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About Will Maupin's weekly. (Lincoln, Neb.) 1911-1912 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 11, 1911)
MIMIUIIWWWIIi I I HI IIUNUUUUIIJ111UUU UIIIIUU JUDGE WILLARD E. STEWART Judge Willard E. Stewart, candidate for re-nomination for judge of the district court, has good claims for that re-nomination,, and for re-election, based upon his record during his first term upon the bench. Four years ago this newspaper, then under another name, opposed Judge Stewart, and for what it then deemed lo be very good reasons. Fairness demands confession that this newspaper was mis taken in its estimate of Judge Stewart. His term of service upon the bench has given him ample opportunity to demon strate his fitness for. the place, and he has done so. Because of that record, and because he has convinced this newspaper of its mistake in opposing him four years ago, Will Maupin's Weekly welcomes an opportunity to make such amends , as lies within its power by advocating his" re election. Judge Stewart has made good. PROGRESSIVE ADULTERY IN NEW YORK The Episcopal clergy has refused to of ficiate at the marriage of John Jacob As tor and Miss Madeline Force. The clergy of other denominations also refuse. But Mr. Astor and Miss Force will have, no trouble in finding some minister or of ficial competent to tie the nuptial knot. About the only result of all this hullaba loo will be to call renewed attention to the progressive harlotry of New York's "four hundred." Plainly speaking, the "swell set" in New York is made up of men and women who are about as pro miscuous as flies, who look upon the mar riage tie as merely a legal protection from arrest for open adultery, and whose org ies are a stench in the nostrils of decent people, We do not know Mr. Force, father of the bride-to-be, nor would wre care to make his acquaintance. A man who would allow his daughter to become the legalized mistress of a man of millions isn't worth knowing. Nor is the girl will ing to thus sell herself into chattel slav ery any better than the girl who sells her body for a chance to wear pretty clothes and picture hats. We are sending mission aries by the hundreds to save the heathen in foreign lands. In heaven's name let's send a few to "Darkest New York" and put them to work among the besotted mil lionaires and millionairesses to whom the marriage tie is about as sacred as swill is to a porker, IS THE CHURCH MAKING GOOD? Whenever I hear a man declare, with emphasis, that the church is a failure; that it is a waning power; that it is an effete institution which will soon be sup erseded by another organization, I am re minded of the anvil that wore out many a hammer. The church is the anvil and the "knocker" well, he is another hammer. We will admit, at once, that the church needs to be criticised severely criticised, sometimes. Hut there are certain facts of which we must not loss sight. When it is said, for example, that the "church hav ing failed, outside agencies have arisen and today they are taking the place of the church," it should not be forgotten that the religious institutions which are sup posed to rival the church are all of them supported by the church. The Young Men's Christian Association, for example, is the church at work among men. The rescue mission, or the Salvation Army, is the church specializing upon certain classes . of people. Whatever one may think of the value of these agencies and of their effectiveness, they are not really rivals of the church in the sense that they have been organized because the church has failed to make good. ' Not ever' church can be run as-the Salvation Army is being conducted, for instance. In min istering to the spiritual needs of the world, the church has simply learned to adapt itself to various constituencies. And the workingman, who, for social rea sons which are perfectly legitimate, does! not care to go to the rich man's church for fear of being patronized and I don't blame him much for this greatly prefers a church made up of his own class where he can hold his own with the rest of the people. There is such a thing as "class democracy" and the church, in its deal ings with men, has learned to recognize this very human fact. We may theorize about it as we please and wish that condi tions were otherwise, but we must take people as we find .them. When it is as serted that the churches are not doing anything in the work of caring for the un fortunate in our great cities who are out side of the church, I recall a very exten sive study which was recently made among the social workers in the United States. This study revealed the fact that while the church membership in this country is only about one-third of the en tire population, it furnishes 75 per cent of the social wrorkers. Rev. Charles Stelzle. COMPLIMENTING THE LAWYERS. A St. Louis judge has just paid the law yer sof . thecountry a compliment that they' should?be proud to acknowledge. "I have found reporters to be as honest and as reliable as lawyers," says this St. Louis judge. 'Nothing kinder has been said of lawyers since we can remember, and our experience" 'as a newspaper reporter dates niake more; than. a. quarter of a century,