Newspaper Page Text
THE DAY BOOK
N. JX COCHRAN
EDITOR AND PUBLISHER.
COO S. PEORIA ST. CHICAGO, ILI
Circulation, Monroe
Subscription By Carrier in
. Chicago, 50 cents a month. By
.Mail, United States and 'Can
ada, 50 cents a Month.
Entered as second-class matter April
21, 1914, at the postoffice at Chicago,
lit, -under the Act of March 3, 1879.
BY N. D. COCHRAN ,
x CLEANING OUR MORALS. Rev.
John P. Brushingham, secretary of
- Chicago's morals ' commission; says:
"It is just as important to clean up
the morals of the city as to clean the
streets." Standing by , itself that
statement might be accepted quite
generally as true. Each of us will
look at it from his own. viewp5int,
and' each determine when the job is
finished to suit his own particular
notions. But from a community
point ofview when will the citys
morals be clean? Whp will deter
mine for all of us when the job is
done? "What morals and whose mor
als will be cleaned? And by whom?
What is, moral? What is immoral?
The Drys, no doubt, would say the
city's morals were clean if were put
all the saloons out of business. The
. Wets would be satisfied with the
city's morals if lh Drys found some
thing else to do and left to each of us
the regulation of his own thirst. The
city's morals would look almost
white to some if .everybody would
quit .smoking cigarets. Toothers, if
the social evil were -put entirely out
of sight And to still others if all
forms of gambling were wiped out.
The rule is for each of; us to be
fairly well satisfied with his own.
morals, and to worry, stew and freti
about the other fellow's.' Reforming;
is something we think everybody else
needs. We are our brothers keepenin
the" sense that we want to iorce him
to do something he doesn't want toi
do, or to refrain from doing some
thing he wants to do. What we think
he ought to do is moral Anything!
he does that we think Ije- ought not
to 'do js immoraL Certainly, not alii
of us practice what we preach.
Most of us Christians would agree
that business ought to be- moral and
that all of us in our business Tela-!,
tions ought to make the golden rule
our rule of conduct. But it is quite
generally admitted, by common prac
tice, that if business were moral- it
wouldn't tie business. Business men
feel that If they practiced the golden'
rule they would lose money.
Usury isn't moral, but it's com1'
mon. Selling cold storage eggs for1
fresh ones isn't moral, but it's busi-'
ness. Dodging taxes isn't moral, but;
it saves, money for the dodger. It is -both
immoral and'.illegal, but good'
church members do it just the same.
Getting rich by paying men and
women less than a decent living
wage is immoral, but is considered'
by some to he good business. Any
how it's legal, and in the business'
world anything that's legal is moraL'
The Pharisees tried to catch Jesus
in the- act of violating the law of
Moses. They told Him tHat Moses
said a woman caught in adultery
should be stoned. . And Jesus said:'
"Let him who is without guilt first
cast a stone at her?' or words to that-
effect, and her accusers slunk away.-
For about 2,000 years the judgment
of Jesus has been accepted as' moral
at least in the pulpit sermon al
though in actual practice the Phar-'
isees ire still throwing stones. I
guess "that's legal, however, and the
law of Moses still stands.
As custodian of Chicago's morals,
Rev. Mr. Brushingham talks of sun
baths on roof gardens, outdoor
music, farm life for social outcasts
