The Birmingham age-herald., 1917-10-05
MEN, WOMEN
 AND THINGS

l lie mlBht make a good Sunday school
 superintendent"
 This sheer and slur uttered in the present commission race if allowed to pass nnchallenged will be a reflection
 on every man. woman and child who be- lieyes in Sunday schools.
 | William Howard Taft when President of the United States in welcoming the worlds sixth Sunday school convention, held in Washington May 1924, 1910. at which I was present, said: NO matter
 what views are taken of general edu- cation, we all agree-Protestant, Cath ollie, and Jew alike-that Sunday school education Is absolutely necessary to se- | cure moral uplift and religious spirit" In a large degree the Bible and re- ligious instruction are omitted today in the public schools, and many think it right, on account of the differences in manifestly unfair to permit any one school of religious thought to inculcate its doctrinal teachings, but all are prac- -tically of the opinion that the future welfare of any country is inseparably bound up with the progress and eff
 ciency of it's Sunday schools. This being true and the development of the Sunday school having been so great, particularly in the cities, where special buildings are arranged to care for the many activities. it has been found that to be an efficient Sunday school superintendent a man must not only be well versed in the Bible, but to be able to handle the scores of teachers ability of high order.
 Now, the thing am getting at. It was bit of gatuitous impertinence for speaker in the present campaign to seek to throw off on Sunday school su- perintendents by letting. it seem that any man of mediocre ability could fill the place, but it would be silly to think that men who were simple enough to act in that capacity were wholly incom- potent to fill any public office where brains and managerial ability are re- quired.
 The Hon. John Wanamaker, who oc- cupies a leading place among the mer- chant princes of America, has long held conspicuous place in Sunday school work. and the fact that he was Sun day school superintendent did not pre- vent a President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison from asking him to 1 be a member of his cabinet, and take over the management of the postoffice department, which in itself calls for bu;si- ness acumen and sound judgment. 1 With a record as the Sunday school
 superintendent of the Bethany Presby- terian Sunday school, Philadelphia for threescore years. dare say MT Wana- maker would open his eyes in amaze
 ment if he knew that 1t had been adopted as a political slogan in certain
 political circles in Birmingham that 'No l Sunday school superintendent need apply
 for political preferment, where common
 sense and honesty is all that is wanted" !" 1
 l The late King Edward, according to 1 this new and preposterous doctrine. low cred the knighthood by so far forgetting 1 himself as to take Francis Flint Belsey, president of the worlds first Sunday | school convention, and making him SIT
 Francis Flint Belsey, comforting knight
 hood upon him in recognition of his splen-
 did activity and usefulness as the head
 of the Sunday school work of the old world This honor gave the Sunday school a higher rating than ever before in Europe, where titles are counted as worth while.
 I I want those who are uttering their foolish inuendoes at Sunday school super inteneents to know that Sunday schools are high aboV their futile darts. When | I was at the worlds convention i'll Washington I was disappointed in not James Bryce, British ambassador, de- liver an address to it. He was pre- l vented by the death of King Edward Of England, who did not think it beneath him 10 knight Francis Flint Kelsey, or have his representative to America ap- pear on the programme with Sunday school superintendents and speak good word for the work in which they are
 engaged.
 There may have been time when de- cent people could have been kept out of politics by those who seem to think that
 the only qualified candidates are those 1 who put their feet through the ten
 commandments with impunity and joy in
 their ability to flout public decency, but
 that time has past in this community
 or am greatly mistaken about the char acter and tone of the present citizenship
 of Birmingham.
 A few bold and desperate political leaders may attempt to write over the door of the city hall the words which Dante placed at the entrance of hell, "Al
 hope abandon ye who enter here" in
 sinuating that to get the Job as head o1
 the municipality one must give up al
 connection with Sunday schools and Dc ready to be known as one who drinks
 gambies, and leads gay life, but l be-
 lieve such requirements for the place
 will be beaten at the polls next Monday
 and the people will erase the words O
 despair, which seek to bar the way U