The Profits of Religion: An Essay in Economic InterpretationSinclair, Upton
Religion
The Profits of Religion: An Essay in Economic Interpretation
Sinclair, Upton
Christianity -- Controversial literature
There was no less than sixteen pages of these raptures--quite a
section of a small magazine like the "Outlook". "The New Haven
ramifies to every spot where industry flourishes, where business
thrives." "As a purveyor of transportation it supplies the public
with just the sort desired." "Here we have the new efficiency in
a nutshell." In short, here we have what Dr. Lyman Abbott means
when he glorifies "the great mass of American wealth". "It is
serving the community; it is building a railway to open a new
country to settlement by the homeless; it is operating a railway
to carry grain from the harvests of the West to the unfed
millions of the East," etc. The unfed millions--my typewriter
started to write "underfed millions"--are humbly grateful for
these services, and hasten to buy copies of the pious weekly
which tells about them.
The "Outlook" runs a column of "current events" in which it tells
what is happening in the world; and sometimes it is compelled to
tell of happenings against the interests of "the great mass of
American wealth". The cynical reader will find amusement in
following its narrative of the affairs of the New Haven during
the five years subsequent to the publication of the Baxter
article.
First came the collapse of the road's service; a series of
accidents so frightful that they roused even clergymen and
chambers of commerce to protest. A number of the "Outlook's"
subscribers are New Haven "commuters", and the magazine could not
fail to refer to their troubles. In the issue of Jan. 4th, 1913,
three years and ten days after the Baxter rhapsody, we read:
The most numerous accidents on a single road since the last
fiscal year have been, we believe, those on the New Haven. In the
opinion of the Connecticut Commission, the Westport wreck would
not have occurred if the railway company had followed the
recommendation of the Chief Inspector of Safety Appliances of the
Interstate Commerce Commission in its report on a similar
accident at Bridgeport a year ago.
And by June 28th, matters had gone farther yet; we find the
"Outlook" reporting:
Within a few hours of the collision at Stamford, the wrecked
Pullman car was taken away and burned. Is this criminal
destruction of evidence?
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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