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Capital and Labor

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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 13, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 28.

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Capital and Labor

By W. H. Branson

W. H. BRANSON
A mighty conflict between capital and labor is on. Thousands of men on each side of the struggle are looking into the future with dark forebodings, and are vainly trying to find a solution to the great problem which confronts the entire world to-day. Others present bright visions of prosperity, and claim that their plans, if carried out, would speedily bring an end to all the difficulties. But all their plans come to naught, and their attempts to relieve the strange situation only seem to make the complications greater. Still the great question remains to be answered, When and what will be the end of this struggle?
Only by the student of prophecy is the meaning of the present situation understood, and he alone can tell when it will end. He who revealeth secrets, and who knoweth the end from the beginning, has lifted the curtain, and has revealed through his prophets that the very conditions which prevail to-day are to be looked upon as omens of the near approach of the day of God.
The prophet Isaiah foretells the present condition of the world when he exclaims: “Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither is there any end of their treasures.” Isa. 2:7. In verse 2 we are told when to expect this: “It shall come to pass in the last days.” The condition depicted is certainly true of our time; for the wealth of the world is greater to-day than it has been at any period of the past since these words were spoken by the prophet. Statistics show that in 1896 A. D. the gold and silver of the world amounted to $8,139,300,000; while in 1000 A. D. they amounted to only $160,000,000. The present wealth of the United States alone is $125,000,000,000, according to the World's Almanac for 1911.
If normal conditions prevailed, this would be an age of “good times” for the laboring classes; but we read in James 5:1-6 that this great wealth is to fall into the hands of only a few: “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire.Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.”
This heaping of treasures, this hoarding of wealth, is more noticeable to-day than it has ever been. William E. Gladstone said: “There are gentlemen before me who have witnessed a greater accumulation of wealth within the period of their lives than has been seen in all preceding times before, since the days of Julius Cæsar.” Men now living can remember when there were not half a dozen millionaires in the land; but to-day there are no fewer than six thousand, and hundreds are joining their ranks every year. Surely our age alone fits the prophetic description.
Men are living to-day who possess an amount of wealth equal to one dollar for every minute of the Christian era. The billionaire has arrived. Think of one man controlling property and currency to the amount of a thousand million dollars! This amount in five-dollar bills, if placed end to end, would belt the entire globe. It would take a train of sixteen cars to carry that amount in gold, if each car was loaded with ten tons. So perfectly have the rich succeeded in hoarding their wealth, that ninety-five per cent of all the world's money is in safety-deposit vaults, etc., and the remaining five per cent does the business of the world.
The Lord says, further: “Behold, the hire of the laborers, who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of sabaoth.” The next verse shows that at the same time that the rich are defrauding the poor, they will be living in pleasure on the earth, and be wanton, or wasteful. In Massachusetts a large manufacturing firm recently reduced the wages of its employees from ninety cents a day to sixty cents, while the general manager was getting eighty-three dollars a day, without any reduction. This is only a sample of many such circumstances where the poor are being defrauded. We read of women in Chicago who make twelve shirts for seventy-five cents, and furnish their own thread; and of women who finish off an elegant cloak for four cents; of children who work twelve hours a day earning one dollar a week; and of women who make fine custom-made trousers for a wealthy New York firm for thirteen cents a pair.
These startling facts force us to the conclusion that the time foretold by James is upon us. These days are the last days. The great question is, To what shall we look for relief from these conditions? In Isa. 8:21, R. V., we read of the poorer class that they shall pass through the land “sore distressed and hungry;” and in verses 8-12 we are told that they will take counsel together, and form confederacies (unions) to try to relieve the situation. But the Lord says their counsel shall come to naught. There is only one remedy, and that is revealed in verse 17: “I will wait upon the Lord, . . . and I will look for him.”
The admonition of the Lord to his people in such a time is: “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. . . . Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh.” Surely the sentiment of every Christian heart to-day is expressed in the language of the revelator, which reads: “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”