Editorial Notes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Sep 26, 1906

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 32, No. 37.

Editorial Notes

By Editor

In another column will be found a list of the donors to our India mission. The fund is still open.

We postpone the publication of the articles, "The Papacy in Prophecy" for two or three weeks.

How many times the Bible gets upset. It has been well likened to the overturning of a cube, it is, after every "upsetting," just as big and just as solid as ever.

The article on the Restoration of the Temporal Power and the present policy of the Papacy relating thereto, by C. E. Milton, our Rome correspondent, was in type at the time of the fire. Since that we have been able to secure another copy from Rome. It shows the various methods which the Papacy is using to-day. This will be followed by another on the possibility of the Roman See's being removed from the city by the Tiber. These articles are of interest.

Consequent upon our great fire a special stockholder's meeting was called for September 10. The meeting held for two days.

The representation was not large, only three of our constituency being present from east of the Rockies, namely: E. T. Russell, president of the Central Union Conference; A. T. Robinson, president of the Nebraska Conference; and L. F. Starr, president of the Iowa Conference. The North Pacific Conference was represented by W. B. White, president; and by W. F. Martin, president of the Montana Conference. The Pacific Union Conference was represented by its president, H. W. Cottrell, also president of the Pacific Press Publishing Company; by W. T. Knox, president of the California Conference; F. I. Richardson, president of the Arizona Conference; and G. W. Reaser, president of the Southern California Conference. There was also present a goodly number of local stockholders and members of the Pacific Press Publishing Association, stockholders by virtue of transfer of stock from the company to the association. The General Conference was represented by vice-president G. A. Irwin and by W. C. White.

Very full and earnest consideration was given the question by most of those present. There was a desire on the part of some to remove the plant to some other locality; but this was early disposed of, altho some excellent offers had been made by other towns. Another query was raised as to whether the greater part of the printing could not be done in outside shops, the company merely doing a publishing business. The general principles and sad experiences in these matters made it very clear that this was impractical.

These questions settled, the next was the size and cost of the building. The loss upon the company has been very great. Its board of directors feels that its debt must not be increased, that its splendid credit must be kept good, nor must its work be crippled. The board felt that the friends of the cause would help this institution, set as it is for the one purpose of heralding "the everlasting Gospel," the "Gospel of the kingdom." They desired a gift of $100,000. But the representatives from east of the Rockies thought this was too much. There is now before this people a call for $150,000 for institutions in Washington and the South, besides the burden of the foreign and local work; and $200,000 is a large sum to ask of a small self-sacrificing people. And yet, there are wealthy and well-to-do persons enough among this people to raise a quarter million dollars for these institutions, and not feel it. We mean that they could afford to do this. They would not suffer from it. Nay, more, they would be greatly blessed by so doing. It would identify them more closely with God's cause. It would bring them into closer and more blessed relationship to Christ; they would know better "the fellowship of His suffering," and thereby experience "the power of His resurrection." They would have in their own lives the practical demonstration of Christ's own words: "Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, shall they give unto your bosom. For with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." But the final vote cut the request for the appropriation down to $50,000 for the Pacific Press.

Of course, that action must limit the company in its building. They have therefore decided to build smaller than before by over 10,000 square feet of floor space and a less expensive building. The most rigid economy will be used throughout. This will be equipped by excellent machinery, and operated by skilled and devoted men and women. It will be confined solely to the work for which the printing plant was established, doing no outside printing; and will hope to do better and more work than ever before. Nobly and faithfully its best employees are standing by it in its affliction. Generously and leniently, with Christian brotherliness, the creditors of the company are dealing with it. From many of our fellow townsmen come warm expressions of sympathy, and from some, of practical help. One gentleman, a mechanic, told us yesterday, that while he had nothing in this institution and was not one of us, he had assessed himself two weeks' work in the rebuilding of the plant. The town officials are doing all they can to secure for us fire protection and whatever other advantages are possible within the pale of their legal limitations. Above all these, God is good, mighty, wise; and therefore, trusting in His "holy trinity of knowledge, Goodness, and Almighty Power," we are of good courage to press tirelessly on in our work, His work, until the end. "Brethren, pray for us."

Boast Not.

It was, evidently, even then an old proverb which the king of Israel threw at the haughty monarch of Syria who boastfully demanded his abject and slavish submission: "Let not him that girdeth on his armor boast himself as he that putteth it off." The haughty king replied, with an order for instant battle; the result was utter and disastrous defeat. Let not him beginning his work with seeming success boast over him who is moving with more difficulty. Let not him in the midst of a work which seems prosperous boast as tho the work were successfully accomplished. Let not him who thinks he is making a great success cease his work to intermeddle with his neighbor whose work he may not understand; nor boast himself over those who are bearing burdens in God's work. The principle of the old proverb is very broad, and its length is the age of probation. There are different kinds of success, and "there is many a slip betwixt the cup and the lip." Man at the best has but little to boast of, and in the words of "Andrew Rykeman,

"Whatsoe'er I fain would boast Needs Thy pitying pardon most."

We have received from time to time from the International Policyholders' Committee, 30 Broad St., New York, sheets on the insurance election to take place from October 18 to December 18, in which the policy holders themselves have the power of electing the officers of the companies. Each one of the sheets contains a special warning to policy holders not to give proxies. Various ones are endeavoring to secure the proxies of the policy holders, but they are warned in all cases to give "no proxies to anybody." The life insurance matter is that which does not concern us personally at all. We believe that the best life insurance policy under the sun is the church of God, the officials of which are beyond all human bribery and graft, for "He is our life, and the length of our days," and He assures us that if we will seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness all the necessary things of this world shall be added; yet we feel sorry for those who have thought to secure safety for their wives and children by becoming connected with companies in which there has been so much fraud and corruption. It certainly will be a blessing if they can be purified. The address of the committee is given above if any wish information.

Prohibition has again won the day in Maine. As prohibition is a constitutional provision, the question was resubmitted to a vote of the people at the recent state election. As was to be expected in the cities, where the selling of liquors against the law has not been entirely prohibited, the majority were against prohibition; but in the country the vote was in favor of the system. So the whole majority in favor of prohibition was about in the ratio of the total vote of the country to that of the cities. The Republican Party of Maine has always sustained the prohibition cause in its platforms, and the labor-union element, headed by the national president of the Federation of Labor, made a special effort to defeat Mr. Littlefield, one of the Republican candidates for Congress, because of his opposition to class legislation in Congress; yet with this additional opposition to him, he was chosen by even an increased majority. So he gives the opposition of the Federation of Labor credit for increasing his popularity. This is another case of co-operation of unionism with the liquor traffic in politics.

The latest news from Russia is that of constant disturbance, of plot and counterplot, in various parts of the empire. A terrible massacre took place September 9, in Siedloe. An attack of soldiers was made on the Jews and Christians who were robbed and murdered indiscriminately. Martial law was proclaimed, and the Jews were panic-stricken. In the morning the mob attacked the soldiery, throwing bombs and using fire-arms, but in their madness their rage was short-lived, and the soldiers broke loose from all authority and as brutally attacked the rabble in the street. This massacre, we are told, ranks among the very bloodiest of the Russian annals. Hundreds were mowed down, and the mob was routed and scattered. Officers of the soldiers were swept aside, quarter was shown to none. Houses were looted and pillaged, dynamited and wrecked. Surely if there is a sick man in the East now, Russia is the one.

It was thought that the break of France from the Vatican would result in more liberty, but a despatch from Paris, of August 20, tells us that President Fallieres signed a decree bringing the compulsory weekly rest-day law into operation September 1. It has been put forth largely as a labor movement, but it will be soon seen that it will be used by bigoted religiousists to oppress those who may differ from the law that has no right to be on the statute-books of any country on earth.

The earthquake is said to have saved $20,000 to a railroad company. The Ocean Shore Railroad, being constructed between San Francisco and Santa Cruz, was damaged to the extent of $16,000 at Point San Pedro; but at Mussel Rock, where blasting and drilling was planned which would cost $36,000, the effect of the earthquake was such as to save that work.

"The joy of the Lord" is not joy in what we do, but in what He does; not in the souls that we save, but that He saves.