NOT since 1848 has Europe been in such a sea of troubles as she has been tossed upon during recent months. It seems quite in keeping with the times that China should be convulsed with two revolutions at once.
Here in England we do not know whether we are on the verge of another great paralysis of the national business such as we experienced last August, or whether we are to be spared this infliction. The question is now referred to the railway workers for their decision. In the summer disturbances, peace was patched up temporarily by the appointment of a government commission to go into the whole situation, so far as it affected the railway companies and their employees. It was understood that both sides would accept the report of the commission, whatever it was. That report has now been rendered, and some of the union leaders profess to find in it a satisfactory response to their demands, while others contend that it contains nothing of the sort. So the railway workers themselves are to settle the point by ballot, and if they refuse to accept the verdict of the commission, there will be another strike.
The Rt. Hon. H. H. Asquith
The bone of contention is the question whether the railway companies shall “recognize” the trade-union officials as the men’s representatives and enter into diplomatic relations with them. Hitherto all but one of the railway companies have positively refused such recognition to the union officials, insisting on dealing only with their employees in all matters of dispute. The government commission has reported in favor of recognition by the railway directors to a limited extent, but not so as to affect the maintenance of discipline or the efficient operating of the railroads. This concession does not satisfy the union officials, who demand full power of collective bargaining with the directors on behalf of the men they represent.
There are certain facts which tend to make the situation a little more difficult for the unions than it was in August. Since then they have attempted a railway strike in Ireland and been defeated. Further, all the great railways have made substantial increases in the pay of the lower grades of employees. It is believed, therefore, that prudence will counsel the unions not to agitate for another strike at the present time.
Meanwhile the strike fever is still rampant throughout the country. At the present time over 5,000 motor cab drivers are “out” in London, and every week we read of strikes in different parts. The mining industry is in a very unsettled condition, and it is generally expected that before long there will be a strike among the colliery workers throughout the United Kingdom. One result of these labor troubles is to send up prices considerably. Coal is very dear and not always to be had.
Doctor Bourne
Lloyd-George’s Insurance Bill
Parliament is busily occupied with Mr. Lloyd-George’s insurance bill. If a happier and more prosperous state of affairs for the workers could be brought about by legislation, then the measures which Mr. Lloyd-George is introducing ought to accomplish great things. When the present bill comes into operation, every man who falls out of employment or becomes sick, will receive financial assistance; and if he should be smitten by tuberculosis, a part of the present scheme provides for sanitariums where his health can be built up, while his family at home are looked after. If children are born, the mother receives a subsidy. Participation in this scheme is to be compulsory for all who earn more than fifteen dollars a week, and the funds for operating it are to be provided by contributions from the individual, from his employer, and from the State.
When the insurance bill is enacted, the next great problem for this government is the preparation of a measure for giving home rule to Ireland. There is sure to be a keen struggle over the details; but the thorniest of the Irish problems, the land question, has already been got out of the way by the land acts which have made it easy for the small farmers to become owners of their farms. There is not likely to be any very violent resistance to the forthcoming home rule scheme, so far as the main question is concerned. The old charges of Romish intolerance have been brought forward, and some are predicting a reign of bigotry and persecution under the new order of things. But so far as the discussion has brought facts to light, up to the present time the Protestants have been found equally guilty in this respect. There is a growing conviction that home rule for Ireland will not prove an unmixed triumph for the priests. Mr. Sydney Brooks, a prominent advocate of home rule, writing in the “Fortnightly Review” for November, says:
There have been not a few signs of late that the emancipation of the Irish mind — the most needed of all revolutions — has already begun; and while there is much that can not be foretold as to the effects of home rule, this at least can be predicted with some confidence, — that the process of intellectual enfranchisement would be greatly quickened, that an anti-clerical party would quickly develop in an Irish parliament, and that home rule, so far from spelling “Rome rule,” would eventually spell “Rome ruin.”
Canada and Reciprocity
It was a great surprise to England that Canada so flatly rejected the proposition for reciprocity with the United States, altho some portions of our press expressed pleasure at the decision, and announced that Canada was “saved to the empire.” The general opinion has been that Canada was actuated partly by prejudice and had not altogether consulted her own interests. Some say that Canada is as yet young, and sensitive about her nationhood, and that she was unnecessarily alarmed at the talk about annexation.
D. Lloyd-George, M. P.
Campbell and the Congregational Union
In the religious world the most interesting event of the last few weeks was the reconciliation between the Rev. R. J. Campbell and the Congregational Union. Mr. Campbell was invited to a recent conference at Nottingham, and there took an opportunity of declaring his personal loyalty to Christ in these words:11"Jesus of Nazareth in my experience is inseparable from the eternal Christ. I worship Him. I trust my soul to Him for time and eternity."
The declaration was received with applause; and Dr. Forsyth, who has been, among the Congregationalists, the principal champion of the orthodox theology and the most vigorous opponent of the new, announced that after the avowal made by Mr. Campbell, the conflict between them was at an end. As Mr. Campbell has taken every opportunity since to declare that there has been no change whatever in his views or teaching during the last five years — namely, that every human being is inseparable from the eternal Christ — it is evident that he thinks the reconciliation has been brought about by an advanced move on the part of the Congregational ministry, and not by any retreat on his part. The "new theology" is certainly making rapid and startling progress in many quarters. Whatever language its exponents may hold about Christ, it is not to His saving power, but to a program of social reform, that they look for the uplifting of mankind.
Papal Advancement
The Roman Catholic hierarchy is being reorganized in a way which indicates that, in their own opinion at least, the Church of Rome is making substantial progress here. The bishoprics of Liverpool and Birmingham are now raised to the rank of archbishoprics; while Archbishop Bourne of Westminster becomes a cardinal. Even the national church will not now be able to make such a display of ecclesiastical titles as will the "Italian mission," the term which some Anglican sections apply in scorn to the Romish church in this country.
No Peace Talk Now
The wars and rumors of wars which have resounded throughout Europe of late have entirely dispelled the talk of peace. It is long since public opinion was so pessimistic about the future. Even those who were protesting most vigorously against the insane expenditure on unnecessary armaments, now confess with a sigh that the force of circumstances is irresistible, that we must bear our heavy burden as best we can and look forward to a heavier rather than a lighter load in the near future. One of the shrewdest observers among English journalists, Dr. E. J. Dillon, sees in the keen contest between France and Germany for predominance in Morocco, and in the fact that Germany gets her compensation, not in a free hand to spoil some weaker State, but in the shape of a large slice out of one of the French colonies, an evidence that the world is now fully divided up among the great powers. Henceforth, if these are to expand, it must be at the expense of one another. Dr. Dillon writes thus in the "Contemporary Review":
The Rev. R. J. Campbell
Without being gifted with particularly keen insight, one can discern among the contingencies of the near future the outbreak of bitter contests among the great powers for a redistribution of colonies. In other words, war will be more than ever one of the recognized means of carrying on a struggle for life among the nations. Consequently the one prime necessity for all great powers at the present day, is to prepare for these trials of strength and arm. When formidable armies and navies are become prime necessities of national life, it is suicidal folly to be stingy.
This is the despairing conclusion to which European opinion is drifting. All faith in treaties is disappearing. Men have seen so many torn up lately, and have seen the solemn compacts of the Hague Conference so completely ignored, that they feel it would be folly to put any trust in international honor, and that they must depend upon their own swords for independent existence. Many believe that England and Germany, during the last few weeks, have been within a little of declaring war upon one another. One writer in the "Contemporary Review" says:
The facts are leaking out. In the month of September both sides were prepared to act. Horses were bought. English officers were recalled from leave. In Germany even the reservist got his equipment ready and noted his instructions, the instructions with which every reservist officer is supplied and which he must not divulge even to his wife. In England the secret was well kept; in Germany the rumors were sufficient to produce a panic on the Berlin bourse.
The fact that Mr. Winston Churchill has been transferred from the Home Office to the charge of the Admiralty at this juncture is giving rise to considerable speculation. He is known to favor economy, but it is not believed that he will venture to plead for any retrenchment at this time in naval expenditure.
Italy and Turkey
The course of Italy in her recent dealings with Turkey has been followed with a critical eye from the outset, and disclosures of her ferocious treatment of the Arabs have not lessened the volume or acerbity of the criticism. If the reports that have come to hand are authentic — and they seem to be sufficiently certified — Italy has not made a very promising beginning in her mission of replacing Ottoman misrule with a more civilized régime. There is danger that a "holy war" may be the outcome of the events now taking place in Tripoli. Another possible consequence may be the detachment of Italy from the Triple Alliance in which she is joined with Germany and Austria. There are not wanting, however, apologists for Italy's action in Tripoli, who think that she felt forced to make the move when she did for fear that the opportunity, not seized, would pass permanently out of her reach. The Paris correspondent of the "Times" wrote:
I gather that the chief reasons for Italy's sudden resort to the policy of war were based on the apprehension that the chance of establishing herself in Tripoli was slipping from her grasp. She knew that so long as the Morocco negotiations remained open, France would behave towards her in accordance both with the letter and with the spirit of the secret treaty signed by M. Delcasse in 1901. Once the Morocco question had been settled, it was thought that France, like the rest of the powers, would be sure to counsel delay. "And if we had delayed another ten years," observed one eminent Italian, "the French, by a process of natural expansion of their Tunisian frontier, might gradually have absorbed a great part of Tripoli."
So, judged by the standard in vogue among the great powers, Italy has done nothing out of the way in seizing Tripoli; and if she succeeds finally in her raid, there will be few to condemn the course she has taken.
Likened to 1848
Russia, with its assassinated premier, and Portugal, with its royalist uprising, have each had their difficulties; and Austria and France, like ourselves, have been afflicted with labor troubles of portentous magnitude. No wonder that the most sober sections of the public press have compared the times to the revolutionary epoch of 1848, and have over and over again given expression to the fear that the volcano on which Europe was precariously standing was about to break out in unprecedented eruption.
W. T. BARTLETT.
The Rt. Hon. Winston Spencer Churchill
Among the interesting testimony that is produced before the Stanley Committee that is investigating the United States Steel Corporation, is the statement of a gentleman from Minnesota, who testified that in three months' time he and his brothers were stripped by that corporation of more than $6,000,000. Leonidas Merritt was one of the brothers thus defrauded; and he said: "It killed one of my brothers, it ruined other brothers, it left me wrecked in body, and for a time in mind, for I held myself alone to blame. I can not tell how it happened that I went to New York with all these millions and in a few weeks left with nothing." Mr. Merritt accused Mr. John D. Rockefeller of being responsible in the main for the loss of their money, and then when all was gone, the "Rev. Frank T. Gates, chief almoner of Mr. Rockefeller," told him to "walk the ties to Duluth," his place of abode. Not all that appears in the newspapers can be trusted as the veritable truth, but we may know for a surety of enough to establish the fact that this age has placed a lot of men in a position where they are able to use the grinding heel of greed in a most exasperatingly cruel fashion. There is no lack of the pious outward show; but the strength of the Nazarene that was manifested in real kindness and tenderness, and not in the make-believe sort, is most sadly lacking.
The Perils of Universal Religion
The idea of having a world-wide federation of religions seems to be getting a foothold in Persia, for a prophet there who says he is a "lover of all mankind" is preaching that "our goal is a universal religion, which means first of all a union of the Orient and Occident — between Islamism and Christianity. Universal religion means universal peace. All faiths and people must be made one; rumors of war and fruitless strifes must cease; then man will glory not so much that he loves his country as that he loves his kind." Sentiments become popular and sweep over the world without the thing called for in the sentiment finding real place in the hearts of more than a few. The sentiment in favor of Christianity is quite general; but how few really have the pure and undefiled religion of the Bible! And so these sentiments in favor of universal religion, which all sound very good, will in the end be found to work for tyranny. Christ worked for individuals. We do not find Him in politics laboring for the nations as such.
Why We Oppose Its Passage
By W. A. Colcord
The Johnston Sunday Bill—No. 3
Why We Oppose Its Passage
By W. A. Colcord
BEING religious, as shown in our last article, the enactment of this measure into law by Congress would be striking a direct blow against religious liberty. No man, no body of men, can properly DEMAND a religious observance from any one. In the words of Washington, we hold that “every man who conducts himself as a good citizen, is accountable alone to God for his religious faith, and should be protected in worshiping God according to the dictates of his own conscience.” And we agree also with the statement made in the “Sunday Mail Report” adopted by the United States Senate in 1829, that “the proper object of government is to protect all persons in the enjoyment of their religious as well as civil rights, and not to determine for any whether they shall esteem one day above another, or esteem all days alike holy.” It is inconsistent to erect great and costly monuments to the illustrious departed, unless we regard the immortal principles they taught as the basic fundamentals of good government.
Not a Police Regulation
Sunday laws are not, as has been held by some, mere police regulations. This fact has been admitted by a no less distinguished jurist than the late Justice Brewer. In his work “The United States a Christian Nation,” pages 29, 30, he says:
Indeed, the vast volume of official action, legislative and judicial, recognizes Sunday as a day separate and apart from others, a day devoted not to the ordinary pursuits of life. It is true in many of the decisions this separation of the day is said to be authorized by the police power of the State and exercised for the purpose of health. At the same time, through a large majority of them there runs the thought of its being a religious day, consecrated by the commandment, “Six days shalt thou labor, and do all thy work: but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy man servant, nor thy maid servant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates.”
Sunday Not a Civil Holiday
Nor does this bill, or any Sunday law in existence, treat Sunday as a mere civil holiday, such as the Fourth of July, New Year’s Day, and Washington’s birthday. These are set apart as public holidays, but their observance is not made compulsory. But this bill not only specifies that Sunday shall be observed “as a SABBATH,” but makes its non-observance a penal offense, punishable by fine or imprisonment, or by both fine and imprisonment. It can not therefore be regarded as a mere civil measure.
From a civil basis — the only basis on which Congress has a right to enact law — this bill makes an unwarranted distinction between days, and in doing so erects a false standard for crime. It makes unlawful on Sunday that which is considered perfectly proper and lawful on other days of the week. But crime is not determined by the day of the week when committed. No one would think of enacting a law prohibiting murder, theft, arson, or wife-beating, on Sunday only. Such a law would be a virtual sanctioning of these things upon the other days of the week.
Honest Toil Not a Crime
This bill proceeds upon the assumption that to engage in honest toil or honorable occupation seven days in a week is a crime, and that the observance of a weekly Sabbath is an essential to good citizenship, and thus a proper test of it. But this is false. While unintermittent daily labor may be incompatible with religion, and an effectual barrier to Sabbath observance, it is not a crime; neither is it proper to make religion or any religious observance a test of citizenship. To do so is directly contrary to the very genius and spirit of our whole national system of government.
The fact that a thing may be beneficial to man, or essential to his well-being or to his existence even, is not necessarily a sufficient reason why civil government should make it compulsory. Eating is essential to life; labor, to the procuring of food; nightly rest, to daily toil; marriage, to the perpetuation of the race; but who would argue from this that eating, labor, rest, or marriage should be made compulsory by law? To see that foods prepared for general consumption are kept pure, that those who labor are remunerated, that those who rest are not unnecessarily disturbed, and that those who enter the marriage relation are protected in that relationship, is the duty of the State; but this is the limit of its authority in these matters. So with Sabbath observance. Rightly kept, the Sabbath is a blessing in every way — physically, mentally, and spiritually; but it does not follow that because this is so, the State has a right to enforce its observance. Those who choose to observe it should be protected from unnecessary disturbance; but this is the limit of the State’s authority in this matter. It has no right whatever to compel any one to keep the Sabbath.
It is inconsistent to erect great and costly monuments to the illustrious departed, unless we regard the immortal principles they taught as the basic fundamentals of good government.
The Law Not Needed
The proposed law is not needed in the District as a moral measure, for that which is immoral or uncivil on Sunday is equally immoral and uncivil on every other day of the week, and if properly prohibited by law at all, should be prohibited on all days. A law closing saloons and immoral shows and places of amusement on ALL days would certainly close them on SUNDAY.
Neither is it needed, as has been alleged by some, for the laboring man. No man in the District of Columbia is compelled, in any legal sense of that term, to work on Sunday. In order for one man to rest on a certain day, it is not necessary to have a law compelling every other man to rest on that day. In proof of this, we need but cite the one hundred thousand Christians in this country who observe the seventh day of the week without a law compelling others to rest on that day. There is a vast difference between PROTECTING men in the peaceable enjoyment of a day of rest taken VOLUNTARILY, and COMPELLING them to rest upon a certain day WHETHER THEY WISH TO DO SO OR NOT. One is a DUTY of the State; the other a TYRANNY, and, upon a civil basis only, is on a par with involuntary servitude; when religion is involved, then it becomes a spiritual tyranny.
Violates the Golden Rule
This proposed law is not only unconstitutional, but unchristian. It violates the Golden Rule; for no man would himself wish to be compelled to observe a day regardless of his own views and wishes in the matter. This measure requires the observance of a sabbath regardless of faith — regardless of whether a man BELIEVES in it or not: but “without faith it is impossible to please God,” and “whatsoever is not of faith is sin.” It requires men to render to Cæsar (civil government) that which belongs to God — Sabbath observance — which is directly contrary to Christ’s explicit instruction as recorded in Matt. 22:21 and Mark 12:17.
Sabbath Keeping Not Produced by Law
Civil laws can not produce good Sabbath observance, for the simple reason that religion is the only proper or permanent basis for such observance, and this can not be produced by law. The whole history of the world has demonstrated the truthfulness of this, and the fact has been admitted by some of the most prominent Sunday-law advocates in this country. Thus Dr. Wilbur F. Crafts, at the hearing on the Blair National Sunday Rest Bill, December 13, 1888, said:
A weekly day of rest has never been permanently secured in any land except on the basis of religious obligation. Take the religion out and you take the rest out.
And Dr. Joseph Cook, in one of his celebrated Boston Monday lectures, in 1887, likewise said:
The experience of centuries shows that you will in vain endeavor to preserve Sunday as a day of rest, unless you preserve it as a day of worship.
In our next article we shall show the similarity between the Johnston bill and the old Maryland Sunday law of 1723, and examine the exemption in it for observers of another day.
A Possible Cure for Leprosy
Scientists are beginning to claim that they are about to find a cure for leprosy in a certain kind of poisonous fish that is found in some of the Japanese waters. Many of them have been thinking, because of the prevalence of leprosy in quarters where much of the flesh of the fish is used for food, that the eating of fish had something to do with the producing of the leprosy; and following the homeopathic formula, Similia similibus curantur, they have been looking to the fish to find a medicine that would destroy the poison of the leprosy, and they claim that they have found it. Some of the wisest of these scientists are also telling us that if we want to avoid many of these loathsome diseases, such as the leprosy, it is well to curtail our appetites for flesh foods in general as well as fish.
Battleships Driven by Electricity
Mr. Edison makes the claim, based upon recent successful experiments with his improved storage battery, that the great battle-ships will soon be driven by electricity.
Cords
By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stutle
By Mrs. L. D. Avery-Stutle
ONE day I heard a loud outcry in the direction of my neighbor's yard. I glanced from the window. There, tied by a stout cord attached to his tiny waist, was a little toddler of about two years, struggling manfully to free himself. Evidently the little fellow had early formed his own ideas of freedom.
Then I turned my head. There, in a chair on the piazza, calmly sat the babe's mother. And still the air was rent with shrill screams of protest from the child. How easily could she have hurried to the rescue! How quickly could she have unbound her child, or cut the restraining cord! Yet I knew she would not — that she could not, in reason, give her child his own way; she dared not unbind him. Why? Was she cruel, unreasonable, unjust?
Verily, no; but with her superior wisdom and foresight, she saw the dangers of the street for her little son. There were whirling automobiles, and heedless drivers, and prancing horses, and reckless riders, and a thousand and one kindred dangers which the untrained eye of the infant failed to appreciate.
O, no; mother-love bound the restraining cord, and mother-love refused to loosen it. Aye, more; the stronger the cord, and the more firmly it holds her child, the greater the proof of the mother-love.
Well, while the little one still screamed and tugged at the rope, I tried to learn a lesson. I had been vaguely discontent with life. There seemed to be some restraining hand reaching out to hinder my most laudable efforts toward doing good. O, if I might only accomplish the end I sought — had been seeking for years! But how often, just as I had almost attained my object, some chain, forged with unbreakable fetters of steel, had been riveted about me, and some mountain of difficulty reared its stubborn head right in my pathway, and lo! I was as helpless as the infant before me!
But now I began to wonder if it might not perhaps be just as necessary for the all-wise Father to bind me, hand and foot, by the cords of circumstances.
Has it ever seemed that you were prevented by a hard and cruel fate from doing the good you were really capable of doing? Does the path which you are almost forced to tread seem hard and barren and commonplace, and your life bitter and unproductive of good, until sometimes you forget, and murmur against the kind and loving hand which binds us about, only for our own good?
Perhaps we are all apt to reach out after the unattainable, and to aspire to heights which it would not be safe for us to scale. It is infinitely better and safer to be tied with cords which bind us to the solid ground, than to aspire to dizzy heights from which we are sure to fall, unless preserved by a miracle of grace.
Ah, blessed, I say, be the cords of infinite love and wisdom which bind us to the lowly and humble path of duty!
Then there are cords of habit — good and bad; and, thank God, the good habits hold us quite as firmly as do the bad, if we rely upon the strength of the Mighty One. Even the galling chains of a bad habit may be snapped asunder in the name and strength of the Captain of our salvation.
Once, among the mountains of Virginia, a young lad was flying a large kite. Yards upon yards of string had been unwound, a stiff breeze was blowing, and in his excitement the lad did not notice a deep gully just before him. But one of his companions saw the danger, just in time. It was too late to shout to the boy and warn him of his peril. Quick as thought the young hero sprang before his companion, and cut the string of the kite.
The boy tottered and fell — upon the very verge of the chasm.
O, it is dangerous to parley with evil habits or bad temper or impatience or intemperance. They are kites of vanity and sin, and will lead us over the brink into eternal ruin. Let us cut the string, in the name of the Lord, and let the kite go.
Sometimes our feet, which should be swift to run upon errands of mercy, are bound about by foolish cords of vanity. "What will the world say of me if I am kind and helpful toward the outcasts from society — those whose business it is to pander to all that is bad and vile in man? If I make an effort to save such as these, will I not run the risk of bringing criticism upon myself?"
So we forget the infinite value of a human soul, and that "even Christ pleased not Himself," and we sit, like Simon the leper, in the seat of the scorner, and allow our hands and feet to be bound by the cords of vanity, and whisper to ourselves, as did Simon, "For this woman is a sinner."
O, let us cut the cruel cords of vanity and envy and jealousy, and hasten to bind ourselves to the suffering heart of humanity, even as did our divine Lord, by the cords of a love that is stronger than death,—a love which was offered upon Calvary for the salvation of every suffering son and daughter of Adam.
A Debtor
By Flora E. Warren
By Flora E. Warren
He walked the street on his homeward way,
A man of sixty, with locks of gray;
He carried himself with an air he prized,
And thus to himself soliloquized:
"They say that the Lord is very near,
I'm glad, for I'll meet Him without fear.
"I send my papers every week,
That others may the true way seek;
I read my Bible, and I pray,
And go to church on Sabbath day.
I've all my years in the good way spent,
And I don't owe any man a cent."
He passed a neighbor on the way,
A very poor man (so the neighbors say),
And said to himself: "If that man knew
How to plan and work, he'd have more to do.
If I didn't work like the busy bee,
I'd be in as bad a fix as he."
Another neighbor passed his way
(A family of heathens, the neighbors say,
They did not go to church at all,
And lived in an unclean house, and small).
No word gave he to the soul in need;
To his neighbor's wants he gave no heed.
This traveler on his homeward way,
Reached home at last, and I heard him say
To his wife, as she hurried the table to set:
"Take these bundles. Ain't dinner ready yet?
You always have something else in view,
And never do as you ought to do."
His angel left him with sorrowing face,
His record to take to the throne of grace,
And there in the book on the golden shelf
Were written the words, "He lives for self;"
And under his name (tho it may seem odd)
Was written, "A debtor to man and God!"
