Ministers and Public Affairs
Whether a citizen's views in regard to county affairs are entitled to more than ordinary consideration because he is a minister of the Gospel, is a question which the board of supervisors of Alameda County, Cal., are called upon to decide. That pool-selling at race-tracks is gambling, there is no doubt, but that protests against granting the privilege should have any more weight coming from clergymen than from the same men without reference to their calling, is an error. Yet the Methodist ministers, not only of Alameda County but of San Francisco, assume that the board of supervisors of said county should heed their protest because they are ministers. Admit this principle even in a good cause, and the door is open for ministerial rule in public affairs whether their demands be proper or improper.