p. 8 | A Disquieting Situation by William Warren Prescott

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Mar 7, 1912

A Disquieting Situation

By William Warren Prescott

THE rapid increase of the Socialist vote in recent years, and especially emphasized in the elections of November, 1911, is causing some apprehension in the minds of the students of the political system, and is still the subject of discussion. An article in the Outlook of February 24, entitled “The Rising Tide of Socialism,” deals quite fully with this problem, giving facts and figures that are full of interest and significance. We quote a paragraph relative to the November elections:—

The Socialists have carried eighteen cities and towns throughout the country—eight in Ohio, five in Utah, one in Minnesota, one in Pennsylvania, and, most startling of all, the rapidly growing manufacturing town of Schenectady, in New York. Rhode Island and New York, for the first time in the history of these two States, had elected Socialists to their legislatures. Pennsylvania and Massachusetts had returned Socialist legislative representatives by increased pluralities. In Buffalo the Socialist vote was nearly doubled; in Columbus, Cleveland, and Dayton, Ohio, and in Reading, Pa., it nearly equaled the vote of the Republicans and Democrats, respectively.

The words of Bismarck to Carl Schurz, uttered many years ago, are quoted by the writer of this article, who declares that they “sound now like a prophecy:”—

Will not the real test of your democratic institutions come when, after the disappearance of the exceptional opportunities springing from your wonderful natural resources, which are in a certain sense common property, your political struggles become, as they surely will become, struggles between the poor and the rich, between the few who have and the many who want?

As a fitting close to the article an extract is made from a recent address by Jacob Gould Schurman, president of Cornell University, who reviews “the serious economic and political problems which confront the people of this country.” His analysis of the situation is worthy of serious consideration. He declares:—

We are living in an age of unrest and discontent. Never before has there been anything like it in this country. In the past there have often been specific grounds of complaint and dissatisfaction; but with their removal, the American spirit has regained its buoyancy and optimism. We are to-day like men moving about under a pall which stretches to the horizon, and which can not be broken through. Yet I venture to assert that the oldest man in this audience can recall nothing like it in his experience. The spirit of discontent is far more widely diffused than ever before, and the causes are at once more fundamental and more permanent.

This spirit of restless discontent is not confined to the United States. We find it in foreign countries and in all continents. It is especially active in England, France, and Germany. It has been a controlling influence in Australia. It animates the Nationalist party in Egypt. And in China it has burst forth with a colossal energy which menaces the dynasty of the Manchus, and is certain to revolutionize the immemorial institutions of that venerable empire.

In its most general form, this revolution is one of man, the worker, against the governments, organizations, or powerful individuals who have exploited him. And in countries whose governments are already democratic, it takes the form of a contest between workers and owners, or, in more abstract language, between labor and capital.

The working men of the world are becoming possessed with the conviction that they do not get a fair share of the wealth of which they are the principal creators. And with ever-increasing emphasis they are calling on the state to correct this injustice and redress their wrongs.

To one who is familiar with the prophecies relating to this time, this description of present-day conditions reads as if it might have been written to furnish proof of the fulfilment of the predictions made long ago. This wide-spread unrest and this attempt to make conditions better by reaching after political power are only preliminary to a time of violence and lawlessness which will as surely come as effect follows cause.

In one of his talks with the Pharisees our Saviour compared the day when the Son of man is revealed with the days of Noah; and one of the prominent characteristics of the days just before the flood, is that “the earth was filled with violence.” The climax came when men utterly refused to listen to the counsel of God, and as a consequence the earth was overwhelmed by the flood. We are gradually approaching a similar state of things when, according to the Scriptures, “the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”

The present confusion in the political world, and the efforts being made to find a suitable leader for the so-called “progressives,” who are seeking to bring about reforms by political action, are significant intimations of the political chaos which threatens the country, while at the same time they indicate the anxiety felt by many thoughtful men as to the probable outcome of the mighty struggle now in progress “between the few who have and the many who want.”

In this time when the very foundations of civil society seem trembling, and the outlook seems absolutely forbidding when the situation is viewed from a merely human standpoint, it is most important

that we should heed these words of exhortation:—

“Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness?” 2 Peter 3:11.

Neither a nation nor a people, as a body, will be delivered in the day of the dissolution of all things. The only basis of confidence is that holiness of life which is the fruit of a personal faith in the great Deliverer. Happy are they now, and happy will they be in the day of the earth’s overthrow, whose righteousness is of the Lord. W. W. P.