4 
street. do not consider-how the man 
got it. 
“Righteousness it not 
nent to enter college. ‘ 
a“ require- 
acter. We continually talk to our 
children about their table manners, 
their dress and their day school stud- 
ies, but say. very, very. little to them 
about the fundamentals of life, ordi- 
nary righteousness.. Why? (I hate 
to state the reason).~ It is because 
we feel that dress and manners, ar- 
ithmetic and languages count more 
toward getting on in society, school, 
college and after life than does right- 
eousness. © And this is not our fault. 
Each one of us is like a brick in a 
wall. It is difficult to change our own 
direction without changing the di- 
rection of the wall.” 
_Mr.-Babson then raised the ques- 
tion, “Has not righteousness been 
subsidized during all periods, when 
the church has been a great power in 
the Community?” He brought out 
the fact that the Promised Land was 
held up to the people during the ear- 
liest centuries, following the days of 
the patriachs; that national strength 
was constantly held up to the Israel- 
ites as asreward for right doing; that 
even Christ preached sacrifice, in or- 
der to win something greater than 
sacrifice, and that we should be will- 
ing to lose our lives for the sake of 
gaining greater life. In fact, history 
shows that the preaching of eternal 
life for those who do right and eter- 
nal damnation for those who do 
wrong has ben the main spring of the 
church during the past centuries. 
“Now,” savs Mr: Babson, “the 
Heaven and Hell doctrine is not tak- 
en seriously by the masses. Whether 
the preachers today still believe it, I 
do not know, but certainly they don’t 
preach it nor base their claims there- 
on. In other words. the church to- 
day has withdrawn the former goals 
and given up preaching Heaven and 
Hell without substituting anything 
else in its place. I know this is not 
a pleasant fact to talk about, but it 
should be recognized. In other words, 
has not the church flourished in the 
past, by subsidizing righteousness? 
If so, shouldn’t the church face the 
facts today, and again subsidize 
righteousness or get the nations to do 
it for them? “It is as possible to sub- 
sidize righteousness, and put a tariff 
on selfishness, as it is to subsidize 
shipping. and put a tariff on commo- 
dities which we do not want in our 
country.” 
Mr, Babson gave numerous illus- 
trations, showing how it is entirely 
practicable -to ‘subsidize righteousness, 
Hence, ~ the 
school boy is not marked on his char-> 
NORTH SHORE BREEZE 
and put a tariff on selfishness. He 
stated that the greatest opportunity 
lies in the negotiations now in pro- 
gress for a permanent court at the 
Hague to settle the great internation- 
al questions. Said he: “From exper- 
iences which I had in Europe the past 
year, I am convinced that the nations 
will never get together, on any other 
basis than that of real prosperity 
which comes from right living. Of 
course, Russia would like to have re- 
presentation based on area; China 
would like it based on population, 
France would like it based on gold; 
England on foreign trade; while the 
small countries would like each na- 
tion to have the same representation. ’ 
“T am convinced that none of these 
“ methods will ever prevail, and that 
the present method whereby Germany 
and Montenegro, each have the same 
representation, is unjust and imprac- 
ticable. The men who are now work- 
ing for this new system of represen-. 
tation ‘based on the real prosperity of 
nations whereby each nation’s repre- 
sentation increases and decreases in 
accordance with its prosperity, will 
prevail, Jf such a thing ever comes 
to pass. this will be one of the great- 
est and most practicable means of 
subsidizing righteousness for nations 
will then begin to expend the money 
and energy in developing men, wo- 
men and children, which they now 
spend in developing guns and fortifi- 
Hcations: 
Mr. Babson prophesied that the 
time is coming when a man must live 
rightlv and deal justlv in order to be 
nromoted under Civil Service, and 
that this is not only practicable but, 
if the government ts to take over the’ 
railroads. public utilities. and enter 
into the regulation of industries, it 
will be a necessity. 
“Another great opportunity to sub- 
sidize righteousness. and put a tariff 
on selfishness. is in a revision of our 
tax laws. As yott all know. at the 
present time. a man is taxed simply 
on what he has got, irrespective of 
how he got it, or how he is using it. 
Tn fact, the man who improves his 
property today, and tries to make a 
greater contribution to the prosperity 
of his community is taxed more than 
the man who develops nothing, and 
holds back the community’s growth; 
while the man who does not develop 
his property. and is a drag on the 
community, is let off with the small- 
est taxes. Some day this will all be 
changed. and the man who puts his. 
money into his property will be en- 
couraged. The man who invests in 
the securities of a water power pro- 
position, which is a benefit to the na- 
tion, will not be taxed so heavily : 
thereon as if he invested money in 
the manufacture of luxuries and wast- _ 
ed money on automobiles, . 
“One of the simplest forms of sub-— 
sidizing righteousness is in the re- — 
vision of our college entrance requi- — 
sites. It is difficult for the parent — 
to impress upon the boy the impor- 
tance of right living over Geometry 
and French, when he knows he must — 
have the latter in order to enter col- — 
lege, while there is no requirement as 
to his proficiency in the more funda- 
mentals of life. Some day this will 
be entirely changed, and our univer- 
sities, by insisting upon right living 
as an entrance requirement, will per- 
form for the youth of our nation what 
permanent court of the Hague’ will 
some day perform for the nations — 
themselves. For as soon as right liv- 
ing is a requirement for entrance to 
colleges, then the schools will begin — 
to mark on character as well as on 
mathematics and languages, and when __ 
the schools so mark, then will we 
parents be as determined that our 
children shall have character as to 
have good manners, proper dress, and 
high marks in arithmetic and other 
studies. a 
“These are simply a few Ilustra- 
tions of many which I might give, to 
show how it would be very easy to 
subsidize righteousness if it ts thought __ 
possible to do so. Of course I recog- 
nize that the idea of hiring people to 
do right, is repulsive to many people; — 
but does not the history of the church — 
chow very plainly that its growth has 
been on this basis? The people are — 
interested today, as in the past, only 
in what counts, and the future of the — 
church rests on moulding conditions so 
that what it preaches will count, The 
church should continue to preach the 
fundamentals of Christianity ; but re- 
arrange the standards of life, so that 
man will be encouraged in doing right. 
In other words, it seems to me that 
the greatest opportunity which the 
church has today, is in shaping civil: — 
ization so that man will no longer be 
judged by what the has got, but by 
how the got it and what he is doing 
with it. ei 
“Before such a change can be — 
brought about two things are neces- 
sary; first there must be a desire on — 
the part of the people for a new stand- — 
ard; and secondly, funther statistics — 
must be accumulated, and some sys- — 
tem devised for measuring righteous- 
ness, and, of course, I use this word 
only in its broadest sense. a 
“The first requisite of creating a — 
desire among the people for a differ- — 
ent standard, I believe has been pretty — 
> 
Mi 
