Minister at All Souls Say Extent of Right Must be Decided SoonNYT Monday, May 4, 1959
The Government's right to tax is becoming an unlimited and confiscatory power and will be one of the great issues of the next decade, the Rev. Walter Donald Kring said yesterday.
"We have alway known that the right to tax is the right to destroy," Mr Kring said, "and we are rapidly approaching a point in this nation's history where we shall have to come to a basic understanding as just how far this right extends."
Mr Kring spoke on "Respecting the Rights of Others" at All Souls Unitarian Church, Lexington Avenue and Eightieth Street. He contends that the Government's right that the Government's right to tax and its right to annex private lands for public purposes were often used in flagrant violation of the individual's right to private provperty, which he called the basis of our free economy.
Mr Kring said that the principles of respect for the right of others, both in Government and on an individual level, extend far beyond the mere concept of stealing.
Although the day of absolute ethics is past the minister said, there are still imperative issues of right and wrong, and the attitude toward stealing like so many other attitudes depends upon the philosophy man.
"What we think of others is the ultimate test our ethical principles", Mr Krings said, "If we respect a person, we cannot help but respect his property".. As an ethical code, the precept forbidding us to seal is too negative and superficial. There must also be a positive sensitiveness to the needs of others, whether that requires the give of money, compassion, time, sympathy or love.
A column on the same page writes of Universalists and Unitarians voting 3 to 1 in favor of Union.
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