p. 7 | Growing Better by C. M. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 27, 1913

Growing Better

By C. M. S.

WHILE the Scriptures faithfully warn us that until the end of the world comes, “evil men and seducers shall wax worse, and worse, deceiving, and being deceived,” and plainly foretell the times of strife and perplexity that will characterize the epoch which closes earth’s history, many self-styled optimists are declaring that the world is growing better, and that the golden age of peace and plenty is then yet before us. And yet the newspapers of the world, recording the happenings of the world, are denouncing that doctrine and disputing that declaration every day in the very news items which they print. Here is a summary of a portion of the striking items of news printed in one morning’s issue of the Washington Post, the date being Feb. 11, 1913. This is given just as it appeared in the news summary:—

World Tragedies in the Day’s News

Turkey.—Six thousand five hundred killed and wounded in battles about Scutari.

Mexico.—Diaz and Madero fighting for control of the government. Hundreds have been killed in battle. United States will send two cruisers and two battle-ships to afford refuge for foreigners.

Japan.—Six killed and sixty-five wounded in political riots in Tokio. Mobs stone the premier, burn and wreck buildings.

England.—Capt. Robert F. Scott and four of his party of sixty-six explorers perished in a blizzard on their return journey from the south pole.

West Virginia, U. S. A.—Sixteen killed and twenty wounded in fierce battle between striking miners and a posse of mine guards. The governor has sent troops to the scene.

But this is not confined to one day or one issue of a journal. It is going on from day to day, the conditions becoming more desperate with each new day, the coloring growing more ominous with each new turn of the kaleidoscope. The “optimists” professed to believe that the exposures of corruption in municipal politics, which have been coming so frequently during the last few years, were an indication that the people were cleaning up and that those things were going to be wiped out. But the truth is that the more those things are opened up, the more there seem to be that needs to be opened up. One exposure blasts a way into another chamber of horrors, and that leads to another, and so on ad infinitum.

But a few months ago a noted gambler was shot to death in New York City, because, having grown tired of contributing to the police large sums of money to purchase protection from the enforcement of the law, he decided to expose the ring of grafters that was fattening off the vices and crimes of the city. That crime opened a new lane into that dark abode of iniquity, and permitted the world to catch a faint glimpse of the wicked practises going on there. One of the men on whose testimony the chief conspirators in that crime were convicted was himself shot to death on October 5. Another informer, who had been taunted by his former associates and his wife for testifying against the conspirators, fired a bullet into his wife’s body, and then shot to death his own little twelve-year-old girl. He is now awaiting trial for murder. Philip Davidson is awaiting trial for the confessed murder of Jack Selig, the informer. Police Lieut. Charles Becker is in Sing Sing awaiting his execution for the part he played in the gambler’s death. Harry Horowitz is in Sing Sing prison awaiting execution for the same cause, as are also Frank Muller and Frank Cirofici.

This crime and these trials opened the way for further revelations, and now a police inspector has been indicted for accepting graft; and three police captains have been indicted for the same crime, and one of them confesses. In addition to these, there have been eighty-two indictments against patrolmen, sergeants, and minor police officials for graft and perjury, while many murders in East Side and the Bowery are attributed to trouble growing out of the murder of the gambler Rosenthal. Thus does the world grow better in its municipal affairs!

While these conditions continue, and the terrible revelations go on, the people continue to migrate to the cities; and this migration cityward helps to make the conditions more hopeless. If the movement of the people were outward, away from the congestion and the contamination of the striving thousands, there might be hope; but in no country is such a movement recorded. They are following the example of Lot of old, and they are finding modern Sodoms containing every element of corruption that Lot and his children found in Sodom of old; and over these Sodoms, too, hang the terrible and imminent judgments of God.

No; the world is not growing better. What is going on in New York is going on elsewhere in the great cities of the whole world. Iniquity does abound, and the love of the many is waxing cold. On every hand there is strife and contention. Laborers are banding themselves together to resist the demands of capital, and capital is doing the same to resist the demands of labor. Great Catholic organizations are banding themselves together to advance the interests and support the demands of their church; and Protestant denominations have bound themselves together to enforce their demands upon legislators and to work for and insist upon legislation of a character that will mean persecution for conscientious Christians. And it does not help the cause of the world’s peace that strong-minded and purposeful women have adopted the arguments of force and destruction to win the ballot for women.

This age of confederacy is focusing the strong rays of its mighty forces upon this point in earth’s history, and sooner

or later we shall see the burst of flame that starts the final conflagration. It is bound to come. The Scriptures have foretold it; and every element is working to that end. We can not prepare ourselves for what is coming by shutting our eyes and stopping our ears. He who is walking in the ways of God will want to know, and, knowing, will want to do, that the approbation of God may rest upon him when the great day of God comes.

C. M. S.