Current Mention

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 9, 1916

Here and There in the Daily Press

To the student of current history in the light of Biblical prophecy, there are many items of interest which appear from time to time in the daily press. We shall here call attention to only a few of these.

In the Physical World

Many are the calamities occurring in this old world of ours which newspapers bring to our attention. Recently there were recorded earthquake shocks, felt throughout Georgia, eastern Alabama, and eastern Tennessee. The report from Birmingham, Ala., was that the severest earthquake in the history of the city had taken place at two minutes past four on the afternoon of October 16. While the material damage done by these shocks was inconsiderable, great excitement was caused, and thousands of persons poured out from the office buildings and downtown structures. An afternoon performance in a theater was interrupted while the audience rushed for the exits.

Within a few days the news of a great storm on Lake Erie has been recorded. One ship foundered in the storm, and its entire crew of twenty-one persons perished. The captain was the sole survivor. When he was rescued, he was able only to tell where his ship had sunk, and that the crew had been lost. Then he became unconscious as a reaction from his long fight for life.

In the Political World

A striking statement has been made by President Wilson. He declared, “This is the last war of any kind that the United States can stay out of, and the business of neutrality is over.” This means much as a statement from one in President Wilson’s position. We can indeed look for the United States to be involved in the next great war, which, according to Scripture, will probably be the last great war, the war of Armageddon.

Many are beginning to worry as to the conditions of the world after the end of the present war. Baron Sakatani, of Japan, who had come from an economic conference in Paris, when asked as to the effect of the closing of the war upon industrial and financial conditions throughout the world, said:—

“The destruction of so much wealth is certain to make a profound impression upon every country. No one can escape it. A period of financial and industrial depression is ahead. Just at what time no one can be sure, perhaps, but it is inevitable. Whatever measure of prosperity some countries may enjoy at this time, is no reason why they should retain it in the years to come, when other territories will be groaning under terrific burdens. Such a condition is impossible under the modern international interlacing financial interests. It goes without saying that every country should take measures against the coming of just such a period of depression, according to their wisdom.”

The editorial comment of the Post of October 2, is that “experience abundantly justifies this forecast.”

The position is taken by J. D. Whelpley, author of “The Trade of the World,” in an article in the National Sunday Magazine Section of the Washington (D. C.) Sunday Post, October 22, that the end of the war will mark the beginning of a great trade war in which the American manufacturer will meet new conditions. He says:—

“When the American manufacturer ventures forth again to meet his former European rival on neutral ground, he will find an even more formidable antagonist than before, for the European trader will have behind him a government more willing to coöperate, a people keener for his success, and a competitive power largely increased by what was learned in time of war as to how things could be made quickly, cheaply, and out of home-found materials, or practical substitutes for what was formerly imported and considered as essential.”

In the Religious World

The Protestant Episcopal Church, in its recent general convention, adopted in the House of Deputies, for the first time in the history of the church, a prayer for the dead. Heretofore such prayers have been found only in the ritual of the Roman Catholic Church. This is surely a striking proof of a tendency Romeward among Protestants.

The entrance of religion into the curriculum of the public schools is still a mooted question. Before a meeting of the board of education in Washington, D. C., a hearing was given to two widely opposed factions. On the one hand, it was argued that the recent decision of the board sanctioning the custom of hanging the ten commandments on the walls of schoolrooms, and including the reading of the Bible as a part of the school work, was a direct violation of the Constitution of the United States, which provides for separation of church and state. On the other hand, the fact was pointed out that religion was closely connected with the original foundation of what most of our higher students are learning, and that a very serious condition is resulting among American young people because of lack of religious training. How glad we should be that we have denominational colleges where our young people may receive religious education under Christian teachers!

Many of the sermons preached in popular pulpits have little of the old-time gospel in them. They are more concerned with social-betterment problems, and sometimes even with problems of a purely intellectual or political nature. The subject of a sermon recently given in a church in Washington was, “The New Sovereign Race: Shall It be German, British, or American?” On the following Sunday night the pastor proposed to give the first of a series of sermons on home life, the subject for the first one in the series to be, “How Much Does It Cost to Furnish a Home for Two?” The newspaper announcement said, “The furniture and fittings will be in the church, and a practical demonstration given of the cost of furnishing a modest home for newly-weds.”

Due to legal restrictions placed upon those desiring to practice as physicians, a restriction which requires them to pass an examination in diagnosis.—Christian Science healers have found legal difficulty in pursuing their practice, and the New York County Medical Association was instrumental in convicting one of the healers of breaking the law. The case was appealed, and now the court of appeals has handed down a decision recognizing the right of Christian Science healers to practice, even though not qualified as physicians to do so. It seems that in the New York medical license law there is an exemption containing a clause saying that its provisions shall not prevent the practice of the religious tenets of any church. It is under this exemption that the higher court reversed the decision of the lower court.

In the Social World

Strike riots continue in New York City and other places. On one occasion it is reported that a crowd of women took part in what was one of the most serious riots since the beginning of the strike on the street-car systems of that city. Many of the rioters carried babies in their arms.

In Bayonne a pitched battle occurred October 12, between the employees of the Standard Oil Company and the police. One person, an innocent bystander, was killed. Another man will probably die, and several others were hurt. The militiamen were called out, and with the police endeavored to establish order, but the situation continued so serious that the Bayonne Business Men’s Association announced its purpose to close their stores during the continuation of the strike.

Even to the little island of Porto Rico the strike epidemic has spread. The employees of the largest railroad on the island went on a strike October 16, demanding a twenty-five-per-cent wage increase. The report on October 17 was that only mail trains were running.

In Calgary, Canada, as a result of a pitched battle between the soldiers and the police, the barracks of the mounted

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