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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



thereby be subserved. In the second 

 place be bestows " the heartiest ap- 

 proval " on the " socialistic movement," 

 as he himself describes it, for trans- 

 ferring "power ;ind discretion in the 

 matter of the education of children" 

 from the family to the Government. 

 Let us very briefly discuss both points. 

 The exemption of church property 

 from taxation is equivalent, General 

 Walker tells us, to a "subsidy of many 

 millions annually. . . It is claimed," 

 we are further told, "that the services 

 of this agent are worth to Government 

 more than the taxes which the treasury 

 might otherwise collect from the smaller 

 number of churches and missions which 

 would survive the assessment of the 

 ordinal^ taxes, and that the remaining 

 tax-payers really pay less, by reason of 

 the reduction in violence and crime 

 hereby effected." Now the question 

 that, presents itseff to our mind is this : 

 "What view might we expect a dispas- 

 sionate and capable observer, like the 

 President of the Massachusetts Insti- 

 tute of Technology, to take of an utter- 

 ly unverified and utterly illogical claim 

 of this nature? That it is unverified 

 no one can deny, ^hat facts are there 

 to prove that, if church property paid 

 taxes like other property, crime and 

 violence would increase, and the gen- 

 eral rate of taxation be advanced ? Ab- 

 solutely none. That the claim is an 

 illogical one is equally evident. "Why 

 should state aid to the churches, if it 

 really assists the cause of order, stop 

 short at the exemption of church prop- 

 erty from taxation? If a few millions 

 in this way are of so much benefit, why 

 not try the effect of a few millions more 

 in the payment or supplementing of the 

 salaries of ministers? "Why not have 

 a fund for the erection of church-edi- 

 fices in spiritually destitute districts ? 

 Why not subsidize the Bible Society? 

 "Why not distribute tracts through the 

 Post-Office letter-boxes? There is re- 

 ally no end to what the Government 

 might do to aid the churches; and it is 



really very odd that any one should se- 

 riously pretend that the whole duty of 

 the Government in the matter is done 

 when it has "dead-beaded"thechurches 

 on the assessment- roll. Or look at the 

 same question from another side. If 

 it is conceded, as it probably is by the 

 great majority in this country, that 

 state patronage of the Church is hurt- 

 ful to the life and activity of the latter, 

 why should it be held that the particu- 

 lar form of state patronage involved in 

 exempting ecclesiastical property from 

 taxation is beneficial ? "Why should it 

 not be held that just as the Church has 

 gained in spiritual vitality by being cut 

 off from other forms of state support, 

 so it would further gain by shaking it- 

 self free from this last remnant of the 

 old system ? If this view is correct — 

 and we should like to know what solid 

 arguments can.be advanced against it — 

 then, instead of a gain to social order 

 by the remission of the taxes on eccle- 

 siastical property, there must be an 

 injury to that very cause through the 

 moral injury inflicted on the churches. 

 The whole argument referred to by 

 General W T alker is so hollow, so unsci- 

 entific, so manifest a begging of the 

 question, that we can not but be sur- 

 prised at his omission to denounce it as 

 such ; and still more at his putting it 

 forward as an argument valid enough, 

 if only used genuinely, in the interest 

 of good government. No one knows 

 better than General Walker that the 

 sincerity with which an argument is 

 used has nothing whatever to do with 

 its logical validity, but depends wholly 

 on personal conditions. A very igno- 

 rant or stupid man may use with per- 

 fect sincerity an argument which a bet- 

 ter-informed and clearer-headed man 

 could not use without conscious soph- 

 istry. We should very much like to 

 read an article from General Walker's 

 pen dealing with the one question: 

 Should ecclesiastical property in the 

 United States be exempted from taxa- 

 tion? We feel persuaded that, when he 



