p. 6 | Religious Riots Next by L. A. S.

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jul 21, 1903

Religious Riots Next

By L. A. S.

It is a recognized fact that lawlessness in the United States is rapidly on the increase. The Chicago Chronicle, which is published in a community where conditions prevail out of which lawlessness naturally grows, charges the present state of affairs to disregard of law on the part of the labor unions. Unquestionably this is one great source, though not the only one, of the tide of lawlessness which is filling many minds with alarm. The Chronicle reasons logically upon the subject. It says:—

People who are making an attempt to account for the increase of disorder in many parts of the country need not look much beyond the teachings of the labor unions and their apologists in politics and in the press.

The labor union has held for a generation that when it becomes involved in a strike, all laws are suspended so far as its own immediate interests are concerned.

Labor unions have been supported in this contention by weak-kneed politicians and by demagogues in office. They have managed as a rule to do about as they pleased, breaking heads here, mobbing employers there, and killing and terrorizing everywhere, with almost no attempt on the part of anybody in authority to punish them for their misdeeds.

It is preposterous to suppose that this sort of thing can go on for twenty, or thirty years without having a far-reaching effect upon the young and thoughtless. Every case of lawlessness for which no penalty is exacted begets lawlessness in others far beyond the immediate neighborhood in which it occurs.

If it be admitted that a considerable number of the people are above the law and can do as they please, it is a natural corollary that there are others who are beyond the protection of the law, and can hope for no assistance from it.

There is hardly a trades union in the land which does not have its “wrecking gang.” Every man connected with labor

organizations is well aware of the principle on which these gangs work. They are simply criminals. They make no attempt to disguise the fact. Organizations which recognize such agencies and stand ready to profit by their operations are no less criminal in their inspiration and purposes.

Taught by many years of lawlessness and demagogy that under certain circumstances a mob may execute its will upon an opponent in the name of union labor, the disorderly elements in this country are now quick to widen the scope of their operations. Class riots are of daily occurrence. Race riots appear with increasing frequency. Religious riots may be looked for at no distant date.

“Religious riots”! A revival of the worst scenes of the Dark Ages! To this the present state of affairs is rapidly tending, and the fact is evident even from a secular standpoint. We are living in perilous times. L. A. S.