The Abuse of Power by L. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jul 20, 1905

The Abuse of Power

By L. A. S.

“Power belongeth unto God,” wrote the psalmist. Only in the hands of the great Judge of all the earth, who can not fail to do right, can vast power be safely reposed. Only under his direction can great power be exercised unattended by evil results. Upon all the pages of human history stands out clearly the truth that human beings can not be safely entrusted with unusual power. In former times such power was possessed by kings and those who sat in the chief seats of authority. The evils which followed the concentration of great power in the hands of one individual led to the adoption of a form of government which distributes the power of the nation among the people. The founders of the American republic provided as the basis of government in this nation a constitution which they believed would insure protection to the people against the despotism with which individuals had been able, under a monarchical form of government, to oppress the masses of the people.

But our forefathers who so carefully guarded against the evils of political monarchy, did not foresee the rise of monarchs in the industrial world. The men who so resolutely stood out against King George’s system of taxation without representation, did not foresee the far worse system of taxation without representation that was to be established by the power of wealth. They did not foresee the conditions through which men would be lifted to positions of monarchical power independently of the machinery of civil government, and the abuse of that power of which such men would be guilty.

To-day, the prosperity of the nation is threatened from the abuse of power. The tendency to the abuse of power on the part of all classes possessing it seems to be growing. The following extracts from an address made by Mr. James B. Dill, a prominent corporation lawyer, at Oberlin College, June 28, show how this danger is felt by one in the best position to comprehend it:—

The menace in our so-called prosperity of to-day is that the men among us who become powers—financial, political, social—abuse their power. Conditions in the business and financial world are not wholesome. Let us look a little deeper. The trouble is not with matters in the abstract, it is not with theories, it is not with forms. The trouble is concrete. The evils of the past are our fault. The wrong is personal. The cause of to-day’s existing evils is not that our theories of finance or politics or corporation law are wrong. They may be wrong, but they are not “the” wrong. Back of them are the evils which have their origin within our men and our women. No, the cause is personal; and—this I say deliberately—the greatest wrong-doing is by educated men and educated women. Of pretenders, deceivers of the public, of grafters, the most skilful and dangerous are found in the ranks of educated men and educated women. . . .

Credit and good faith, not money, are the basis of business. Good or bad, our modern prosperity is founded on public confidence. Take that away, and the whole fabric falls. Well, we are taking it away. Distrust—the rust which corrodes public confidence—is spreading in the land. Suspicion is taking the place of belief, skepticism is taking the place of public confidence; many are inclined to view an honest investment with a feeling of doubt and fear; many refuse to invest in new enterprises, because they prefer to place their funds in savings-banks, trust companies, insurance companies, where they think their savings are safe. And there also, we are learning, these savings are used by those in control for private speculation.

The result of this prevalent abuse of power—the manner in which it is a menace to the country—as seen by Mr. Dill, is that it leads directly, logically, and inevitably to “the corruption of our laws and their false interpretation.” The men who are guilty of it, he says, are “sowing the seeds of socialism, anarchy, and despotism.” L. A. S.