Two days after the date of this paper, will occur our national Thanksgiving day; and if ever there was a time in our history that we had occasion to be truly and devoutly thankful, that time is now. The world is passing through one of the most wildly stormy periods of its history; and our nation, through the overruling hand of a kind Providence directing in the strong course of our rulers, who have refused to be stampeded into war, is still enjoying the blessings of peace. While there have been calamities in some sections, which have swept away lives and property, yet the nation as a whole has bountiful crops and is enjoying great prosperity. And if the human family could but realize how much evil and desolation we are protected from through the direct power of the kind Father, our hearts would swell much more strongly than they do, with thanksgiving sentiments.
Men and women everywhere who believe in God, should not only devoutly thank Him at all times; but on this great Thanksgiving day of our nation, special attention should be given to praising the Author of every good and perfect gift, and we should devoutly pray that our nation may still be kept out of the awful caldron of war that is working destruction in so large a portion of our suffering planet. God has enjoined us in His word to pray for the rulers of our nation; and never did they need the earnest prayers of the devout men and women of our country more than they need them now.
Gun Training for Schoolboys
VICE-PRESIDENT MARSHALL thinks every schoolboy ought to be taught to handle a gun, to shoot straight, and receive other military instruction. It seems to him one of the best possible measures of preparedness.
Fire Safety in Public Buildings
By R.
The St. John’s Parochial School at Peabody, Massachusetts, recently burned, was a brick and frame building not provided with fire escapes. The doors of the building opened inward; and of the six hundred children who had just entered the building for the morning session, at least 20 were burned to death or crushed under the feet of their struggling comrades, who had massed against these doors, making it difficult to open them. Building laws should make such accidents impossible. It seems incredible, with the Collingwood horror in mind, that responsible officials anywhere could permit an inward-opening door ever again to menace the human life behind it. No building more than two stories in height in which people gather for any purpose should be unprotected by fire escapes and outward-opening doors. Notwithstanding this condition, we believe Massachusetts has a law against inward-opening doors. R.
Newspapers Favor Military Preparedness
A SUMMARY of the opinions of 261 American newspapers on the question of preparedness against war was recently printed in the World’s Work. The papers are of all parties, and represent all sections. Save for six exceptions, they are for taking immediate steps to build up the American army and navy. The majority favor a navy second only to Great Britain’s, an increased standing army, and a reserve that in a few years would reach a million men.
Jefferson’s American Policy
In Thomas Jefferson’s first inaugural address, March 4, 1801, he declared what has become known as “the American policy.” It is “equal and exact justice to all men, of whatever state or persuasion, religious or political; peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations — entangling alliances with none.”
The Candy Habit in Children
DR. HORACE L. HOWE, of Boston, in a paper read before the Panama-Pacific Dental Congress, stated that “the candy habit is an important cause toward undermining the health of the American child. In front of almost every schoolhouse in the country there can be found a small candy store which sells cheap sweets to children. In Boston, no saloons can be operated within a certain number of yards of schools. The same law might be applied to the selling of candy, as candy is as great an evil to the child as liquor is to the adult.”
The doctor speaks of “cheap sweets,” and while, because of their adulterations, they are more harmful, yet concentrated sweets, as they are found in candies, are bound to disarrange the work of the digestive organs, and produce many diseases, some of which are practically incurable. The “candy habit” can be formed just as well as the “drug habit” or the “whisky habit”; and all such habits are ruinous to health as well as to moral strength and mental power. Parents need to be careful, when giving their children an occasional sack of candy, that they are not forming in them the candy habit. There are many things that can be given to them that are just as toothsome as candy, and yet at the same time more wholesome. Laying the foundation for the candy habit in a child may result in the drug habit or the whisky habit later on.
McAdoo Predicts Unparalleled Prosperity
SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY McADOO, returning East from a visit to California, brings glowing reports of great prosperity in practically every line of business. He predicts for the next few years “prosperity of unparalleled proportions.”