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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 18, 1920)
... ' . " " THE SUNDAY OltEGONIAN, PORTLAND, JANUARY 18, 1920 FIFTY THOUSAND A YEAR TURNED DOWN FOR AN IDEAL One Night by the Sea of Galilee This 'Man Fought the Problem Out "Mammon Dangling a Golden Bauble Before Him to Tempt Him From the Master's Worfc BY CHARLES "W. DUKE. , WOULD you call him a big man who held the reins over an In ternational business concern that operated through 30 central dis tributing agencies with supervision over some 25,000,000 salesmen and whose specific job was to sell not alone to' 80,000,000 customers here In the United States, but to more than a billion buyers scattered through every niche and cranny of the wide, wide world? ' Imagine a given clientele of 1,640, 000.000 the population of the world. Suppose you had 36 jper cent of these people on your books, and that your high commission was to sell to every single one of these other billion souls. Remember that the greater portion of these million prospective customers have never even heard of your par ticular line of merchandise. Look at the field you have to cover In this new endeavor. Eighty million people in central Africa have never had your product offered them. In northern Africa are 40,000,000 more who are using another brand. Jump ing over to Asia, you find 800,000,000 men, women and children of whom only a paltry few million are buying your goods. In India, with its 316,- 000,000 population, you have so far only gotten to 1.500,000. China, hous- . lng a full quarter of the earth's pop ulation, close to 400,000,000, shows only 437,000 buyers on your books. You are very anxious to get into Ja pan, where you have booked only 116,000 traders out of a population of 61,000,000. How would you like to tackle such a job? Do you think It takes a pretty big fellow with a whole lot of cour age to take hold of such a proposition, especially when the most of that staff of 25,000,000 salesmen have a good many irons in the fire and work at their jobs with you only one day out of the week? And isn't it fair to pre sume that the man who could hold down such a job would" be dragging down a big salary when be was more than making good? The man who holds down this par ticular job is drawing the munificent salary of $5000 a year. He works 12 and 18 hours a day and seven days out of every sii..o week in the year. There are shipbuilders and mechanics making much more money than he does, and yet he is entirely satis fied. In fact he turned down the offer of a big New York bank to be come its manager of foreign business at a salary of $50,000, or ten times what he is now drawins- He is S. Earl Taylor. Five years ago he was secretary of the board of foreign missions of the Methodist Episcopal church. From a humble farm In Iowa he had gone into re ligious work from honest convictions and was giving his life to -it. Hav ing been graduated from Drew The ological seminary he eschewed the ordination ceremonials that would have elevated him to the position of a minister, preferring instead to labor as a layman. From his earliest activities he had conceived the Idea of putting the church on a business basis and operating it like any other huge business enterprise. . The Wall-street offer was a tempt ing bait. "With his knowledge of for eign markets, gained through his po sition as head of the missions board of his church, he could have plucked j the $50,000 salary and more than made good on a comparatively eas Job. Mr. Taylor had a reasonable amount of time to ponder the offer. He was just then departing for the Holy Land on business for his church and said he would have his decision ready when he returned to New York While In Palestine he strolled one moonlight night down to the shore of the Sea of Galilee and sat on the bank alone, looking out over the quiet water and up to the starlit heavens. In retrospect he went back more than 1900 years to the time when Jesus Christ was on earth. ' His thoughts wandered to the hills of Bethlehem and in mind imagery he pictured the nigbt illumined by the opening of the heavens, the shep herds crouching in awe, and a multi tude of angels singing, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, : good will toward men." The world' war was just bursting the bubble of world peace and Mr. Taylor was troubled as he wrestled with his own problem amid all the vexing prob lems that crowded the mind of the world. The tranquil waters lay all unruf fled before him, and he thought, too, of a later period of the life of the Master when Jesus, preaching in Gali lee, walked by this same sea and talked with the fishermen, Simon and Andrew his brother, James the eon of Zebedee, and John his brother. Through his mind flashed that same call to duty that rang out along these same waters 19 centuries ago: "Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men." Taylor's problem was settled. He got up from the bank of Galilee, went back to his hotel and wrote a .. letter to the New York firm declining the $50,000 job. With it went the motor, cars, the fine clothes and the entree into the fine marts of the world that would have been a part of the Wall streot salaried position. In stead, he traveled back to America. Imbued with a new spirit of world service, a plan to rebuild the world while the very pillars of civilization were being shaken by the world war; to rear a new structure with Chris tianity as the headstone of pure de mocracy, , mats can heal the wounds of war. No International constitution, bowew perfect in Its phrasing, and no mere economic revolution, however, sweeping- in Its scope, can bring about the universal feign of peace and good will among men. Such a peace is the fundamental aspiration of every hu man heart, but it cannot be realized through force, it cannot be realized through government and it cannot be realised through law alone. World democracy can and will be realized only through the practical applica tion of the religion of Jesus " Mr. Taylor told thte ecclesiastical assemblage that the fate of Chris tianity was at stake and that the churches would fail miserably in the hour of greatest need unless thejt rose triumphantly to the situation growing out of the war. While they sat transfixed hearing him tell how armies could never raise the level ef civilization nor political agreements bring about the millennium of world peace because all the peoples of the eartlf were not yet viewing the prob lems of the world through a com mon point of view, he sketched his plan for world rehabilitation. Not a world revival of emotionalism, but a practical, business-like plan of heal ing the wounds of tht world with food and clothing and then adding facili ties for education and democratic en lightenment. "What will It cost?" they asked him. . Mr. Taylor, the business executi tive. Had his answer. "Five hundred millions of dollars." They were amazed at his audacity. Where would $500,000,000 come from when the churches were having their own troubles keeping out of Tiebt? They said it couldn't be done and they I fplliilS , 1 4 iflfin '1 -rv: mm ', , - -::". , : "- - y . f 1 ' "9 ' ' nluiiiimm ; " m ' ' ft,. ' . U. EARL TAYLOR Wk organized the "Centenary World Rebnildlng Programme" and okeie plaa to every indlvidnal in the whole world. cited the old cry of "the churches are always begging for money." One lone man stood ont for his pro gramme against them ail. Mr. Taylor went to his own church and after fighting his way from trench to t re rich had the satisfaction of seeing the "Centenary World Rebuilding Programme" launched. The first thing asked for was money. Money, money, always the same old problem. The people were tired of giving money. They had subscribed to lib erty bonds, was chests. Salvation army drives. Red Cross drives and drives enough to drive the average bread winner, mad. But organizing 100,000 "minute men" all over the country and submitting to their constituency a complete programme for world re- Im to carry the wares of the church construction, wth a wonderful sur vey a marvel of business efficiency showing the needs of every nation in distress, Mr. Taylor and the Meth odists set out to start the ball roll ing. When the last subscription had been totaled in it was found the sum of more than $167,000,000 had been subscribed! "America went forth to make the world safe for democracy, but Chris tian forces must now go out and make democracy safe for the world," Mr. Taylor told his people. How did they start" to spend the $167,000,000? By sending long-faoed missionaries and smooth-tongued preachers to preach brimstone gospel? They did not. They began to build orphanages in France and Belgium for tlx father less and motherless waifs. They sent food and clothing into suffering Italy and Austria. They sent medicines into the Balkans. They went into other countries where the people were dreaming of getting what they had wanted through militarism. In Singapore they found a city will ing to give $1,500,000 for a college and hospital. - They matched Singa pore with a like amount. A rloh Chinaman immediately added 26 acres of ground to build it on. Over In Malaysia the Dutch government agreed to give four-fifths of the cost of a hospital. One man's dream set the whole world thinking and then doing. When the success of this initial endeavor became known millions of "boosters' grew where once the "knockers" had flourished. From that seed, planted in the mind of Mr. Taylor the night he eat dreaming on the banks of the Sea of Galilee, the night he determ ined to become one of the fishers for men instead of Wall street money, hus grown the full tree of the most NEAR-BOLSHEVIST REFUSES TO TRY OUT OWN THEORIES Advocate of Manual Labor for All, Even Members of Professions, Declines Invitation to Relieve J. J. Montague of Chores. BY JAMES J. MONTAGUE. A 2.76 bolshevist has been in here, telling . me how the country ought to be run-. He isn't In favor ol putting melinite In Christmas pack ages, or blowing up. children's par ties with T. NtT. These things, he says are advocated only by the ex termjsts. ' ' x His idea is to get the nation's work dene with the least possible effort. At present he says, the many have the moneply of the hard work and the few have a cinch on the soft snaps. He wants these divided fifty-fifty. For example, he says that Doug las Fairbanks ought to Jump over precipices and lasso grizzly bears for four hours a day and spend the other four hours of hia working day feed ing planks into a buzz saw. After John D. Rockefeller com pletes his daily four hours of coupon clipping, it would be best for the state if he walloped docks or walked a police beat for four hours. It is his belief that the dentist who fills your teeth or the doctor who clips out your appendix should go off. watch at twelve o'clock noon and turn their unfinished business his piano in dead storage and get himself elected premier of Poland?" "True, But do you think the six Brown brothers could lay aside their saxophones and g,o round delivering lectures on esoteric Buddhism to your women's finishing schools?" "Sure they could. All they'd peed would b-a few books. And if they didn't knoi what they were lecturing about neither would anybody else, so what would be the difference?" "Then, in your opinion, Jack Demp sey ought to punch the bag in the morning and spell William Dean How ells or Mabel Herbert Urner on their fiction stunts in the afternoon." "Certainly. The one thing people of Dempsey's class need is to learn to write. The whole state benefits when the individual benefits." "How about burglars? Would you set them preaching sermons when they had finished cracking a crib?" Knit of Burglary Forecast. "Theoretically there would be no burglars, for everybody would have what they wanted, and there would be no necessity to steal anything. But until the perfect state is attained it takes the lawyer's place will proba bly gum up his ease and cost his client a lot of money." "There will be no money in' the perfect state. And if the case Is lost well, that will have to happen. "So you believe absolutely that all men should for at least .one-half of , their time do manual labor, in order that the state may thrive?" -"Absolutely." 'And you would be willing to put this plan into practice Immediately?" "Certainly." "Very well. "The furnace is out, there is a leak in the kitchen boiler and eight inches of snow on the front walk. I was Just about to do these things, but I have been .engaged in splitting kindling all tt morning. You, as far as I can Judge, have been only talking. Suppose you go build the furnace fire, fix the leak in the boiler and'shovel oft the snow, while I spread the doctrines you have just proclaimed." But he wouldn't do it. As I said in the beginning, he was only a 2.7 per cent bolshevist, anyway. Calling together the representative men of every Protestant denomina tion in a monster convention held at Garden City. N, Y.. he told them of the remarkable vision he had had by the 6ea of Galilee. He pictured virtually ;hc wnole world engaged in the most titanic struggle it had ever known. He told them bluntly where Chris- tianity had failed in warding off such a catastrophe. He visualized with word pictures the horrible state of af fairs when the last guns had been spiked and the smoko of battle had cleared from the fields of carnage. le drew tneir attention to the pro phecy of the idealists, that out of the war would come a great league of nations that -for the future would make all wars impossible. "But the world cannot be recon structed by a formula," he told .them. "Ho mere agreement among uiplo- over to the white wingwho haa beenJ tidvlna? ud Main street. n When I objected to thib on the ground that the white wins would have little skill either in filling teeth or digging out appendices, he said that would be as nothing compared to the , value of dividing up the nation's work. "If the White Wing cannot do these thing's," said he, "he ovht to leara. He cannot learn without experience. What is the temporary suffering he may inflict on your molars, or., the comparatively slight loss that w'auld be sustained by your family In oase he took out your liver instead of your appendix, when set over against the value to the White Wing of a change of occupation?" "But there are some people who just naturally can't do anything but the job they, are doing." ".Nonsense! Didn't Farerewski' put HAVE YOU YET FALLEN FOR COUNTESS WORTH MILLIONS"? Many Tolerably Smart Americana Have, Probably Thousands, and Game of Benevolent Old "Priest" Is Going on as Actively as Ever. H AVE yqu received a letter from some one In Denmark, or Nor way, perhaps, explaining that the writer is a priest or minister, or even a minor local official, thought fully inclosing an authenticated docu ment to prove his status, and telling you of the sad plight of a beautiful young Russian countess, hardly more than a child, who needs only a little assistance from a noble American, maybe not, and then, again, maybe you would a great many tolerably smart citizens have how many it Is Impossible to say, as most of them have kept it to themselves; but, judg ing by the number who have, made plaints to te police departments and to the department ef state, the num ber probably runs ino the thousands leach year, and has for many years past. For this is nothing more nor such as you are, to escape the dire i less than the famous old Spanish "Series of Great Pageant Planed by Y. W, C. A. Mew Democracy Kxpreaaing Itself in Community Drama. BY MARGARET C. GETCHELL. N COl 11INITY drama, in its tre mendous growth during the period of the war and its further develop ment since the armistice. Miss 'Hazel MacKaye sees the evidence of the way in wh'ch the new democracy rising out of the experiences of the last five years is making Itself articulate. As director of the national pageantry de partment of the Y. W. C. A., she is now planning the production . of series of great pageants In the 11 di visions of the United States covered by the association. This is the larg est organized series of pageants to be thus produced in a season and is. there." re, of Importance in the history of pageantry, especially as it Is -j be conducted by Miss MacKaye, who has probably done more for pageantry in this country than any jther woman. For Miss MacKaye has not only pro- WQUld help the burglar to preach and t Avould give the preacher a useful understanding of the burglar's point of view to play the jimmy for a brief period each day." "But everybody can't do every thing," I objected. "You can't expect I that each individual la going to have time in the course of one existence to take a hack at every trade and profession?" 'TUa is quite unnecessary. All that is needed is a change from mental to physical labor, so the burden of phy sical labor will be divided. "The lawyer will have his choice of the job of plumber's helper, railroad fireman, millhand, anything that is hard work. That will, in addition to relieving the worker and giving him a taste of the intellectual life, keef the lawyer in fine physical trim, thus raising the standard of health, which la hiphly important for posterity." "But the plumber's helper that duced many of the pageants by her brother, Percy MacKaye, and other prominent writers, but has herself written a number to meet the many and varying demands created 1 . the tvu I" "Indeed, it has been difficult to keep I up with tl..a ever-changing demand," Miss MacKaye said, in speaking of the development of this form of drama. "During the war there was a tremen dous community feeling which -found its natural expression in drasr a. This great impetus was felt not only In large u. rtakings which required months oi pr paratlon and In .which thousands of persons took part. jt in small rural towns, where simple performances were given on the com mons. It was a spontaneous expres-r sion of solidarity of feeling and of united support of the ideals for which we went into the war. "Although community drama was we' established before the war t e events of the. last few years have given It a new Impetus and have proved its use. . Today its value Is recognised not only by social welfare organizations and such' war bodies as the War Camp Cominur' but y the churci.js. There has been organized an inter-church committee of pagean try and drama, in .tleh f -is-copalians. Methodists and Presby terians are uniting and are consider ing a comprehensive programme. One Methodist church is planning a com munity house in which there ia to be a theater." perils now surrounding her and to live happily ever after la the beau tiful land of freedom, enjoying the benefits of your friendship and the $4,000,000 now in a safe deposit box in New York, and which will be hers as soon as she can reach America? If you haven't yet. it is highly prob able hat you will. If your name was ever' published as a fairly generous contributor to the Red Cross or any other war charity, or the fact was otherwise established that you are tolerably well-to-do and generously Inclined. Besides the letter from the "priest." there will probably be a certified copy of the birth certificate of the little countess, a photograph of the beautiful child, ahd a clipping from a Russian newspaper giving a blood thirsty account of the execution of all the rest of the noble family and the mysterious escape of the noble countess; likewise comment on the fact that the vast treasures of gold and jewels known to have been col lected by this noble family have not been found. The good priest has thoughtfully inclosed English trans lations of the Russian documents and clippings- It all appears most con vincing. It is left to your honor to keep the whole affair a secret, lest ruin -fall upon the little countess. It sums up something like this: You are flattered at being selected as the champion who is to rescue the persecuted maiden, j Hrle for Somebody Sure. Your sympathies are genuinely aroused. It isn't going to cost you a cent. This Is made very plain. On the contrary, the countess' family has always been famous for the lordly gifts bestowed by it upon any one rendering even a slight service. In an instance of this kind well, you can just Imagine! It you will, the . priest begs that you take the girl into your own home. as your ward. except, tor you sne will be absolutely a stranger and friendless in a strange land, and the possessor of $4,000,000 In cash. If you have a son or nephew, who knows what may happen? The girl is very beautiful and charming. You can't possibly get into any dif ficulty, and, when the girl is safe with you, and you are tree to leu tne whole story, the noble part you have played will arouse the greatest ad miration and praise. Just write and say that the girl may come to you. that you will give her shelter and friendship and pre vent her being robbed of her fortune. prisoner swindle, which first began to claim victims during the Cuban war for independence, brought up to date. Bit of Cash fuewiurj. Should you reply to the first com munication received, agreeing to be friend the little countess, you would receive word that she would start for America as soon as it could be ar ranged for her to secretely leave the Russian frontier village where she Is hidden, and another clipping from i newspaper stating that it was sns peoted. by the authorities that the countess was still in Russia and that a close search was being made for her and the vanished fortune. A day or two after would come a further communication from the "priest," In closing a key to the safe deposit box in which is the girl's fortune, and re questing that you take from the box and send to the writer $1000 to de fray the countess expenses in reach ing America. If you live in Philadelphia the safe deposit box will be in New Orleans, say, or if you live In St. Louis It will be In New York always a couple of days' travel. The chances are twenty to one that a busy man would draw the money from his own bank, postr poning the reimbursing of himself to. a more convenient time. To increase the probabilities of this, there comes a cablegram, so timed as to arrive on the same day as the letter inclosing the key to the safe deposit box, in which the "prHst" states that the Russians have discovered the Identity of the little countess, and that the only hope pf saving her lies In brib ing the petty officials of the village Where she is hiddeni and who have not yet divulged their find to the higher officials, and who will see to it that the countess gets safely over the frontier. There is not a moment to lose, and the money should be for warded by cable order a delay of a single day will be disastrous, and the fate of the lovely girl too horrible to contemplate. Hir life and more is in your hands. Send $1000 at least; it would be better to send $2000, in case unforeseen difficulties arose. Perhaps you wouldn't cable that money, but enough substantial busi ness and professional men have done so to make this swindle a profitable bUHineaH for many years. This is only one of the many elab orate swindles which are "now being i worked overtime in America. Never before in history have crooks reaped such a harvest as they are now doing. and It behooves the smartest of us to keep both eyes wide open aud watch our step. You wouldn't fall for this? She Corref-ta II Im. Cleveland Press. He I'm afraid raw sugar is going to be scarce. She That will make no difference to us. We always use the cooked Well, kind. notable enterprise ever launched by the Christian forces of the world." It is known as the Interchurch World Movement of North America. To Its support have rallied more than 80 of the leading Protestant denomi nations, with 25,000,000 communicants and 200,000 "Junior salesmen" in the Sunday schools of the country. It proposes now to raise the stupendous sum of $300,000,000 and to address Itself to the task of bearing the lamp of a democracy based upon Chris tianity to the more than 1,000,000.- 000 people of the earth who have never known it. Its survey lor a world-wide campaign will be launched next month- It is launched at a psychological moment when the fate of a proposed league of nations hangs In the balance "Will the new Interchurch move ment take a definite stand on the labor and capital problem?" Mr. Tay lor was asked the other day. "Most assuredly." he replied. "It roust demand justice, but It must demand something more. It must de mand that the problems of the em ploye and the employer be worked out under the Inspiration of Christian fellowship and that Industry be or ganized not to satisfy the Individual thirst for wealth, but to extend to every one the highest possible op portunity for Joyful service." "Will It oppose bolshvlsm?" "It will fight any ana eveij agency that strikes at the very roots of Christian democracy the home, the e hool. the church, where a man may worship according to the dictates of his own conscience. It will stand for those principles of life that the world has come to regard as the 'very fun- , damentals of our modern civilization the civilisation in which man has attained the fullest development of cr-aracter." "What is the programme of the new allied church movement in, a nutshell?" "Service. The men of every other nation are our brothers In the strict- est biological sense. The one God is the God of all. We cannot civilize through force. We cannot uplift through exploitation. We must serve in the spirit of Jesus, who became the servant of all. The trouble with the league of nations has been that nei ther Woodrow Wilson nor any other living man who worked on it was able to get a perfect document. Why? Because all the nations Involved have not been raised to the level of a com mon viewpoint based on the practical Ideals of a true democracy the fatherhood of God and the brother hood of man." Mr. Taylor is the dominating genius of this big business corporation. He ill "sell" service. He is thoroughly equipped for the five-year pro gramme. Put your finger down on any spot on the world map and he will tell you Immediately the "trade" conditions; what the people most need, how many axe there and how nest they can be served. Back of him stands a powerful organization put together at Cleveland last September when the general committee of the In terchurch World movement launched the worldwide drive. No phase of the work at hand was neglected. There are committees on home and foreign surveys. There is a committee on in dustrial relations to study the under lying causes of Industrial unrest, to combat bolshevism. The Interchurch World movement Is designed to get and to give to the church one vision of the whole task confronting It," says Mr. Taylor. "In other words, to mobilize the whole church for service to the whole world, and to co-ordinate its present divided and diversified activities. It affords to all churches the opportunity for the reassertion of the place of the Christian church in the world. It presents to the individual the oppor tunity to help make the church what we would wish it to be the greatest constructive force in the new world which is in process of building. "It Is no secret, but one of the commonplaces of history, that we call our Anglo-Saxon civilization, founded upon the evangelical concep tions and democratic principles of re ligious belief, has been and is the .pioneer in all the successful mission ary enterprises of the world. England and America lead all other nations in these efforts at world betterment. But from those to whom ao much has been given much is demanded. Chris tian England and Christian America must continue to do this pioneer work. No other nations can. None others seem even disposed to at tempt it. "Yesterday many good people thought of the church as an institu tion to give comfort to the dying, and prepare the soula of those who ask forgiveness for the day of judgment and the unknown life beyond. Today we are beginning to realize its greater mission. For individual sin it still offers the one and only remedy, but if It is to be a power in the world that Is, it must apply the principles of Jesus to heal not only the individual, but the social life." Under the influence of Mr. Taylor and his co-workers, the church itself no longer is to be a pretty-windowed little structure opening its doors only once a week. It is to be a community social center It is to be open day arid evening, every day. It is to con tain libraries, , industrial exhibits, moving pictures, hospitals and dis pensaries, . and every possible aid to the social and educational life of the adjacent territory. With the passing of the saloon the church is to be come the raie'.ing place, the forum and the recreation center of the worker seeking diversion and in struction in leisure hours. "If we do not answer these human need& at home, the millions who have been deprived of drink may be ex pected to turn to other forms of vice; and if we do, not rise to our present opportunities in the world at largo we cannot claim the promise of peace on earth and good will among men." The biggest sales manager in the world confidently believes that he i backing the best merchandise the world ever has known a sure cure for the sick heart of the world and he believes his staff of 25,000.000 American salesmen will bring 1,000, 000,000 buyers within the next fair years.