The Editor's response, by private letter, dated August 3, 1909, was the last comprehensive statement of his life study on this subject. As it epitomizes his opinions so completely, it is offered here in part:
"The Oregonian 'assails' no religion nor religious belief. It does not, however, deem itself forbidden to inquire into the concepts of religion or of theological systems—especially of such as most persistently urge their 'claims' on public attention. The Oregonian under my hand, has dealt with these subjects, as an incident of its work, these many, many years; very inadequately, I know—yet not to the dissatisfaction of the great multitude of its readers.
"You, of course, it would not expect to please, since one who deems his own creed or formula the last word on religion can scarcely be expected to open his mind to other or dissentient views. Your position requires you to profess an infallibility. The Oregonian makes no such pretension. It simply wishes to apply the tests of reason, of experience, of judgment, and of such knowledge as history affords from the manifestations of the religious principle in man, to some of the phases of the thought and inquiry of our time.
"Christianity is a fact and it is to be accounted for. You account for it in one way, I in another. You rest on the miraculous and supernatural; I do not—nor do I think there is wickedness in any inquiry into the origin of theological or ecclesiastical concepts, or in comparison of religions with each other, with a view to discovery of a common principle in all.
"Your assumption that it is not a proper province of a newspaper to touch a subject which clergymen (or some of them) claim as their exclusive field, I cannot admit; more especially since, as a newspaper man, in active touch with the public mind during more than forty years, I have found no feature of the Oregonian's work more sought or approved than in the field from which you would bar it. I am old enough and have had experience enough to tender advice also; and I must assure you that you ought to begin to know, even if you can't acknowledge, that the greater part of mankind, even of the so-called Christian world, has a profound tendency towards a rational, historical and comparative view and interpretation of religions in their various forms—the Christian religion included with the rest. Dogma can no more support
