Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-04-04
PAGAN |NROADS ON
AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
Or. c. T. Wilson at M. e. Confer
ence Says Church Must Fight
to Stem the Tide.

Stan Correspondence of Every Evening
Crishc4d. Md. April AT the ami
versary of the Board of Temperance, Pro
hihition and Public Morals of the vii
mincton NJ. l.. Conference, DIR. Clarence
True Wilson created a sensation when he
announced his subject. "Fgan lnroads on
American Democracy He said:
During the war | heard two men
..aversinc az .hc car seat back of me
pne said Germany is nothing but a
pagan nation That remark started a
train of thought and | said to myself,
That man is mistaken. Germany is a
Christian nation secularized, or as the
Methodist would say, baclS-slidden. One
hundred years ago she was the most
Christian Of any nation IN Europe. and
represented the purest kind of Christi
auity We speak of the influence of the
King James version of the Bible ON English
and American thought. but IL was no
greater than Martin Luthers marvellous
translation OF the same Scriptures INTO
The German tongue and its hold on the
German civilization. But one hundred
Years ago the German scholars adopted
q system OF Biblical study which they
called Higher Criticism. but which Is
negative process Of studying the letter
of the Bibel for elimination. for mistakes.
for oversights With an imagination that
was characteristic these Germans cut
up the Bible and formed il into crazy
Quilt and carried on picking process
until their quilt was IN shreds and the
faith of the people IN the integrity OF the
Book was gone. They then adopted
system of rationalism by which they ex-
pained away everything that was left
IN the faith of the people, the old Book
and It's inspiration. the virgin birth and
resurrection Of Christ. the Pentecost an
Providence accepted hy their fathers
until religion had cvaporated.
Next they adopted q system of phil
osuphy known as 'materlaliSm by which
everything spiritual was dismissed and
denied and thought reduced To the result
of physical changes occurring IN the brain
and the universe was machine without
o head a force without a law or a law
rivcr. Reducing themselves thus 10 brutcs
thev began 10 live like them. They ban
ished the Bible from their school systems,
turned the Sabbath into continental
SUNDAY of beer drinking and gambling
and made the most debauchlng OF all
beverages the German national drink.
beer They were given 10 everything that
was hrutalizlng and degrading
Then the temptations of great war
came upon fftt~f Iftiiit Ofiilutti Ol tAitii
religious faith and hence with no stand
IN ground for morals: and deeds that will
shame our world for a thousand years
characterized former Christian people
who had forgotten God and were left to
their own WAYS.
If | had my way as an American, /
would have my Uncle sam put his feet
49, every step bv which Germany went
down stairs 20 ruin and walk on those
steps in the opposite directlon-up stairs!
Those steps would be ~: The total
hsnishmcat forever from American soil
az the prot serman brewers and the manu-
fscfurp " beer with rs attendant evils
the brewery owned saloon with us froat
door swinging inward and its side door
o. cntrap our women and girls | would
have the Bible. the Book that Washing
ton kissed when Inaugurated President
aad that Abraham Lincoln loved and
Theodorc Roosevelt lived, put back in
the public school Of the United States so
that the hovs and girls who are 10 be the
future American citizens will have an
intellectual foundation for American mo-
rality. ! would get back our American
Sabbath on it's American foundations as |
II stood before the German-American |
Alliance trampled Il IN the mIre of eall |
our American cities. ] would do this |
for the sake of the home life OF the Re |
public that the fathers and mothers who |
toll away from the children during the /
week might all get together one day in |
seven free from grinding cares and let |
the old affections of home life reassert |
their potential spell on old snd Young /
alike. and that the church may have free /
access % the folks and be enabled TO /
keep the moral and spiritual forces adj
vancing alongside Of the intellectual and
material prosperity Of the people.
IL would inaugurate 4 campaign OF
respect FOR law aud its strict enforce
ment. 4 republic Is az a danger point
here. The people are 50 close 10 the process
es Of making their own laws that thev are
no, in awe OF the law book or court house
a. they are where their government is
handed down 20 them from a so-called
higher source. All the more reason WHY
We should teach respect for law. obey
II ourselves and sec that IL is obeved bv
others. Ii we continue TO SOW the spirit
81 lawlessness with reference TO the
amendment we will reap the
vhirlwind when it is too late TO get to
shelter.
"a startling thing 70 me has been to
see our two million men 90 across the
water 20 crJsh out the type Of civiliza-
ton that menaced the world because of
these very hrutalizing and coarsening
vices and having witnessed Ger
man brutalIty, Belgian beer-guzzling and
rench looseness. Many Of our men. not
~ much our soldiers as their officers. have
rome back 20 America prepared 10 adopt
every loose thing they found abroad
They say they want their beer back their
red light abatement laws repealed. the
laws of various states which
least protect the minors, anulled, the
sabbath continentalized and gambling
tolerated again There is hardly state
ahere this organized and well financed
Is not at work at this mo-
uent Scarcely State Legislature can meet
without the sinister assaults of the con
tolerated interests that prey.
II have Just crossed the continent and
leen IN l6 states and there is not one
where the symptoms are not unnis-
akabe One State was legalizing race
rack gambling Another trying to veto
he law against selling cigarettes 10 min
,rs. Another trying 10 repeal the red light
.batement laws. Several Of them irving
% nullify the eighteenth amendment