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SOUTHWIDE BAPTIST
SOUTHWIDE BAPTIST
News-Record and Ridgecrest Reporter
Published Weekly at
marshall, n. c.
and Knoxville, Tenn.
Entered as second class matter at Ms.rshall, N. G-
ml
Mr. Clary’s editorials will be signed in his xhe Mofal FoFce of Naval Disarmament.
itials. . mt 1* 1 . _ .
Q i ne disarmament parlament in Washington
, c demonstrated oue- thing.
Soiithwide Baptist means to servo' ooutnerni ■
Baptist churches and institutions.
terms; in advance
One Year
$2.00
Six Months ■>
1.00
Three Months
.50
Remit by check, draft or post
office money order.
All subscriptions supposed to be permanent unti
this office is otherwise notified. Sample copies free
Livingston T. Mays
Editor
Amos Clary
Associate-Editor
INTROBOCING SOOTHWIDE BAPTIST
SOUTH WIDE BAPTIST is as wide as the
South, as narrow as the doctrines of the regular
Baptist churches of the south and as wide too.
The - personnel of its staff of writers is guarantee
of this.
and institutions. It is
under denominational control but is for denomi
national work.
—0-
The fact that three officials of Southern Bap
tist Assembly are on its staff of \yriters does not
mean that the Assembly has any control or
ownership pf the paper.
_0—
The Mid-Winter Conference at Baptist Bible
Institute, New Orleans has a fine program and
curriculum New Orleans is the most interest
ing place in America to visit. G.ypsy Smith
will be in the city durirfg the conference;
—0—
Baptists take justifiable pride in the fact
that the most momentous gathering of diplo
mats in history was called by a Baptist War
ren G. Harding, is dominated by a Baptist
Charles Evans Hughes, was opened with
prayer by a Baptist, Pastor Abernathy of
Calvary Baptist Church, Washingtiou City.
—0—
A man with a memory has many laughs. Some
tins, A miU wiui a uieiuuiy iiais iiiuiiy uumc
Amos Clary, the associate editor, is a graduate ^of the preachers who preached of the virtues of
nf U.irman University and of Rochester Theologi-1 peace and the horrors of war in 1913, became the
He was for some time Field Edi- nf «t,r.fp ,n 1914
cal t^minary.
tor of Religious Herald and is author of several
books.
Judge J H. White, the publisher, a w'ell known
Baptist deacon and banker of Marshal, N. C.,
is a layman of proved efficiency.
B. W. Spilman, widely known Sunday School
specialist, President of North Carolina, Baptist
Convention and of Southern Baptist Assembly
at Ridgecrest, is on the regular staff of writers
and will contribute SPILMAN0GR.4.PHS each
week. James Edward Dillard, Chairman of
Southern Baptist Assembly Board and pastor of
the great Souihside Church in Birmingham, will
contribute a sermon weekly. Bartlett A. Bowers
of Broadway Church, Knoxville, will regularly
give a column under the heading MEDITA-
TION.” • . . . , . u
F. A. Bovver, a fine American of British birth,
will write British and Canadian Notes.
Frank--Willis Barnett, the inimitable, once edi
tor of Alabama Baptist, now one of the editors of
Birmingham Age Herald, will edit a column en
titled: ‘THIS AND THAT, HERE AND
THERE.”
News will be the specialty of SOUTHWIDE
BAPTIST Our effort will be to gather the news
of the churches of the Southern States, so that
those Baptists who cannot afford to Sub.scribe for
fifteen or twenty denominational papers may
take their state paper and SOUTHWpE BAP
TIST and keep in touch with the affairs of the
SOUTHERN BAl’TIST CONVENTION.
SOUTHWIDE institutions of the convention
need such an organ as is now provided. The editor
as corresponding secretary of Southern Baptist
Assembly, has for several years found that an
nouncements of the'south wide institution had to
be sent to at least fifteen papers in order to reach
all sections of the South. With the Southwide
Baptist all portions, if not all individuals in the
Southerp Baptist Convention can soon be reach
ed by a single announcement.
Hopo is one of the toul’s spark plugs. ^
most bloodthirsty advocates of strife in 1914
Now' these same men are proclaiming.the teach
ings of the PRINCE OF PEACE. Pbace is the
popular cry now. When -.war comes again,
these same pulpiteers will alleviate its sorrows by
making us laugh again.
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The denominationally owned Baptist paper
is still in the experimental stage. But one
thing has been demonstrated in such owner
ship already. Such a paper can never do
more than express the religious opinioff of
the denominational group leaders in its ter
ritory. Such a paper can not adequately and
independently express' the religious opinion
of all Southern Baptists.
0—
SuUTHWIDE BAP ns I’ will insistently
urge nil Baptists to take rhei>-state paper first,
then SOU'PHWIDE BAPTIST. First things,
fii*st. Deacon Brown of St. Louis, wlio made
the best of shoes, bad over each desk and
machine in bis great plant, God first, family,
second, .shoes third. That made good work
men who made gooh shoes. A man who reacts
his state denominational paper will make a good
sucscriber for SOUTHVVTDE BAPTIST.
Let us put it this wav. Bible first. State Bap
tist paper secoud, SOUTH WIDE BAPTIST
third.
—0-
We fully endorse the following editorial by the
distinguished writer Dr. Victor Masters of the
Western Recorder.
‘‘The one great chunk of fact about denomi
national publications among our people is that
not more than twenty to twenty-five per cenkpf
them are reached with even an inadequate service
in the way of papers and periodicals. Bfother
Austin suggests one curative agent that might be
invoked. There'arc many. Another would be
an independent Southwwide paper. Of one
thing we are absolutely sure: no Southwide pub
lication, whatever its value, can really take the
place of the denominational State paper. Nor
ought such a publication to be projected on a
plane that could tend to injure tli«' influence of
any State paper, so long as it really serves the
brotherhoi^ that supports it m a rote fpr signi
ficant oMl tiq)ei^ir«th.’'
Fho world is
I warrtired and tax-ridden. That is why Secre-
not tt 1 s '
tary Hughes proposal tD scrap so many of the
big'ships and to take a ten year's holiday in
naval construction met such a hearty response
the world around. There may be seme sharp
disagreements among^ihe nations when it
comes to working out the details of the
Hughes’ idea.
Frank H. Simonds who is one of the
ablest writers and keenest analists of the
present day when it comes to dealing with
political questions think that the limitation of
naval amaments will bate but little influence
in preventing wars. He thinks that the exist
ence of armed forces or the prevalence of
armed ships has very little to do with the
cause of wars.
“Wars,” says Mr. Simonds, “are caused
by totally different factors. They are precip
itated by the conflict of rival aspirations or
conceptions or interests among the peoples of
the world. The existence of the German
army did not cause the last war. The existence
in the German mind of certain hopes and
certain feaA was a factor which was responsi
ble for the war.”
Mr. Simonds over looks some of the most
imi^tant questions in the Whole matter.
W^fen a gun is put into the hands of a small
boy he wants to shoot something. Jle does
shoot something. If be can find no other
objects at which to shoot, then he shoots at
his own brothers and sisters. If some member
of the family imposes on him he brings his
toy gun into play again.
The soldiers of a country are only little boys
grown up. When 'iheir nation puts real guns
into their hands and real v;arships under their
control, then the impulse is strong to use them.
And just as the boy with bis toy gun easily
trumps up some cause which justifies him in
shooting at some member of his family so the
nation witii its well organized and well armed
army and navy will easily find a political cause
for war, if not, like Germany, will trump up
one.' '
Mr. Simonds seems not to reckon at all
the moral influence that naval disarmament
would have. Such disarmament and such a
holiday would go a long ways towards im
pressing^ the nations of the world with the
moral fact that all wars are unnecessary.
National prohibition was won through local
option. Every time a bit of territory was
won for prohibition by local option its moral
influence was twofold. For one thing, it
generated a stronger sentiment among the
citizens of that particular territory for prohi
bition. For another thing, by its evident
benefits, it propagated prohibition sentiment
in other “wet” territory. The moial influence
of naval disarmament will be great in showing,
not only the uselessness of war, but also the
benefits of no-war. Any limitation of naval
armament will be a mighty factor in making
war forever impossible among the sons of this
earth. A. C.
The name Ridgecrest Reporter is added to our
title because the editor lives at Ridgecrest and
expects to Report Ridgecrest happenii^
adiresses