Albuquerque morning journal. [volume] (Albuquerque, N.M.) 1903-1926, 1918-12-01
SUNDAY. DECEMBER /, 1918
PASSING or THE DEAD HAND

We of America boast that we are
the most tolerant people in the world
Rather, our claim IS that we are not
intolerant of other peoples opinions
when they differ from ours. Some
Of us belive we are merely intolerant
of intolerance. whether that intoler-
ance be religious or political.
Yet most of us take both our relig-
ion and our politics from the past. 1t
is like the ancient mortmain-the
dead hand--which conveyed property
in perpetuity, entailing estates by the
will of one owner for generation after
generation.
Man Is by nature religious. AT least
he conceives Of some being or power
greater than himself which he feels
constrained to obey or placate The
man who considers himself sufficient
unto himself Is rather an artificial
than natural man; he is phenom-
enon so infrequent that he may be
neglected in any study of religion.
But what we believe regarding
things beyond the grave IS largely in
herited by us. once we leave the
realm of things we can see and feel
with eyes and hands, most of us are
in deep water. Most of those we call
heather prefer to take their religious
beliefs on the authority of others who
have announced a religion. or the
modification of a religion So do
most of us who arc not classified as
heather. At least we do not bother
to reason out our beliefs.
In Germany. on one side Of a river.
is city practically all Lutheran,
while on the other side is another city
practically all Catholic The dead
hand, stretching out from centuries
ago. give these people their religions.
Any tenet. political or religious, If
seriously repeated for years, will look
like an eternal truth to most people
who have heard it from and during
their childhood, however absurd it
may have looked at the beginning to
reasoning people of intelligence.
The reason why the proposition that
the moon is made of green cheese is
not more popularity accepted is that
it has not been seriously and persis-
tently promoted.
But with it all, the world is becom-
ing more and more tolerant. The au-
thority of the dead hand is less and
less recognized We have prohibited
it, in part, by laws governing the de-
scent of property. We smile today
when we think that Europe was sub
jected for thirty years to fire and
sword because of theological abstrac-
tons 1t seems that men were able,
at one time, to take theological ,qub-
bles so seriously that they would go
10 war abroad and torture their
neighbors at home
But we let men think theologically
as they please today, so long as they
respect the rights of others to think
in the same way.
But now, of all times in American
history, men should subject their po-
litical faiths to the acid test of rea-
son. They should study all sides of
every question in the light of the most
complete information possible for
them, and then decide what is best,
in their honest opinion, for the well
fare of this nation.
This is the time TO discard those
things we have formerly adhered to
merely because we inherited them,
unless they square with the best in
terests of the majority of the people
of this nation in its reconstruction
work after peace has come.