The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1911-12-08

stopped manufacturing and selling
liquor
The Forward Movement would have
the employer pay an honest wage
to the labOrer for his work, and the
Iaborer give an honest days work
for his hire. The country was as
tonished by the confessions at Los
Angeles, and it is good to know
that there has been universal de-
mand that the labor organizations
purge themselves of such men as
the McNamaras.
'If the church does not succeed
in taking in the business men,
business will overwhelm the church.
Nations, like youths, have their
periods of growth, youth, maturity
and old age and decay. There is no
reason why any nation should grow
old and decay and this would not
occur except for the sins that &C.
cmulate. If this country can be
kept from the sins that lead to
decay it will not decay. Where
wealth is piled up in great heaps
and centers it destroys the same as
an excess of manure kills the vege-
tation underneath it's excessive piles.
This is a most important matter.
In some lines of business the more
money that is put in, the greater the
returns, but the farm belongs to the
kind where there are diminishing
returns-or the kind where the pro-
ductivity cannot be forced beyond
a certain point, regardless Of what
is put into it. The church is like the
farm. A country church answering all
demands for country life and work
among 1000 population scattered over
a territory five miles across, can be
built for $4,000 to $4,000, and the
half acre site costs $50. In village
of 1000 population, the half acre lot
costs $500, and large church seems
necessary, and expenses of upkeep
are greater. In Minneapolis half
acre where a Methodist church
stood sold for $4,000. In Chicago or
New York, the same 1000 people
would have to pay 100000 to $1,000
900 to get a half acre in the center
Of the city. A $4,000 church would be
entirely out of place there. Therefore
the churches have moved to the out
skirts, and large sections of the
large cities have no churches. Thou
sands of city people cannot support a
church as well as the country people.
The rich men are putting their money
into libraries, schools, hospitals,
organs. etc., with here and there an
exception.
When Sin Becomes Rampant.
"Sin becomes rampant when you
mass people together. Put people to-
gether and sin that is never thought
of in the country Starts. Recently,
the red districts of Minneapolis
teemed with more sin among 1000
people there than i'm all of south
western Minnesota. Population be-
comes greatly congested in the slum
conditions of cities. What must be
the moral conditions where fifteen
persOns-men, women and children
are crowded Unfortunately into one
room twelve feet square, as was found
in an eastern city recently? They slept
in hunks with their heads toward
the wall. We were shown an old
house of ten rooms that did for one
Puritan family, that now houses
thirty families. This is the great
problem that now confronts us in
the great cities. 1t is claimed that
during the coming winter 13,000,O0O
people must be helped by charity.
There is no need in this country,
that is so favored, for anyone to be
poor, and if 100000 will have to be
helped by charity before next March,
something is radically wrong. 1t is
for the men of the country to solve
this and other important problems.
1t is a mans job. These questions
must be solved if the country is to
be saved from decay. 1t is shame
that there are 100000 more women
in the churches of the country today
than men. 1t has been said that one
woman is worth seven men in church
work. Some of them are worth four
teen men.
''Inspiration i'm the work is needed,
the same as Nehemiah inspired by
leadership and connection of the
heart, setting each man at work at
his own household. The church mem
bership knows what it ought to do,
for it is intelligent, but it seems to
rely on the pulpit for inspiration. This
is our opportunity. God has inspired
this movement. 1t is the greatest
movement in generations, if not since
the time of Wesley. 1t is the time
for men to get on the job and lift.
They can reach out and lay the
whole world at the feet of Jesus
Christ.
God Will Reward the Work.
IF this movement does the things
that it should, sets labor and capital
so they will be right, cleans up the