The Tariff and the Money Power
THE present Congress is taking hold of the tariff problem with considerable vigor. The claim is made that the tariff will be greatly reduced on many of the necessities, and on some of them it will be removed altogether. It is hoped that this will greatly reduce the cost of living that has been the subject of so much discussion during recent years. The big moneyed men, however, are saying that if it is done there will be thousands of people thrown out of work and hard times will be the result. All of which goes to show that the world is in the grip of the money power, and it is possible for them to create hard times at will. We have a notable example of a panic created overnight in the year 1907. The money power will continue to wield this weapon until they have done it once too often. The day is coming when they will start a panic that they will never be able to stop. If you ask how we know this, we have only to say that the infallible Word says: “Know this, that in the last days grievous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of self, lovers of money.” 2 Tim. 3:1, 2. Note carefully what this text expressly says. We are to “know” that when we reach the “last days” there will be “grievous times,” and those grievous times are due in part to the love of self and the love of money that have taken possession of men’s souls. Another apostle, in speaking of the same time, says: “Come now, ye rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and your silver are rusted; and their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire. Ye have laid up your treasure in the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who mowed your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth out: and the cries of them that reaped have entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived delicately on the earth, and taken your pleasure; ye have nourished your hearts in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned, ye have killed the righteous one; he doth not resist you. Be patient therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord.” James 5:1-7. This scripture from James also tells of conditions that will exist in the “last days.” And he discloses the fact that the rich will be called to “weep and howl” for the “miseries” that are coming upon them. The prophet-apostle goes further to tell of the distressed cry of the laborer, and of the conflict that is coming as the result. The gold and silver is rusting from its inactivity in relieving distress and suffering; and in addressing the rich the text says, “Their rust shall be for a testimony against you, and shall eat your flesh as fire.” In order to make still greater hoards, panics are started and all kinds of oppressive measures are resorted to. And while this is going on, the discontent rises higher and higher, and finally the break comes, and the miseries are visited as foretold. The money question is one of the great issues of the age. But why can men not see that a clear view of the situation was had by the prophets hundreds upon hundreds of years ago? And since they have so clearly revealed the situation as it is to-day, we may safely trust them to enlighten us regarding the outcome of it. The exhortation to be patient “till the coming of the Lord” shows unmistakably what great event will come in to cut short these strifes and miseries of earth.