A Law Turned to Profit by L. L. C.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Nov 23, 1916

A Law Turned to Profit

By L. L. C.

IN the third chapter of Second Timothy we read a description of the condition of society in the last days, when, it is declared, perilous times shall come. Adventists are sometimes accused of being pessimists when, on looking about them, they see that the prophetic description is an accurate one for the present time. From time to time, however, proof is brought to light of the real condition of society under the surface.

Because of the great increase of commercialized vice it was necessary, a few years ago, to pass what is known as the Mann law. This law was intended to prohibit and punish commercialized vice, but this very law has become an instrument in the hands of criminals to extort blackmail from victims whom they have entrapped. A group of men and women have been arrested who are reported to have gained in blackmail from prominent persons more than $250,000 within the last few months. Probably the real amount was, if anything, in excess of the estimate.

From two standpoints this is a startling revelation of social conditions. Not only does it show the double lives which many prominent persons, both men and women, are living, that they should be subject to such blackmail by criminals who use the threat of the Mann law against them, but it also shows how even law may be turned to advantage by the expert criminal. Surely the student of prophecy is justified in seeing in present conditions a striking proof that the conditions of the times in which we are living are those described in the Scriptures as prevalent in the last days.

L. L. C.