Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1911-01-19
1858 Union Street
BELLAIRE,

be noted that / have stated that the
churches have been active as organ
lied agents for social REFORM" within
certain very narrow limits and right
here in this last modifying phrase is
"the rub" as Hamlet puts it. The
churches as churches confine their &C.
tiVities almost exclusively to works of
charity or relief, as opposed to the
more fundamental works Of justice or
prevention. They will give money to
philanthropic agencies for the anne
Iteration of poverty, but they won't
fight the industrial system which
makes poverty inevitable. They will
send their children out Of the hot
slums to the fresh-air farms, but they
won't assail the unjust system of
municipal taxation and private owner
ship in land and transportation facili-
ties which create the slum conditions
of congested populations. They will
give food to the hungry and clothing
to the naked, but they won't abolish
the monopolies and special privileges,
the protective tariffs, and capitalistic
industries, the unemployment, indus
trial accidents, long hours and intoler-
able conditions of labor, which create
more hunger and nakedness in day
than we can satisfy in a year. The
churches have no difficulty in acting
as organized agencies for social re-
form, so long as the reforms are
superficial and therefore mean only
charity. It is only when the reforms
are fundamental, and therefore mean
justice, that they withdraw and talk
about inspiring their individual mem
bers to go out and work.
But the churches, again within GER
tain very narrow limits, have at times,
as have pointed out above, under
taken genuine campaigns for funda-
mental reforms, and have battled
fearlessly against certain monstorus
social Ills in the name of simple JUS
tice. The fights against the liquor
traffic and the gambling evil are cases
in point. But it is to be noted that
the ills which are thus assailed by
the churches are awlays those which
affect the financial interests and moral
of some other class of the
population than that represented in
the actual membership of the
churches. The churches can pitch
into the brewers and the saloonkeep-
srs without any fear, as these men
seldom if ever rent pews or sit in
them on Sunday mornings. The
churches can assail the race-tracks
-'toots" and the gambling aristocracy
with a free conscience, as these gen
try never sit upon boards of trustees
or help to pay off deficits. But when
you come to certain other great and
much more fundamental reforms,
then 1t is different proposition. Sup
pose you call upon the churches to
take up the fight for a readjustment
OF municipal taxation on a basis Of
land values and the unearned incre-
ment? That is, of course, impossibel
for is not Mr.. Many-Acreas one OF
our most prominent men, and one of
the most liberal contributors to the
minister's salary? Or suppose you
summon the churches to put them
selves in dead earnest behind the
fight for the abolition of child-labor!
Here n-impo ~ for just
think!-Mr. Childkiller, who owns
that great glass-factory in New Jersey
is one of our trustees. and Mrs.
Stocks, the president of our Alliance
and such a generous giyer!-has all
her money invested in southern cot
ton mills. Or suppose you declare to-
day that the protective tariff is a
moral issue, and that the churches
should fight it as ''the abomination OF
desolation?" What would happen to
our churches and charitable organiza-
lions, many of the supporters of
which are the benefciaries Of Gus
tom tax on the necessities of life!
Mr.. Worldly-Wiseman, who is the
Richard Yea-and-Nay" of most
churches, Unitarian and otherwise,
draws the line pertty tight these
days; and when there comes up a
question Of any fundamental reform,
which strikes straight to the heart Of
a crying social injustice and inciden-