POLITICAL chicanery is seemingly on the increase throughout the world. It surely is in some parts, and California is a much afflicted victim, the politicians themselves and the political organs bearing the testimony. It is alleged by those who ought to know, and no doubt do know, that the “lobby” attending the next Legislature will be one that will be a fruitful source of revenue to those who are in the Legislature for that purpose. And certain manipulators of conventions and elections have planned to make such a lobby essential to defend certain “interests” that will be purposely attacked by “reformatory” bills, in order to force the interests thus antagonized to defend themselves with cash, or its equivalent.
It is said to be a settled fact that certain bosses, who expect to control a goodly number of members by virtue of having secured their nomination and possibly their election, are already planning schemes to make cat’s paws of them for pecuniary gain. The game of bribing members directly has become somewhat dangerous. So certain legislators will be controlled by the “boss,” who will arrange with the parties who want special measures passed or defeated. According to one journal, the work of preparing “cinch” bills has already begun. These will be introduced for the sole purpose of being bought off if the “cinched” parties will pay enough to the men who can control the necessary votes to turn the tide in the right direction. One of the bills to be introduced in this way at the next session will be one to compel Sunday observance. This is what is said by the knowing ones on this subject:
“One of the most sweeping bills that will be presented to the Legislature and referred to the Committee on Public Morals is a Sabbath law, so called. This measure is ostensibly designed to prevent us from going wrong on Sunday. In reality it is a scatter gun that is expected to bring to earth every theatrical man, concert and dance hall proprietor, coursing promoter, and amusement director in the state. As a law this benign measure will close on Sunday every place of amusement in the state. As far as coursing is concerned it is expected that the Supervisors of San Mateo County will look upon the bill as an intruder on their reservation of special privilege and golden opportunity. The bill probably will not become a law, but it will make lively the deliberations of the third house.”
The Vatican Gardens, Rome.
Usually the preachers and the women of certain circles have procured the introduction of such bills, and possibly they will look after the matter again. But if they do not, it is pretty certain that there will be one introduced anyway, for the purpose of what is popularly called “graft.” It will matter but little who introduces the bill, the manipulation will be the same. But if it should unavoidably become a law, then the “grafters” will claim great credit for their part in moral reform. G.
ROMAN CATHOLICS ON EDUCATION.
By Editor
LET no one be deceived by any claim that any Roman Catholic may make that that church is in favor of our public schools. The simple fact is that they are opposed to them, and opposed to them for this reason, that the influence of the public school weans children away from the church. Their plea is a logical one. Education ought to take in the whole round of the child's instruction, physical, mental, moral, spiritual. The religious element, however, is that with which the state can have nothing to do. But the true education of the child ought to include religion. Here, however, is where Roman Catholicism and true Protestantism are at antipodes. The true Protestant holds that the child should be taught religion, but they know that it is not within the province or purview of the state to give such instruction. Roman Catholics believe that it is, but always with this proviso, of course, that the state shall be Catholic. They demand parochial schools and they also will demand, when they have the power to enforce their demands, that these parochial schools shall be supported by the state.15In a lecture recently given at Youngstown, Ohio, by the Very Reverend M. A. Hehir, published in the Catholic Mirror of September 1, 1906, the speaker said: "In the middle ages primary and secondary schools flourished under ecclesiastical supervision." Again, "The true education is at the home, the school and the church; each must do its part; each must foster religion, so that the child may be enabled to secure its eternal salvation, in comparison with which the worldly aims are of only secondary importance. The enemies of Christianity would banish all religious training from the schools." "The late Cardinal Manning, writing in 1883, says, 'Let no one be deceived by thinking that secular and religious education can be reconciled, they are mutually exclusive; we must choose between them.' In 1884 the English bishops in a joint pastoral wrote, 'We have already declared that education without Christianity is impossible.'"
The united hierarchy of Australia declares that parents must send their children exclusively to Catholic schools else no Catholic confessor can absolve them. The hierarchy of Canada ordains the same, Catholic parents should not send their children to non-Catholic schools, otherwise confessors are to refuse them absolution."
Believing as they do, they can take no other course than to oppose public schools. The Signs of the Times believes in religious education, but it does not believe that the state has any right or authority to use state funds or state teachers for the purpose of giving such education. It involves an absolute union of church and state to do it. The only school that the state can conduct is a purely secular school; for that reason we believe in the public schools of America; and yet those parents who feel that religion is the paramount thing, as every Christian must, have the right to conduct their own schools in those lines. The true Protestant will do that, and yet will cheerfully pay his taxes for the support of the public schools.
A Bankrupt World.
By G.
Financially this world is practically bankrupt. The governments set the example of debt. Few, if any, of them ever expect to pay their debts, except by incurring others, and most of them are continually increasing their liabilities. Business men are enormously in debt. Few of them could bear a general push for what they owe. The amount of business done on credit is almost appalling. Men strain their credit to the last notch, hoping for a “streak of luck” to help them out. Even the great leaders of finance do business on this principle. In fact, business to-day is largely a series of games of chance. An instance is found in an article by Mr. Henry Dexter, of New York, from which we take this paragraph:
“In looking over last year’s reports of 120 railroads, I find they had stock issued to the extent of $4,900,000,000 and bonds for $5,900,000,000, showing that the bondholders practically own the railroads, as they control over fifty-four per cent. of all the money invested in them, besides having first call on the earnings.”
He further points out that very few of these companies make provision for paying debts; their principle aim is to make large dividends, and let the liabilities be subject to speculative manipulation.
But the world owes a much heavier debt than any financial liability, and this is also being allowed to go on unheeded. This is the debt of love and allegiance to God. We are indebted to Him for “life and breath and all things,” and especially do we owe it to Him to obey His law. Notwithstanding that men have become liable to eternal death because of sin, the Lord Jesus Christ has payed that debt for every one, on condition of the acknowledgement of the fact by faith in Him, and the rendering to Him of the obedience of faith.
Furthermore, we who have accepted His mediation by faith are debtors to the unbelieving, spiritually bankrupt world to witness for Christ and His Gospel, to the end that others may benefit by His liberality also. The time is fast approaching when this debt will be overdue, and the opportunity to pay will be forever past. The time is near when we can not plead the merits of Christ as a substitute for our failures. It is high time for us all to be laying up treasures of love and faithful service against the great day of reckoning, when the plea, “I have nothing wherewith to pay,” will meet only condemnation instead of mercy.
G.
An Iced-Water Fountain and San Francisco Crime
By Editor
A millionaire is setting up an elaborate iced-water fountain at a street corner in San Bernardino, Cal. He proposes to endow it with sufficient capital to perpetuate its use. The purpose is to make it unnecessary for men to seek saloons for cold drinks. The beneficence is a worthy one; but, aside from the purpose, it is not necessary, in any ordinary town, to go into a saloon to get a "cold drink." It is seldom that one resorts to a saloon for a "cold drink," unless there is a desire to fortify it with something not so cold. It is true, however, that saloons do furnish certain free accommodations for both man and beast that other business men and most municipalities neglect to supply. For this reason many people are disposed to palliate the existence of the otherwise evil institution. It is the privilege, however, of saloon opponents to see that every pretext for the toleration of the saloon in any community be obviated, and Mr. Baker's enterprise to this end is commendable.
Of the disorder in San Francisco the News Letter says:
"Probably not ten per cent. of the hold-ups and vicious assaults committed on the streets along and near the waterfront reach the columns of the press. The police are diligently trying to suppress details of the reign of crime which is now prevailing in San Francisco, most of the crimes described in the press having been discovered by the newspaper men themselves. The police do not want their helplessness of incompetency or apathy exhibited too conspicuously. The fact is, that the decent man who goes along any of the streets between Kearney and East Streets after dark runs great risks. It has been said by people whose business calls them there that violent assaults and robberies, either attempted or accomplished, occur almost nightly. The records of the emergency hospitals bear this statement out."
However, there is one allowance to be made for the police—they are laboring under conditions of a greatly increased criminal force with a police force considerably reduced since the fire for lack of funds. It is also known that the criminal element has been largely augmented by arrivals from other parts. They have been attracted to the city by what is to them an extraordinary opportunity for plying their vocation. The police of the various cities around the Bay have been notified that thousands of the tramp class are headed this way from the East and Middle West. It must not be forgotten, tho, that there was but little trouble in preserving order during the two months when the saloons were closed. It would seem that the most heinous of all the crimes committed in the city was that of the supervisors in allowing these nurseries of crime to be reopened.
Property Fraud and the Need for Sleep
The destruction of records by the San Francisco fire has been a means of discovering human nature in an unexpected way. There has developed a really criminal disposition on the part of unprincipled people to get possession of property not their own, and set up some technical claim to it. In this way a cloud is cast upon the title, which the owner has difficulty in establishing because of lost records. Both men and women supposed to be honest—some of them wealthy—are trying to seize property which they did not claim before the fire. It is said that hundreds of instances have occurred where owners are compelled to establish their ownership at considerable expense; and one paper says these suits will probably run into the thousands, involving years of litigation and delay in making improvements. Several of these attempts are aimed at city real estate, by people who otherwise make great pretense to solicitude for the public welfare.
The amount of time needed for sleep has been the subject of more or less discussion on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean for the last month or two, some authorities contending that only five or six hours are necessary, others demanding eight or nine. The simple fact is that no rule can be laid down for all persons. Some sleep a great deal more soundly than others. Five or six hours of the soundest sleep is worth eight or ten of broken, dreamful rest. The five- or six-hour sleeper may really rest more than the eight-hour sleeper. It also depends to quite an extent on habit. One can habituate himself to take more sleep than is really needed. All are generally agreed in this, that the early hours of the night are the best for sleeping; if one could habituate himself to go to bed regularly at nine o'clock and take less time in the morning for sleep, it would be found more profitable physically and mentally. Norman Bridge feels that the mental condition has a great deal to do with it, especially those who may have suffered from insomnia; they feel that unless they can get so much sleep all sorts of fearful things may occur, and that every mental condition super-induces the very thing they fear; whereas if the mind were quiet and contented they could get along with very much less sleep than they suppose. The Bishop of Ripon gives good advice: "When young, take as much sleep as you need; when old, as much as you can get." Sandow, the great athlete, wants nine hours, while Froman, the theater manager, averages not more than five. Sir Thomas Lipton is satisfied with six and one-half.
Controversy Over Criticism of Jews
An interesting controversy has been carried on in the Brooklyn Eagle, raised by an article written by a priest, John L. Belford. That article was a most scathing criticism of the Jewish race. Out of that grew a tremendous controversy in which Father Belford was handled without gloves. Some of his own church have condemned him as unsparingly as have the Jewish writers themselves. One writer, in replying to Father Belford, states that in the town in which he lives are eighty thousand Jews, that a Jew dug the foundation to his house, carpenters, plumbers, and painters who built it were all Jews, and that the money-lender alone was a Gentile. Father Belford asserted that Jews break their contracts, but of all the contracts, of which this writer says he has made a great many, "the only man who tried to dodge the contract was a man of your [the priest's] faith and his lawyer of the same creed." He also said, "In the Jewish calendar there is a day which permits, nay, in fact, encourages, heavy drinking. On that night in this city of eight hundred thousand Jews and of three million Gentiles, the only ones arrested for disorderly conduct due to drinking were men of your faith."
Of course such discussions as this are not profitable. Many times a whole class is condemned because of the failure or moral delinquencies of one or two with whom the writer may be acquainted. Such condemnation is always unjust, for when men are measured as men there is very little difference between Jews and Gentiles. Of course certain traits of character are emphasized and developed by long training and environment, but the natural heart of man is selfish. Our own selfishness that we are used to does not seem so bad as the selfishness of the other man. It is well for Christians to remember the word of the apostle, "Are we better than they? No, in nowise; for we have before proved, both Jew and Gentile, that they are all under sin;" but, thank God, there is a common Saviour for them all.
Sunday Liquor Ordinance and Sabbath Observance
Anent the Sunday liquor ordinance, the Omaha Bee of August 29 says: "Acting Mayor Johnson insists that the law prohibiting the sale of liquor on the Sabbath day can not be construed to apply to sales on Sunday, because Saturday is the real Sabbath day, in name as well as in fact. On this point Acting Mayor Johnson will be sustained by some of the most profound doctors of theology."
This reminds us that the same point was raised in the United States when the Chicago Exposition Appropriation Bill was under discussion. In support of Sunday closing one Senator sent a copy of the fourth commandment to the clerk's desk to be read. The point was raised that the commandment referred to the seventh, and not the first, day of the week; whereupon, by vote of the Senate and for the purpose of the bill, the commandment was construed to mean the first day. In this action the Senate imitated the action of the Council of Laodicea (A.D. 364) in formally transferring the observance of the Sabbath day to Sunday. The council went a little further and imposed the penalty of excommunication upon all church members who should continue to observe the seventh day. The same principle, however, is involved in all laws for enforcing Sunday observance. The man who observes the Sabbath according to the commandment of God, and is then compelled to observe Sunday, is practically fined one day's business on account of his faith.
Stopping Wife-Beating Through Liquor Prohibition
By Editor
The best suggestion on the subject of legislation for wife-beating that we have heard is the following from the Woman's Tribune:
“Much as we wish the wife-beater, who is distressingly common all over the country, could receive an adequate punishment for his misdeeds, it never seemed to the Tribune that the whipping-post could remedy the evil. Such a wretch is in an undeveloped, brutalized condition. The only effect a brutal punishment has on him is to harden him still more. Then he is left free to go on living in his family at the best with the almost inevitable result, as in the Bieker case, recently reported in the Portland papers. Bieker whipped the mother of his seven children; was punished at the whipping-post, and in a short time thereafter took to drinking again and became more brutal than before, bragging that he was not opposed to the whipping-post. Mrs. Bieker obtained a divorce and has the seven children to provide and care for. When legislators are really in earnest about stopping wife-beating, they will stop the sale of liquor, for it will be found invariably that men who beat their wives are maddened with drink.”
One very cogent reason for the application of this remedy for wife-beating is, that it would also obviate so many other evils.
Illness Due to Dried Beef
By Editor
Illness Due to Dried Beef.—The New York Medical Record reports ten persons in three different families of Kalamazoo, Mich., as having been made seriously ill as the result of eating dried beef. The beef is said to have come from one of the large packing-houses, and the supposition is that preservatives in the meat caused the illness. Why not suppose that it was ptomaines, or some form of corruption in the meat itself? Does “healthy” meat, if dried, need any other preservative than the salt and the drying? Anthrax, a deadly disease, is reported as making havoc of stock in central Delaware, and carcasses of the animals that die are burned. Is it not true that frequently in such epidemics the butcher’s knife just precedes the veterinary surgeon’s diagnosis and condemnation, and that canned and tinned and dried beef and mutton and pork are the product of what soon would have been the victims of anthrax or trichinosis or cholera?
Catholic University President Appointed Commissioner
A Washington, D. C., despatch announces that Dr. Maurice Francis Egan, president of the Catholic University, has been appointed a member of the board of Indian commissioners, to succeed Charles J. Bonaparte, Secretary of the Navy.
Articles from Valparaiso
By Editor
Are you reading the articles on the "Papacy in Prophecy."? They are dealing with a subject which you can not afford not to understand.
Articles from Valparaiso.—No discrimination is designed by the type or order of the letters from Valparaiso, found in our Missions department. Brother Thomann's was written a day earlier than Brother Steele's, and reached us several days first. We designed to publish it last week, and so set it in 8-point hoping that we could get it in; but we could not, and therefore it was left over for this week. In the meantime the article from Brother Steele came, and we concluded that we would make the two the feature of our Missions department. August 22 the dead were estimated at 2,000; August 23, a day later, at 3,000. One referred to Valparaiso, and the other, perhaps to a larger territory; tho a day later may have increased the knowledge of the death-list. Our hearts beat in sympathy with them in their great loss.
A Sabbath Command in Gen. 2:2, 3.—In another column will be found an article on "Two Sabbath Questions." To the evidence there given it may be said that the record of fact that God sanctified the seventh day in the beginning implies a definite command concerning it. "Sanctify" means to set apart, to separate. The seventh day was set apart for God's worship and so separated from "the six working days." The Sabbath was made for man. Man therefore must have been given command concerning it. When God sanctified Sinai, He gave command concerning it. Ex. 19:23, 12, 13. To "sanctify a fast" was to proclaim a fast, give command concerning it. Joel 2:15; 1:14; 2 Chron. 20:3, 4. The very record of Gen. 2:2, 3 clearly shows that the Sabbath was commanded when it was made. More than this: When Moses went down into Egypt and revived the people, the first thing they did was to begin to observe God's Sabbath. This is clear from Pharaoh's complaint: "Wherefore do ye, Moses and Aaron, let [loose, hinder] the people from their works? . . . Ye make them rest [Heb. sabbatize] from their burdens. . . . They be idle." Ex. 5:4, 5, 8. Every true reform carries God's people back to obedience.
A Sad Calamity.—The sad, sad word comes to us this morning (October 18) that the main building of the Oakwood Industrial School was burned to the ground the evening of October 11. The fire was first noticed about 7 o'clock, and in less than five minutes the building was wrapped in devouring flames. One of the boys, who had gone to his room against the earnest entreaties of his companion, was burned. His name was Will Willingham. Others had narrow escapes. The upper part contained the sleeping rooms, consequently the belongings of all were burned. "Prof. F. W. Halladay and family and all of our boys have absolutely nothing left but the clothes on their backs." One typewriter and one chair were saved. The building was insured for $2,000, probably all collectable. But what was within the building amounts to much more than this. Help is needed in clothing, new and secondhand, for the boys, in bedding, and in cash. Let the conductors of the school be assured that God cares, that He has in it a lesson for them, that they may know and learn that lesson. Let all our readers also know that affliction to any of God's institutions is a call from Him for sympathy and help. Let all who can help send supplies or remittances to Oakwood Training School, O. R. Staines, business manager, Huntsville, Ala.
A good sanitarium is always a blessing, and we wish they were many more. They are not alone valuable for the treatment of the sick and the rest they give to the weary; but their educational value on the simple life and the way of right living is better still. We are glad to note that in the beautiful city of Watertown, N. Y., which we once knew as a place of sojourn for a year, a sanitarium has been established by an old fellow-worker, and a physician of large experience in the city of Chicago, Isadore L. Green, M. D. It is a restful home, based upon rational medicine and physiological therapeutics. It has all the up-to-date methods of treatments. Its terms are reasonable. For particulars address, I. L. Green, M. D., Black River Valley Sanitarium, 19 State Street, Watertown, N. Y. May it ever be blessed and be a blessing.
"Illogical Geology."—Whether our readers believe in the hypotheses, the deductions, or the conclusions of geologists or not, they ought to read the book with the above title noticed in another column. This is what a professor of Church History and Homiletics in Chicago University has to say to the author:
"I have read your book, 'Illogical Geology.' It is a remarkable piece of logical reasoning. I am not sufficiently acquainted with geology to know whether or not a valid reply could be made; but it does not seem possible. I shall be keenly interested to see what the geologists will have to say about it. You are a cogent writer, and I am glad that we have you on the side of 'primal orthodoxy.' It seems to me that you reduce geology to its lowest terms, and perhaps destroy it altogether, except as it may consist of series of facts. This may be a good service."
This is what an M. S., an ex-president of the Minnesota Normal Training School, Minneapolis, writes:
"Previous to reading some of your writings a year or more ago, I had no idea of the facts and arguments capable of being brought forth against the commonly accepted teachings of geology. This last book, 'Illogical Geology,' is the best of all. You certainly have put forward a most tremendous argument; and I can not see how any one capable of appreciating scientific evidence can longer think that there has been a succession of life on the globe in the way geology has taught for nearly a century. Scientists can not ignore your facts and arguments; they must either be completely refuted, or your main conclusions must be acknowledged. And I don't think your facts will be easily refuted, for they are engraved by Nature herself in the very framework of the globe."
This is from the Assistant Professor of Zoology, Harvard University:
"I have read your pamphlet on 'Illogical Geology,' with much interest, and I think you have brought out with great clearness the difficulties of supporting the evolution theory from the geological side. In my opinion there would have been no evolution theory, had science had only what geology up to the present has unearthed for us. It seems to me that a fair test of the evolution theory ought to be made rather from its strongest side than from its weakest. The theory is not a geological one, but a biological one, and almost all the evidence in support of it has come from biology. But even if all the evidence humanly possible were within reach and favorable, it would still leave the evolutionary explanation a theory, and I know of no way by which it could be dealt with as an observable fact."
The work may be obtained from this office. Price, post-paid, 25 cents.
Loskutoff, a Russian, is terrifying people by preaching more earthquakes and the end of the world. He predicts three more earthquakes, each destroying a prosperous city, after that a convulsion which will rend the world asunder. The bishop of Tomsk condemned "earthquaking!" as a heresy, but since then Valparaiso has been destroyed. It is a question which is the greater heretic.
The first tunnel under the Hudson River, between Weehawken, N. J., and New York City, has been completed, as far as the digging is concerned. A party passed through it September 12. It is said to be completely water-tight, but it is to be lined with two feet of concrete, and then the rails will be laid. It is being constructed by the Pennsylvania Railroad, and will be used for passenger trains. A second tunnel is under way, and almost completed. This means to the Pennsylvania road a direct land connection with the great city, and a saving of time. The shortening of time schedules is the chief concern of rival freight and passenger carriers, both by land and water. Millions and millions of dollars are spent, and many human lives are sacrificed, in the various features of speed contest. If those who are engaged in giving the Gospel to the world could only be imbued with such a sense of the value of time; if it could be fully realized that the King's business requires haste; if there were a greater concern for the lost souls that are dropping into the grave at the rate of one every second; if we could appreciate the fact that when this Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world then shall the end come, and the rewards be given,—then would the value of time in the Gospel work become a matter of deeper concern. Money and zeal and labor and faith would be put into it to an extent commensurate with its importance. The Master says, "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." And all the angels of heaven are engaged in the same work. It is meet that the human servants on earth be like minded, "redeeming the time, because the days are evil."
Changed conditions in Germany since the days of William I. and Chancellor Bismarck are notably indicated in the following despatch, dated Berlin, September 8: "Emperor William has decorated Cardinal Kopp with the Order of the Black Eagle, the highest Prussian decoration. This is the first time the order has ever been conferred on a Catholic prelate. It is remarked that the relations between the German Government and the Vatican have grown closer since the church and state situation in France became acute. The headquarters of Cardinal Kopp are at Breslau, where he has steadily used his influence in bettering the relations between the pope and the Prussian authorities." And Germany is the land of Luther, with the Lutheran Church as the state church! With Lutheranism as the state religion, and Catholicism as the state politics, what will the harvest be?
A few years ago the first reports of calamity were nearly always exaggerated. That has not been the case in this year. In San Francisco and vicinity, in Valparaiso, in the awful typhoon in China, in the storms in the Southern States, the after, more accurate reports told a sadder story of the loss of property and life. Some of these awful things it is hard to exaggerate. There is another coming event, the coming of Jesus Christ which all the world is foretokening. That coming will bring to the righteous, blessings great and manifold which no language of earth can express. It will take the mind of the Infinite to comprehend and the time of eternity to experience the blessings which God has in store for them that love Him.
The steamer Empress of Japan, one of the few vessels that escaped destruction or damage by the recent typhoon in the vicinity of Hongkong, arrived at Victoria, B. C., on the 16th inst. It brings additional news of the disaster at September 18, which was more extensive than at first reported. There were in all, at different points, ten thousand lives lost. Seventeen steamers and sailing vessels were wrecked or badly damaged; over a thousand junks were turned over or swamped or battered to pieces. Four-fifths of all the lighters, yachts, launches, house-boats, and other light craft were entirely destroyed.
Do not be worried, dear soul, over men's attacks on the Word of God. That will still outlive all the systems and theories and devices of men to overthrow it. In it is the life of God.
