On the Down Grade

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 3, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 27.

On the Down Grade

On the Down Grade.— Prophecies in both Daniel and the Revelation indicate and clearly predict that this nation, which started so grandly, will go the way of her prototype, Rome, and meet at last eternal ruin. Her first evidences of national decay are loss of principle, decay of conscience, lowering of moral standards. And among the saddest things in this nation to-day is the manifest loss of conscience in private and public life. An instance of this is found in the government’s dealing with Cuba. Only three short years ago the American Congress gravely declared that,—

“The United States hereby disclaims any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over said island, except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, when that is accomplished, to leave the government, and the control of the government, to its people.”

Cuba is pacified, elections have been held without any disorder, and the people of the “Pearl of the “Antilles”” have drawn up a constitution for their supposedly independent island-republic. But this is denied. The constitution does not suit Cuba’s big neighbor. Cuba’s independence is padlocked. The latest news is that the military administration of this country will continue another year. The New York Independent well says: “And so the resolutions of ‘1898 seem very far away in the dim past, altho they are only three years old. The solemn promise given in them has been broken, and the cynics of the Old World jeer at us when they talk or write about it. . . . The stain on the honor of the United States can not be effaced by their [Cuban’s] unwilling submission.” But all this Cuban matter is but one of a series of steps in the nation’s retrogression. To see this even more clearly, read the series of articles, begun in this issue, by Alonzo T. Jones. They will close with the consideration of the Supreme Court decision. Study these articles.