Note and Comment

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 6, 1902

A GREAT falling off in the consumption of beef, in some cities amounting to nearly fifty per cent, is reported as the result of the high price of beef, which is generally believed to be due to the extortion of the beef trust. Meanwhile the government investigation into the business methods of the trust, preliminary to a prosecution of the trust should evidence be found which will warrant it, is proceeding; and the beef packers, who at first professed to court investigation by the government, have combined to resist the efforts of the investigators, by employing the best legal talent in their defense that can be obtained. In a general way, much good has resulted from this rise of meat to an almost prohibitive figure, since multitudes throughout the country have no doubt discovered that existence can be just as well maintained on a diet which includes little or no animal flesh. A powerful influence will be exerted to this end by a statement issued by Prof. H. W. Wiley, chief chemist of the Department of Agriculture at Washington, calling public attention to the cereals as articles of food containing all the essential elements of nutrition, and citing the fact that men who live almost wholly on cereals are capable of the hardest and most enduring manual labor. Professor Wiley calls on the workingmen of the country to consider this fact, and accustom themselves more and more to a cereal diet. The price of meat, Professor Wiley thinks, will never again descend to a very low point.

THE Pittsburg Christian Advocate (Methodist) calls attention to an “astonishing measure” recently passed by the Ohio Senate, which, as the Advocate rightly observes, is “a distinct recognition of the Roman Catholic Church as entitled to special privileges and honors.” The measure is thus worded:—

It shall be the duty of the warden, with the advice and consent of the board of managers, to appoint a chaplain, who shall also act as librarian, at a salary not to exceed ten hundred dollars per year; a Roman Catholic chaplain approved by the bishops of the Columbus diocese, at a salary of fifty dollars per month.

The Advocate remarks that, “as the law now stands, it provides for a chaplain who is competent, but does not require that he shall be of any particular church. It is non-sectarian and wise, and should not be changed.” That is, it is all right for the State to appoint and pay a “non-sectarian” chaplain, but all wrong to appoint one who belongs to some particular church. But who could have confidence in a chaplain whose religious knowledge and convictions were not definite enough to ally him with some particular church? And from the standpoint of the State, what religion can there be that is not sectarian? The attempt of the State to define and support a non-sectarian religion could not but lead to State support of the larger and more powerful sects against the smaller and weaker sects; for the religious problems which would grow out of such an attempt could not possibly be resolved into any other shape. The smaller and weaker the sect outside of this religious combine, the more scant consideration would be given it; and the more dominant this “non-sectarian” union became in the religious world, the more intolerant and despotic would its character be.

If the State of Ohio had not already violated the principle which demands the separation of church and state, the Ohio Legislature would not now be ready to take the advance step of appointing a Catholic chaplain in a State institution. So long as the principle upon which State chaplaincies rest is indorsed, there will be a clash between the sects over the question of which one shall benefit the most from the State’s support.