[The WORLD'S WORK will publish letters, or extracts from letters, from its readers, dealing in an interesting way with topics of general interest.] WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH THE MINISTRY? TO THE EDITOR: I wish to enter my protest against many of the statements in, and especially the spirit which prompted the writing of, the article in the June WORLD'S WORK, entitled: "The Matter with the Ministry." My work at present takes me to ministers' homes, and associations, and I never hear them or their wives utter such sentiments. I have endured the criticisms, suffered the persecutions, and lacked for money long due me; but if I were to-day going to decide upon my life's work, knowing what I do now, I would say "the ministry of the Gospel for mine." I am far happier in it to-day than 25 years agone. (REV.) JOHN H. BRANDOW. Albany, N. Y. the Christian church for strong men as ever, and a strong man can easily free himself from petticoat domination in the church. I know several right in my home city' who've done it. CHESTER T. CROWELL. Austin, Texas. TO THE EDITOR: One of the most serious defects of ministerial work, if not the most serious, in my judgment, was not stated in "The Matter with the Ministry." This is the short period of actual service in the pastorate. Under that form of church government which gives the individual church the privilege of calling the pastor, the term of actual service is not more than three times the length of the time required for the preparation for the ministry. In many instances it is not nearly so long as this. Large numbers of good and able men are loath to enter a service that will practically terminate at 45 or 50, leaving them without support, without training or opportunity for making a living for their families and themselves. (REV.) WM. HARRISON DECKER. Nanticoke, Pa. TO THE EDITOR: The present age has outgrown the old theology. Since the doctrine of evolution has come to stay, placing primitive man low in the scale of humanity, the old story TO THE EDITOR: I cannot avoid writing a letter to the editor for the first time in my life. I have known hundreds of ministers and, wherever the people are facing the primitive problem of making a living from the soil and preserving law and order, the church is a great power. Here in rural Texas the ministers sway public opinion as in the old days. But in the cities the churches are merely social institutions. They don't meet the issues of the day, and I think I know why they don't. The crimes of the city are the crimes of of the fall of man (a slur on the omniscience of the counting room - ill-gotten gains. every minister would demand that no member of his church should own houses rented for immoral purposes, there would be such a fight within the church as would leave the Christians on one side and the people who ought to be thrown out on the other. The job of the church to-day is not so much to spread the gospel — although that is still a job as it is to scourge out those who pollute its sacred temples in search of profit. I know ministers who without compromise of any sort whatever have men crowding their churches. They are big upstanding fellows with back bone and belligerency in their fight for the cause of Christ. But most of the ministers I know, while good Christians, are such mollycoddles that if I believed them veritable saints I'd rather take a beating than talk to them. There is just as much room in Deity), bodily resurrection, and many other miraculous events are now discarded by all true scientists. The belief is becoming general that we are, and always have been, governed by natural, immutable law, and if we transgress we must suffer the penalty, which is educational, merciful, and makes for progress. Remedy: The leaders will have to come out and express their honest belief, revise the old creeds, and teach rational doctrines that conform to modern thought. Malone, N. Y. CLINTON STEVENS. TO THE EDITOR: I have preached twentyfive years, have had good congregations, have gotten a very good salary, have met with the same kind of people in the churches that every minister meets with and they have treated me well. I have educated my children, have saved claims to be: a leader along the hard pathway of the sacrificial life. Let him waive his leadership here and put his trust in the unrighteous mammon, and support is quickly withdrawn. This is not sentiment, but a matter of principle. No man who makes every sacrifice for his people will be allowed to do without the necessaries of life. MEXICo (REV.) W. SYDNEY BURGESS. Shelburne, Mass. WHY NOT DOUBLE-TRACK THE MISSISSIPPI? TO THE EDITOR: Appalling destruction was caused by the recent overflow of the Mississippi River: the territory most largely affected being Arkansas, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Louisiana. Thousands of square miles of fertile land were covered from five to twenty feet deep with water that came through the breaks at Luna, Ark., and Alsatia, Torras, and Hymelia, La. The Nation must grapple with this problem and not require the comparatively small population which has heretofore borne the major portion of the expense for levee maintenance by direct taxation to care longer for the drainage and flood waters of two thirds of the United States of all the territory lying between the Alleghany and the Rocky Mountains. Because of the topography of the country, it is possible to do as the railroads do when a single line has too much traffic-to double-track the Mississippi River. I suggest a spillway or a canal commencing just below Cairo, leading from the Mississippi River to the system of bayous and rivers that runs parallel with the Mississippi through Big Lake, utilizing in the same general direction the White, Arkansas, Bartholomew, Boeuf, Macon, Tensas, Black, Red, and Atchafalaya rivers, all of which run parallel to the Mississippi River a sufficient distance to lend themselves to this plan, flowing, most of them, from one into the other, and making necessary but comparatively short and inexpensive canals from one river into the other. The entire system of dredging and canals would not cost one quarter of the actual loss occasioned by this overflow of 1912. DOUBLE TRACK FOR THE MISSISSIPPI A PLAN TO PREVENT THE ANNUAL FLOODS BY PROVIDING A SECOND CHANNEL FOR THE SURPLUS WATER BY DREDGING THE RIVERS AND BAYOUS THAT PARALLEL THE MISSISSIPPI AND CONNECTING THEM BY CANALS, UTILIZING THE EQUIPMENT AND MEN THAT WILL SOON COMPLETE THE SIMILAR TASK AT PANAMA TO THE EDITOR: There is and should be a well-marked distinction, in virtue of the office which the pastor holds. The essential dignity of the minister's position is quite generally recognized by the community. And when a clergyman is ignorant of his social relations, the spectacle is not ludicrous but tragic. Even the ungodly are bitterly opposed to a money-making priesthood, for the heart of the Christian message is self-sacrifice. The common people demand of their pastor what he This entire country is almost a dead level and without rock, presenting only the cheapest class of excavation. The entire construction would not cost more than one of the Gatun locks; and, with the discarding of all the excavating machinery at Panama, now is the time to avail ourselves of not only the machinery, but of the most efficient organization ever gathered for the displacement of earth. Chicago, Ill. D. K. JEFFRIS. TO HELP THE HELPLESS CHILD CHARLES RICHMOND HENDERSON 627 THOMAS RILEY MARSHALL (Illustrated) TERMS: $3.00 a year; single copies, 25 cents. For Foreign Postage add $1.28; Canada, 60 cents. All rights reserved. Entered at the Post-Office at Garden City, N. Y., as second-class mail matter. 711 F. N. DOUBLEDAY, President WALTER H. PAGE, Vice-Presidents S. A. EVERITT, Treas. RUSSELL DOUBLEDAY, Sec'y PRESIDENT EMERITUS OF HARVARD, WHO SAID AT THE END OF HIS WORLD-WIDE TRIP: "I WOULD NOT BE WILLING TO STATE BROADLY THAT THE NATIONS ARE TAK[See "The March of Events"] ING SERIOUSLY THE IDEA OF UNIVERSAL PEACE" THE WORLD'S WORK OCTOBER, 1912 VOLUME XXIV NUMBER 6 T THE MARCH OF EVENTS HE 'revelations of political campaign subscriptions are humorous, cynical, disgusting, and exceedingly instructive. How the givers and the receivers squirm and explain and protest! The great value of these scandalous revelations is the measure they give of the moving forward of the public conscience. When Mr. Archbold of the Standard Oil Company gave $100,000 in 1904 to the treasurer of the Republican fund, he gave it in cash and he wished to make sure that it would be "gratefully appreciated" by Mr. Roosevelt. "Gratefully appreciated" is an apt phrase. It was not appreciated, as Mr. Archbold hoped it would be; but there is no assertion by anybody that it was returned. Mr. Roosevelt has declared that Mr. Knox remarked that he had never heard of anybody's refusing campaign money from any source. It was perfectly natural that Mr. Archbold should attribute the prosecution of his company to his refusal to contribute more and it is perfectly natural that the enemies of Mr. Roosevelt should conclude that the large sum contributed by Mr. Frick had something to do with the failure to prosecute the steel corporation. In a word, when great corporations or other "interests," whether corporate or individual, contribute to election funds, both contributors and beneficiaries of the election are put to a strain. They generally expect to give and to receive payment in some form; or, if they do not, they cannot escape the suspicion of expecting it. You have tarred hands if you touch this dirty stick at either end, no matter who you are nor what your motives. Since 1904 we have come a good way out of that dismal immorality which Mr. Hanna reduced to a science. We have forbidden by law the continuation of corporation contributions; and, more important than that, we have come into a mood to demand publicity of all campaign funds who gave them and how they were spent. The frankness of Governor Wilson and his managers and their wish to win the election with the smallest expenditure in recent times is the most popular as well as the cheapest kind of campaigning that can be done. And, best of all, the grip of campaign contributors on the Government cannot again be renewed. The insolence. of cold cash - we gain incalculably in proportion as we escape that. Copyright, 1912, by Doubleday, Page & Co. All rights reserved |