wing representations of Roger W.
Babson, the well-known financial expert and adviser:

The value of our investments depends not on the strength of our
banks, but rather upon the strength of our churches. The underpaid
preachers of the nation are the men upon whom we really are
depending, rather than the well-paid lawyers, bankers and brokers.
The religion of the community is really the bulwark of our
investments. And when we consider that only 15 per cent of the
people hold securities of any kind and less than 3 per cent hold
enough to pay an income tax, the importance of the churches becomes
even more evident.

For our sakes, for our children's sakes, for the nation's sake, let
us business men get behind the churches and their preachers. Never
mind if they are not perfect. Never mind if their theology is out
of date. This only means that were they efficient they would do
very much more. The safety of all we have is due to the churches,
even in their present inefficient and inactive state. By all that
we hold dear, let us from this very day give more time, money and
thought to the churches, for upon these the value of all we own
ultimately depends.

What our critics say about the recent efforts of the American churches
being in the right direction is interesting to Mrs. Brown and me, but we
are much more impressed by the observation of a writer in a late issue
of Soviet Russia. In speaking of the baneful influence of the Russian
church through all the ages he says:

Out of the shadows of antiquity, from the morning of man's cupidity
and avarice, two sinister figures have crawled with crooked talons
through history, leaving a trail of blood and fear most horrible
which has not halted yet. These are the monarch and the priest. The
one is symbolical of despotic or oligarchic power, the other
typifies the sordid ignorance and fearful superstition of the
credulous masses which maintains the power of the first. High in
the streets of Moscow, where one may see the pallid, long-haired,
degenerate-looking venders of holy lies and pious impositions
shuffle along like spectres from a remoter age, there hangs a woven
streamer of scarlet hue with huge white lettering, which defiantly
proclaims that religion is the opium of the people.

Though many still cross themselves a sco