CORRUPTION AND RELIGION IN THE STATES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 174, 27 August 1909, Page 3

CORRUPTION AND RELIGION IN THE STATES.

The corruption in New York cities has icing been a fruitful topic in the papere. Here are some cases given by the Independent "Abraham Ruef was sentenced to fourteen years' imprisonment for bribing a supervisor to vote for granting an overhead trolley franchise to the street railway company in San Francisco; 250,001 dollars was paid for the franchise, and Buef and Mayor Schmitz divided 100,000 dollars.. The president of the street railway company is n ow on trial. "E. A. S. Blake, convicted of attempting to bribe a juror at Ruef's first trial, was sentenced to be imprisoned 'our years. In a confession he had asserted that two of Ruef's attorneys employed him to offer the bribe, and that the same lawyers, after he had been indicted, promised to support his wife and pay him 10,000 dollars if he would take punishment without implicating them. "Before the corrupt councilmen were arrested in Pittsburg all the evidence 'vas laid before President Roosevelt, who urged the prosecutors to be sure to punish the'bribe-givers as well as the bribe-takers. It appears that the latter have been giving a share of every briae to William A. Martin, a councilman now in the penitentiary, to which lie was sent for his conduct with respect to the lube City Railroad franchise. He has received his share because he protee'ed liis corrupt associates. "William L. Mathues, formerly Treasurer of Pennsylvania, who was senIt need for his complicity in the Harrisburg Capitol frauds, is dead, and his death was hastened by the judgment of the court.

"F. C. Lillis, a wealthy banker, has been sentenced at Fresno," California, to be confined six months In gaol and to ray a fine of 1000 dollars for unlawfully fencing large tracts of Government land." HUGH BLACK AND AMERICAN OPTIMISM. Professor Hugh Black, late of Free St. George's, Edinburgh, and now of Union Theological Seminary, writes in the Boston Congregationaliat of "Hopeful Things in American Church Life." "Every human problem is a moral one, 'because men have got out of right relations, and only religion has the secret of right relations. "One of the charms of American life is the undaunted optimism that pervades every region. It is often unreasoning and sometimes unreasonably, being only a vague assurance that everything is right and is going to grow more right. Still, it is an immense delight to i>reathe the atmosphere of hope and courage everywhere felt. You find it about politics even when they are acknowledged to be corrupt in certain cities, about business even when it is a year of panic, about the future of the country in every sphere. Certainly no country has more right to be hopeful than America, when we consider what has been done and what tremendous resources remain to tie exploited. THE CHURCH LACKS OPTIMISM. "But there is one exception where optimism does not reign supreme, and that is in the Church. -Men are living and working under strain, and are happy \i they can only keep the organisation going. They often speak dolefully of immediate prospects, and are not optimistic about the future of religion. Yet the hopeful thing is that all thinking men realise the absolute need of religion, They feel sure that if we cannot lie optimistic here we have no g°°<l ground i lor optimism in any region of life whatever. Religion is seen to be the social bond which makes social progress possible, and if there is no future for religion there can be no future for anything worth speakina of. This deepseated faith is bringing a deep assurance, and is giving men insight into the new form* (it wlfii'fa the religious spirit appears.

"The Church is seen to lie broader and aider than its common definition."