QUAKERS’ GREAT MEN

Hawera Star, Volume L, 31 July 1930, Page 7

QUAKERS’ GREAT MEN

LEADERS IN MANY SPHERES. The essential faith of Quakerism is that the spirit of God is within every human being. Therefore, the Quakers have no ministers, no dogma, no sacraments, and no liturgy. They interpret the scriptural commands literally and “conscientiously object to war and violence.” Men .and women have been equal in Quakerism for 300 years. j There are 19,065 Quakers in Greatl Britain. That is the membership of/ the Society of Friends, whose yearly) meeting was held recently in London. What are they among the- 44,375,000 population of England, AY ales • and Scotland ? But .... look around and you will find that in every phase of national life this tiny community of Quakers has attained amazing eminence. Fiw, Cadbury, and Rjowntree are 1 synonymous with chocolate—all Quakers. Huntley and Palmer, Carr’s, and Jacob spell biscuits—more Quakers. Every woman links starch with Reckitt —another Quaker. The first man to put tea into packets ready for sale was Edward Horniman—yet an other Quaker. Perhaps you prefer more vigorous refreshment. Then such famous brewers as Hoare, Barclay and Perkins Walkers’, Parkinson (famous in the North of England), Truman and Hanbury. Turn to other realms of business Banking, for instance. Lloyds Bank. Barclays Bank. Homes Bank, arc nil Quaker in their origin. Quakers, indeed, originated and founded the English banking system, with its solidity and honesty. You have, to take a journey? That means Bradshaw, the Manchester Quaker, who printed, the lirst railway time-table. Look at the cover, and you will ’see the current issue is still dated “oth month,” in accordance with the Quaker disregard for heathen names for months and days, such as May and Sunday. Friend Edward Pease financed George Stephenson in the building of the first railways. John Ellis, another Quaker, founded the Midland Railway. Sir George Newman, M.D., principal medical officer to the Yiinisttry of Health, is a Quaker. Another was Lister, the great surgeon whose introduction of antiseptic methods has saved more lives and suffering than any other human agency. So was Sir Jonathan Hutchinson, whose research marked a definite dominance over skin diseases and leprosy. Quakerism and. scientific distinction have loiio- been closely associated. Dalton, with his law of atomic weights, was a Quaker. In the development of telephony and telegraphy, Silva mis Thompson, ,a, Quaker, was foremost. Professor Eddington, university astronomer at Cambridge, whose recent book is creating as great a stir as Einstein’s theory, is a Quaker. Membership of the Royal Society is the supreme honour paid to any scientist. The number of Quakers elected as Fellows of the Society is forty-six times greater than their numerical proportion to the population. To politics the Friends have given John Bright and \V. E. Kor-ster, who instituted education for the whole people in 1870. In literature do you recognise E. A . Lucas in the “Edward Verral Lucas to whom the Quaker magazines refer as a Friend? Again there are G. B. Burgin (who published his hundredth book recently) and Wilfred AYhitten. The Cunard Line (founded by a Quaker), and crosses the Atlantic, and Friend Herbert Hoover is president of the United States.