Newspaper Page Text
The Presbytei
Vol. 97. No. 39.
WHAT is life worth in this country? The
way life is taken illegally and unneces
sarily would seem to indicate that a very low
value is placed upon it. During the past year
it is reported that there were 9,500 murders
in the United States, and this does not include
any so-called justifiable homicides. There
were also 12,000 deaths due to automobile ac
cidents. These two causes combined resulted
in almost half as many deaths as there were
among our men on the field of battle in the
greatest war the world has ever known. One
of the explanations of this is that those who
are guilty of taking life in these ways are not
quickly and sufficiently punished. A short
time ago an English official was murdered in
London by two men. They were arrested, tried,
convicted and hung in less than two months.
The chief cause of the murders is the fact that
so many men carry pistols. This is against
the law, when they are carried concealed. Two
things are needed in this connection. The mak
ing of pistols and their ammunition should be
stopped entirely, except for governmental pur
poses. And whenever a man is found carry
ing one he should be punished severely enough
to make sure that he will not repeat the of
fense. The usual custom of the courts is to
impose a comparatively small fine for this
violation of law. This will not keep the thug,
the robber, the murderer from carrying a
pistol. Stop their manufacture and send to
jail the man who violates the law. This will
go far towards stopping the practice of car
rying pistols and this will remove the chief
means and cause of murder. There should be
awakened a stronger demand upon the of
ficers of the law for the protection and ptes
ervation of life.
NO stronger evidence of the improved moral
condition of the people of this country
can be given than the way in whieh the recent
strikes have been conducted. A few years ago
a strike was considered as synonymous with
disorder and crime, the destruction or property
and life. Few strikes have been more wide
spread than those of the railroad shopmen and
.the coal miners. There have been isolated
eases of disorder and crime, and one instance
in which many lives were cruelly taken, but in
many cases, no doubt, the strikers were not
responsible for what was done. Some ill ad
vised; sympathizers have hurt the strikers'
pause, rather than helped it, by their acts of
violence. The vast majority of the strikers
have conducted themselves in an honorable
and dignified way and have tried to prevent
violence. This shows a wonderful change in
the sentiment of the great laboring class.
Who can tell how much of this change is due
to prohibition ? Working men with their minds
clear are very different from those wtiose minds
are clouded and passions aroused by alcohol.
BRAVE ANT) HEROIC were the efforts
made by miners and mine owners to reach
the forty-seven men who were entombed in
the Argonaut Qold Mine in California by the
explosion of gas. For twenty-two days scores
of men labored day and night to cut their way
through the debris in their effort to save the
men, if they should possibly be alive. The
mine owners not only paid the wages of the
men who did this hard and dangerous work,
but offered a special prize of $5,000 to the
team of men who should first reach the im
prisoned. All this was done to save, if
possible, the lives of forty-seven men, and too
much could not have been done in such an
effort. As the work went on from day to day
its progress was telegraphed all over the coun
try, and the reports were published in every
city. These labors were all in vain. There is
a heroic band of laborers in many heathen
lands, who are toiling hard to release from the
prison of sin one billion souls, and they are do
ing a wonderful work. They are saving many
from eternal death, but there is constantly go
ing up the cry for more workers, in order that
millions who are down in the mine of death
may be reached. Men and women are volun
teering for this great work, and cannot go be
cause the money needed to provide for them
is not furnished by the Church that God lias
blessed with great riches. Are God's people
going to be less heroic than were these miners,
when at least ten thousand heathen souls are
dying every day without the knowledge of the
Saviour! Let the Church give to the Lord
what is needed for this work.
HE FEDERAL COUNCIL continues to
. put its hands into many things, or rather
its officials do. In the 'June- July issue of the
Council's Bulletin account is given of the pre
sentation by the Federal Council's Commis
sion on the Church and Social Service^in con
junction with the Department of Social Action
of the National Catholic Welfare Council and
the Social Justice Commission of the Central
Conference of America (Jewish) Rabbis, of a
petition to President Harding on the subject
of the coal strike. This petition sounds more
like dictation than it does like humble peti
tion. It undertakes- to tell the President very
plainly what he ought to do. It says that it
is '.'our conviction that the time lias arrived
when our government should act to bring about
a conference in the bituminous coal industry
to end the present strke." Continuing, this
so-called petition says, "We call upon our Gov
ernment .... to take immediate steps to
bring the disputants together in order to secure
a just settlement of the present strike and an
organization of the coal industry on the basis
of the maximum service to the nation." Had
we l>een in the place of President Harding and
the other Government officials concerned, we
would have felt very much like saying to thfse
petitioners, "Whence comes it that you, after
only the superficial investigation and study
that you could have given to this subject are
wise enough to dictate to the President and
Government of this great country the action
they should take in this matter, which is oc
cupying .the most earnest thought and study
of many of tbe wisest men of this connry ?"
Therr? was great need for settling the strike,
but there was honest difference of opinion be
tween wise men as to whether or not the Gov
ernment should take any part in it, or if it did,
as to what methods should be employed. The
question of the methods to be employed had in
them no religious or moral features, and so the
Church of Jesus Christ, which the Council is
supposed to represent, had nothing to do with
it.
UNION of small churches of different de
nominations into what are called commu
nity churches is strongly advocated in some
quarters. Recently such a union took place
between a Congregational ist and a Methodist
church in a Connecticut village. The mem
bers of these two churches were enrolled in
one organization, and yet they are not thor
oughly amalgamated, for we are told that tJie
benevolent contributions of the former Con
gregationalists are to go to the agencies of the
Congregational Church and those of the Meth
odists to the Methodist agencies. This implies
very strongly that these people are separated
only nominally from their churches, and so
there still exist differences among them which
are just as great as ever. And where there is
that much cleavage it is hard to see how the
union will stand.
.1
MENTION was made recently of the pro
posed union of Andover Theological
Seminary and the Divinity School of Harvard
University. It will be remembered that the
Harvard school is distinctly Unitarian. An
dover was established to counteract its in
^fluenee and to teach the conservative Trini
tarian doctrine. - But a liberal element seemed
to have gotten control of it. It seems to have
a kind of dual government. There is a board
of trustees and a board of visitors. These visi
tors form a corporation, which was established
in 1823. They control $330,000 of the
$1,000,000 endowment of the Seminary. It
seems that the trustees, who belong to the lib
eral party, undertook the consolidation of the
two schools. The visitors, who belong to the
conservative side in theology, and who stand
for the teaching of the doctrines held by the
great Protestant churches, opposed the union,
and as they could not prevent it in any other
way, the matter was carried into the civil
courts. No announcement has yet been made
as to the court's decision of the case. One
striking statement is made about these schools.
Andover has $1,000,000 and the Harvard Di
vinity School is a part of Harvard University,
which has many millions of endowment. Yet
the two schools together had only fifty students
last year. Those who have given up sound doc
trine, make a good deal of noise some times,
but they do not, after all, succeed in drawing
many of the people after them. It is gratifying
to see that orthodox Seminaries are increasing
in attendance, while the heretical are not hold
ding their own.
BOYS AND GIRLS are going off just now
in large numbers to boarding schools and
colleges. No matter how much care and at
tention they may have in the school they ought
to be distinctly connected with the church
that is near them. Parents and pastors can
do them a great service by urging them to
identify themselves with the. work and services
of the church just as far as possible; and by
writing at once to the pastor of the church tell
ing him of the coming of the young people to the
school. * *