Capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1919-1980, 1921-02-21
Open Forum


! .COHBIeSS SildIl HldhH no law re
specting an establishment of re-
ligion, or prohibiting the free ex-
ercise thereof" yet this is exactly
what the present congress is be-
ing asked to do, according to sew
eral newspapers edited in the ma
tional capital. The movement, we
are Informed, is headed by the
Reverend II. L. Bowlby, national
secretary of the Lords Day AlIi-
ance, who claims the financial and
moral backing of sixteen Protes-
tant organizations. Among innu-
merable things which are taboo
under the proposed legislation, we
might cite a few most important
ones as being; prohibition of Sun
day baseball, theaters, concert
halls, golf links, running of pas
senger or freight trains, prohibit
ing publication or delivery of sun
day papers, and censorship of the
stuff" that goes into them the
other six days of the week. To
show the confidence and deter
mination with which the cam
paign is being carried on, / quote
the reporters account of Rev.
Bowlby's own statement, as fol-
lows:
I'VE are well financed. Our lob
by at Washington will be an eff
fective and experienced one. We
shall agitate and spread propa -
ganda and cause voters to write
INCREASINGLY to their representa-
tiVes in congress, until no con
gresham who cares to stay in
will dare refuse to vote
for our measures"
During recent years, whole pub
lications have been devoted to ed
ucating the people, warning them
against a certain religious organ
ization, which, it WaSW alleged, !
sought to undermine civil liberties
and government through sinister
methods, alleging their ultimate
aim to be the domination of gov
ernment by the church. 1t must
be an awful shock to the support |
ers Of such propaganda to have to
swallow the sordid fact that it re-
NAMED for sixteen Protestant or !
to strike the first con
centrated blow at civil liberties. |
by compelling the observance of |
heir particular policies and creeds ]
the iron rule of federal /
statute, thereby effecting a union |
Of church and state which has
brntIuhnJIt an i-t, l. I
lnny with its beautiful accessories
- the whipping post and the in
luisitiOn. The secret of our phe-
lomenal advancement in the last
and a quarter, from a
handful of wrangling quarreling
states to the richest most power
ul, and most progressive nation
IN earth, lies in one little word;
tolerance" Under the application
# its principle, it was possible for
he sixteen religious organizations
o thrive, and become powerful in
nance ana membership, who now
ropose to forsake the principle
which brought them into being and ,
trike death blow at their bene-
actor. and treat liberty as a com
1odity to be dealt out to the indi-
idual through the medium of d,
eW religious diCtators. The Rev.
!. w. Cooper, chairman at a re-
ent session of the Methodist Min
'ters and Laymen, said of the res
luton endorsing the program:
The action of our conference j,
as based on the commandment
our God, to honor the Sabbath
ay and keep it Holy, a command /,
lent we must keep, if we would
ave our people and our nation :
'om destruction"
1t seems from this that the
linds of a few super-idiots have
ecome imbued with the fatal con-
apt that unless the world. and
the United States at
nee subjects itself to a clergy die
'torship, we are destined straight
)r eternal damnation.
Have these men become so ar
ent in their ultra-reform pro- i
ram, has their brain become so Q
.ouded as TO shut out the light of q
4ason? Was the fiendish ambi- q
on of Wilhelm H., who, with a
lirty-siX million deluded follow J.
IS, and the aid of Got" set out
impose "Kultur" on an unwill- =
lg world, no lesson to these men? 7
o doubt the program indorsed bv a
lese men would be as obnoXfous n
many of our citizens as German n
ultur for the Rev. Bowlhv is n
ank to state that although the u
Cnitarians, Jews and Adj Il
entists are outside the movements: h
rhey, too, will have to conform is
the law, if we succeed" And +,
gain: The Jew will have TO OH =
rye our Sabbath. As a matter
fact, he might as well, for sat
day is not, after all, his Sabbath. ,
.erefore, it will work no hard
mp on him to attend his syua- /
'gue on the same day as we at (
nd our churches"
Thus from the frank admission
their leader, we behold a pro-
am of proposed legislation which
ln but that of class adhering
certain principles or creeds
'atn and Mexico, which have
.en governed by this policy al
ost since the world began. are
ting examples of its conseuuen-
$. However, these gentlemen
Id the few who may subscribe TO 4
err policy are not dealing with s
'aln nor Mexico, but with a ma S
m OF people who have enjoyed 3
lgious liberty for almost a con-
rY and half. Had it not been S
r Wilhelm's uper-ambition, the 5
ople of Holland might still be
wing war prices for cord-wood Is
matter of fact, the pathway E
progress is strewn with The \
altered dreams of aspiring men
~