Like tendencies are to be observed as a result of exemption of church
property from taxation, wherever the false principle is in vogue, the
only variance being one of degree. In Montreal, for instance, we have
a striking example of the effect of wholesale exemptions. In 1913, when
the evil had reached its height, and relief was imperatively demanded,
the church had already come to own no less than one-fourth of the real
estate in the community. This was simply the logical outcome of favoring
this class of landholders at the expense of all others. The Montreal
provisions were unusually lax, thus hastening the inevitable result; but
they did not differ in principle from those of the American states which
favor monopoly by leaving church property untaxed. The case of Trinity
Church of New York city, already cited, with an accumulation of about
$30,000,000 in property, is ominous of the fearful possibilities of an
indefinite continuance of the policy of permitting one group of citizens
to prey upon all the rest. The one missionary society named for St. Paul
the Apostle, in the same city, owns not less than fifteen lots of land,
appraised at various amounts from $2500 to $11,000 each, and is still
adding to its accumulations. It would be hard to conceive of a more
unwholesome state of affairs; and the process continues with unabated
celerity. The peril against which England found it necessary to provide
in the Statute of Mortmain is a very present one. If church property is
to be permanently exempted from taxation, it is not difficult to see
how an enormous percentage of all the property of the community
may ultimately come to be tied up in the hands of these wealthy
ecclesiastical corporations which have already made so substantial
a beginning in this direction. We are jeopardizing the rights and
liberties of future generations.
In this connection, it must be borne in mind that nothing is stationary.
The minds of men change from age to age; and that which appears to one
generation to be the most rootedly established truth, is in the course
of a few decades completely rejected. Religion is no exception to the
general rule. The Greek, the Roman, the ancient Norse gods have had
their day; and not a worshiper remains on earth to bow before their
altars. Christianity may likewise pass; already its active devotees form
but a minority of the population. And if Christianity as a whole may
ultimately relinquish the field altogether, it is still more unlikely
that the tenets of any particular sect known today should hold permanent
sway over the minds and consciences of sincere men and women. We are
allowing hundreds of millions of dollars of property to be insidiously
withdrawn from the community, and tied up in the hands of great
corporations which in fifty or a hundred years will be the mere shells
of soulless organizations. We are making it possible for them to become
our economic masters, long after men and women shall have ceased to
find spiritual nutriment in any part of their creeds. By what species of
casuistry does any person think it possible to put this forward as sane
public policy?
"O judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason!"