Among all the religious persecutions with which almost every page of modern history is stained, no victim ever suffered but for the violation of what government denominated the law of God.—United States Senate.
If the Legislature have the authority to appoint a time of compulsory rest, . . . it is without limit, and may extend to the prohibition of all occupations at all times.—Supreme Court of California.
Sunday Laws Unjust and Unchristian
By Asa O. Tait
A NY Sunday law that may be enacted is essentially a religious law. For if you should take the religious sentiments away from Sunday you would find that no one would care to enact laws to compel its observance. This statement may be denied, the same as many other truths are denied, but thoughtful reflection is much more than likely to convince you that it is true, even tho you may be loath to admit it.
Sunday represents one-seventh of a man's time. Our lives consist of the time we have. For you can not separate a man from his time without taking his life; the nearest you could come to it would be to put him in prison, and thus rob him of his freedom in spending his time as he should choose. Hence a law that prescribes how a man shall spend one-seventh of his time, regardless of what his wishes may be, robs him of just that much of his existence.
What Is Perfect Freedom?
Perfect freedom allows a man the liberty to come and go as he pleases, so long as by so doing he is not interfering with the equal liberties of others. Any civil law that requires a man to remain idle one-seventh of his time, or that prohibits him on some one particular day of the week from doing a deed that would be perfectly legitimate for him to do on any other day of the week, is depriving him of his freedom. The man is not actually put in prison on this seventh part of his time, but he is under the surveillance of the civil officer and is watched at every turn he makes during that day, and is in danger of arrest in case he violates any of the provisions of the Sunday law.
The State does not give us our existence, and therefore does not give us our time. And for the State to take away a part of our time against our will when we have committed no crime, is an act of usurpation and tyranny. The State by its so-called civil Sunday law would attempt to take our time without giving us anything in return. To forcibly take anything from another while giving an equivalent is bad enough, but to take that for which it is impossible to give an equivalent is certainly getting toward the very depth of injustice. But when the State goes still further and takes something that it has no manner of right to take from one of its citizens, it is not only the lowest depth of injustice, but is the grossest kind of an act of tyranny.
The California Supreme Court's Position.
It has been well stated by the Supreme Court of California that "if the legislature have the authority to appoint a time of compulsory rest, . . . it is without limit, and may extend to the prohibition of all occupations at all times."—Ex parte Newman, 9 Cal., pp. 509-518. The moment that it is conceded that the State may make a Sunday law, then it is conceded that the State may make a law compelling to refrain from work at any other time as well as Sunday, and this process may be kept up until all the time of the individual is taken and he becomes the absolute and abject slave of the State. Just such slavery is admitted by any one who will admit that Sunday laws can be just or right.
Sunday Laws Unchristian.
Enough has been said to show the injustice of Sunday laws. It is not necessary to say that every reason advanced to show that such laws are unjust will at the same time show that they are unchristian. But there are still other grounds for declaring them out of harmony with the Man of Nazareth.
In the first place, nothing could be Christian unless it is taught by the Bible, the Book given by the Author of Christianity. And any one who knows the Bible at all knows that it does not contain a single fragment of evidence in favor of keeping Sunday as a sacred day. Neither is there anything in the sacred Book to call for a cessation of labor on that day for physical benefits. In the Book that teaches the principles of Christianity, the day that we call Sunday is simply spoken of as the "first day of the week," and as being a common working-day. But even if Sunday were spoken of in the Bible as being a sacred day, or a day that should be observed by some form of rest or of worship, still it would be unchristian for the State to make laws compelling men to observe that day.
Winning and Not Compelling.
The very essence of Christianity is in the divine effort to win men to the worship of the true God. Worship can not be compulsory and still be worship. For, if it were possible to compel worship, the Lord of Heaven would be responsible for every one who is lost. Every individual who worships God in spirit and in truth will be saved eternally in the kingdom of heaven. And if worship could be made compulsory, certainly God would have the power of compelling the individual to worship Him. But since He, the God of Heaven, does not assume such power, much less attempt to exercise it, it is well for men to be very modest about undertaking a task which the great Jehovah puts outside of the rightful exercise of His all-wise prerogatives.
At the risk of His subjects rebelling against Him, the Lord gave to every one his own free will, and his free will gives him the freedom of choice. The Gospel invitation is, "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest." Matt. 11:28. And, again, "Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely." Rev. 22:17. These texts are in harmony with the whole tenor of the Bible, and they show that there is no compulsion in the invitation of God. He so represents the absolute freedom of His subjects that He refuses to compel any of them, and therefore will not reign over those who do not give Him their willing obedience.
Offers the Reward and Warns of the Danger.
The Lord plainly tells men that "the wages of sin is death" (Rom. 6:28), but He does not employ any kind of police to seek to drive men to Him. His only method is to hold before us the joys and the benefits of accepting Him, and the penalties that will finally be visited on those who reject Him, and then each one is left free to choose the service of the Lord or not to choose it, just as he sees fit.
Men have foolishly undertaken to legislate in religious matters and the result has been the drenching of the earth with the blood of the martyrs of all the ages. But in attempting this religious legislation, they have swept aside the principles of Jesus Christ, and the venom of tyranny has boiled in their blood. This country took the Christian ground that the State had no right to legislate in matters of religion, but notwithstanding the strong position taken, most of the individual states have enacted both Sunday laws and laws against blasphemy. Now if the God-given principle of absolutely divorcing religious legislation from the statutes of the states was properly adhered to, there would be no place for Sunday laws.6• (Continued on Page 7.)
Sunday Laws Unjust and Unchristian.
(Continued from Page 5.)
For the Sunday law can not be enacted without violating justice by taking from the man one-seventh of his time; and Christian principle is at the same time violated when a law is made by the State to enforce the observance of any religious tenet, regardless of whether such tenet is taught in the Bible or not.
God's Thoughts.
By F. E. Y.
THE thoughts of God,—His loving, peaceful thoughts,
Upon the azure see;
Yet not alone upon the distant blue
His thoughts toward you and me.
Behold the living fruit on yonder tree,
The hidden manna, given full and free;
The living water, flowing ceaselessly:
God's wondrous thoughts of peace.
F. E. Y.
Our Country—Its Dangers
By Mrs. E. G. White
By Mrs. E. G. White
THE greatest and most favored nation upon the earth is the United States. A gracious Providence has shielded this country, and poured upon her the choicest of heaven's blessings. Here the persecuted and oppressed have found refuge. Here the Christian faith in its purity has been taught. This people have been the recipients of great light and unrivaled mercies. But these gifts have been repaid by ingratitude and forgetfulness of God. The Infinite One keeps a reckoning with the nations, and their guilt is proportioned to the light rejected. A fearful record now stands in the register of heaven against our land; but the crime which shall fill up the measure of her iniquity is that of making void the law of God. Between the laws of men and the precepts of Jehovah will come the last great conflict of the controversy between truth and error. Upon this battle we are now entering,—a battle not between rival churches contending for the supremacy, but between the religion of the Bible and the religion of fable and tradition. The agencies which will unite against truth and righteousness in this contest are now actively at work.
Casting off the Bible.
God's holy word, which has been handed down to us at such a cost of suffering and blood, is but little valued. The Bible is within the reach of all, but there are few who really accept it as the guide of life. Infidelity prevails to an alarming extent, not in the world merely, but in the church. Many have come to deny doctrines which are the very pillars of the Christian faith. The great facts of creation as presented by the inspired writers, the fall of man, the atonement, and the perpetuity of the law of God, are practically rejected by a large share of the professedly Christian world. Thousands who pride themselves upon their wisdom and independence regard it an evidence of weakness to place implicit confidence in the Bible, and a proof of superior talent and learning to cavil at the Scriptures, and to spiritualize and explain away their most important truths. Many ministers are teaching their people, and many professors and teachers are instructing their students, that the law of God has been changed or abrogated; and they ridicule those who are so simple-minded as to acknowledge all its claims.
In rejecting the truth, men reject its Author. In trampling upon the law of God, they deny the authority of the Lawgiver. It is as easy to make an idol of false doctrines and theories as to fashion an idol of wood or stone. Satan leads men to conceive of God in a false character, as having attributes which He does not possess. A philosophical idol is enthroned in the place of Jehovah; while the true God, as He is revealed in His word, in Christ, and in the works of creation, is worshiped by but few. Thousands deify nature, while they deny the God of nature. Tho in a different form, idolatry exists in the Christian world to-day as verily as it existed among ancient Israel in the days of Elijah. The god of many professedly wise men, of philosophers, poets, politicians, journalists, the god of polished, fashionable circles, of many colleges and universities, even of some theological institutions, is little better than Baal, the sun-god of Phenicia.
The Bold Stroke of Error.
No error accepted by the Christian world strikes more boldly against the authority of Heaven, none is more directly opposed to the dictates of reason, none is more pernicious in its results, than the modern doctrine, so rapidly gaining ground, that God's law is no longer obligatory upon men. Every nation has its laws, which command respect and obedience; and has the Creator of the heavens and the earth no law to govern the beings He has made! Suppose that prominent ministers were publicly to teach that the statutes which govern our nation and protect the rights of its citizens were not obligatory, that they restricted the liberties of the people, and therefore ought not to be obeyed; how long would such men be tolerated in the pulpit? But is it a graver offense to disregard the laws of States and nations than to trample upon those divine precepts which are the foundation of all government? When the standard of righteousness is set aside, the way is open for the prince of evil to establish his rule in the earth.
Their Laws.
It would be far more consistent for nations to abolish their statutes, and permit the people to do as they please, than for the Ruler of the universe to annul His law, and leave the world without a standard to condemn the guilty or justify the obedient. Would we know the result of making void the law of God! The experiment has been tried. Terrible were the scenes enacted in France when atheism became the controlling power. It was then demonstrated to the world that to throw off the restraints which God has imposed is to accept the rule of the crueltest of tyrants.
Wherever the divine precepts are set aside, sin ceases to appear sinful, or righteousness desirable. Those who refuse to submit to the government of God are wholly unfitted to govern themselves. Thru their pernicious teachings, the spirit of insubordination is implanted in the hearts of children and youth, who are naturally impatient of control; and a lawless, licentious state of society results. While scoffing at the credulity of those who obey the requirements of God, the multitudes eagerly accept the delusions of Satan. They give the rein to lust, and practise the sins which called down judgments upon the heathen.
Result of Removing Divine Restraints.
Let the restraints imposed by the divine law be wholly removed, and human laws would soon be disregarded.7Because God forbids dishonest practises,—coveting, lying, and defrauding,—men are ready to trample upon His statutes as a hindrance to their worldly prosperity; but the results of banishing these precepts would be such as they do not anticipate. If the law were not binding, why should any fear to transgress? Property would no longer be safe. Men would obtain their neighbors' possessions by violence, and the strongest would become richest. Life itself would not be respected. Those who disregard the commandments of God sow disobedience to reap disobedience. The marriage vow would no longer stand as a sacred bulwark to protect the family. He who had the power, would, if he desired, take his neighbor's wife by violence. The fifth commandment would be set aside with the fourth. Children would not shrink from taking the life of their parents, if by so doing they could obtain the desire of their corrupt hearts. The civilized world would become a horde of robbers and assassins; and peace, rest, and happiness would be banished from the earth.
Already the doctrine that men are released from obedience to God's requirements has weakened the force of moral obligation, and opened the flood-gates of iniquity upon the world. Lawlessness, dissipation, and corruption are sweeping in upon us like an overwhelming tide. In the family, Satan is at work. His banner waves, even in professedly Christian households. There is envy, evil surmising, hypocrisy, estrangement, emulation, strife, betrayal of sacred trusts, indulgence of lust. The whole system of religious principles and doctrines, which should form the foundation and framework of social life, seems to be a tottering mass, ready to fall to ruin. The vilest of criminals, when thrown into prison for their offenses, are often made the recipients of gifts and attentions, as if they had attained an enviable distinction. The greatest publicity is given to their character and crime. The papers publish the revolting details of vice, thus initiating others into the practise of fraud, robbery, and murder; and Satan exults in the success of his hellish schemes. The infatuation of vice, the wanton taking of life, the terrible increase of intemperance and iniquity of every order and degree, should arouse all who fear God to inquire what can be done to stay the tide of evil.
Condition of Courts and Rulers.
Courts of justice are corrupt. Rulers are actuated by desire for gain, and love of sensual pleasure. Intemperance has beclouded the faculties of many, so that Satan has almost complete control of them. Jurists are perverted, bribed, deluded. Drunkenness and revelry, passion, envy, dishonesty of every sort, are represented among those who administer the laws. 'Justice standeth afar off; for truth is fallen in the street, and equity can not enter.'
Our land is in jeopardy. The time is drawing on when its legislators shall so abjure the principles of Protestantism as to give countenance to Romish apostasy. The people for whom God has so marvelously wrought, strengthening them to throw off the galling yoke of popery, will, by a national act, give vigor to the corrupt faith of Rome, and thus arouse the tyranny which only waits for a touch to start again into cruelty and despotism. With rapid steps are we already approaching this period. When Protestant churches shall seek the support of the secular power, thus following the example of that apostate church, for opposing which their ancestors endured the fiercest persecution, then will there be a national apostasy which will end only in national ruin.
The Fate of Old Glory.
By Fred Pardee Hanchett
MARK the on-coming clouds o'er the land once so free!—
Lo! the rights that our forefathers gained are in danger
From the subtle intrigues both at home and o'er sea,
Where Assumption presides, and Deceit is no stranger!
From the loftiest dome
To the lowliest home,
Are blazon'd the foul and false tenets of Rome.
O say, shall our loved starry flag cease to wave
O'er the land of the free, and a home of the brave?
Shall our free schools go down 'neath the tread of the foe?—
'Tis a guile born of sin that our nation now faces.
Shall we bow to the "beast"—that arch-demon of wo—
And, alas! welcomed here by blind men in high places?
Tho men clamor "Poor fools!"
E'en "fanatical fools!"
Let this be our motto: "Free worship! free schools!"
And ne'er for the triple-crown "Old Glory" wave,
In a land of the free, and a home of the brave.
To the fair, thoughtful mind, the dark past should make clear
What the future days hold—be conditions repeated!
Stakes and racks and the wheel; dungeons loathsome and drear,
Are awaiting true men—to the foe undefeated.
May God save from the fate
Of a dread Church and State—
The spawn of Corruption and fierce pagan hate!
And ne'er may our loved starry flag cease to wave
O'er a land of the free, and a home of the brave!
Would ye deign to receive as the price of your will,
E'en the boon of sweet life from the throne of Perdition?
Would ye worship the "beast" whose delight is to kill?
Would ye wear the steel chains of a sleepless contrition?
Let no "number" nor "name,"
Nor the "mark" of ill-fame
Of antichrist plunge our dear country in shame;
But, ruled by the people—the just and the brave,
May the flag of the free o'er a free people wave!
FRED PARDEE HANCHETT.
Equality and Individuality.
THE Declaration of Independence declares that "all men are created equal." It does not mean by this of equal stature, girth or heft. It does not mean of equal birth as men count rank. It does not mean of equal beauty or comeliness. It does not mean of equal brain capacity, or mental caliber.
What the Declaration does mean is clearly intimated by the words which follow: "That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." All men are created equal in respect to these rights. "Life" belongs to each and all equally. "Liberty" of choice belongs to each and all equally. "The pursuit of happiness" each one has the right to follow in his own way, irrespective of the wishes or desires of his fellows, providing he does not contravene their equal rights or infringe their equal liberties.
This equality demands the right of individuality. It demands the right of the individual to choose what he will, providing always that he does not trample upon the equal rights of his fellows. He may persuade as many as he will; he may compel none. He may choose to be great and good and wise, a helper and guide to his fellow men; or he may choose to be ignorant and low and base. The right is his. He may choose to be religious, devout, a Sabbath-keeper, a believer in Christ Jesus; or he may choose to be irreligious, unreligious, irreverent, a Sabbath-breaker, an infidel. That is his God-given right, and man may not set it aside. He has, in other words, the right to make himself unequal to the rest of his fellows in every good thing as truly as they have the right to make themselves his superior in every good thing. They may persuade him to make a different choice, but they may not compel him an iota. The choice is his to yield or not to yield to their persuasions, to join or not to join their company or organization.
If he in his right refuse to yield to their modus operandi, they have no right to seek to compel him thru others. For instance, the regulation of interstate commerce,—barter and trade between the States,—especially over the great transportation lines, is in the power of the Federal Government, at least to the extent of guarding the equal rights of man. These common carriers have no legal right to grant privileges to the great corporation or wealthy shipper which are not granted to the poorest. The corporation has no right to the public lands of the nation; they should be held for the individual. The necessities of life—food, light, water—should not be controlled by a few wealthy men, whom technicalities of law permit to exploit cities and States and people and nations, netting them in their great commercial schemes, as men gather the fishes of the sea.
Are we condemning all great trusts, corporations, companies?—We are condemning nothing; but the predatory tendencies of the trust or company should stop where the right of the individual begins. No man nor set of men has the right thru control of dollars or the massing of men who have surrendered their selfhood to some unscrupulous leader, to trample upon the rights of a single individual, whatever his state or condition. And this is true of all combinations, whether centering in the office or the shop, whether controlled by a Calhoun or a Cornelius, a Harriman or a Gompers.
The Constitution of the United States was framed and adopted "to establish justice," and "to insure domestic tranquillity;" but the trend of affairs, State and national, has carried us a long way from that noble purpose. God has given to all men equal rights. Every true government will secure to its citizens equal opportunity before the law; but that they have not at present. The Sacramento Union, in a recent editorial, truly says:
"In order to restore equality of opportunity to the ordinary citizen it will be indispensable to reestablish justice. The demands of justice will give everything back to the common man that he has any right to possess. The poor man is not now equal to the rich before the law. Our jurisprudence has lost itself in a labyrinth of technical procedures that have small relation to the establishment of justice. It must be stripped of these and made simple, equal, and speedy."
But this brings us back again to the individual. For if the rights of the individual are secured to him as the fathers of this nation intended, they are in him secured to all. But if a single soul is deprived of his God-given rights, and that deprivation is justified by law, approved by public sentiment, or treated with indifference by a people buried in pleasure or pursuit of gain or power, in that very condition lies the deprivation of equal rights of whole classes and masses. "The Constitution," in the words of George Bancroft, "establishes nothing that interferes with equality or individuality. It knows nothing of differences by descent, or opinions, of favored classes, or legalized religion, or the political power of property. It leaves the individual alongside the individual." (See the SIGNS of July 3, 1907, page 8.)
That was the rule, the ideal, of the new nation. Under the influence of decadent religion, of wealth, of combination, she has mightily drifted from that high ideal, till a justice of the Supreme Court, David J. Brewer, declares:
"ONE STEP FURTHER must be taken before the ideal of human liberty is realized in this country, and that, if I may thus express it, is the ACTUAL AND UNQUESTIONED INDEPENDENCE OF EACH INDIVIDUAL."
"The proposition that the many may rule the one is carried into the daily life of the nation in a practical way, to the extent that the INDIVIDUAL IS SWALLOWED UP IN THE MASS; and the PERSONAL INDEPENDENCE of EVERY CITIZEN, in all matters of contract and labor and life, is in DANGER OF BEING DESTROYED."
"The penalty which the nation pays for all its benefits is the growing disposition to sacrifice the individual to the mass, to make the liberty of the one something which may be ruthlessly trampled into the dust, because of some supposed benefit to the many."
"So long as any SINGLE MAN, the humblest and the weakest in the land, may not enter into business or engage in labor such as his means will permit and his inclination determine, just so long is PERSONAL LIBERTY AN UNACCOMPLISHED FACT."
"Thru the land the idea is growing that the INDIVIDUAL is NOTHING, and that the ORGANIZATION, and then the State, is EVERYTHING."
"The great Master divided the powers and possibilities of our nature when He dethroned priests and prelates and bade EACH SOUL STAND FACE TO FACE ALONE WITH ITS GOD."
Those sentiments were true, July 4, 1893, when Justice Brewer uttered them in a speech at Woodstock, Conn.; the conditions which demanded the utterances are far more evident to-day. The capitalistic trust and the labor trust are crushing out individuality of effort, of purpose, of will, of initiative, of independence, of manhood, and are training a race of peons.
God made each man a responsible being; gave each man the right to believe or not to believe; made each the slave of none; and demands that in the last great day "each one of us shall give account of himself to God." In view of that great and awful fact, is it not time to heed another scripture: "Ye were bought with a price; become not bond-servants of men"?
As truly as in 1776, as truly as in the times of the Civil War, this government and this people are in a crisis. Is it slavery or freedom? Is it to be ruled by men, by demagogues, by law-shielded predatory wealth, by walking delegates, by State-favored religions? or shall we stand in our own God-given, individual independence, neither fawning before the rich, nor crooking "the pregnant hinges of the knee" to over-ambitious combinations?
The free men of a free nation are those individually free. "The truth shall make you free." "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed."
It Is Best to Be Guided by Facts.
I N his second letter to Timothy, the apostle Paul enumerates the sins that will be prevalent among men in the “last days,” and that he says will make those times “perilous.” And following this enumeration he also states that “evil men and imposters shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” 2 Tim. 3:13.9
To those who believe the Bible, the foregoing text will be taken as a statement of facts as they will exist. And when we view things as they exist in the world to-day, it is not difficult to be persuaded that the divine statement of fact is a strikingly correct presentation of prevailing conditions. The news of this country is filled with the accounts of the evil deeds that men are continually committing. One of the greatest problems of government to-day is how to keep in check the corrupting influences that are working in all the cities and legislatures of the country. And, following the instruction of the Guide Book, we know that these conditions will “wax worse and worse” till the end of time. Men will not only be deceivers, but they will also be deceived themselves. And in this deceived and deceiving condition they will continue in the downward course. This statement of the One who knows how to inspire true prophecies of the future, is direct and plain, and there can be no mistaking its import.
And while we see these corrupting influences working in this country, we are constantly in receipt of reports of the corruptions of a similar character that are going on in the Old World. Just now the reports are telling us of the scandals that disgrace the Court of Berlin. Other cities in other parts of the old countries are also frequently mentioned in the same way, so that we can see that the course of corruption is general, and if we admit the facts, we can see that things are going just as the Bible says, “worse and worse.”
As already stated, these things are to be the prevailing conditions of the “last days.” But by the term “last days,” do not get the impression that they are the last days of joy and happiness. They are the last days of corruption. They are the last days for the evil that is waxing worse and worse. They are the last days for tyranny, oppression, and extortion. They are the last days for sorrow, suffering, and grief. But they are the immediate heralds of the days of the glorious reign of Christ, in which there is fulness of joy.
It is only when we look at these things from the world’s standpoint that the picture of the conditions that exist looks dark. But when we look at things in the light of the facts of God’s word, we see another picture that is so full of light and joy that this dark one is wholly obscured by the brightness of the brighter one. Then let us keep our eyes and minds on the facts. Not the facts of the world’s corrupting influences, but the facts of God’s word that tell what all these things portend.
An Utterance of 1776.
(From the Address of the Presbytery of Hanover, Va., and the Baptists and Quakers to the General Assembly of Virginia, 1776.)
IN this enlightened age, and in a land where all of every denomination are united in the most strenuous efforts to be free, we hope and expect that our representatives will cheerfully concur in removing every species of religious as well as civil bondage. Certain it is that every argument for civil liberty gains additional strength when applied to liberty in the concerns of religion; and there is no argument in favor of establishing the Christian religion but may be pleaded with equal propriety for establishing the tenets of Mohammed by those who believe the Alcoran; or, if this be not true, it is at least impossible for the magistrate to adjudge the rights of preference among the various sects that profess the Christian faith without erecting a claim to infallibility which would lead us back to the church of Rome.
STATUE OF LIBERTY, BEDLOE'S ISLAND, ENTRANCE OF NEW YORK HARBOR.
"Neither can it be made to appear that the Gospel needs any such civil aid. We rather conceive that when our blessed Saviour declares His kingdom is not of this world, He renounces all dependence upon State power, and as His weapons are spiritual, and were only designed to have influence on the judgment and heart of man, we are persuaded that if mankind were left in quiet possession of their inalienable religious privileges, Christianity, as in the days of the apostles, would continue to flourish in the greatest purity by its own native excellence, and under the all-disposing providence of God.
"We would also humbly present that the only proper objects of civil government are the happiness and protection of men in the present state of existence, the security of the life, liberty, and property of the citizens, and to restrain the vicious and encourage the virtuous by wholesome laws, equally extending to every individual; but that the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can only be directed by reason and conviction, and is nowhere cognizable but at the tribunal of the Universal Judge."
Cleverness
CLEVERNESS is serviceable for everything, sufficient for nothing.
The Pan-American Peace Conference
A Pan-American Peace Conference was held at the City of Mexico, October, 1901, in which the Republics of South and Central America took part, admitting that arbitration of differences was highly desirable, but they could not agree upon the terms of arbitration, and have been warring ever since—the Central American States! "Peace, peace, when there is no peace."
