The Canadian Watchman for 1932

In This Issue This T‘%entieth Century Nlaratho The Tragedy of Geneva The Adding Machine Fails Some Simple Ailments and what to Do October Oshawa, Ontario 25C • The BIBLE I and the 1 DEPRESSION By Robert E. Speer When the days are dark, men need its light. A When the times are hard, men need its comfort. • When the outlook is discouraging, men needs its confidence. When despair is abroad, men need its word of hope. There are luxuries that may well be spared. There are even necessities that can be curtailed. But the Bible, indispensable at all times, is still more indispensable in times like these today. The Bible is not a book of political maxims or of economic theories. It is not a book of maxims or theories at all. It is a book of living principles. Its spirit is the spirit of brotherliness and goodwill. It is a summons to helpful- ness: "Bear ye one another's burdens." It is a summons also to self-respecting independence: "Let every man bear his own burden." It teaches charity, but also justice. It calls us to the giving and serving which the strong owe to the weak, and those who have to those who lack; but it also strikes straight and clear at the moral defects in individuals which are responsible for a large part of the poverty and suffering of the world; and also at the moral and economic defects in society, in business relations, and in the distribution of the common • resources of the world, which are responsible for the remaining part. Christ is the only hope of individuals and of society. And the Bible is the only book which tells His story. It alone preserves His words, which are spirit and life. It alone records His deeds by which He saved the world, and would save it now if we would obey Him. The best thing men can do is to spread the Bible and to get it read and obeyed. This would be the end of hard times, of poverty, of unemployment, a of injustice, or wrong, or war. • —From the American Bible Society "Record." • 0 • The Tragedy of GENEVA World Hopes A new bombing and torpedo plane that may Dashed spread disaster from the air and on the sea. By ARTHUR MAXWELL, Our Correspondent at Geneva A SUPREME opportunity has been lost. The purpose and representative of all nations on the S great World Disarmament Conference that was to face of the earth, was something so unprecedented, have saved mankind from all fear of future war, so full of rare promise, that it seemed the one star * that was to have lifted the burden of armaments shining in the blackness of world depression. from the weary backs of the nations, has ended in Great Anticipations .3."` complete and utter failure. After weeks of seemingly interminable discussion, Immense preparations were made to ensure its after the splitting of a million hairs about quantita- success. For five years a Preparatory Disarmament tive and qualitative methods of approaching the Commission put forth Herculean efforts in order subject, after the circulation of reams upon reams to lay a solid foundation on which this crowning of reports of committees and sub-committees, the edifice of peace might be safely erected. Exhaustive great conference hall is empty and silent at last. inquiries were made and no expense spared. Even The delegates of sixty nations have scattered to the League of Nations building was extensively en- their homes in all parts of the world. Experts and larged for the occasion. And when the Conference secretaries have dispersed for well-earned vacations. opened, what a sounding of trumpets there was, . The conference stands adjourned for at least six what a beating of drums, what a puffing of the months. Perhaps for ever. pipes of peace, as the five hundred newspaper cor- It is one of the greatest tragedies of all time. So respondents from all nations described the stirring 4 much was expected of it. Hope ran high in millions scenes of that inaugural meeting. of hearts that some great, courageous act of mutual All that is forgotten now. The headlines have confidence and self-sacrifice would surely eventuate. changed. In fact the newspapers hardly find space Such a conference as this, called for such a noble for the Conference at all. As it was said of the FOR OCTOBER, 1932 murdered Caesar, "There is none so poor to do him (a) Abolition of all bombardment from the air, reverence." From all quarters there have come ex- "subject to agreement with regard to measures to be pressions of profound disappointment. Even the adopted for the purpose of rendering effective the Times, referring to the final resolution, admitted observance of this rule." that it was "disappointing in substance." "No single (b) Limitation of the calibre of land artillery firm decision is taken for the reduction now of ar- with varying maxima (not yet agreed) for coastal, maments or effectives," it went on. "There cannot fortress, and mobile guns. fail to be disappointment that five months of dis- (c) Limitation of the unit tonnage of tanks, cussion in the Disarmament Conference, following size not stated. five years' work by the Preparatory Commission, (d) Prohibition of chemical, bacteriological and e should have ended in a program." Mr. J. L. Gar- incendiary warfare. vin has written also in the Observer of the "dis- (e) Establishment of a Permanent Disarmament appointing result" and the "meager achievement." Commission to see that the above provisions are car- Trifling Results ried out. (f) Provision for the continuation of the study The mountain has indeed brought forth a mouse. of the problem of disarmament by various com- After all the labor, all the expense, all the huge mittees. publicity, the Conference could not produce one (g) An invitation to the naval powers to meet unanimous decision. Even the final resolution was again to discuss the possibilities of further reduc- only approved by forty-one nations, two voting tions. against and eight countries abstaining. Yet the (h) A recommendation to the various Govern- terms of this concluding action which summarized ments to renew for a period of four months from the work of the conference, were of the mildest and November 1, 1932, the arms truce agreed upon in most innocuous nature. September, 1931. Briefly they embodied the following provisions: No Unanimity This list of proposals is sufficient evidence of the • great gulf that exists between anticipation and re- alization. Even the reductions suggested are not outlined in detail and may easily come to mean nothing at all when the experts have worked their will upon them. Prohibition of air bombardment is subject to further agreements. And the task of seeing that these meager reforms are carried out is to be entrusted to a "Permanent Disarmament Com- mission" which may or may not acquire the complete confidence of all parties. Perhaps, as Mr. Garvin suggests, some satisfac- tion can be found in the fact that forty-two nations were brought into agreement with such proposals as these, scanty and unsensational though they be. But when two Great Powers such as Germany and Russia refuse their assent, of what value is the majority vote? Germany opposed as a protest against the omission from the resolution of any • recognition of the principle of equality of rights between nations, and Russia ostensibly because the I principle of a one-third all round reduction had not been accepted. And what of the eight others who abstained from voting altogether? No Reduction Meanwhile Europe remains an armed camp. No nation has given up a single defensive or offensive weapon or reduced its armaments by a single round of ammunition. There has been no scrapping of any implement of warfare. There are just as many soldiers under arms as before the Conference began, just as many tanks, airplanes, battleships r and bombs. Old-time implements of warfare, which were once It has all ended in tragic fiasco. No one, per- the dread of man. It would be better for our world if all our modern war tools were locked up in some haps, is to be specially blamed. Certainly not the museum. (Continued on page 26) 4 CANADIAN WATCHMAN INTOLERANCE SHALL WE ABANDON the Golden Rule Standard? By J. DAVIES OMETIME ago I heard a lecture on the causes of the depression. The lecturer said that prominent among the con- Stributory factors were intolerance, war, tariffs, technological unemployment. Technological unemployment he described as unemployment caused by the introduction of labor saving machin- ery. It is true that these and many other factors could be summed up under one head, Selfishness. In fact each individual factor is based on selfishness. The abandonment of the Golden Rule Standard has caused ten thousand times more misery than the abandonment of the Gold Standard. Selfishness can be expressed in a thousand different ways and perhaps the most subtle and most destructive form of selfishness is intolerance. If you turn back the pages of history, you will find them stained by the blood of many martyrs, victims of intolerance. Surely every man has the God-given right to do his own think- ing, to worship God according to the dictates of his own con- science, to join this society or that, to order his own life, as long as it does not interfere or prevent his brothers from having the same prerogative. But we have no right under heaven to try to compel others by civil laws to act or think as we do.

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