A Noteworthy Prediction by W. W. P.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 12, 1911

A Noteworthy Prediction

By W. W. P.

THOSE observers of present-day occurrences whose minds are not blinded by an optimistic creed are being convinced that moral and spiritual standards have been lowered in America, and that the last quarter of a century has marked a considerable disintegration of American civilization. Those who during the same period have steadily maintained that such a state of things would be the inevitable result of the rejection of the warning message sent to this generation, and that the prophecies foretell this very thing and accurately delineate present conditions, have often been stigmatized as pessimists and alarmists. Their interpretation and application of the predictions of Scripture are now so clearly justified by the facts that the man in the street is beginning to agree with them, and some men of affairs are raising the note of alarm.

Recent publications give emphatic testimony to the truthfulness of these statements. In its review of the week the Outlook of September 30 devoted nearly two pages to the unrest in the Old World, enumerating ten countries in which political and economic disturbances were to be noted, and mentioning three in which the conditions demanded the proclamation of martial law and the intervention of an armed force to quell rioting. In its issue of September 28 the Independent (New York) published an editorial of such a striking nature that we feel justified in reprinting nearly all of it. That a liberal journal whose evolutionary creed proclaims the regeneration of this world by the inherent forces that make for good, should give publicity to the sentiments expressed in this article, and should endorse the severe indictment brought against American life, is of the greatest significance. It indicates that the facts are too patent to be denied by candid observers, even though they do militate against their preconceived ideas. The major part of the article in question follows:—

“The next twenty-five years will determine whether the United States shall go on as a republic or become a monarchy.” This remark was made a few days ago by a distinguished American scholar who, for forty years or more, has enjoyed an international reputation as an exceptionally sober-minded and conservative writer on public questions.

Looking back twenty-five years, he explained, one is compelled to admit that American civilization has been disintegrating. The economic struggle between the powerful rich and the wage-earning classes has extended and become acute. The powerful rich have not shown an interest in intellectual things commensurate with their opportunities, although individuals have made large bequests to institutions of learning. Even art they have not appreciated, and the picture dealers will tell you, as the book publishers have been telling us, that the automobile and the purely material pleasures that go with it have nearly ruined their business. The wage-earning masses, whether because their lives have been too poor and barren to permit them to care for such things, or for whatever other reason that may be alleged, are not interested in the advancement of knowledge or the creation of beauty. Whether it be due to their nature or to their circumstances, they care little for learning, or for cultivation in any true sense of the word. The pleasures of rich and poor alike have been vulgar, and are now becoming unmistakably brutal. Only the small class professionally engaged in intellectual pursuits has been doing anything to save our civilization, and this class is now being crushed between the upper and the nether millstone of our economic system

Lawlessness in every form has been increasing. Corporations have set the example of preying upon the public domain, the stockholder, the taxpayer, and the wage-earner. Mobs burn Negroes in the North, as in the South. We have the reputation of being a country in which murder goes unpunished. The kidnapping of children has become a commonplace crime; the wrecking of shops and tenement-houses by bomb throwers an almost weekly occurrence. Hoodlumism in the streets and in public

conveyances has made our every-day going and coming an experience to be dreaded.

Democracy shows neither the disposition nor the ability to grapple with these evils. On the contrary, it is year by year making government more inefficient, by multiplying elective officers and continually shifting administrative officers, so that no official, however sincere his desire to serve the public, can become a true expert in his business, or feel that his efforts will be appreciated and backed up by the voters. There is no reason to expect, therefore, that life and property will, under these circumstances, become more secure. Labor disturbances will more and more interfere with the regular course of business. In the end the thing will happen that invariably has happened at this stage in the evolution of a people, since civilization began. The classes that care for civilization, and are not ready to see it overwhelmed by barbarism or destroyed by social chaos, will rally around a strong man, a military figure, and will set up a monarchic government.

This, in substance, was the social diagnosis and the prediction made, not in any public utterance for sensational or for political effect, but quietly, and, by the way, in a conversation among friends, as a matter-of-fact expression of personal conviction.

The prediction is one that we are not prepared to endorse, but the account of American life, upon which it is based, unfortunately is substantially true. No competent observer can impeach it in any important particular. The American social system has been disintegrated. A wave of barbarism has swept over the country. Overshadowing every other issue is the imperative necessity to rally the intellectual and moral forces of the nation, not merely to achieve this or that reform, but to preserve the essentials of civilization.

The title of this editorial as it appeared in the columns of the Independent is “The Menace of Barbarism,” a striking phrase to be used in such a connection.

There is thus being worked out before our own eyes the old but ever new principle that the only enduring basis for character is found in the law of God, and that the rejection of his warning messages means disaster. How suitable to the needs of man at this time is the entreaty to fear God and keep his commandments! This is the only way of escape from the impending ruin which will involve the whole world.

W. W. P.