A bit of history: J.P. Morgan and The Churchman

THE FAMOUS NAME, J. P. Morgan, was important in business circles in the twenties and thirties-but J. P. also served as a member of the editorial board of THE CHURCHMAN, under Guy Emery Shipler's forthright editorship. He was a generous member of THE CHURCHMAN ASSOCIATES during the decades 1925 until his death in 1942. He gave generously annually, amounting to about $25,000.00. The Morgan era began six decades of generosity by THE CHURCHMAN ASSOCIATES, many of whose names are forever in Who's Who. The Hon. Herbert Lehman, Governor of New York, Margaret Sanger, Linus Pauling, Carl Sandburg, Dr. Vilhjalmur Stefansson, explorer, public servants, and hundreds of ecclesiastical names, such as bishops and other cleragymen were this journal's benefactors. These wonderful CHURCHMAN ASSOCIATES continue giving to this day.

In The New Yorker for January 19, 1998, John Cassiday wrote under the head, "Paging J.P. Morgan": "When the call came, on October 19, 1907, John Pierpont Morgan, aged seventy, was in Virginia entertaining a group of Episcopal bishops." In this group could easily have included a few of the same bishops referred to by George Seldes, the great newspaperman and author, who wrote in his 1987 book, Witness To A Century (Ballantine), "I attracted notice in THE CHURCHMAN, an excellent monthly published by Episcopalian bishops..." Cassidy was referring to J. Pierpont Morgan, Senior. It was his son, known widely as J. P. Morgan in Wall Street and other circles who served on THE CHURCHMAN'S editorial board.

The courageous and confident Guy Emery Shipler once needed Mr. Morgan's proxy to win an editorial scrap--and he got it. Shipler later wrote to a friend: "When I told Mr. Morgan that we now had sufficient proxies, he chuckled rather elaborately and said, `Of course you don't know that most of the members of the present board are friends of mine. They have all been down here asking for my proxy, and I have told them I have given it to you.' Then he chuckled some more and wished us well." Shipler concluded the letter: "That saved the paper from going into the hands of an extremely reactionary bishop who was trying to buy it."

Another facet of the liberal view that has emanated from the J. P. Morgan company was a Morgan partner, Thomas W. Lamont. Lamont's son, Corliss, was a generous member of the Churchman Associates who saved this journal from bankruptcy more than once through the decades.

Thomas W. Lamont was the son of a Methodist minister, Corliss's grandfather, which may account somewhat for his tolerance of religion even though Corliss became an avowed atheist. I have wondered if Corliss's book, The Myth of Immortality is not betrayed, because this journal, The Human Quest, lives on by virture of his generosity.

"Dear Corliss," as his latest book was called, recognizing many letters from friends, was the title of my tribute to him in the July-August, 1995 issue of The Human Quest. My tribute lauded the significant role he played-even editorially, with several uncompromising articles--in the sparkle of this journal. "I shall not pass this way again," was his philosophy, "let me do good while I live."

Since money is the capitalistic stabilizer which rules survival, a quote from George Bernard Shaw fits: "Money is the most important thing in the world," he wrote in the Preface to his play, Major Barbara. "It represents health, strength, honor, generosity and beauty as conspicuously as the want of it represents illness, weakness, disgrace, meanness and ugliness."

It is a particular solace to think that the monetary gifts and generous hearts of men who controlled millions of dollars played so significant a role in preserving THE CHURCHMAN and The Human Quest. Its liberal views were never squelched nor even criticized nor questioned. That bespeaks honor! It betokens nobility!

In 1912, when THE CHURCHMAN COMPANY was reorganized, forty well-known Episcopalians raised $62,100 to save the journal's independence. Among them were: J. P. Morgan, Admiral Alfred T. Mahan, George William Douglas (a Trinity College alumnus), Bishop William Lawrence, R. Fulton Cutting, George Zabriskie, Henry L. Hobart, Samuel Thorne, Jr., and Charles R. Lamb. (The back cover of THE CHURCHMAN for March, 1964 recounted this history.)

In this dollar-conscious age--in our market economy--we speak daily of billionaires. Is it unthinkable that a similar phenomenon may recur: support of a religiously democratic voice-in-the-wilderness by a privileged few?

Copyright The Human Quest May/Jun 1998
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