Your ShelfYour Projects

The Coming Conflict

4%

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Jan 14, 1904

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 81, No. 2.

Read the full edition

The Coming Conflict

By E. T. Russell

E. T. RUSSELL.
Unless divine providence should interpose, a fierce and bloody conflict between capital and labor seems imminent. The rapid concentration of wealth in the hands of a few has caused labor to combine, that it may more successfully cope with that power that is almost master of the world.
Trades unions have been multiplied until almost every branch of industry is represented in the American Federation of Labor. Strikes, lock-outs, boycotts, bloodshed, and destruction of property have thus far marked the struggle between the contending forces.
Since 1881 there have been about twenty-five thousand strikes in the United States alone. These strikes have caused the loss of millions of dollars to both employers and employees. Besides, more bitter feelings have been engendered in the hearts of both rich and poor toward each other. These strikes are but indications of the pent-up force, which, like a Vesuvius or a Pelee, is liable to break forth at any moment. As the John Brown raid was the forerunner of the late Civil War, so the strikes that are taking place are omens of the coming conflict between the rich and the poor—and fierce and bitter it will be.
Speaking of the Homestead strike, T. V. Powderly said: ‘It is but the rumbling of the coming revolution.’ The majority of the strikes have been failures, but at the great anthracite coal strike of 1902, the miners gained a decided victory. This strike lasted five months, involving one hundred and forty-seven thousand workmen. The continued strike produced a coal famine, which led Mr. Roosevelt, as private citizen Theodore Roosevelt, and not President Theodore Roosevelt, to call a special commission in order that the strike might be settled by arbitration, and thus save suffering and distress on the part of the coal consumers of the country. As the State militia of Pennsylvania had failed to subdue the strike, the calling of a special commission by Theodore Roosevelt was an indication on his part that Pennsylvania was unable to settle this strike within its own territory. Since Mr. Roosevelt called the commission as a private citizen, and not as president of the United States, it seems evident that the general government did not care to become mixed up in the controversy. Congress, however, set its indorsement to the course pursued by Mr. Roosevelt, by voting a salary to the commissioners appointed and to their associates. The victory gained by the strikers has caused capital to organize more thoroughly that employers may be able to cope more successfully with organized labor. Thus, as the result of the victory gained by labor in the great anthracite coal strike, future strikes will be more formidable and far-reaching. One of the sad features of the situation is that both classes are preparing for the worst, and both are jealously eying each other.
Some years ago, at a labor conference held in St. Louis, the following resolution was passed:—
“Resolved, That no nation in which the people are totally disarmed can long remain a free nation; and, therefore, we urge upon all liberty-loving citizens to remember and obey Article 2 of the Constitution of the United States, which reads as follows: ‘The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.’”
Acting upon this resolution, several labor organizations have organized themselves into military companies, as stated by John Swinton, in June, 1903:—
“A short time ago when the great strike of the steel workers got under headway, the New York Herald startled the country by printing a dispatch from West Virginia, that the first military company ever formed by a labor union had been organized at Wheeling by Crescent Lodge Amalgamated Association. The interest in the original report, however, has not been diminished; for it is now known that the Crescent Lodge at Wheeling is not the only one that has taken the subject under consideration, and that other labor organizations in different parts of the country have done likewise. They claim that the right of the people to keep and bear arms is guaranteed by the Constitution, and that, as the working men are the bone and sinew of the country, the Constitutional right can not be denied them.”
Mr. Swinton then adds:—
“At this point it may be mentioned that a good number of trade unions, especially those in the Western States, have recently prohibited their members from joining the regular State militia, under the pain of expulsion, and the reason given for this action is that the State troops are used in the interest of capitalism against the labor element, and in the suppression of justifiable strikes. It is a fact, nevertheless, that, at least in Pennsylvania and Illinois, the State militia have, on several occasions, suffered from the charge of being unduly sympathetic with labor in the case of a strike.”
Capital also demands a larger standing army to protect its interests. J. J. Hill, the great railroad magnate, is credited with saying:—
“I am not overrating the demand when I say that it is imperative that the United States maintain the nucleus always and the organization and the officers for an army of two hundred thousand men. With our varied interests, with our expanding commerce, and with our crowning and ever-increasing power, this strength is not more than sufficient for our uses in times of stress and danger.”
The Coming Nation says:—
“We know what the capitalists are doing. We see them preparing the munitions of war to rule the masses by force of arms. But they are foolish. They are wise only in their own conceits. They are adopting the tactics of kings, and will be as chaff before the wind by and by. All the fates are against their tactics. Kings with greater armies than can be mustered to fight for capitalists here, are trembling before the steady growth of a higher civilization among the people, hurried on by the distress of this rapidly increasing army of out-of-works. Justice injures none, though it may shut off the privileges of robbers. Thus the contending forces jealously regard each other, and mean to be prepared, if possible, for the worst.”
Eugene V. Debbs said in a speech in St. Louis, in 1897:—
“Never in my life have I been more hopeful than now. I am not gifted with great visionary powers, but I can see the beginning of the end. [Cheers.] This meeting is an inspiration. It will lead to great results. This movement has attained tremendous impetus, and will go ahead with a rush. When the people are ready,—and that day is not far off, my friends,—there will be a spontaneous uprising; the Supreme Court will be abolished, Congress dispersed, and the rights of American citizens and American freedmen will be enthroned.
“The time will come to incite the populace. When that time comes, you can depend on me. [Cheers.] I will not stand in the rear and ask you to go ahead. I will be in front, and say to you, ‘Come on!’ [Renewed cheering.]”
The apostle James, by his prophetic eye, beheld the struggle that is now going on, and its culmination, as is quite clearly described in the following quotation:—
“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.”
The prophet Ezekiel tells what they will do with their hoarded wealth in connection with the day of the Lord:—
“They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be removed: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord: they shall not satisfy their souls, neither fill their bowels: because it is the stumbling-block of their iniquity.” Eze. 7: 19.
Trouble awaits both rich and poor, and it can not be long before the storm breaks in all its fury. Dear readers, on which side of the controversy shall we be arrayed? The Lord, speaking of this time in Amos 5: 13, says: “Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time: for it is an evil time.” And James, speaking of the same time, says: “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. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned: behold, the judge standeth before the door.”
It is no time now for the Christian, and for that matter the man who knows not Christ, to hold grudges. The bitter feelings fostered in the hearts of these two classes are contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ. With great force the words of the psalmist come home to every heart, “Fret not thyself because of evildoers.” Let every soul know that he himself is right with God. Then he will be sure to be on the right side in the coming conflict.