New-York tribune., 1919-10-07
The Lords $500, 600, 600
from the speech Of Francis Mcconnell Denve Iterchurc
World Movement Industrial Conference 40eek

another way that 1t Is tied up with the ex-
listing system Of things-it becomes an in
vestor OF funds.
We say that Church and State should
keep separate, because we want the Church
to exert its paternal function in the COM
munity and place it out of the range Of
profit in case anything in the political sit
uation goes wrong.
We cannot separate the Church and the
economic situation in the same way, but it
seems to me that we can insist upon this
that in the investment of its moneys the
Church keep in mind just this: that the ex-
listing economic system is under attack, and
it will be under attack for years to come,
at the point of rent and Of interests, and
of profit and things of that kind.
What do l mean? Miss Veda Scudder,
sociological professor at Wells College,
was talking about this same matter in an
article in "The Area Survey" some time
ago. She goes further than you and
would care to go. She wants to see that
system done away with, but she says this:
"The next step for US to take in the hand
ling of all great controversies of a re-
ligious kind is to have what is known as
list of funds that under the existing
circumstances and under the existing sys-
te~' work with the social ideal in mind"
Some time ago there was a meeting of
the faculty of the Union Theological Semi
nary, and Williams Adams Brownie does
not know l am going to say this; he
wouldn't care to have me say this-made
this proposition in the meeting of the fac
ulty, that the faculty of the Union Theo-
logical Seminary go before the board Of
trustees, not knowing anything about the
funds and where they come from, that they
go before the board of trustees and ask
those trustees to invest, so far as the
funds of that seminary were concerned,
only in institutions that were working
from the standpoint of the largest social
outlook and they would take their return
in salary from the fund that came from
concerns of that kind, even if it meant a
substantial reduction in salary.
That is what l mean by the wise use of
funds. We must work under that system;
the system is here; it is taken for granted
by all the speakers that have been speak
ing. And we are not here as radical revo-
lutionary people, but we are trying to ad-
just ourselves so as to make the most of
the present system for the Kingdom of
God
Now we come to something else-and
that is very important, it seems to me
and it is this: In this new Church move
ment as we look out to the nations of the
earth we may just as we'll remember that
the great problem in the present days is
not merely the problem of labor in our
country, but the problem Of the relation
between the so-called more favored nations
and the so-called backward nations And
the Christian Church has to stand as
protest and has to stand as a corrective in
the work that it does to the various ex-
plotting schemes in foreign fields. That Is
what it must do. 1t may be that I speak
with peculiar feeling about this because l
have had for seven years something to do
with the Mexican situation. The sins of
Mexico, the real sins that Mexico has COM
mitted, have been these, that she possesses
oil and she possesses silver and she pos
scsses copper and she possesses possible
ties Of rubber. Those are the sins that
she has committed, and those make the
trouble.
Now, the Christian Church, having back
of it now these immense sums of money
must go on in corrective way, and l de-
plore anything that looks like any kind OF
financial enterprise in the foreign field that
has any tinge of spoliation about it what
soever because it hinders the work George
Francis Train said one time, ~ object to
sending missionaries to China to convert
the Cinnamon and soldiers to shoot the
Chinamen." This was at the time of the
opium war 81 object" he said, "to send
ing them on the same boat, because when
you send them on the same boat it is ant
to beget confusion in the Chinamen's
minds