THE unrest of the last few months continues. While many of the local disturbances of a week or two ago are just now quiet, matters are not by any means settled. The commission appointed by the British government to inquire into the labor situation there is at work; but we are again told that if the decision does not meet the demands of the laborers, we may expect a renewal of the strike. It is everywhere admitted that there has been a decided advance in the cost of living, and this must indeed be felt by men who are receiving only from $3.75 to $6.00 a week. It seems, looking from the standpoint of the better paid American laborer, that it would be simply impossible to live — to support a family — on such wages. In fact, it is a common complaint among apprentice boys and girls in this country that it is quite impossible for them to live — to board, room, and clothe themselves — the first year or so of their apprenticeship, even tho their initial wages are $5.00 a week. What must it be for families when food prices are quite as high as they are in America?
The solidarity strike, to coin the term (for that is what Great Britain had to face), has been a new thing for the English people. It evidently, however, has come to stay. It is a tremendously potent weapon. It exceeds, in its power to impose hardship upon the public in general, anything which the trusts have yet devised. The great combinations of capital, and corporations which supply the world with food and clothing and control prices on all commodities by which men exist, draw their support from the whole mass of people which consume their products, and whenever they so desire, increase the price, even tho it saps the life of the community. The recent rise in the price of sugar in America is evidence of that. Seemingly without any reason whatever, the price has been advanced. It adds a few more millions to the already over-wealthy owners of the sugar trust, but it adds to the pinching poverty of the millions. A dog can live longer, however, if his tail is cut off inch by inch, beginning at the end, than when it is taken off at one blow directly behind the ears. The solidarity strike effects its purpose somewhat after the latter fashion. It means that when one organization of labor has grievances, all have grievances; and whenever there is a strike on the part of one organization based on a principle common to them all, that all shall join. Of course we can see what the effect would be by what the effect was in England. In a few days more it would have practically brought starvation to the whole island; and while there would not be so much danger in a country like America, still it would bring very great hardship indeed.
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Germany
Germany stands in the same critical position as Great Britain. Such a strike as that would paralyze the empire. Germany could not turn her troops against the unions in case of disorder, because she fears that the troops themselves would refuse to take such action, as the socialistic principles which are espoused by so many German people have permeated the army, so that the army itself would refuse to turn its weapons against its own members.
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Then, too, war talk in Germany has not been assuring. Some of the Jingo papers of that empire are urging war with France or Great Britain. On the other hand, more cautious minds have felt that it would be fatal for Germany to go to war now, because she would not only have France, but England, to fight, and it has been a serious question whether she would have the support of her own people. Socialists to the number of a million gathered in Treptow Park, Berlin, to protest against Germany's going to war with France. They felt that there was no call for fighting their brothers in France over any questions that might arise regarding Morocco, or any other part of Africa. This doubtless had its effect upon some of the German demands of France. Another element which had its effect in staying Germany's hand is the demonstration which France made over her navy.
The third and perhaps still more potent influence, was the influence of capital. Many German bonds are held by French investors, and French investors were making calls upon Germany. England also holds German bonds, and calls were made from there. It is stated that Germany applied to the Rothschilds, but they said, "We can not accommodate you to loans unless10we can get the endorsement of American financiers;" and American financiers, through Mr. Morgan, stated that he could not invest money in Germany unless Germany would accede to the terms of France, which seem to him reasonable. So the real peacemaker, after all, in the Franco-German trouble over Morocco, may be John Pierpont Morgan. This shows the power which capital has in the world at the present time. If it is profitable for capital that a war should occur, we may be quite confident that the influence would be as potent to bring about the war as the peace.
Another thing which has been stirring Germany is the treaty that is now pending between America and England. That treaty is not admired in Germany. Some declare it is a hollow make-believe, others that it is the forerunner of an alliance between English-speaking peoples which aims to control the world.
France
Just now it is not a republic of peace and quiet. There are not only the strikes which the railways and other corporations have had to deal with; but upon the heels of the strikes have come the bread riots in Northern France, which are spreading throughout the country. The French housewife is known as a model of economy and frugality. She makes her own purchases. She has, under normal conditions, been able to buy food products at about the same price year after year; but the sharp advance which has been made in recent months has had a serious effect upon those who were barely living within their means. And yet we are told that the bread riots which have taken place are more of a political character than an economic. They are led by the political agitators in Europe. They have not only stirred France, but they have spread over the Belgium border, and many towns and places are in turmoil over high prices there. Nothing is said on the part of these bread rioters about an advance in wages, but a cut in prices. It is the very opposite of the demand made by the labor-unions, and yet the effect is the same — to protect the family and reduce the cost of living. There is this, however, in the rise of wages,—that whenever higher wages are paid to those who produce the necessaries of life, there comes a corresponding increase in the prices of the commodities themselves, so that the consumer is not at all helped thereby. Consequently strife is not allayed permanently. Temporarily there is a cessation; but in a little while the laborer sees that he has not been benefited by his rise in wages, consequently he is ready to strike again. In the bread riots in France, troops have had to be called out in order to maintain the peace.
Austria-Hungary
The London "Times" tells us that there are railway and labor troubles in Austria-Hungary, demands for increased wages, and it is feared that a general strike may follow. An enormous increase in the cost of the necessities of life is recorded there as well as in other countries.
Spain
Spain is a seething political caldron. We noted last week that martial law had been declared, and that the constitutional guarantees
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had been suspended. This has quieted the strike situation, and seemingly struck terror, for the time, to the revolutionists; and yet, many of the Spanish troops are in Africa, and some of the revolutionists are led by ex-army officers. It would not take very much to involve the whole country in civil war. On the part of the clericals, or the strong Roman Catholic element, there is most decided opposition and enmity to Premier Canalejas. All the reserve government troops are under arms. It is discovered, it is said, that the strike was not a mere economical or labor trouble, but was part of a revolutionary plot to overthrow the government, a part of which plot was to assassinate prominent men, General Weyler, former Spanish commander in Cuba, among them. Quite a number of these revolutionary leaders have been arrested.
Portugal
Just over across the line from Spain is the baby republic of Portugal, and Portugal is having her troubles. A constant revolution is pending, if we may believe the reports from there, altho the republic has passed through a successful election, and even Roman Catholic papers concede that the president is a good man, but they feel that his hands are somewhat bound by the laws. Yet the "Croix" (a strong Roman paper), of Paris, declares that "the republic is dead. It sinks beneath the weight of its blunders and the
violence of its crimes. If Portugal sinks with it, this will furnish a good lesson to the king who in future is to rule the country with honesty and intelligence. King Manuel has the complete sympathy of the Portuguese people, and his return is the subject of daily prayers on the part of a nation which is in agony under the yoke of a dozen unscrupulous adventurers. The national exchequer is drained dry." But it is a serious question whether the thinking people of Portugal wish Manuel restored or not. The republican government has ascertained that the total indebtedness of the royal family for which King Manuel is responsible, is over twenty million dollars. His restoration would certainly not help to solve Portugal's economic problems. Most of these debts consist of treasury advances to the royal family. If Portugal fails, it will evidently be through her financial difficulties left her as a heritage by the former monarchy. It is rather a strange coincidence that the present president, Manuel de Arriaga, is a descendant of the royal family of Orleans, from which years ago came the Spanish King Remiro II, and to which the dispossessed Queen Amelia belongs.
Russia's internal condition is exceedingly uncertain, and it looks like the reign of terror there.
We need not mention the troubles brewing between Italy and Turkey, and Turkey's general troubles with her neighbors on every side, which are endemic and chronic.
What It Means
And these are conditions in Europe to-day. As a London despatch under date of September 23 states: "To-day's news gathered from all parts of the Old World tells of socialistic uprisings, food riots, general strikes, wars or preparations for war, in every important country in Europe with the exception of Holland, Sweden, and Switzerland. A careful analysis of the situation in each of the countries which are now taking part in a general movement11of unrest such as Europe has not before experienced in the present generation, reveals the fact that in every case Socialist agitation of a revolt against the fast increasing cost of living, is at the bottom of the disturbance." Workmen are beginning to realize that they are not getting their share of the wealth. The decline in value of government securities shows how seriously the financiers look upon the question. Conditions are decidedly critical through the whole of Europe.
In America things are not by any means assuring. The threatened labor troubles are by no means settled. The shopmen of the Harriman lines are demanding recognition, not of their several unions, but of a federation of their unions as a unit; an eight-hour day instead of a nine-hour, a flat wage-increase of seven cents an hour; equal representation on boards of directors of the company's hospitals; free keeping of patients in hospitals as long as patients demand it, sanctioned by their association; granting of conferences after thirty days' notice of desire to change contract is submitted; employees to be granted ninety days' leave of absence instead of being laid off; no physical examination or personal record; capability of an employee to be determined within thirty days, after which no man can be discharged on grounds of incompetency; grievances to be handled by shop employees' federation; seniority in service to govern promotion to foremanships; and several other matters besides.
Vice-President Julius Kruttschnitt declared that this would increase the pay-roll $7,500,000 a year, and would place the control of the railway system itself in the hands of its employees, and so prevent the railroad from carrying out its duty toward the public. The "Call," the Socialist paper of New York, declares that Mr. Kruttschnitt has pointed out the result: it would place them in absolute control, and "that is the very thing for which the men should fight; it is the thing toward which every battle of labor is inevitably tending, and until it is realized, there must be industrial warfare."
The thinking reader will see that the object of this is to effect the same solidarity among the working men as was manifested in England. What affects one union would affect all, and consequently every industry of America manned by union workmen would cease, and the millions that would suffer most would be those who are not personally interested in either the companies or the men. Some have therefore suggested that there should be certain courts which, after the employers and employees had had a reasonable time to settle their differences, should step in and settle for them, for the sake of the public whom they serve. Arbitration without authority is generally useless.
An editorial in the New York "Independent" of September 7 points out that labor arbitration has not been satisfactory. When crises have been reached, these arbitration decisions have failed. It declares: "Arbitration proves inexperience to be nondescript," and demands, "Let the presumption of liberty stand; let the parties agree in liberty if they can; when they can't, let the State step in, and without any beating about the bush tell them, not what they ought to do, but what they MUST and will be COMPELLED to do." But to do that the State must have authority; and would the people grant this authority?
Our sister republic on the south of us has had a change of administration. They have turned out the doughty old President Diaz, and are in the campaign of electing a new one; but thus far the campaign has been marked by bitterness and riots and mobs and loss of life. Friends of Mexico question whether, whoever she may elect, if he governs Mexico, however smooth may be his words, will not have to use about the same means that Diaz did.
Such, tamely expressed, are some of the conditions in the world at the present time. Today there is peace; to-morrow there could be so far as human indications go, revolution and uprising everywhere. Why there is not is indicated in the symbolic prophecy found in Rev. 7: 1-3. Notwithstanding conditions in this old world, God overrules, and He has commissioned mighty, strong angels to hold the winds of strife until His work is done. When that time comes He will let men have their own way.
How true are the words of our Lord which He used in pointing out the signs of the end! After mentioning those in the heavens, He declares, "upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity" (see Luke 21: 25-27), and distress of nations with perplexity is upon us. After these developments, He declares they shall "see the Son of Man coming in a cloud
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The Zeppelin air-ship Schwaben crossing Lake Constance, with Count Zeppelin at the helm. Now we are told that one is being built near San Francisco that will far surpass the Zeppelin air-ship, one which is able to rise from any place, remain stationary in the air, reverse and go backwards, and can sail against the wind under nearly all circumstances, combining the aeroplane with the dirigible. A large amount of buoyancy is furnished by gas chambers, but it is heavier than an air-ship, after all.
with power and great glory." All these things, reader, are indications of the end, indications of the coming of the Christ, indications of the cessation of the present earth-rule, which is proving so utterly unsatisfactory. Peoples and nations are having their way in the matter of experiment. Humanity will try every experiment, and God permits it; but all will prove unsatisfactory, and there never will be the reign of peace which men dream of, and which devout souls long for, until Christ shall come. Then the kingdoms of the earth will become as the chaff of the summer thrashing-floors, and the Lord Himself shall reign.
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The Giant Air-Ship
A writer in the "Scientific American" of August 26 declares that if the dirigible balloon, or air-ship, is ever to become a factor in the commercial transportation of cargoes, it must be big. The bigger the air-ship can be made, the greater are its advantages. And he therefore suggests that the giant dirigible, which would combine tens, or even hundreds, of dirigibles of the present size, put in the proper shape and propelled by an engine having the combined force of the motors of all the small dirigibles which entered into its construction, would move much faster through the air than each of the small ones would singly, because the head-on resistance would be decreased, and there would be very much less "skin friction." Its principal difficulty would be the cost of housing such an air-ship. It would have to be moored in the open. And he says that while such an immense ship, which would furnish all the accommodations that one of the mammoth ocean liners does at the present time, seems fanciful, yet it would be no greater advance than has been made in the great 50,000 ton leviathans which ply the sea, and he expects that the 1,000 foot air-ship will make its appearance before very long.
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By Editor
Paying the Bills
THE Socialist leader in the German Reichstag, Herr Bebel, warns the Social-Democratic Congress in Jena that as a result of the Morocco dispute the word will go forth, "Arm on sea and land," and that probably a great navy bill will be presented in the Reichstag, and with it taxation bills to cover the cost, which will mean further increase in the cost of living to millions of Germans.
The German Imperial Government started in 1871 with no debt, but since that time it has steadily exceeded its income. Recently the deficit reached more than a hundred million dollars a year, which led to the deadlock in 1909, and to Bülow's resignation. Income and outgo are not yet balanced; the empire and States combined have a debt the same as that of Great Britain or Russia. It pays in interest about six times as much as that of the United States, and nearly as much as that of France. But France has this advantage,—that French people own the French bonds, and have besides enormous sums invested in other countries, including Germany. By calling loans they are now greatly embarrassing German finance, showing how the money power could be used in world politics. "France is increasing her banking capital," says the New York World, "Germany her debts." The German army cost in 1910, excluding colonial troops, $203,382,000; her navy, $110,638,700. Besides this, it withdrew from work nearly 700,000 young men in the flower of their strength. The great prosperity of Germany, the World tells us, remarked by Mr. Edison and other travelers, is a prosperity built up in part by running in debt, and hampered by a war extravagance whose motto is, "After us the deluge." Herr Bebel is striving to avert the cruel consequences of war extravagances.
A novel experiment is under way by Harvard, the sending of two brothers, Buffum by name, across the continent on foot, the one to feed upon animal food wholly, and the other upon vegetable food. Between them they are to trundle a wheelbarrow across, and sleep out-of-doors every night. They are to carry on the wheelbarrow sufficient supplies to meet emergencies. Dr. Sargeant, of Harvard University, wishes to make a test of the relative merits of the two kinds of foods in endurance. Harvard pays the bills. We predict triumph for vegetarianism.
An overly and ultrapatriotic teacher in New Jersey put a girl out of school because she would not salute the American flag. The father declares that the girl is a British subject, as is he himself; that he believes in implicit obedience to all the laws of this country, but could not forswear allegiance to his own country. There is more or less of idolatry in the general flag salute, anyway. We do not think that public schools are helping to make patriots by their demand that the flag shall be saluted. It is a sort of State-religion fetish that does not make any better citizens.
There have been a plentiful number of serious accidents of late, in connection with air-ships. Just recently two men fell into the ocean at Brighton Beach, near New York. Grahame-White wrecked his $10,000 monoplane, and almost killed himself. Another ran into a wire fence and wrecked his machine. An aviator at Dayton, Ohio, Frank Miller, September 22, was burned to death in mid-12air, when the gasoline tank of his machine exploded; and at La Crosse, Wisconsin, the same day, an aeroplane dragged along a row of buggies, and caused forty runaways. Fortunately no lives were lost. The same day another aviator in Ohio, Castellane, fell to his death at the Mansfield fair. September 19, at Dewitt, Iowa, Rosenbaum, an aviator, fell from an overturned aeroplane 600 feet, breaking every bone in his body. And there have been others. Robert Fowler has had two accidents, but he has not been seriously injured himself, tho he has injured his machine, in attempting to cross the Sierras. After reaching a height of 8,000 feet his engine stopped. He still hopes to be able to make the passage.
Shark, Earthquake, Poisoning, and Fire
At Lewes, Delaware, September 2, a silk parasol entire was recovered from the stomach of a huge shark caught by the Government light-ship. It has been claimed by Laura Dorsey, of Saugatuck, Connecticut. She dropped it overboard from a Long Island Sound steamer early in the summer, and it was identified by a monogram on the handle. It would seem as tho men might believe the story of Jonah.
Quite a severe earthquake shock occurred in Southern Alaska, according to a despatch from Seattle dated September 21. This was recorded on the seismograph of the university at Washington, the perturbations continuing there for sixty-three minutes.
The New York "World" records in three days nineteen deaths from mushroom poisoning and thirty persons critically ill, and incidentally mentions that there are one thousand varieties of mushrooms, three hundred of which are not safe.
A $50,000 fire destroyed the big printing plant of Francis Valentine & Company in San Francisco September 15.
BOOK NOTICES
By Editor
"The 1911 Bible." Oxford University Press, American Branch, Henry Froude, 35 West 32d Street, New York.
This is the 1611 so-called King James Version, with its verse divisions, but with the text revised by American scholars. It is designed to retain all the essential features of the Authorized Version and embody all that are needed from revision. The Authorized Version has certainly held its own through the stress and storm of three centuries. It is felt that it has a strong hold upon the great mass of English Christians still, and all that is needed to correct a few passages which through changed usage of words have become obscure, and to help "a limited number of passages in which the revisers of 1611 missed the meaning." This is the aim of the revision of 1911. The revision, we are told, was placed in the hands of "a committee of thirty-four eminent Hebrew and Greek scholars, representing all of the great evangelical bodies and many foremost universities and schools of divinity." They neither revised nor translated, but corrected the text where it was deemed essential. For instance, "borrow" of Ex. 11:2 is changed to "ask," and similarly to 12:35; "bolled," however, is left in Ex. 9:31, but "in bloom" is put in the margin. "Earing" in Gen. 45:6 is changed to "sowing," but it is allowed to stand in Ex. 34:21. Why? "Countervail" of Esther 7:4 is changed to "recompense;" "prevent" of 1 Thess. 4:15 to "go before," but left in other places, as in Ps. 119:147. It would have helped many American readers to have substituted "wheat" or "grain" for "corn," in Matt. 12:1 and other places where the meaning is similar. It seems to us that the scrutiny of the scholars was neither thoro, uniform, nor consistent. They showed us what they ought to have done and failed to do it. In some cases the margin helps out. The paragraph division is indicated, while the verse division is retained. This is good. The new systems of reference may please many, and will be helpful in some things to all. As we examine it, the constant feeling is that the revisers, or "scrutinizers," did not appreciate their opportunity to serve the Bible student. The binding, typography, and paper are Oxford, a synonym for the best.
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"God's Two Books; or Plain Facts about Evolution, Geology, and the Bible." By George McCready Price, Professor of Geology and Physics, College of Medical Evangelists, Loma Linda, Cal. Price, cloth, $1.00. Review and Herald Publishing Association, Washington, D. C.
The author well says that it is "time the church of Christ got her bearings." She certainly has been drifting from her moorings of the Word, veering from the course marked out by her avowed chart; and nothing, perhaps, has had greater influence in her recent course than the modern teachings of geology and evolution. Many have accepted the teachings of Darwin, Huxley, Lamarck, and others along the same line, with little examination. The naturally skeptical mind of man makes him receptive to such teaching; and floundering theologians have been laboring to adjust their views, or the teachings of the Word, to evolution and geology. We commend to the searcher after truth Professor Price's little book. It is both destructive and constructive. It may demolish pet theories, but it puts something better in their place. Some of the chapter headings may be suggestive: Moral and Social Aspects of the Evolution Theory; Evidence of Archeology; Darwinism; Some Geological Definitions; The Successive Ages; Extinct Species; Facts about the Rocks; Creation as Taught in the Two Books. The book ought to be read by ministers, teachers, students, Christians.
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The Sugar Trust and Law
Mr. John E. Parsons, a late member of the sugar trust and now over eighty years of age, declared at the sugar trust inquiry that if the Government proceeded on the theory exploited in the Sherman anti-trust law, the jails of this country would not be large enough to hold the criminals. Presumably Mr. Parsons speaks from knowledge; but what a revelation it is concerning men's regard for law! He says, "The country wants laws that deal with practical questions."
A Dream of Peace
By U. V. W.
DR. NITOBE, who is representing the Japanese government as an advocate of international peace, in the United States, and who is also a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, closed his address at Stanford University September 18 by saying:
"Twelve years ago, when I came to this country, there was no sound of the mechanic with his hammer building 'Dreadnoughts,' there were no masons building forts, no rapidly maneuvering of troops playing war. But the other day, as I came through San Francisco, how different! I can not but marvel; I am surprised and astonished that a nation's whole energies should be expended in preparing for a possible war. For myself, I would say that such economic extravagance spells only ruin!"
"Let us hope," he added, "that these clouds of war shall dissipate, disperse, and roll away, and we shall awake from such dreams of war as from a horrible nightmare, and find that we have entered into a period of harmony and international good-fellowship."
This eminent Japanese publicist and orator can not but see the national catastrophe awaiting such wanton expenditure in which our nation and the other nations are now competing. But the war clouds are not dissipated, nor shall we "awake from such dreams, as from a nightmare," into a condition of international peace.
The greatest of statesmen as men can see clearly the fruition of the present-day war preparations, but like a child they vainly clasp an intangible hope of peace; they grasp at straws; they seek to educate greedy corporations, and palliate the spirit of war and strife by erecting peace monuments, establishing Peace Foundations, with millions of dollars gained in making war material, and filling the land with literature for the promulgation of international amity and concord. These statesmen, and the ambassadors of peace, utter, in direct contradiction to their clear, logical conclusions of the ultimate outcome of present-day conditions, "Peace, peace," but there shall be no peace! For from a divine source comes the picture of this time and a bit of future history truer than the sanguine statements of the world's greatest statesmen, saying: "Proclaim ye this among the nations; prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong. Haste ye, and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together." See Joel 3:9-14. It is the gathering to the great war of Armageddon.
U. V. W.
The Bible and Modern Life
"The Bible and Modern Life." By Clayton Sedgwick Cooper. 12mo cloth, 16 full page halftone illustrations, 224 pages. Price, $1.00 net. Funk and Wagnalls Company, New York.
One of the objections which a religious infidelity brings against the Bible to-day is that it is "out of date," "a back number," "not fitted to this age." The aim of Mr. Cooper is to show that there is a type of Bible study fitted to the needs of modern times, that will awaken and hold the interest of students, and not a few are studying in many places at home and abroad. He truly says that "it is astonishing how much of our religious knowledge is taken in a second-hand fashion from books or friends." True knowledge he declares must be obtained from the Bible. First of all lies Christian experience. This movement, this awakening, over Bible study is encouraging, but the great danger is that it will become superficial. The Bible is as much God's Book for to-day, a great living need, as it was in the days of Isaiah or Paul.
Character: A Moral Text-Book
"Character: A Moral Text-Book for the Use of Parents and Teachers in Training Youth in the Principles of Conduct and an Aid to Self-Culture." Henry Varnum, author and publisher, Jacksonville, Florida.
The object of the book is stated in its title. Its aim is a moral text-book for younger scholars as well as older. The author makes God, love to Him and His service, the basis of character, and then proceeds to child and parent. The volume is divided into eighteen books, and each book into subdivisions called parts. Each part is further subdivided into numbered paragraphs of definitions, admonitions, statement of duty or conduct, etc. Apart from its false theology of spirit life which has crept in, the book is helpfully suggestive. Not only the teacher may find it thus, but the individual may study it with profit.
The Minister's Companion
"The Minister's Companion." By David G. Wylie, D.D., pastor Scotch Presbyterian Church, 96th Street and Central Park West, New York. Thomas Nelson & Sons, 381-385 Fourth Avenue, New York.
This is a neatly gotten up little manual, for various church services and important occasions, such as baptism, the Lord's Supper, marriage and funeral services, etc., etc. With the exception of the sprinkling of children and forms of baptism, designed for pedobaptists, the little manual is decidedly helpful. Its forms are simple and dignified, and composed in most cases entirely of Scripture. It is helpfully suggestive to ministers of various denominations who do not feel confident in themselves. It is approved by Drs. David James Burrell, George P. Eckman, and Charles E. Jefferson, respectively Reformed, Methodist Episcopal, and Congregational pastors.
