Our Next Issue by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Jul 3, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 27.

Our Next Issue.

By Editor

OUR next issue is also on the subject of Religious Liberty. In this number the American idea is emphasized and its Christian origin proved. In our next issue the teaching of the New Testament on religious liberty will be the general theme. The more prominent topics treated are as follows:

The Golden Rule.

Christ's Kingdom not of This World.

Civility and Morality: How They Differ.

Roger Williams, the Apostle of American Liberty.

These will all be of great interest, and thoroly instructive. In these days of revolutionary sentiment, the principles upon which true liberty is based can not be too thoroly studied.

Special Delivery Letters.—The law passed by the recent Congress providing for a special delivery service in the Post-office Department by affixing ten cents in ordinary stamps to a letter will also go into effect on the first day of July. It should be particularly understood, however, that it is not the intention to dispense with the special delivery stamp; but in all cases where such stamp is not available, a special delivery may be secured by affixing the ten cents' worth of ordinary stamps in addition to the regular postage and then writing conspicuously on the face of the letter the words, "Special Delivery."

Stop and Think.—It is difficult indeed in this driving, hurrying age to get people to listen to serious things which pertain to the future. They are usually too satisfied with the present to take much time to give the future consideration, even in planning or dreaming; and yet the truly great man must think of the future. But on a holiday like the Fourth of July, with the roar of the cannon, the blare of the trumpet, and the tremendous din which has become so interwoven with the day's celebration, men have little time or disposition to stop and think what the day means. Yet we entreat them to. "Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." Not eternal vigilance in the getting of it; it means oftentimes more, even the sacrifice of property and life and everything else, save liberty and honor; but to maintain that which has cost so much demands vigilance. We ask our readers to stop a moment and think of these things in connection with the observance of the day. Does it mean American liberty now as it meant to the fathers, or is it a mere holiday? Does it mean liberty for the other man, civil and religious liberty to him as well as us? These and many other questions ought to come home to the hearts of the Americans who celebrate the day. We know that the day will be filled, and yet we plead with the readers of the SIGNS to pause a moment and think of what liberty means and what liberty should mean in the light of present-day developments. Read the few verses from a poem by Ina Coolbrith on page 7. Are they not to the point?

The Cruel Reign of Belgium's King.—From all reports, matters in Congo are not growing better. The newspapers in America and the Old World have published many of the atrocities that are committed there under King Leopold. Numerous photographs have been taken of the natives who have been mutilated by the brutal exploiters of a merciless government. Negro children have been exhibited with the left or right arm cut off because their fathers had not furnished enough ivory or met the demands made upon them for rubber. Among the punishments which the photographs show is that of a man with a decaying human leg tied around his neck. Another, two men hanging by their necks and ankles, with a Belgian official laughing at their misery. Both of these died. It is one of the crying shames of civilization; and yet there is every evidence to show that the money that is the price of the blood of the natives of Congo is freely used to purchase apologists for the worse than brutal government.

Since the Czar of Russia dissolved the Douma everything has indicated more trouble for the great empire. Three hundred persons were arrested in Odessa in a few days after the dissolution. A dangerous mutiny in the Black Sea fleet has been discovered and suppressed. It is alleged that the mutineers had laid plans for seizing the entire fleet. Among the many arrested are a number of children. A mutiny of troops took place at Kieff June 19, during which time seventy were killed, and 250 captured. The Novoe Vreyma declares that disloyalty and sedition have been spread among the army by the Russian prisoners from Japan. There are uprisings in Kaluga and Moscow. Wholesale arrests have been made among the Social Democrats. Russia is putting forth every effort to cover the volcanic eruption without checking the tremendous forces underneath.

A United States district court judge, in a recent test suit, declared that the State law fixing the railway passenger rate at two cents a mile is not one to be decided by a State tribunal, but must be decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. Really, it would look as tho the government ownership of railways, if not government control, is the only road out of the difficulty.

The Poison Oyster.—An insurance adjuster, Mr. R. W. Naunton by name, died recently in San Francisco after a dinner of oysters. The case has been diagnosed as one of ptomaine poisoning. It is a strange thing that men can eat the filthy bi-valve at its best, the chief food of which is found in the foul refuse of the cities.

The Federal Government is now looking over the situation in San Francisco graft and labor troubles. Secretary Strauss of Commerce and Labor, Secretary Garfield of the Interior, Secretary Metcalf of the Navy, will meet in San Francisco and lend their influence in the settlement of the strike.

The distinguished astronomer, Prof. Alexander Stewart Herschel, son of Sir John Herschel, and grandson of Sir William Herschel, both great astronomers, died at his home in London, June 18.

Eighteen passengers were injured, three fatally, June 17, in a wreck twenty miles east of Trinidad, Colo. A defective break beam or spreading rail is said to be the cause.