Article March 27, 1915 Issue

The News has received a caustic letter from a Tacoma...

The Tacoma (Wash.) Daily News

The News has received a caustic letter from a Tacoma minister, who probably will think better of it after further contemplation, scoring the city library for accepting a number of books left to the institution under the will of Mrs. Eddy. "Why impose this puerile stuff upon the public?" he asks. "Why set such pabulum before our youth?"

There are several thousand live religious doctrines in this world. Each gives to its exponents more or less inspiration, and each sect is entitled to that which reaches its heart or its intellect. A public library is, or should be, an institution so democratic that everything decent in reading matter should be found there, if it can afford to buy it all. The library is supported by general taxation, and all, whether Jew or Gentile, democrat or republican, radical or reactionary, are entitled to representation in it. Perhaps our incensed friend will find in the library some writings against Christian Science. Certainly that toleration which Christianity demands, and which the federal and state constitutions guarantee, ought to give us all the breadth of vision to see the desirability of having all sides of every important question, so long as the discussions are orderly and presented by responsible authorities.

No matter what one may think of Christian Science as a religious platform, one must recognize that it has thousands of enthusiastic followers whose belief in it has dissipated frowns and put laughter where tears were before. It has served as a first-rate leaven in religious matters. Able men, not Christian Scientists, have insisted that it has been an influence in tempering older views of a somewhat lugubrious aspect. There seems to be room for all religious views, and each has its fond adherents who draw from their beliefs a comfort which cannot be denied them, and they certainly have ample ground for expecting public libraries to give them a fair representation.

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