But from a social point of view the case is even more serious. It is not
the most intellectual and refined classes which even the wildest zealot
will claim to stand in special need of religion to restrain them from
crime and from all forms of conduct calculated to injure their neighbors
in the community, but the most ignorant and crude; and it is precisely
these latter types which remain totally impervious to highly developed
forms of religious expression, and throng to the Catholic cathedrals and
the revival meetings of the Billy Sundays and Gipsy Smiths, where belief
is emphasized above integrity of character. Just those persons who may
be assumed to need whatever ethical element is to be found in religion
are those who receive the least of it. If, in spreading its gospel
of faith and obedience to ecclesiastical superiors, the churches
incidentally lead an occasional individual to a more honest and upright
social life, this result is simply a by-product of the religious
operation, and creates no claim on the state. In reclaiming the
down-fallen, the church wins another supporter for itself, and adds a
soul to the "kingdom." In seeking a subsidy from the state, it foregoes
its higher pretensions, and seeks to be paid double for a work which
it undertook on its own account. If it is part of the function of the
church to teach morality, so is it part of the function of the home;
and in the average decent home there is much more specific, concrete
and effective teaching of good morals, brought closely home to the
individual, than there is in the best of churches. Yet the home does
not claim exemption from taxation because of its moral influence. As has
been suggested elsewhere, the argument as to moral influence speedily
leads to a _reductio ad absurdum_, implying, as it does, that all
taxes should be raised from the vicious and immoral elements in the
community--that criminals should be the only taxpayers, or that taxes
should be levied on citizens and institutions in inverse ratio to
the moral character and ethical influence of each! Every legitimate
enterprise of any description exercises a wholesome moral influence in
the community, and directly benefits society in one way or another;
and the church, even taking it at its own valuation, is but one of many
institutions which, while existing primarily for ends of their own, are
incidentally of benefit to society as a whole. Why should it be the
only one to demand a favoritism incompatible with self-respect or with
justice to its fellows? The question as to the exemption of educational,
charitable and certain other institutions need not here be raised to
confuse the issue. Each of these must be settled on its own merits. It
is enough to suggest that where their primary function, like that of
the church, is something with which the state is not directly concerned,
they fall in the same category, and have no right to any subsidy. Where,
however, their entire work is directed toward meeting a recognizedly
collective need, which the state finds it less practical or satisfactory
to discharge in a more direct manner, exemption from taxation is
properly invoked as an indirect means of accomplishing the social end.
The impropriety of exempting any sectarian or partisan institution
results from the entire argument herein contained. As to non-partisan
and non-sectarian institutions, the question of propriety is one of
fact, to be determined by the best public judgment in accordance with
the foregoing principle.