The Richmond Virginian. (Richmond, Va.) 1910-1920, 1914-08-10
PEOPLES FORUM
The Little Man Afraid of the Parsons

The Little Man Afraid OF the Parsons
FThe Peril Of the Pulpit, Editorial Roanoke
Times, July IS, 1910
Editor VrEinian:
Sir,-Br5ther Alfred b. Williams Of the
Roanoke Times is attempting the role Of Patrick
Henry in the famous Parsons Case" Of colonial
days, The modern patriot see danger to liberty
Of speech and tho liberty Of the press in the
activities cf the parsons in the present State
VIDE prohibition campaign.
1t seems that some hlack-coated cierfcs have
been getting after the Gate City Herald Tor
publishing tho advertisements Of the so-ealed
Association for Local Self-Government, ana the
Montgomery Messenger for failure TO take
stand in favor Of prohibition.
Whereupon the editor Of the Roanoke Times
takes fire and secs sights and dreams OF bitter
ness and persecution, the very hint OF which
makes the blood run cold in ones veines and
eauscs a creepy feeling 10 pervade ones
anatomy from top to toe
Listen Il this now, viii you. citizens Ct Vir-
GINA If YOU can, and still be Indifferent 70 the
peril 20 that awaits you:
THE spirit and purpose of these attempts to
r1uzzle the press, destroy It's freedom crush It's
independence the same that were ex-
pressed in the massacre of st Bartholomews
Day and the prosecution Of Luther &c. &C"
Listen to this, you poor. despised eospellera Of
The younger denominations: probably, It IS
because the clergy, by the very nature OF their
calling and work. become more intense than
Intoxicated with authority"
Then the editor. In grandiioquent style harks
back 70 Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson
and Cardinal Wolsey and Archbishop Laud and
John Knox. What a boon those old timers Is
to the hard-pressed advocates of prohibition
OF today A Methodist parson, talking to his
congregation Immediately brings up narrowing
visions Of the thurrbscrew, the wheel, the fagot
and the stake. From Brother Williams
ugubrious wall, one would think that the foun-
dations Of society were being pulled TO pieces
by these mild and seemingly innocious par
sons, and that batting the editors or wet news
papers Yves the chief pastfme Of tho Virginia
preachers Of the younger denominations" as
t5em.
No brothers, calm yourselves The preachers
mean you no harm. They are not after polti-
cal power, They are after the virginia saloon.
The preachers Of these younger denominations
are men Of the people. They born Of the
people Thy mingle daily and hourly with the
people They visit in the homes OF the people
he lowlieat and the highest They into
personal touch with tho poverty and distress and
sin caused by the saloon.
There IS no class Of men that comes into
direct contact with the people in their homes,
that sees the conditions, that feels the constant
,appeals If human sorrow and weakness like
these pastors of the great younger denomi
nations" No men tho moral waste and
DEGRADATION at first hand Hike the preachers of
these great churches do. And 10 men know
now to sym pathlZe Wlih' the STRUGGLES or the
hapless AMI almost helpless, victims Of the drink
habit, constantly fostored by the open and ag-
eressive saloon. like the pastors of these
churches.
These are true shepherds. The little chill
dren Of all the homes are dear to them. They
have sacristy. They conduct no private con-
fessional They pry into mans private
affairs. But they go constantly among the peo-
pie. The staggering husband the street,
returning to the wife and little children, tells
the story. Tho bare floors the broken furn-
tire. the evidences OF poverty ana distress
far too eloquent Of the ravaces drink has made
IN the home to need any other evidence con-
fesslon. Neither editors In their nctu1ns.
tudges, nor bankers business men.
saloonkeepers ever comes into personal contact
with the and poverty and degradation
that meet the preacher of the great popular
younger denominations" at every turn.
1t is this that strs these men. 1t is not
political power. like Cardinal Wolsey; It is not
Intolerance Of religious doctriual differences,
like Archbishop Iaud, that stirs them. 1t Is
the personal contact with the poverty and waste
and sin and degradation, caused by the saloon,
that makes them the inveterate and uncon-
promising foea of that hateful institution
These men may appear to the editor of the
Roanoke Times mere miniature rnannikin re-
/ reductions of the cardinal 1Wolsev) but so