Norwich bulletin., 1920-09-25
NO POPULAR GOVERNMENT WITHOUT RELIGION


 without religion popular government cannot survive. says William Howard Taft. in statement defining the religious convictions of an American citizen as he interpeets them. He is honorary chairman of the unitarion committee in charge of the Pilgrim Tercentenary-
 The study of mans relation /to his Creator and his responsibility for his lie to Ged," says Mr. Taft, "enersizes his moral inciinaticns. strengthens his self sacrifice and restraint, prompts his sense of fraterna1 oblisAstion to his fellow men, and makes him the good citizen without whom peVulAr government would be a
 hiIure" q.
 This obseryation is based upon ex- periniznts which the former president says ahat any one who has studied the life of people from the standpoint of q responsibIe Administrator must recog- nize. Four years as goyern2F general of the Philippines-c executive of 7,c0o,- e69 orientals, among whom were Chris dans, Moharnmedans, and pagans-and four years more as president of the Unit ed States lead bfr. Taft to say
 sThe longer and more intimate my knowledge of their political and socia. lives. the more deeply impressed have l become with the critical importance oi  play in making popular government wha it ought to be. and in vindicatng it as 1 the best kind of a government that ar | intelligent people can establish.
 "A people without religion are lack | ing in the greatest aid to the progres: I of society through the moral elevation of individuals and the community" Developing his argument for the neces sity for the infusion of the religiou! spirit into the prevailing morality for thu 1 purpose of giving it life and persisten I influence, Mir. Taft continues:
 GO to church
 ! There are doubtless many individual who live moral and upright life, wh' are not conscious of religious faith O | feeling or feryer but however this ma. be in exceptional cases, it is the infiuenc 1 of religion and its vivifying quality tha | keeps the ideals of people high, that con soIes them in their suffering and COTTON l and brings their practices more nearl into conformity with their 6eals'' l Of the growth of liberal thought in tn
 churches of today and the evolution fror i an intolerant and condemnatory atti l tude on the part of the socaIled ortho dox churches toward Unitarianism an other liberal religion MT Taft says: l Gradually, the views of many in tn
 evangelical churches have grown more liberal and in the generation throug
 which have lived I can see marke
 change in the attitude toward Unitarian
 ism.
 1 After a life of nearly threescore an of a not fncopsiderable contact with man l religions, I do not find my views chang
 ed as to the profound importance bot
 of maintaining the Christian religion a
 an indispensable element in the progres
 of civilization to better and high idea
 and of the persistent upholding of libel ality in Christian religious thought g
 means of stimulating the lives of thos whose faith in strictly orthodox cree has been clouded, and who, but for broader religious outlook might drift il to indifference and lose the inspiratic of religion that all men need.
 7 Now, what are UnitariaHs? Are ths