QUAKERISM IN TEE UNITED STATES.
[To Tar Ernes or mat .SrscrAroa"] Srs,—.2 gropes of your remarks about the Rowntrees and Cadburys, there are few things more melancholy to contem- plate than the degradation of the fine spirit of the Friends, which seems to be proceeding with even greater rapidity on the western side of the Atlantic. To those who are acquainted with the Quakers' splendid record during the events leading up to the American Civil War the following facts will come with something of a shock. A Quaker hotel. keeper declines to accept persons of Jewish descent as guests during the months of July and August, as their unpopularity among a certain class of Americans who patronize his resort would make their presence there "bad business." During other months of the year, when guests are scarce, he accepts them. In this we have merely the shrewdness of the typical American business man, and comment is unnecessary. But 11018 mark what follows : this gentleman holds every summer a congress, attended by statesmen, Ambassadors, and other dignitaries, for the purpose of discussing universal peace and many other propositions, prominent among which is the consideration of means to protect and elevate oppressed and subject races ! When taken to task on one occasion he replied that his business and his personal interests were not related. I do not know whether this exemplifies more the decadence of Quakerism or the incompatibility of freedom and
Previous page
