Читать книгу The Goose-step: A Study of American Education онлайн

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Mr. Bell is not the only pious politician on this pious board. Senator George Wharton Pepper is a devout Episcopalian, leader of the church of J. P. Morgan and Company in the City of Brotherly Love. Mr. Pepper is so pious that he does not believe in education, he believes only in religion. In his book, “A Voice From the Crowd,” he says: “Subtract God and you get—not secular education, but no education at all.” Again he says: “The teacher who interprets all of life in terms of brotherhood is responsible for leading the students to forget God.” So, needless to say, Mr. Pepper was annoyed when Scott Nearing caused to be published in the Philadelphia “North American” a letter addressed to Billy Sunday, advocating the godless idea of brotherhood. Read Nearing’s evil words:

You have declared your interest in the salvation of Philadelphia.

Look around you and ask yourself what salvation means here.

The city is filled with unemployment and poverty; multitudes are literally starving; thousands of little children toil in the city’s factories and stores; its workers, a third of a million strong, have no workmen’s compensation law for their protection. Meanwhile the railroad interests which control the hard coal fields are reaping exorbitant profits; the traction company exacts the highest fares paid by the people of any American city; the manufacturers, intrenched at Harrisburg, are fighting tooth and claw to prevent the passage of up-to-date labor laws, and the vested interests are placing property rights above men’s souls.