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PT JOHV ELFRETH WATKIXS.
OF Mr. Taft's personal creed I know
nothing, but his deeply religious
nature is to me a sufficient, guar
antee of his faith."
These words from Mr. Taft's pastor
the Rev. Ulysses G. B. Pierce, of All
Soule' Church, Washington, may be iwsed
as, a gauge to the man and his faith.
The minister sat at a flat-top desk,
with a snowy white cat napping upon a
chair at his right hand. He is a clean
cut, clean-shaven man with black hair
turning to an iron gray, broad expansive
brow, large brown eyes, which flashed
Inquisitively when a question waa asked
him, but which looked dreamily out of
the window while he answered. His
erect, spare figure bespoke the man of
energy. Now and then he was called
from the room and I would hear him
whistling a merry air as he returned up
theetairs. """
Upon the detc lay open before me a
prospectus of the seventh season of this
happy man's lectures, and one title In
particular attracted my attention, "The
Gospel of Laughter." Beneath this title
waa printed in email type:
"To shorten the face Is to lengthen
the life."
Sir. Taft's Creed.
"The President in his reply to the man
lartin, who wrote t the "White House
Inquiring of Mr. Taft's creed, did not
rebuke the reference to Mr. Taft as an
"Infidel (Unitarian)' as It was put." said I.
"The President appreciated that such
a designation should not be dignified by
a rebuke. ltd absurdity was upon its
face. Did you ever hear of infidels build
ing a church? ,
"Scores of letters similar to Martin's
snowed me under during the campaign.
I have had little time for anything else
than answering them since Mr. Taft was
nominated. They came largely from
ministers: and I took care to answer
each with a statement from the consti
tution of our faith.
"In 1S.M our national conference sub
scribed to this declaration of our princi
ples: " "The churches accept the religion of
Jesus, holding, in accordance wkh His
teaching, that practical religion Is
summed up In love to God and love to
man.
" 'The cqpference recognizes f he fact
that its constituency ia Congregational in
traBition and polity. Therefore it de
clares that nothing in this constitution Is
to be construed His an authoritative test;
and we cordially Invite to our working
fellowship any who. while differing from
us on belief, are in general sympathy
with our spirit and (our practical aims."
"That is our creedf unanimously adopt
ed, and I sent it in res.onso to each
inquiry concerning Mr. Taft's belief.
That is the only creed we have ever had.
H 1 i-A lrM ' -v-' ;-r : A 'A v '"i I L
and the question of Jesus' divinity or
of the inspiration of the Bible never has
come up, and is not likely to do so.
"Didn't your churches have a creed
commencing: 'We believe in the father
hood of God.' etc.?"
"No. That is our church motto. Itwas
written by one of our ministers, and be
coming popular, is inscribed in many of
our churches. It does not commence
'We believe In,' but consists merely of
this statement of 'the five points of Uni
tarianisra': The fatherhood of God, the
brotherhood of man, the leadership of
Jesus, salvation of character, the progr
ress of mankind onward and upward for
ever.' What Unitarians Believe.
"We hold that all who do the will of
God belong to the family of Christ and
any church dedicated to God can enter
our conferences. We are not concerned
in doctrinal beliefs. The Bible Is largely
an oriental classic, and we do not inter
pret it as we would a problem In algebra.
We are concerned in getting Inspiration
from Jesus' life and example. In learning
how to carry our cross with the strength
and fidelity with which He carried His.
We believe in the trustworthiness and
essential goodness of human nature, and
deny divine predestination to the total
denravlty and necessary ruin of any hu
man soul. We hold that if any man Is
true to the best that is in him he is
certain to arrive at what to him Is
truth. If such a man makes mistakes,
as we all do. he will correct them. We
hold to the dignity of human nature
that to be a man is our greatest prerog
ative and that a man costs too much
and is worth too much to have his life
ever thrown away. The greatest thing
that God has done is to make a man.
In so far as the Bible is a record of
what man has Imagined, hoped for,
known, the Bible, becomes a part of the
never-ending revelation of God. Art is
what man imagines, and therefore art is
a revelation of God. literature is what
man hopes for, and therefore literature
is a revelation of God. Science is what
man knows, and therefore science is a
revelation of God. So revelation began
when man came to self-consciousness,
and it will continue so long as there is
In man that which aspires to what is
Godlike."
"What sort of teachings from your
pulpit might result In a heresy trial V
"No Unitarian minister can be tried
for heresy for the simple reason that
there is no tribunal before which he
could be tried. We believe in the right,
duty and responsibility of free speech,
but that, as in civil law, if one of our
ministers abuses this freedom of speech
he is responsible to his congregation.
Each of our churches is absolutely inde
pendent, choosing and dismissing its' own
ministers as It pays Its own bills. Our j
TIIE STTXDAT OTIEGOXIAX, PORTLAND, PECE3IBER 6, 190S.
conferences are simply advisory bodies,
discussing outside missions and other co
operative works."
Church Propaganda to Beat Taft.
"Did you encounter any organized at
tempt to defeat Mr. Taft because of his
religious views?"
"Yes. Ministers of various organiza
tions united to defeat him and at va
rious ministers' assemblies the question
of his defeat was brought up, while
resolutions to that effect were passed.
That movement was most strenuous in
the Middle West and one of the most
active center? was Kansas. Various
church papers warned their readers to
UNITED STATES ARMY SENDS FLOTILLA OF MINE-PLANTERS' TO PACIFIC COAST
' -1
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31, f
THE GENERAL HENRY J. HUNT, OXE OF THE SHIPS IN THE FLEET.
NEW YORK, Deo. 5. Special.) In a Jersey shipyard four officers of the United States Army are fit
ting out a flotilla of mine-planters for the Pacific. Incidentally, In preparing these little ships for a 10,-000-mile
cruise, they are demonstrating anew the resourcefulness of the West Pointer, who appears to take
to the quarterdeck with as much ease as though he had been a sailorman all his life. After these ships are
ready to stand their long cruise, they will go down the coast to Newport News, pile on all the coal they
can carry, and then make for the Pacific, -where for the next three years they will be busy teaching the
Coaet Artillery out there how to fill a harbor channel with gun cotton, and how to build submarine wire
fences that will trip the heaviest battleship afloat. The Army has only four of these mine - planters, and
when they follow the battleships, the torpedo-boat destroyers and the Navy's- giant floating drydock to the
Far East, the Atlantic seaboard will be without any boats to locate and anchor the mines that protect our
harbors, that is, until next. Summer, when four new vessels of this class will be launched and put Into
commission.
vote against him. Here Is a sample of
such yellow church journalism dedicated
to Christ. It is entitled 'The Empti
ness of Unltarianism refers to my
"nondescript flock.' complains ,that in
our creed 'there -Is nothing of sin and
of atonement for sin,' or of 'spiritual
death,' and ridicules me because our
congregation pays the salary of a
trained nurse who visits the poor, black
and white, In one section of our city
end teaches them how to care for their
sick. But It is a tribute to the age in
which we live that all of this propa
ganda ended in fiasco."
"How did you come to enter the ministry?"
"I was set apart for the ministry,
when a small tot, by my grandfather,
the Rev. Waterman Pierce, of Barney
ville, Mass., who was one of the found
ers of the 'Free Baptists.' The Baptists
proper then followed Calvin'B teaching
of predestination and they held only
close communion, allowing only mem
bers of their church to partake of com
munion therein. My grandfather took
the ground that communion was not his
table, but the Lord's, as he expressed it,
and he invited all who would to take it.
And It may be an Instance of heredity
that I, when giving communion, always
invite 'members of this church, of sister
churches and of no church." My grand-
father also formulated a predestination
theory of his own, holding that we were
'predestined to good and never to evil'
that we were 'doomed to be happy,'
as I often heard him express it. He was
a follower "of Armlnius instead of Cal
vin. Calvin maintained that man cannot
act freely for himself, but was strictly
under the sovereignty of the divine
will. Armlnius, a Dutelf theologian
born in 1560, held that religion should
always be obedient to the rational spir
it, that nature should be the test in re
gard to all which affects human con
duct and that the critical spirit ought
to be applied to dogma and the Bible.
I mention this in connection with my
grandfather because after the rofo: na
tion Arminianism v.-as (lie fivsi notable
step toward L'nitavittnism.
"I used to sit in the pulpit alongside
my grandfather when a small child. He
put me there that lie might keep his
eye on me. Although born In Providence
and making my home there with my
father, who was a merchant I spent
much time up in Barneyville. Often I
was awakened by my grandfather's
laying his hands on me and praying,
while I was In bed. He lived to the age
of nearly 90 and preached for 45 years
In that one church, where I also
preached my first sermon. And as I
grew older he saw to it that I studied
theology at the Free Baptist College,
Hillsdale, Mich.
Country Editor While at College.
"To help pay my expenses at Hillsdale
I was for some time associate editor of
the Leader, a progressive country weekly.
I had charge of the sports and general
news, had to drum up subscriptions at
the county fairs and write editorials. I
was also in county politics. Thus I was
engaged from 19 to 24.
"I also wrote syndicate articles for the
daily papers under the pseudonym 'Frank
Arnot." There was no typewriter in Hills
dale, in those days., and I wrote out a
dozen copies of each syndicate article In
long hand. Those articles I later used
as lectures, and one describing a tramp
which I made through Kentucky and the
Mammoth Cave, is still a part of my reg
ular lecture course. I used it only last
week."
"It has been said that you went to Har
vard, and that after reading Huxley and
Darwin there you altered your religious
views to conform to the teachings of
science."
Knew He Could Never Preach It.
"That is not exactly true. When I left
Hillsdale with my sheepskin I knew pret
ty well that I could never again preach
from a Baptist pulpit. Newspaper work is
broadening and HillsUule was a live little
town. We had an excellent lecture course
there and. afterf eporting all of the lec
tures for the Leader, I used to insterview
the lecturers, who included such men as
Beeeher, Talmage, Kusel Conwell, Dr.
P. S. Henson and George K.-imun. All
sorts of geniuses met at the Leader of
fice and threshed out the problems of
life and the topics of the times. It was
here at Hillsdale and not at Harvard that
I read Huxley and Darwnl, as well as
Spencer. One of my classmates there also
read them and we discussed them togeth
er. He Is now a Unitarian minister In
Chicago. After returning East I took a
post-graduate course at Harvard Divinity
School, which you know is undenomina
tional. And finishing there I decided to
go West.
"The danger was of inertia, I knew;
and I made up my mind that I would not
settle east of the Mississippi. So I got
married and went to Decorah, la., up
in the Norwegian region, a fearfully cold
place. Here I took my first Unitarian
Church, with its congregation composed
of people of all shades of belief.
"Next I went to Pomona, Cal., where I
had three churches six miles apart in a
triangle. Each Sunday I had a drive of
18 miles, preaching first at 11 A. 3d.,
then at 3 P. M. and finally at 8 P. M., re
turning home at 11 P. M. '.Work ampng
my people took me over the same route
week days, and I had plenty to do those
years. Summers I camped in Arizona, in
the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, and
made a study of that paradise, with its
wealth of nature and prehistoric ruins.
I had my camera with me have always
been a camera fiend. I described this re
gion in more syndicate articles and later
in lectures.
Elected. "Bishop" of the Cowboys.
"T,he cowboys at the canyon elected me
'bishop,' and after they were through
with the dance hall Sundays they cleared
It early, that I might preach to them
there. In the beginning one of them
came up and told me the boys had dele
t A,..ffej. ...... .
' 1 I
it
gated him to ask me not to preach about
Just one thing. I looked at him inquir
ingly. " 'What all of the other parsons that
have been among us have harped on
year In and year out and what always
puts a cowboy down in the dumps.'
" 'And what Is It?" I asked.
" 'The story of the prodigal son.'
"Well, I avoided the prodigal son,
preached them a creed they had never
heard before, and each showed his Inter
est by dropping a 'chunk' in the collec
tion every Sunday. Every one of these
dollars I spent upon the nucleus of a li
brary for their camp. They wouldn't
take a cent from me for my food nor I a
cent from them for my preaching. I
dedicated the first hotel there a big log
house, which -they called the 'Log Inn.'
The only music we could get for those
ceremonies was one guitar. I dedicated
the hotel, "to the infinite spirit of beauty
and of power, who Is Immeasurably above
allot his works; to the enlargement of
vision of all who shall visit here; to the
refreshment and inspiration of all who,
weary with the world's dullness and
tired of life's monotony, shall seek a
shelter here.' While I was at Pomona
my father died, and I came East, taking
a chnrch at Ithaca, that I might be near
my mother. I came from Ithaca hera
eight years ago.
"We have had a church here since 1S21,
and the old fell, cast by the Revolution
ary hero, Paul Revere, In 1S22, now tolls
In the new church. The old church, later
the Police Court, was indeed a' test of
the Unitarian faith In the early times. It
was neither popular nor of fine appoint
ments, yet Presidents, Legislators and
Jurists were among its congregations
from the first."
Other Unitarian Presidents.
"Which of our Presidents were Unl
tarians?"
"John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, John
Qulncy Adams and Millard Fillmore
were all avowedly of our faith. John
Adams' homo minister in Massachusetts
the Rev, Lemuel Brlant, of Quincy, be
came a Unitarian about 1750, and John
Adams attended the church here after
entering the White House. Jefferson
wro.te in 3822: 'I trust there Is not a
young man now In the United States
who will not die a Unitarian.' John
Quincy Adams also attended the church
here, as did Millard Fillmore. Abraham
Lincoln, though not an avowed Unitarian,
once defined his religious belief in these
words, which describe perfectly the
scope of tiie Unitarian faith of today:
" 'When any chinch will Inscribe over
Its !iar, as its sole qualification for
membership, the Savior's condensed state
ment of the substance of both law and
gospel, "Thou shatt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind, and thy
neighbor as thyself," that church will t
Join with all my heart and all my soul.'
"We have hud In our denomination also
one Vice-President, several Cabinet offi
cers, including Mr, Taft's father; three
Justices of the United States Supreme
Court, and besides these more than a
score of Governors and nearly a score of
Chief Justices of State Supreme Courts.
Among notable Unitarians In the United
States Senate have been Webster, Archer,
Anthony, Howe, J. P. Hale, Allison, Hd
ward Everett Morrill, W. E, Chandler
Hoar and Sumner. Rev. Edward Everett
Hale, chaplain of the United States Sen
ate, Is a Unitarian minister. Other Uni
tarians have been the poets Bryant.
Longfellow, Lowell and Holmes, and
such writers as Emerson, Thoreau, Dick
ens, Hawthorne, Bayard Taylor and Bret
Harto. Joseph Priestley, discoverer of
oxygen; Peter Cooper, Agassis, Sir Isaac
Newton and Mazzlnl were also of our
faith, as have 'jeen such women as Dor
othea DIx. Elizabeth Peabody, Mrs,
Humphry Ward, Susan B. Anthony, Mary
A. Livermore, Lucretia Mott. Elizabeth
Cady Stanton, Margaret Fuller, Helen
Hunt Jackson, Julia Ward Howe and
Florence Nightingale. The 'Battle Hymn
of the Republic,' our most popular Na
tional air, and 'Nearer, My God, to
Thee,' were both written by Unitarians.
These names are given In no spirit of
boasting, but simply as the assurance
that it Is not criminal offense to be a
Unitarian."
"How came it that you were named
after Grant?"
"My father was a warm partisan of
Grant's, and I, having been born in '65,
was 'up in arms' when the General was
at the zenith of his glory. My name was
originally Ulysses Baker, but during the
first Grant campaign my father declared
that he would add 'Grant' to my name
were the General elected. I have down
stairs now a largfl photograph of Grant
which he presented to my father In honor
of that event."
Washington, D. C, Nov. 28.