When Cardinal Farley returned to New York with his red hat recently, it is stated that half a million people turned out to greet him. We are sure that no one took the pains to count so as to be accurate in the matter, but it is an exuberant estimate that shows something of the enthusiasm that marked the return of the prelate who had received the highest honors of his church next to being made a pope. Protestantism, with a few rare exceptions, has ceased to protest against the doctrines and rule of the Papacy. What the domination of the Papacy means to the world has not been kept before the people as it was in former years, and this being the case, it is not surprising that the Roman Catholic Church is making most marvelous progress. We wish to keep the fact before our readers that the prophecies of the Bible plainly teach that the last great act in the drama of this world is the re-establishing of the Papacy in supreme control. According to these sure words of God all the world is to bow down in worshipful adoration before this power. The prophecies that show this were very recently studied in a series of articles in the columns of this paper. These aggressions of the Papacy are of more than passing interest, and they should be closely watched and studied.
The American Medical Association reports that 60,000 men in the army have been vaccinated for typhoid fever during the last three years; and in that time they have had but twelve cases of the fever, and no deaths.
The Interdenominational Council of Women for Christian and patriotic service is going to wage strong political influence against Mormonism. They declare that polygamy is admittedly flourishing in Utah, and that the church is drawing its converts chiefly from young women from all over the world. They declare, "New polygamous marriages have been entered into by young women and men twenty to thirty years old; and if polygamy should suddenly stop, enough young people have entered the church recently to keep the institution alive for the next fifty years;" and they also say what is probably true, that the Mormon Church never kept its promise made at the time when Utah was admitted to statehood. We quote again: "The Mormon Church is a big secret society which plays a part in American politics entirely opposed to American principles. It is a kingdom set up in our midst. It controls the business and politics of its members, and the political parties are afraid to interfere with it, because it votes as a whole, and to antagonize the Mormon Church is to lose control of the State and politics." And all these things are true. They are just as true, also, of the Roman Catholic Church, when the matter is a vital religious matter, and the Church Federation is doing its best to make it true of Protestant church matters, where these matters are connected with politics.
A Medieval Instrument Revived.— Years ago Maryland had a whipping-post for wife beaters, and it was abolished as brutal; but a despatch from there dated November 26 declares that it has been revived, and a throng gathered at the jail in Centerville, Maryland, to see the second punishment of the kind inflicted since the revival of the old law. The man punished acted as much the manly part as he could. He declared he deserved it, and he wanted his wife to see him punished. And the story tells us that she was given a chair in the jail yard, and grimly watched the proceedings. Six blows were all that were given him. It is a miserably brutal punishment; but if there is any class of criminals in the world that deserve it, it is that of the wife beater. We think, sometimes, that the old custom in a certain Scotch coast district is preferable. There the strong, muscular women came out and took the brutal husband and dipped him underneath the surf until he promised to be good, and repeated it with interest on failure. The story is that they cleaned out wife beating in that district effectually. And yet there are husbands who do not lay violent hands upon their wives, but who are crueler than those who do.
Senator Winfield Gaylord said recently that "we have had barbarities, and we have had feuds, and now we are having capitalism; but Socialism has appeared, and it is the next form that the body of society is to assume. Socialism is the next phase, and has been coming for some time." The Scriptures indicate the same thing. God will give man the privilege of using every device possible for the stability of the government of the world and the happiness of the people; and according to the divine prediction, on every one of them will be marked "Failure." The world will never know the peace that it longs for until it knows it by personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ to the individual heart, and will never know the world peace until Christ shall come and reign over those who are His.13
Chinese marines on guard duty at Nanking
The Spanish cabinet, of which Jose Canalejas was premier, resigned on January 14. The premier had refused to recommend a pardon for one of the leaders in the strikes of a few months ago, and such a spirit of revolt arose in the country in consequence that the king as well as his ministry was afraid of another outbreak of disorder and rioting. Canalejas said he recognized that he had made a political blunder in refusing to pardon the offender, and thought the wisest thing was to resign.
The value of steel cars over the old wooden car has been shown in every instance where they have met with accidents. The five steel cars in the Twentieth Century Express, running at an estimated speed of seventy miles an hour, ran off the track near Cleveland a short time ago, and no passenger was killed, and none were seriously hurt. The cars were not broken up, and being steel, they could not catch fire, as is so often the case with wooden cars when a whole train goes off the track.
Professor Carver, of Harvard, thinks that one great factor in the high cost of living is the lawyer. He is quoted as saying: "We have more lawyers than any other country in the world, civilized or uncivilized. This army of lawyers is comparable to the army of soldiers supported by European countries. It is certainly a great waste of human energy." But the New York World points out that many of them live on very little indeed, and work at many things instead of law.
The proposed memorial tower to be erected in San Francisco in connection with the Panama Pacific Exposition is to be 1,350 feet high. That will be 350 feet higher than the celebrated Eiffel Tower. It is proposed to make of this memorial tower the highest power wireless station in the world. It will be able to communicate with the Atlantic Coast, Alaska, Japan, and other distant points. The board of directors of the Exposition have endorsed its erection.
The shuttle-maker's disease, that has been taxing the skill of the physicians in certain sections of England, is coming to be regarded as being caused by the fine dust that is inhaled by the turners who make shuttles from certain wood brought from Africa. An analysis of the "smoke-like dust" that arises in certain stages of the manufacture shows that it contains a heart poison, causing a gradual slowing of the heart-beat.
Raymond Poincare has been chosen premier of France in the place of Mr. Caillaux, who resigned because of the difficulty with Germany over the Moroccan affair. Premier Poincare has made up his cabinet, and they have drawn up a declaration in which they insist that the Moroccan question must be settled without delay. They also say that they will exert themselves to make an early conclusion of the Franco-Spanish negotiations.
Influential business men of England, as well as members of Parliament, are opening an agitation against the British and Russian governments for demanding the resignation of Shuster in Persia. Meetings to protest against the encroachment on the integrity and independence of Persia are being planned.
California is becoming a great educational center. The University of California is second in size among American universities, and this year exceeds every other in the number of its freshmen. Instruction may be obtained in forty-two different languages, including nineteen different Indian tongues.
The exports of this country into South America during the year just closed were practically $300,000,000, and the imports from there were still greater than the exports.
"A year of wide and great unrest" is what the New York World calls 1911. Will 1912 be better?
