p. 11 | Graft Versus Religion by F. M. W.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Apr 27, 1911

Graft Versus Religion

By F. M. W.

EVERY careful student of present-day conditions must recognize the wide-spread influence which the spirit of commercialism, competition, and money-making has upon spiritual life. Business and Christianity in many minds can in no wise be combined, and the successful business man is supposed to be one whose sharp dealings and business methods have forfeited the name of Christianity. A writer in the Christian Work and Evangelist (New York), as quoted in the Literary Digest of March 25, speaks of the spirit of graft which is becoming so wide-spread in its influence at the present time. Many young men, he asserts, “find it extremely difficult to practise their Christian principles in the environment in which they find themselves in shops and offices.” One man, a New Yorker, confessed that for every article he sold to a wealthy household, it was necessary to bribe the servants in order to accomplish the sale. Of the broader influence of this system he says:—

Graft runs through the business system of New York from top to bottom. It even extends to some undertakers. We had been in New York hardly a month as a pastor, when an undertaker came to us, and offered us a “rake off” on every funeral we would get him. Of course, they go to the sextons as well. We do not know whether they have an agreement with the doctors or not. There is not a pair of horses sold on Fifth Avenue that the coachman does not get a handsome present from the dealer for bringing his employer there. The dealer that puts up the biggest price to the coachman sells the horses. A grocer who provides for many wealthy New York families said that unless the cooks were supplied with presents, and some of them with bottles of whisky, he would not keep the trade of that house. A grain dealer told us that this was the universal practise of his business. With every yacht fitted out in New York City, the captain gets handsome presents of clothes and other things. When it comes to large contracts, such as furnishing one of the great ocean steamers, presents of very great value are given by the party that gets the contract to the captain or agent that is influential in the letting of it. The same thing runs through the whole list of contracting businesses.

Of the operation of the system among other classes, he says:— Salesmen have to treat prospective buyers to dinners and expensive wines and theaters, or they could not sell a thing. A young salesman whom we asked about this very thing, said: “I have long wanted to change my job because I have to take men and women out to suppers and theaters, and in other ways bribe them to buy.” A school superintendent told us that a certain text-book publishing-house had made him very flattering approaches of friendship when it was time to get new text-books introduced. Some houses have that reputation. We know one which, we are glad to say, forbids its representatives, by letters, to stoop to any bribings or illegitimate methods. But so it all goes on, down to the push-cart man, who has to pay the police for privileges, until it sometimes looks as if our whole business system was based on graft. And good men are the victims. One great firm has to do it because others do. One man has to outdo the other to get a sale. And good men, objecting to the whole thing, have to do it to keep their place.

And places are not waiting in New York. And there are babies at home. We talked with one such man the other day. He has been trying for two years to get a job where he can work without straining his conscience. He is near the head of a department of a great store. He has to wink at some things. He is looking for a secretaryship or treasurer's office in a missionary or religious society, on the ground, we suppose, that that is the only place where graft does not enter. It tries to get in, though, everywhere. It knocks at the doors of religious journals. It sometimes says, We will advertise with you if you will praise our goods—and the goods do not always deserve praise. It is a very difficult thing for a man caught in the system to escape. Sometimes he has even to practise straight lying to keep his job. A plasterer told us that he had to lie to the inspector every time he came around as to the stuff he was putting on the walls, or lose his job. To lose his job meant the baby hungry. Pretty good men will lie to keep the baby from starving. There has got to be radical reformation.

Nor is this pernicious system confined alone, according to this writer, to private business life, but it has even entered legislative halls. Of recent investigations which have been made he says:—

The sugar trust was found cheating everybody out of hundreds of thousands by short weights. The insurance companies had been robbing policy-holders by the thousand. The Pittsburg scandals of last year involved banks as well as politicians. In San Francisco one man after another was convicted. The courts brought judgments of millions against the oil companies. The arbitrators in the coal strike found systems of deliberate robbery of the employees going on. Senators have been found who have been buying seats, and now at Albany many are testifying that men connected with the racing interests were buying senators. These men deny it; but notice that they are not denying having made large contributions for “publicity purposes,” to defeat the laws against gambling; and even fools know what this publicity means. And these business men are some of them church-members.

So were the insurance men, and the sugar men, and the coal operators. So the thing has gone on, and we are all asking, “Who next?” Is it not time the church did a little thinking?

The closing question is most pertinent. What, indeed, is the duty of the church in view of such conditions, which our own observation teaches us exist in a greater or less degree in every community? Is it not the duty of the church to sound the danger-signal, to point out the morbid conditions which exist, to raise the standard of righteousness, and call men to rally about it? Has not the church also the duty to labor for those within its membership who are guilty of these sins, and if there be no reformation of life, to place herself clear before the world in the elimination of these diseased members? Truly, every church in every community should see that it stands clear, and not permit the spirit of graft to strangle in its own membership the spirit of practical Christianity. Upon the church of God to-day there rests a fearful responsibility in meeting the moral issues of the age, in presenting to the unconverted a high type of manhood and womanhood, in erecting as a standard of Christian attainment the character of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by its own influence and example calling men to rally to that standard.

F. M. W.