Newspaper Page Text
Vol. 97. No. 44.
RICHMOND, VA.
NOVEMBER 1, 1922
Depression in business has been felt
throughout the country for the past year.
But from all accounts this condition is steadily
changing for the better. A short time ago
there were vast numbers of unemployed, in ad
dition to those on strike. Now it is reported
that there are very few wage earners who are
not at work, and in some quarters there is said
to be a shortage of labor. The South is com
ing in for its share in the revival of business.
The railroads are ordering new engines and
cars and other equipment at a rate which has
been unknown for some time. Building opera
tions are forging ahead at a rapid rate. Not
counting any operation, which cost less than
$10,000, the buildings contracted for in the
South during the first nine months of this year
will cost $735,000,000. These are some of the
evidences of returning prosperity. Along with
the business depression came a decided falling
off in gifts to the benevolences of the Church.
This has been shown in all departments of the
Church's work, but especially in connection
with Home and Foreign Missions. These two
branches of the work are being seriously inter
fered with because of the falling off of their
receipts. It is earnestly hoped that God's peo
ple, with their faces turned toward the increas
ing prosperity promised in the future, will not
only make up all deficiencies of the past, but
will give so liberally that the great demands
of the work shall be provided for. Let God's
people render unto God of their increase, and
He will bless them even more largely than
ever.
ALIEN POPULATION constitutes one of
the great problems of this country. Few
people in the South realize just how serious it
is in some sections of the country, for the
South has a very small proportion of foreign
stock. The foreigners in all the Soufhcrn
States constitute only 8 per cent of its popu
lation, according to Government statistics,
while in the rest of the country the percentage
is more than 48. Rhode Island is the most
foreign with 69 per cent, followed closely by
Massachusetts with 66 and New York with 62
per cent. New York City has more than
75 per cent of foreigners and Chicago has 72
per cent. But it will not always be true that
the South will have such a small percentage of
those who know little of its ideals and prin
ciples. Foreigners are the cause of many of
the serious problems which confront our coun
try in connection with labor and social rela
tions, and the liest way to solve these problems
is to give these people, who come largely from
non-religious countries, the gospel as it is
held by our Church .and other evangelical
churches. This work many of the city churches
are doing very well, but there is a great deal
more of it to be done in mining and manufac
turing communities that can be done only by
the Home Mission agencies of the Church. Un
der the direction of our Atlanta Committee
the gospel is being preached in ten different
languages in the South. But it has been able
to make only a limited start in this great work.
We have a specially fine opportunity to do this
work now. While the number of foreigners is
comparatively limited, it is far easier to reach
and influence them individually than it will be
when the number is greatly increased. The
Church has a great privilege in doing this
work, which is a great responsibility that God
has laid upon it.
AMERICANS are a pleasure loving people,
and it is well that they are and that they
can secure to a large extent what they need.
One evidence of this love of^pleasuie is t'je
20,000,000 people who spend each week $8,000,
000 to see moving pictures. The movirg pic
ture is one of the most wonderful inventions
of the age and it ought to be ont of the best,
but it has fallen largely into the hands of those
who have low^ideals and are only after the
dollars that can be made out of the business.
But it is gratifying to learn that a decided
improvement is being made in the pictures
that are being presented to the public. It is
to be hoped that this will continue until no
picture shall be shown on a screen that will be
injurious to the morals of those who see it.
STABILITY of government or of business
is dependent upon the character of the
people. Where the character of the majority
of the people is built upon the fundamental
principles of right, there need be little fear of
any serious trouble. This country has recently
passed through some very trying experiences
in the coal strikes, the railroad strikes and the
general business depression, but the people did
not go into hysteria. Those not immediately
involved in the strikes went quietly on with
their work and their business. There have been
losses, of course, but they have been very small
compared with what might have been ex
pected, and now the country is in good condi
tion to go ahead and recover all that it has
lost. Ilad it not been for the sturdy, conserva
tive character of the great majority of the peo
ple the country could never have weathered
the storm as it did, and be in such good condi
tion to sail out on the sea of prosperity which
stretches out before it. This sturdiness of
character grows out of the fact that the prin
ciples of religion are gaining more and more
influence in the lives of the people.
Episcopalians of the High Church
order are rejoicing over what they seem
to consider a great victory that they have won.
The Living Church, an Episcopal paper, speaks
of it as "the most momentous chapter in ec
clesiastical history in a thousand years, scarcely
? excepting the chapters of the Reformation per
iod." When we road that we wondered what
great event had taken place. As we read on
it seemed more a case of the mountain laboring
and bringing forth a mouse. The High Church
party in the. Church of England has for years
been making love to the Roman Catholic
Church, but all the consolation it got was an
invitation to join that churoh. More recently
this party has been making love to the Greek
Church, whose headquarters are at Constanti
nople. The Living Church gives this as the ex
planation of its rejoicing: "After centuries pf
questioning, the validity of the Anglican epis
copate and priesthood is established by the
Patriarchal See of the most ancient branch of
the historic Catholic Church. The schism of a
thousand years' standing bids fair to be healed
in our day, and the healing process is almost
complete." The Episcopal Church in all of
its branches has always made a great deal of
the "historic episcopate," claiming that the
ordination of their priests and bishops had come
down in unbroken succession from the days of
the Apostles. This could only have come
through the Roman Catholic Church, and that
Church has never admitted the validity of the
Anglican ordination. But that does not mat
ter now, as the Greek Church, which claims
to l>e the original church and older than the
Romish Church, says that Anglican ordination
is valid. It is hard to understand how that
church is willing to give credit to the Romisli
Churcli for transmitting the validity of ordina
tion to another church, when these two churches
have been fighting and anathematizing each
other ever since the division which separated
them in the early centuries. And after all,
what does the opinion of the Greek Church
amount to as to whether or not priests and
bishops of the Church of England have been
properly ordained? No one who is at all fa
miliar with the Greek Church would think of
considering it orthodox from the Protestant
standpoint. In its teaching and practice it has
often been described as "baptized paganism."
But, if the High Church, Anglicans and Epis
copalians can get any comfort out of it, they
are welcome to it
PERFUMERY in the East and the Near
East is very much prized. Of the three
presents brought to the infant Saviour by the
Wise Men of the East two were of perfumery.
From the fact that they were brought as gifts
to a king, and that they were classed with gold,
we would conclude that they were costly. Oue
of the most costly perfumeries that we know of
today is the attar of roses. Bulgaria is pre
eminently the home of this costly product. In
1913 there were 19,500 acres devoted to the
cultivation of roses for this purpose, and the
attar produced amounted to 6,800 pounds. That
is, it took all of the roses grown in a whole sum
mer on three acres of ground to produce one
pound, or one pint of the attar. When we add
to the cost of raising the roses that of gathering
them and extracting their sweetness from them,
it is not surprising that perfume is costly
When we think of the sweetness as well as the
beauty of the rose, how striking it is that the
Saviour is called the Rose of Sharon.
Cancer is one of the great curses of this
country. During last year 180,000 per
sons died in this country from this disease or
considerably more than twice as many of our
soldiers as were killed or died from wounds or
disease in all of the great war. It itf said that
many eases of this disease can be cured, if taken
in tltrte. The trouble is that many people from
one cause or another conceal the disease. Any
thing suggesting the coming of the disease
should be given medie&l attention at once. The
week November 12-2lf has been set apart for a
special educational campaign on the preventive
measures that may .lie used.