Louis Albert Banks, the Nation's Pastor from Corvallis, Oregon
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| John B. Horner, for whom Horner Museum is named, wrote: “Louis Albert Banks, D. D., has written more books than any other Oregonian." Born near Corvallis November 12. 1855. Banks pursued a course in liberal arts at Philomath College (ed.: now Benton County Historical Museum); and some years after entering the ministry he attended Boston University and Mount Union College. He has been pastor, of some of the leading Methodist Episcopal churches in this country; was prohibition candidate for governor of Massachusetts in 1893; has done much effective evangelistic work; and is now (1918) campaigning for nationwide prohibition. His sermons have been read by more people than have the sermons of any other American clergyman since the death of Talmage. He is the author of fifty-five books, the most of which were published by Funk and Wagnalls.” - John B. Horner, Oregon |
Face to face with shame and insult
Since she drew her baby breath,
Were it strange to find her knocking
At the cruel door of death ?
Were it strange if she should parley
With the great arch fiend of sin ?
ALICE CARY The Edge of Doom.
THE WAGES AND TEMPTATIONS OF
WORKING-PEOPLE.
I HAVE been asked to give a reason for the
faith that is in me in regard to certain painful charges made by me in a recent sermon on
Wages ad Morals - to the effect that the persons high in authority in some respectable
Boston stores regard favorably immoral relations on the part of the employees, in order to
make it possible for them to live on the slender
wages paid them.
Without repeating here any of the cases mentioned in my sermon, which has had
considerable
publicity through the daily press, permit me to
quote Mr. Henry Chase, agent of the Society for
the Prevention of Crime. He says that in conversation with a leading Boston merchant, the
merchant said plainly that he had every reason
to believe that some of the men working in his
store paid the room-rent and a trifling sum be-
sides to working-girls, and lived with them
regularly. Another Boston merchant said to
Mr. Chase that he regarded that kind of life
on the part of his clerks favorably; that the
wages these young men received made it impossible for them to marry and support a
wife.
I am informed of another case, upon perfectly
credible authority, of two young women,
strangers in then city, who applied to a leading
store for a situation and were offered work, but
when informed of the wages they were to receive, exclaimed, " How could we live on such
wages as that? " The employment agent of
the house replied, " It is presumed you will
have a gentleman friend to assist you." The
girls looked at him dumfounded for a moment;
and when his meaning dawned upon the one
who had acted as spokesman, she burst into
tears and they hurried from the store. Only
the dread of bringing unpleasant notoriety to
these thoroughly respectable young women
saved this scoundrel from a horsewhipping.
at the hands of their indignant male relatives.
A leading Boston lady of wealth and social
standing, writing to thank me for calling public
attention to the subject, says that she herself
knew of a girl who was told to "' look to her
gentleman friends' for the means to eke out a
bare livelihood supplied by her wages in a
prominent store ; " and adds : Such things are
outrageous, and it is well you are making them
known." I have within the past week received
another letter from the president of the W. C.
T. U. in one of the Boston wards, a lady who
has had more than twenty-five years' experience
in practical reform work in this city. She
says : " I have just read in my Congregational
the reference to your sermon of last Sunday on
the officials in two of our large Boston stores
suggesting immoral means of eking out their
scanty wages to their employees. I want to
thank you for presenting this terrible wicked-
ness existing among us, and if the extent could
only be known, every white-ribbon woman in
Boston would. boycott those stores. I could
call names of splendid young women, thrown.
on their own resources, applying for situations,
who were cursed, as we might say, with a good
face and a fine figure, fairly insulted with offers
made. More young girls have been ruined in
that way than in any other. In sheer desperation, not even earning enough to pay the rent
of a mean attic and keep hunger away, to say
nothing of clothing ad other things, they have,
after spending the last cent, and not having
anything to take them home, resorted to the
last means."
This is a terrible letter-terribly true. I
could go on, column after column, with these
details. "But," the critic says, " why don't you
name these firms, and put them in the pillory of
public contempt ? " I can tell you why in a
few words. You cannot name the firms with-
out giving the name of the young woman thus
wickedly approached; and to name any young
woman in such a connection, no matter how
innocent or pure she is, is $0 put a mark upon
her as long as she lives.
No woman is willing to run that gantlet:
and so, in the very nature of the case, it would
rarely happen that you could publicly punish
the guilty party. " Well, then," says the critic,
"you would better hold your peace." Let us
consider that a moment. If a burglary has
been committed in town, do you keep silent
until you are prepared to name the burglar and
publicly indict him for trial ? No, indeed.
You tell all the neighbors, and publish in all
the newspapers, that such a house has been invaded, that burgles are in town. What is the
good of doing this? Why, any school-boy
knows that it is a blessing to every other
householder in the town. It puts people on
their guard, and calls special attention to their
bolts and locks. If there is any good reason
why we should not follow the same common-
sense course in this matter under consideration,
I do not know what it is.
I do not bring a broad, sweeping accusation
against either class of persons especially concerned in this article. I am no defamer of my
kind. I believe that the majority of Boston
merchants are honest, pure-minded men. I
believe that the majority of Boston working-
women old or young, are as pure and noble as
any women in the world. Nevertheless, I have.
stated in this article undeniable facts -facts
which I can substantiate to the satisfaction of
any honest man or woman who, still doubting,
cares to see me personally about the matter.
These facts are serious enough to give us all
reason for solemn and earnest reflection.
Corvallis
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