Imperial Valley press., 1919-06-21

THOUGHT TO MY.
NEW YORK, June 17.-"Give a
Thought to Broadway" is the new slo-
gan of the Broadway Association, a
local group of earnest boosters who
hope by much taking of thought to lift
that far press noticed rose path into
realm Of higher and better things,
physically, morally and aesthetically.
Who has not given thought to
Broadway? let me ask you. If such
mental direction be sole condition to
membership in the Broadway Associa-
ton, good list of prospects might
be compiled from the combined birth
registrations of the we'll known globe.
Most of US have loved and hated it
and all it stands for, both alternately
and simultaneously. We have left it
behind us with glad cries and re-
turned to it again after many days
with tears of homesick penitence.
1t is the saddest and gayest, the
most beautifully ugly, the most cruel
ly kind, the most complicatedlv SIM
pie, the broadest and narrowest, the
straightest and most crooked the
lightest and darkest, wickedest and
best little, old, big, new street in the
world.
What would we do to change this
Main street of Cosmos? We'd leave it
alone. It'll change anyhow. Broadway
without change would be dead. Broad
way changed by the meddlesome, con-
sciously directed hand of uplifters, al
tered by naught save the secret NOV
ings of it's own restless and mysteri-
Gus spirit would not be Broadway.
Like Topsy, it was not made, it
grew.
Sic and Infinitum! /
The church at Park Avenue and
Thirty-fourth Street, known for
eighty years as the Church of the
Messiah, henceforth will be the Com
munity Church of New York. The
Rev. John Haynes Holmes, pastor an
nounced recently that having severed
some time ago all connection with
theology in favor of religion that
was not bounded even by Christianity,
the old name, although held in tender
regard by the older members, had be-
come source of error to the public.
The Church was founded in 1925 as
the Second Congregational Unitarian
Church. In 1889 it's name was changed
to the Church of the Messiah. It's
former pastor, the Rev. Robert Coll
yer, was famous. all over the United
States for many years as the "Black
smith Preacher" The latest change
was made by the congregation at the
suggestion of Mr. Holmes, who re-
quested his followers some months ago
to place the institution upon defin
ite community basis.
"The change is simply an endeav-
or" said Mr.. Holmes, Ito interpret the
free, democratic, social religion to
which we are committed, and to give
public guarantee Of our determination
to live out the consequences Of this
religion to the very end.
"We have done away with new rents |
and assessments, and thus placed the |
support of the church on the abso- /
lutely democratic basis of free, volun- |
tary subscriptions. We have rewritten
our covenant, eliminating every last |
vestige of theology, thus relegating |
all matters of belief to private, indi-
vidual opinion, and putting member
ship in the institution on an out-and- |
out citizenship basis. We now belong |
to the community, to take rank with /
the school, library, the community
center as a public institution for pub
lie service"
Little things sometimes lead to the |
downfall of public officials and, much |
less frequently, little things may |
bring their ultimate vindication. Such |
seems to be the case of General Bing |
ham, police commissioner for time !
under the late Mayor Gaynor, and |
with few exceptions, including Theo-
dore Roosevelt and Arthur Woods,
best police commissioner New York |
ever had. He was ground between the /
upper and neither millstones of Tam
many Hall and the erratic Gaynor.
"The Duffy boy" otherwise George
(Red) Duffy, whose complaints of Po- |
lice Commissioner Bingham ten years |
ago, was in police court once more the
other day.
Arrested score or more times pre-
viously, Duffy this time was accused
of having robbed John kass, saloon
keeper, of 1852 Third Avenue,
Brooklyn. Duffy is alleged to have |
stolen whiskey worth 1920.
Perhaps even Mr.. Gaynor, were he
alive today, would admit that "Red's"
record in a measure justifies the po-
lice watchfulness his honor objected to
so strongly.
Or would the versatile Mayor de-
clare our "heads were full of vice and
crime" and that the police had hound
ed Duffy into the crooked path? He
might, and he could quote Epectitus
to prove it.