Excerpt from Persecution: Or the Attempt to Suppress Freedom of Speech in Chicago As it is not for more rent that we are being put out of the hall, the trustees should admit frankly that it is for our religious views? Why do they not? They are afraid. To strike openly at one of the fundamental institutions of this country, namely, the liberty of teaching, requires a boldness which they lack. They realize that the spirit of the age issquarely against such discrimination or class legislation. They feel also that they are dishonoring a great country, America, born of the brain and fed from the breast of a Washington, a Jefferson, a Benjamin Franklin, a Thomas Paine - and its more recent representative, Abraham Lincoln - not one of whom was a communicant or a member of any church, and not one of whom but would frown upon anything that smacks of persecution. The directors of the Orchestral Association have preferred to be the hireling of the priest - Catholic or Protestant - the priest of a cult imported from Asia, rather than to be Americans, worthy of their great ancestors, whose names I have just mentioned. The real objection to us then, is not that we do not pay enough rent, but that we do not profess the same faith. Religion, not money, is the reason for our eviction from this hall, but they are afraid and ashamed to own it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.