p. 7 | Note and Comment by Editor

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jan 28, 1904

Note and Comment

By Editor

Is there such a thing as a national right of “eminent domain” to which portions of the earth not belonging to the nation asserting such a right may be subjected? In what has been said in defense of the present administration’s course touching the issue between Panama and Colombia, the idea has been put forward that since the building of the Panama canal would be for commercial and other reasons of great benefit—an apparent necessity, in fact—to the world in general and the United States in particular, the latter government is justified in employing force to secure the construction of the canal, by the right of eminent domain. That is, just as a State can exercise this right to secure the building of a railway through any private property, or a city can exercise it to secure land for an approach to a bridge or for a public building, giving just compensation to the owners of the property, so a nation can exercise such a right for the construction of a national or international utility within the territory of another nation. Of course such a case would arise only where one of the nations was strong, and the other weak, for the attempted exercise of such a prerogative against the will of a strong nation would mean war. The setting up of such a principle would obviously be of great use, in an ethical way, to the empire-building nations of the world to-day.

A PRESS cablegram from London, dated January 16, says that a special dispatch from St. Petersburg quotes a leading Russian diplomat as saying: “Let all those who are adding fuel to the fire, which means war, remember that no possible power can limit that war to Japan and Russia. Its extension to other countries is certain, with results too terrible to consider.” “This is taken to mean in diplomatic circles here,” adds the London dispatch, “that both England and the United States, as well as China, will be drawn into the quarrel,” so that on the part of these powers, and possibly of others, there will be no way to avoid “active participation in the conflict. In other words, it is implied that a war of the world is imminent.” This general talk of the imminence of a “world war” is wonderfully in harmony with the view of those who, enlightened by the third angel’s message, believe that this is the time when the four angels are standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds, that these should not blow upon the earth till the servants of God should be sealed with the seal of God, as described in Rev. 7:1–4. In other words, God is now holding in check the threatening winds of commotion and strife that the work of gathering out his elect may go forward, which, when it is finished, will be immediately followed by world-wide war and destruction. When the restraining influence of the Prince of Peace shall be withdrawn from the earth, its inhabitants, left wholly to the influence of carnal propensities, will have no other instinct but to fight and destroy one another.

ACCORDING to figures given by the Philadelphia Public Ledger, church membership in the United States “is just about keeping pace with the population in the matter of growth.” The Methodists are “the largest single religious body in America which bases its numbers upon actual communicants.” The Methodist Church, North, with a membership of 3,010,560, gained in 1903 29,265 converts, and the Methodist Church, South, with a membership of 1,518,854, gained 41,674 converts. The Ledger adds:—

The population of the United States on Jan. 1, 1904, was 81,804,861. On Jan. 1, 1903, the population must have been, on the same basis, 80,233,011. The ratio of growth during the last year is almost exactly the ratio shown by the Presbyterian and Protestant Episcopal bodies [about two per cent]. Disciples of Christ surpass the ratio by a very small fraction, and Methodists North do not quite equal it. The smaller bodies, for the most part, fall behind it. Some, however, exceed it, and on the whole it can be stated that Protestant bodies, in growth in membership, just kept pace with the growth of population. They certainly do not gain any upon the 52,000,000 people in these United States who do not admit membership with them.

The Catholic population in the United States at the beginning of 1903, according to official statistics, was 11,289,710. New York is the largest diocese, with an estimated Catholic population of 1,200,000.