Morris Tribune

AN UN-AMERICAN ARGUMENT

Now that the political campaign is over and comment can be made without being discounted on account of supposed partisan bias, there is one feature which deserves the thoughtful consideration—and condemnation—of every right-thinking American citizen, and that is the extent to which religious prejudice was a factor in determining the result in many parts of Minnesota.

The very cornerstone of American liberty is religious toleration, and the very moment that a community or person becomes so intolerant as to permit his choice of a public official to be determined by religious prejudice, he becomes a slave to an idea more despotic in its sway over the human mind than any king or potentate ever dared to be.

Elections are for the purpose of determining the choice of the majority as dictated by mature judgment, but a majority choice dictated by religious prejudice is useless as a factor in advancing the cause of good government.

Prejudice of about any other kind can be more or less successfully met, but religious prejudice is always unreasonable and unreasoning. More than that, whenever religious prejudice is injected into a campaign, it is done secretly and the damage is carried by word of mouth, and it undermines all the careful work of public argument.

No reputable newspaper and no responsible campaign committee will inject the religious question into politics, for unscrupulous as politicians are reputed to be, there are some depths to which they will not descend.

Strange to say, religious prejudice contains no element of morality, and the voters will not become a bit excited over the moral life of a candidate while they may be swept off their feet by stories of the religious inclinations of a candidate.

The effect of religious prejudice is a thing to be thought over in calm moments when the mind can be stayed against it, so that when a political campaign is on, any party or candidate trying to raise the religious question will be sternly rebuked.

Of all corrupt practices, the exciting of religious prejudice is the worst, because it seeks to dethrone the intelligent choice of the voter, which is the very foundation of liberty.

That the 'religious question' has been a factor in other portions of Minnesota, every man who is acquainted throughout the whole state knows; that it is spreading in the state is also apparent from studying the returns of the recent state election.

Now is the time for the voters of the state to fortify themselves against it.