Striking in His Weakest Spot
THE “United News Writers,” according to their letterheads, represent an association in New York City “organized to furnish the news of every revolt and strike center, on the principle that ‘the fight center is the news center.’” A few quotations from one of their circulars shows the determination and the spirit with which an increasingly large number of men are taking hold of the proposition of “righting things.” Some sentences from this circular are: “To hit our biggest enemy in the weakest spot is war tactics. Now we’ll name him, it’s Rockefeller. That’s his name to-day—it may be another name to-morrow—the name that stands for Standard Oil and the biggest bunch of gold ever gotten together in the history of the world. He eats us alive. . . . “Wake up! All together, now! Let’s hit Rockefeller and all that he stands for. Let’s hit him with publicity first, and then, afterwards—with anything that we can lay our hands on. . . . “We’ve had enough! enough! enough! and we’re going to strike back!” Many may desire, in commenting upon such utterances, to confine themselves to the moral wrong of statements of that character; but we would like to call the attention of our readers to the fact that such statements are made broadcast in this time; that thousands of men are uttering them. The facts of the time show that a very few men have cornered the wealth of the world, and they are heaping it together in increasingly large amounts. And on the other hand, this grasping of wealth by the few is not only creating murmurs of dissatisfaction among the people, but men really feel called upon, in self-protection, to make just such violent utterances as these quoted from the United News Writers. These conditions of discontentment are worldwide. They have honeycombed the very vitals of society everywhere. Intensity upon the subject is taking possession of the minds of men; and to dam up the waters of the Niagara or the Zambesi, or to stop the ebb and flow of the tides, would be as hopeless an undertaking as to endeavor to keep the pent-up sentiments of this time from breaking out into violence and revolution. The self-centered and blind greed of the age refuses either to be reformed or to observe the approaching smash. Remedy after remedy has been suggested for more than a quarter of a century. Reform organizations one after another have arisen, and with intense earnestness pointed out the dangers, and suggested what ought to be done, but the conditions grow worse and worse. The only hope before the world, in which any individual can safely trust, is that blessed hope of the soon coming of Christ. As the prophets have so abundantly told, this will be the climax that will deliver men from these conditions, and that will bring to those who are prepared, the rewards of everlasting joy in the eternity of peace which the Prince of peace alone can provide.