Be it resolved by the Southern Baptist Convention in annual session assembled:
1. That we deplore the prevalence of crime in our nation as indicated by reliable figures. It is nothing short of a national disgrace and surely ought to be an occasion for national concern that during the year 1940, 1,517,026 crimes of serious nature should have been committed.
2. That we pledge ourselves to the cultivation of the spirit of law observance in all matters and to the promotion of such teaching in our schools and such discipline in our homes as will rapidly reduce these appalling figures and will establish the principles of sobriety, self-control, justice and mercy in the hearts and lives of the growing generation.
RESOLUTION CONCERNING EMBEZZLEMENT OF POWER
Be it resolved by the Southern Baptist Convention in annual session assembled:
1. That we deprecate what seems to be a clear and unmistakable tendency on the part of some of our legislative bodies, including the Congress of the United States and some of the State Legislatures, to ignore and scout the rights of the people to determine their institutions at the ballot box.
2. That it is our deep and abiding conviction that this is a rank and inexcusable denial and betrayal of the principles of our free institutions and democratic government for the defense of which we are spending billions upon billions of dollars. What value will be the name of democracy if legislative bodies, whether national or state, force their will upon the people and refuse to allow the people to express themselves, or scout the will of the people as expressed at the ballot box?
3. We pledge ourselves without the slightest hesitation or reservation to the principles of democracy and to the right of the people to determine by majority vote what shall be their institutions and whether or not such a curse as the liquor traffic shall be fastened upon the body politic.
Unanimously approved and recommended for adoption by the Commission.
Arthur J. Barton, Chairman
Amendment offered by L. E. Barton, Jasper, Alabama, and adopted by the Convention:
Be it resolved by the Southern Baptist Convention in annual session assembled:
That we protest against the reappointment of Myron C. Taylor or anyone else as a representative of this government to the Vatican.