"The Backs of the Poor"

"A small but outstanding group of some of America's rich men are now seeking, by the expenditure of vast sums of money, to secure the repeal of the 18th Amendment. This would evidently shift the burden of taxation from their own shoulders to the backs of the poor. . . ."

The 35 other Methodist bishops present, who had helped to write the episcopal address which Boston's Bishop William Franklin Anderson was delivering, beamed in their chairs upon the platform. The 800-odd delegates and some 1,500 of their friends who crowded Atlantic City's Municipal Auditorium for the 31st quadrennial general conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church rose to their feet and cheered. It sounded like the old days when temperance cartoons depicted "the brewer's big horses" trampling down poor children, and the Saloon as a burly ogre digging graves for mankind, pointing with pride to poorhouses and asylums, barring the path of Progress to honest Government and Universal Prosperity (see cut). Methodism was again aligned on the side of the poor man against the privileged rich who would despoil him.

"Industry has as a rule given labor a grudging, insufficient wage," continued Bishop Anderson, "keeping it down by child exploitation, by suppression of legitimate organizations, and by other expedients, while at the same time huge fortunes have been amassed for the favored owners of the resources of production.

"Today the burden is without conscience shifted to the worker, who after giving his labor for miserable financial results, is turned off to starve or beg. Thus, the machine, which might have been used to lift the load of poverty from the backs of all people, has been used selfishly for the benefit of the few. . . .

"Through the better part of eight years, Prohibition enforcement was largely in the hands of its enemies. Considering this fact we must conclude that there is a vast power of public opinion behind it or it would not have survived. The present administration has given the 18th Amendment the best enforcement it has had, but the Government must deal with it in more vigorous fashion. . . .

"The metropolitan Press, with rare exceptions, has written one of the most shameless chapters in the history of the Republic. . . . What we commonly hear is: 'Leave it to the communities that want the traffic back again to solve the problem for all of us.' Leave it to the sidewalks of New York and the slums of Chicago!''

Again the auditorium rang with cheers. Bishop Anderson had to repeat the section of his address dealing with the Press. The Board of Temperance, Prohibition & Public Morals began preparing copies of the section on Prohibition to send to President Hoover, Governor Roosevelt, Alfred Emanuel Smith and New York's Mayor Walker.

Not for years & years had Methodism spoken so sharply to Business. In the years leading up to Prohibition's enactment, support of the Dry movement was considered a policy of industrial enlightenment.* Passages from episcopal addresses of other years reflect the cycle of Industry's attitude toward drink and Methodism's feeling about that attitude:

"We are glad . . . that great railroads and factories have concluded that men cannot be trusted with material interests and precious human lives who are addicted to intoxicating drink, glad that life insurance companies and mutual benefit societies have learned that all drinkers of intoxicants are deteriorated risks, and especially glad that the closing of the saloon on the Lord's Day has been effected in the great city of New York."--From the episcopal address, 1896.

"Public attention should also be constantly called to the economic side of the liquor business. While we stir the moral sense we ought also to arouse the financial sense of the burden bearers of the business world. The care for the dissipated criminal classes, spawned upon society by this ruinous business, falls chiefly upon the sober and industrious. The burden imposed upon the resources of the American people by the liquor business far exceeds the cost of maintaining all the armies of Europe. Once let the American people realize how they are held up and robbed by this highwayman and they will make short work of his arrest and execution.''--From the episcopal address, 1904.

"The prohibitory law has not been perfectly enforced, of course. For a century and a half the traffic in liquor was a perfectly lawful business, just as much so as banking and farming. Millions of money were invested. . . . Drinking was a popular social custom. . . . [The Prohibition law has resulted in] enlarged savings deposits in the banks, increased expenditures for legitimate commodities, decrease of crime, increased efficiency of labor, broken homes repaired, separated families reunited. . . ."--From the episcopal address, 1924.

"Where customs of long standing are affected by law . . . especially where there is involved the question of political power, commercial gain or personal restraint, the written law is not automatically effective.''--From the episcopal address, 1928.

Other items of Methodist activity last week at Atlantic City: P: Authorization of a campaign for $1,000,000 between May 15 & 30 to save the missionary, philanthropic and educational services of the church. P: A speech by Dr. Halford Edward Luccock of the Yale Divinity School deploring as "brutal and inhuman" the rise of U. S. Steel Corp. stock upon news of a 15% pay cut (see p. 51). Excerpts: "Every day that passes makes it more clear that there is nothing more futile than sending out to the Orient a religion which is not transforming the pagan forces which are so largely ruling here in America. The kind of a pagan world we live in is clearly pictured in the movement of the Stock Exchange quotations on Friday of last week. The headlines . . . tell the brutal and inhuman story: 'Steel Pay Cut Again; Stocks Rise Rapidly.' That is what we call a Christian civilization, a civilization which imagines that prosperity can be increased as human misery increases!"

P: Passage of a resolution "that no conference shall hereafter meet except in cities where there is no segregation of special racial groups, no discrimination in hotels, elevators and restaurants, and where there have been specific instructions ... to treat the representatives of every race with equality and courtesy." The conference had received reports that some of Atlantic City's boardwalk hotels refused to receive Negro bishops and delegates. The resolution was passed despite warnings of many delegates that it would be a blow to efforts of the church to reunite with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Bishop James Cannon Jr. of the Southern Methodists told the delegates that ten years of missionary work among the Negroes in the Congo had brought him great joy.

P: Announcement of the retirement of Bishops Anderson, McDowell and Charles Edward Locke (St. Paul).

* In 1913 the Brewers' Association "blacklisted" for refusing to support it or for contributing to the Anti-Saloon League the following industries: U.S. Steel Corp., Pennsylvania Railroad Co., Western Union Telegraph Co., S.S. Kresge Co., Wanamaker's, Hershey Chocolate Corp. Industrialist Henry Ford is still one of Prohibition's most ardent supporters, Industrialist Pierce Samuel du Pont one of its keenest foes.

-In 1913 the Brewers' Association "blacklisted" for refusing to support it or for contributing to the Anti-Saloon League the following industries: U. S. Steel Corp., Pennsylvania Railroad Co., Western Union Telegraph Co., S. S. Kresge Co., Wanamaker's, Hershey Chocolate Corp. Industrialist Henry Ford is still one of Prohibition's most ardent supporters, Industrialist Pierre Samuel du Pont one of its keenest foes.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.