Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page.

A MILITANT WEEKLY. THE REASON COMPANY oNFYFAPtinn . .. SINGLE COPY H. LAMAR PARKER, 81 Express Building. ONE YEAR SI.OO. <^f|jgsgS> 3 FIVE CENTS. DAVID P. DYER. __ _ I ditors* No. 3. TAX CHURCHES AND COLLEGES AND PUT THEM ON A SURE ’NOUGH BUSINESS BASIS. By E. LAMAR PARKER. That time-worn phrase, ‘‘special privileges to none." which we have been inserting in the party platforms ever since the birth of the Republic, is gaining new strength in the measures being enacted by several states to require churches and colleges to pay taxes on their property. Church property, on the plea that it is sacred and devoted to the service of the Lord, has no more right to exemption from taxation than bath houses and pleasure resorts, since these also do a work for God. To exempt them and not the latter is a dis crimination that does extreme violence to the prin- I ciple of equal rights. The practice cannot be jus- ! titled on any of the grounds set forth as an excuse, and ought to be stopped. In Ohio the church took advantage of this exemption and actually engaged in the real estate business. In many instances the different denomi nations became as greedy after land as after mem bers, and it was found that they owned hundreds of acres within the incorporated limits of the cities. j There is nothing wrong in the church accumu lating and holding property —in fact, it should be 1 encouraged to do so —but there is a very grievous wrong done the public in exempting it from taxes. Wrong is also done the church. The fact that it enjoys special privileges sets up a prejudice against it and prevents it from engaging in profitable indus try. This prejudice extends to its religious work and detracts much from its force. It is high time that the church should learn that it cannot live by air alone and got to work to earn a living without begging. It is engaged already in educational work. Farm work is just as honorable and enobling, more necessary; then why not the church engage in that? There is coal to mine, commerce to he carried on, shipping to be engaged in, boarding houses to he run and hospitals to be operated. A man by the name of Dr. Brough ton can tell you, if he will, that the latter two, exempt from taxation and kept up by liberal dona tions, are profitable in the extreme. Savannah, Ga., May 7, 11)08 There is no end to the influence a mercantile establishment operated by a religious body would have in attracting trade. The profits could be applied to the particular needs of the denomination. Mrs. Fddy's speculations along this line provide i an example worthy of the emulation of all sects. Flie property of the Christian Science Church is variously estimated at $10,000,000. The ladies of the church occasionally go into the restaurant and tag selling business, and more often than not on an investment of less than SSO make more money in a day than some merchants with investments of SI,OOO can make in a week. When it comes to campaigning these same ladies are past masters in the art and can change more votes and fix more tickets on election day than howling Tillmanites. Politics and restaurant keep ing would open a large field of usefulness to the church if it would only pay its taxes and rig up for business in a business wav. i Seriously speaking, why shouldn't the colleges and churches he compelled to pay taxes’ Do they not receive the protection which tax money is col lected to provide? This protection can only be maintained by taxation. It can he shown that it would be to their interest to participate in Ibis tax ation. They could then get on a business basis and feel that they had a place in the commercial family. Weak-minded, unjudicial people have advanced the plea that they ought to be exempt from taxa tion because it has always been tie* custom. Others not lacking in judicial logic nor the ability to orig inate fine points have said they ought to be exempt because they increase the value of all other prop erty wherever located. But this argument falls flat as flounder, as on the same ground a railroad has the same right to exemption. There is no institution or corporation that increases the valuation of assessable property so much as a railroad; wicked railroad corporations, if you please. But if the college and church does increase the value of property, which is admitted by all, do they Vol. 1.