ELEVEN MILLION DOLLARS TO PROMOTE THIS DOCTRINE
How the Vast Fortune of the Late Mrs. Rand, Who Gave Prof. Herron's Deserted Wife $60,000 to Divorce Him, is Being Used in an Amazing Warfare on Marriage and Religion Under the Leadership of Herron and Mrs. Rand's Daughter.
This story went all over the country, and recently when
Herron was named by President Wilson as one of the delegates
to confer with the Russian Soviets, the story was rehashed in
our newspapers, and made the subject of indignant protest
by religious bodies. Having visited this Metuchen home and
seen the whole story in the making, I am in a position to
state that the Metuchen "free love colony" was entirely a
product of the obscene minds of the editors of the "Sunday
Yellows." What is the moral character of these "yellow"
editors you may judge from the fact that, soon after this,
one of the editors of the "Sunday World" was arrested by
Anthony Comstock and sent to jail for a year or two, for
having in his possession several thousand obscene photographs
which he used in the corrupting of boys. In such minds
the Metuchen story was born; and seventeen years later its
foul carcass is exhumed by the "Churchman," organ of "the
Church of Good Society" in New York, and made the basis
of a vicious sneer at President Wilson. I quote:
In dealing with Russian liberals, it may be necessary to select
as mediators men who share their political ideas. It is not necessary
to choose men who share their moral practices. We read that the
Presbyterian Union of Newark has adopted resolutions protesting
against the appointment of George D. Herron as a representative of
the United States to confer with the Bolsheviks. The resolution
condemns Herron as a man who has flagrantly violated the laws
of God and man, and they call upon President Wilson to revoke his
appointment. They go into past history and assert that Mr. Herron
endeavored at one time to establish a free love colony at Metuchen,
New Jersey.
Time wasted! We warn the Newark protestants. Mr. Herron's appointment will not be revoked. What is the marriage vow among the makers of millenniums?
And lest you think this is merely odium theologicum, I give
an example of the comment of the laity, from "Harvey's
Weekly":
Why not make Herron the Turkish Mandatory? Herron's matrimonial
views are broad and comprehensive. His poultry-yard standard
of morals might possibly be a little looser than the Turkish, but
he would doubtless conform himself in theory and practice to the
narrower Turkish matrimonial prejudices.