
development of the SOUL But the beset-
ting danger of these ceremonies lies in
the likelihood that the form may get
substituted for the spiritual crisis At
any rate, when Harvard comes with n
| scientific olive branch and extends it to
all the rest of Christian mankind, say
| ing I'VE are convinced on scientific
| ground that you are right on traditional
and Scriptural grounds" it looks as
| though, If not THE COW and the bear"
of 1saiah's vision, at least the bull and
the bear of theological stock markets
had at last decided to feed together.
Lest anyone should say that my tone
herein is too full of levity for such au-
| gust things, let me add that | have de-
liberately chosen that tone to prove that
at least to one mind the astonishing dis
coveries of Prof. William James and Mr..
Harold Begbie are not discoveries at ALL
They smack of the same originality dis
played a few years ago by no less a
genius than Joaquin Miller, who dis
covered" the Book of Genesis, His dis
covery was a confession that he had not
daa al, t,, L. c.
pragmatical friends confess by their crit
icism that they i ave not till lately cared
much for the world-old phenomena of
] spiritual adolescence. The chances are
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-20

ter about 20 years labor, is within prac-
ticable reach of one million souls. and
this not through excitement of the ma
tives, but through the sane cooperation
of the foreigners in a common. enthusi-
astic love.
Surely when the inner history of the
Oh ristian religion is written, the awak-
ening of the laymen of America, at the
close of the first century of world wide
evangelism, will be traceable to those
quiet men and women who have so per-
sistently held the hand of Cod" while
they endured loneliness and privation
and hate. the loathing of the native and
the obloquy of the "globe-trotter,"
speaking only of the love and saving
power of their adorable Lord. This is
the winsomeness of manic really de-
voted to a noble cause. 1t is achieving
new life in the churches, where the
breath of historical criticism threatened
but recently to freeze the very sap In
the trees. killing them to the roots.
The renaissance of the laymen is the
renaissance of church itself.
9 A new Illustration of the same fact
is the new grip of so many men and
women on our social needs The Amer
lea that sends the truth to others must
live the truth herself. If she advocates
Christian doctrine through her ablest
sons, she must obey the doctrine in her
lowest slums. We have no right TO
change Chinese social ideals TO Chris
tian while we ourselves are basing our
industrial and commercial existence on
that most n-Christian doctrine, THE
devil take the hindmost."
Hence there confronts us the purify
1
graft, but first of all the saving of the
victims of social pressure and injus-
tice, the living, writing slag-pile OF
that furnace we call civilization. Yon-
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-20

matters of detail; and yet there is an air
of truthfulness which no candid reader
can miss, i'll every one of the narratives.
There is very little comment in any of
them. Analysis of character" discus
sion of motives-so dear to the modern
historian and novelst-are almost utterly
foreign to the spirit of these writer's.
They confine themselves almost entirely to
the task of telling what the several char
acters said and did; and the reader is
left to infer the motives from the sayings
and doings of the several persons who
acted in the scene. We are not told what
we ought to think of these persons. The
evangelists do not argue to prove that
PLATE did wrong; nor do they use harsh
epithets in their statements to the
conduct of the priesthood. Suggestions
are not INDUCED in opinions are not ex-
pressed; feeling is suppressed, and we
have the hard solid facts unencumbered
with speculations of any kind. And these
characteristics make the evangelists the
bs / witnesses in the world; so that the
gospels are the best attested histories that
exist.
Why any human being should accept as
history Sallusts account of the conspiracy
of Catiine, and yet reject the fourth
Gospel, is a question which any logiclan
ought to find 1t exceedingly difficult to an
swer. But logic has probably little to
do with the conclusions reached by most
infidels. A bad life Is the greatest objec-
ton to the Bible.
The calmness and serenity which all the
ovangelists exhibit, in their accounts of
this extraordinary trial, are among the
most striking points of these narratives
We have little or no comment from these
| writer's upon the very remarkable trans
actions which they record. They confne
themselves almost exclusively to relating
carefully what was said and done. Peter s
fall was grievous; but not one of the
eyangelists mourns over it. The treat
ment OF Jesus was shamefully outrag-
eous: but no evangelist utters a word OF
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-20

AS an example of the imperturbable
temper of the noted transcendental
philosopher. Ralph Waldo Emerson, a
New England preacher tells the fol-
lowing anecdote:
Emerson delivered a commencement
address for one of the New England
colleges The address was full of tran
scendental hilosopy'-whateve that
may be. An old orthodox preacher was
called upon to close the exercises with
prayer. He prayed that the Lord
would deliver us from ever hearing
such nonsense again. Mr.. Emerson
asked a gentleman: Who was the
clergyman that made the closing
prayer? He was told the name and
denomination of the minister. Well
said Emerson, he seems to be a very
candid sort of gentleman"
Martin Van Burens temper was
equally impertubable. A friend was
recommending a servant to him, and
said: His only fault is quick temper;
but that signifies nothing for he can't
ruffle yours" Henry Clay would pour
out his invective upon Van Buren, in
the Senate, and when Clay finished his
diatribe against the Vice President,
Van Buren, would call some senator to
the chair and, walking up to Clay's
desk, would say, with a pleasant smile,
mr.. Clay, please give me a pinch of
your fine Maccoboy."
Men are not generally disposed to
crack jokes over their own death. Dean
Swift was one of the few authors who
ever wrote facetiout about his own
death. But, some ye.rs ago, we were
informed that the late Edward Bright,
then the famous editor of the Exami-
ner, when approached with the sug-
gestion that his age would be a good
reason for calling a younger man to
the helm, said, with characteristic en-
phasis: No, sir; l shall edit the Elk
aminer when l am dead" We cannot
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-20
EQUeS

der boy who has become precoeious IN
lying and theft can be saved to society,
but only intelligent love can save him.
That poor woman and her man" who
apply for charity to the organization
society need more than money. They
are paupers through ignorance and UNI
disciplined impulse, and they fr' IRE
above all things intelligent and loving
teaching in househ old economy and aid
perhaps in getting means or liveli-
hood. Those who have tuberculosis ana
those who have hookworms are but the
physical analogues of others who are
morally, financially. socially "eaten OF
worms" Tile renaissance of the lay
man is enabling America also to grip
these enormous breeders and bear
them nobly. 1t palpitates with hope
All hail to the charity organization
society,"
Side by side. therefore, today, in this
modern American city we are to listen
to the plea for foreign missions ana
the imperious call to national care OF
the nations needy ones. For there 10
none that cannot be saved. And till the
last is saved we are none of us saved
The social sore the moral disease, the
phi ysical plague, the spiritual fmbecilify
is everywhere nothing but the spot OF
leprosy at our race banquet. our world
banquet OF plenty ana fellowship W.
may cast out the leper. but we cannot
fill the vacant seat. and we cannot es-
cape the deadly eontagion. The only
thing that ever pays is love. What we
spend in charities and sympathies and
patient ministries-that alone we pos
sess at last in social, spiritual even ma
terial we'll being.
MAY ii not prove indeed at last that
what we today are passing through In
nothing less than the rebirth of the
universal church, as the kingdom Of
the only despot." Love, through the
wedding of Christ with mankind.
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-20

confidently affirm that this was a joke
but if Brother Bright intended his re-
mark to be serious, then he was man
ifestly in error; he is not editing the
Examiner now.
Dean Swift and Daniel Defoe pos
sessed in wonderful degree the fac
ulty of realizing imaginary scenes,
events and persons, and thus of giving
the air of truth to their fictitious
stories.
But did any mature man of fair in
teuect and respectable education ever
take "Gulliver's Travels or Robinson
Crusoe" for veritable history? And yet
the keenest critics-men of the widest
learning and the deepest research
have devoted their lives to the vain
attempt to destroy the historical char
acter of the four gospels and the Acts
of the Apostles. The mythical the
cries of Strauss and Renan, the Ten
dential' theory of Baur and sundry
other theories, advocated by able men,
have had their day, and have all passed
into the limbo of forgotten crotchets.
Even the great body of educated men
in the Christendom of today do not
know that such theories have ever been
held. To the mind of educated Christen-
dom, Strauss and Baur are names with
out meaning. If their theories should
be propounded to man of plain sense,
he might well say:
This is the very coinage of your brain
This bodiless creation ecstasy
Is very cunning in"
The only tenable theory of the gos-
Piles is that they are trustworthy his
tories. And, as histories these narra-
lions present extraordinary and pecu-
liar claims, not only to our attention,
but to our acceptance.
For instance: The records which! the
evangelists give us of the trial of Jesus
differ considerably each from the other in
The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-03-20

Westminster Review In discussing the
two main divisions of the subject the au-
thor says that the Mishna is the iii-
arranged transcript OF the version of the
Oral Law, in the narrower sense of the
words, and is a book of no considerable
size. The Gemara may be roughly de-
seribed as "A sort of gigantic commen-
tary upon the Mishna, but is commen-
tary of which enormous portions have
nothing to do with the text on which II
comments. In reading these sentences
we were forcibly reminded of some of the
preaching that we have occasionally heard
mostly however. from men who have
probably not so much as heard whether
there be any Gemara."
1t is to be feared that this TalmudicaI
preaching, by men who never heard of the
Talmud, is by no means so scarce as it
ought to be. The text should exercise
some influence upon the sermon.
'Homileties'' is good thing in its
proper place; but it Is possible to overdo
1t. We have heard of a preacher who
so welded to his divisions" that,
in making his matrimonial proposal to his
sweetheart, he cast his courtship into the
inevitable three: Il. viii you marry? q
VIII you marry a preacher? 3. Will you
marry me?" And this recalls criticism
upon Julius Caesars famous report of
battle, "Veni vidi, We'll came, saw.
conquered. This report has often been
praised for its concise brevity; but critic
has held that it is three times as long
as it ought to be- II came" Is superf1u-
GUS because everybody knows that he
could not conquer without coming; Il
saw Is equally superfluous, for no Ro-
man commander would be expected to
conquer an enemy that out of sight.
The single word. 'svici'-T conquered-was
all that the case called for. And so of
our preachers divisions the third
"will you marry me2"-was the only one
needed. The other two were impertinent
to the case in hand.