S C R I B N E R ' S M A G A Z I N E Important ... - Rparchives.org

August 27, 1913.
A FAMILY
PAPER.
E D I T O R I A L
NEW YORK, AUG. 27, 1913.
Rev. Dr. Kuyper, of Hollund, has resigned his
seat in Parliament. He was for a time Prime
Minister. He is 75 years of age, not broken, but
owing to increasing deafness, he has retired from
nolitics. In his administration, the Calvinistic
(Reformed people united with the Ultramontaine
party, and overcame the party in power.
* * *
Any one who takes for granted a British Government
contention must be right, and another
country wrong, as for example our own, can
study this:
LONDON, Aug. 15.—Lieutenant General Chang,
a delegate of the National Opium Prohibition
Union, of China, who has been in England for
three months endeavoring to induce the British
Government to release China from her obligation
to receive any more Indian opium, started today
lor China to report to Provisional President Yuan
Shl-Kai, the failure of his mission. In a statement
issued to the British public today General
Chang said:
"Out people are deadly in earnest in their efforts
to rid themselves of the opium evil and
they cannot help feeling resentment against a
country which is forcing upon us the very article
by which we were degraded and disgraced. It is
intolerable when we reflect that while we are
sacrificing millions of revenue and hundreds of
IWes in struggling against enormous diflaculties, a
foreign country should force us to receive for two
or three years longer the poison we so earnestly
are striving to stamp out."
The lieutenant general concluded by appealing
to the British friends of China "to do their utmost
to induce the British Government to join
with us in removing the root of wrong and in
•promoting righteousness in the world."
Some of the Great Powers, including Britain,
have not formally accepted participation in the
Panama Exposition. We expect Great Britain to
be represented in some way after all. Much is
making along the Canada border at Erie and
soints West along the Lakes, of the Perry Centennial;
there are committees dealing with the
celebration of one hundred years of peace between
the two countries. The following appeared
in The London Times some time ago:
"The British delegation, headed by Lord Wearte,
which has recently completed its successful
and memorable visit to the United States, for the
purpose of conferring with the American and Canadian
committees on the subject of the approaching
celebration of the first 'century of peace between
the British Empire and the American Commonwealth,
has brought back glowing reports of
the enthusiasm with which it was received.
The moment has now arrived when it becomes
necessary to appeal to the liberality ot our own
public for funds to carry out the important projects
Included in the British programme for the
celebration. These include:
!• The erection of a memorial of the centenary
of peace in Westminster Abbey. Permission
nas been obtained from the Dean and Chapter.
2' The purchase of Sulgrave Manor, Northants,
tlie ancestral home of the Washington family, and
''s maintenance as a place of pilgrimage for
Americans in England, and as a fruitful symbol
"f the kinship of the two ipeoples. An option on
ttis historic property has been secured.
•'• The foundation of a permanent Chair of
Anglo-American History and the endowment of a
scheme of annual prizes in the elementary and
secondary schools for essays on topics germane
to the objects of the celebration.
The above programme, as was stated by Earl
Grey, will involve an expenditure of between £50,-
000 and £00,000.
The committee ask for the prompt and generous
contributions of the British public to the Centenary
Fund now open. Cheques should be made
payable to the order of the British American
Peace Centenary Fund, any may be crossed 'Bank
of England, Western Branch.' "
The address of the British Committee, to which
'contributions should be sent, is 189, Centralbuildings,
Tothill-street, Westminster.
:ic ^ ^
The Panama question has brought in a cooling
air. It served to revive memories of a certain
merchant class during our Civil War and recalled
the Alabama question. A cordial abandonment
of the Panama question, and union by the Government
in the Exposition would smooth out the
wrinkles better than any thing now devised.
Meanwhile whatever the Government may do, or
the Tories and the Ship-men, nothing of all this
will interfere with the relations of the two peoples.
None forget the spirit in the very crisis
of the Civil War of men like Newman Hall, John
Bright and the toilers of (Britain.
* * *
The female labor law of Nebraska, which
went into effect July 18, has made it necessary
in many instances to readjust the
viforking hours of women in establishments
affected by the law. The law declares that no
female shall work more than nine hours a day
or fifty-four hours a week. Nor may any
female be "employed in any manufacturing,
mechanical or mercantile establishment, laundry,
hotel or restaurant office, or by any public
service corporations," between the hours
of 10 p. m. and 6 a. m. Stores which employ
girls and women and are kept open late
Saturday evening are forced to open later
in fhe morning and give this class of help
extra time off to avoid violating'tbe ninehour
law. They open at 8.15 and close at
9 p. m. in most cases, but they are obliged
to grant several hours off duty during the
day.
Large employers of labor say that the
new law will react on the very class of persons
that it is presumed to benefit in the
v/ay of short hours. The manager of one
store that employs women said that it was
sure to result in the increased employment
of men as clerks.
* * *
Sometimes the very common things in life
teach lessons of importance. A grocer has
a short pound. He has bored out the weight
and it represeu'ts fifteen ounces. The City
Weigh-master oomes round, and the grocer,
with great protestations of innocence, is.cited
tO' appear in court. The people want,
and are entitled to, a full pound, for which
they pay. The dry-goods merchant may
have a yard that short-measures. Presently
he is detected. The buyer is entitled to a
full yard. The public are on the side of
the full pound weight and the full yard
measure and justify the fine imposed. But
when it comes to the full pound in morals,
or the full vard in keeping God's law, sometimes
even'the Christian will laugh at the
light weight and short measure. He will
break God's law, setting a wrong measure
before others, and think he is someway exhibiting
courage. He forgets he is not giving,
a full pound and a full yard. He is
wronging somebody depending for light on
his example, and the community in general,
and God the law-giver. Either he is not wise
enough to see it, or he is morally blinded
and does not care if he does cheat, and dishonor
God, and despoil society.
While the public are on the side of the full
pound, and the full yard-measure, they do
not regard seriously (if they do not applaud,)
the misconduct of the man whose
life is a short pound and a short yard. And
yet the latter is more destructive and ruinous
from every point of view.
THE LATE DR. MATHEWS AND
PSALM SINGING.
The Quarterly Register for August contains
a notice of the late Rev. George D.
Mathews, the General Secretary of the Alliance
of the Reformed Churches. He was
the editor of that periodical, the organ of the
Alliance.
He died in London on the evening
of July Sth in the eighty-sixth year of
his age. He was buried under the shadow
of the ancient Parish Church of South Leith.
His father was Scotch, and his mother was
an Englishwoman. He had returned* but
a few days from the Tenth Council in Aberdeen,
and for forty years had been identified
with the Alliance.
He understood the early arrangement as to
the praise service of the Council, made
W'hen Dr. J. R. W. Sloane represented the
American psalm-singing churches'. At the
beginning and all through these years he
saw to it that this service was by the use
of the inspired psalms without instrumental
music. The effect of the common method in
this part of the service by choir and organ
is seen when the large body of men from all
churches cannot or do not lift their voices
in praise to God; and while it seems to some
to reflect on the method used at the Alliance
meetings, it really reflects on the body of
ministers and elders who have no voice to
praise God in the use of his Word.
* * *
We have held back too long the following
from the Religious News section of the
Public Ledger of May 17:
I. From the report of the meeting of the
Lutheran Conference in Philadelphia on
May 16:
"Stirred by a proposed amendment to the
church rules against oath-bound secret societies,
layman delegates were present at the
two sessions in readiness to defend
the secret societies. Only a ' very
small number of the clerical delegates are
represented in the various societies, but tiie