A TROUBLESOME OUTLOOK

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 21, 1901

A TROUBLESOME OUTLOOK

PRESIDENT HADLEY, of Yale, is said to be a practical, level-headed man of affairs. But he deplores the lack of public conscience in this country, and declares that this must be raised to a higher plane, or our present system of government cannot endure. The ominous words quoted from him call for a public conscience which will induce us to accept, in behalf of the community, restrictions independently of how we shall be personally affected thereby in our individual interests; that is, all must be willing to surrender some things for the general good. Unless we can have this, he says, “we shall have an emperor in Washington within twenty-five years.”

This would intimate momentous changes, which such a man as Professor Hadley would not forecast without most urgent and well-settled convictions. He reasons that “the great majority of the American people individually practice a high standard of honor and morality; but when it comes to politics and public business, they are notoriously dishonest, and are growing worse. Competition used to prevent a man from practicing extortion upon his neighbor, even if he wanted to; and in politics we once had at least a rough form of justice. But to-day, with our industries organized in trusts, and imperialistic fever in politics, the general development of the principle of trusts will become appalling unless we cultivate a higher standard of morality than ever before.”

But will this be done? Has it ever been done under similar circumstances? Friend optimist, put your finger on this as one of those signs which are giving rise to “distress of nations, with perplexity,” and causing men’s hearts to fail them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth. The Lord is at hand. Luke 21: 25, 26.