The United States Government is rapidly being forced to paternalism in government. Labor unions and their control are forcing it there. Trusts are forcing it there. Roman Catholicism and Socialism are forcing it there. How long it will be before the parent will take possession of all the great industries and natural sources of supplies we know not; but in the last few months, especially since the coal strike in the East, the opinion has grown apace, not that that is the ideal form of government, but that it seems to be the only way out of the difficulty. The Democratic platform of New York State declares for governmental ownership of the coal mines; and the New York World, a Democratic newspaper, strenuously opposes it as undemocratic, unconstitutional, un-American. The problem is a serious one. It is said that ninety per cent of the anthracite coal of the world is in ten counties in Pennsylvania; and a few men and railways control it, when there is no strike. Thousands upon thousands are dependent upon those mines for labor and wages and warmth who are in no way connected with them. What is to be done? People stand upon all sides of the question, but many are looking to public ownership as the only feasible settlement. That conservative journal the Springfield Republican says:— Something has got to be done to prevent a repetition of any such experience as the country has been going through, and there are but two things left to do. Either these coal mines must be taken over by the State or nation for operation on public account; or they must be subjected to the closest public control, including compulsory measures for avoiding strikes, lockouts, and all other controversies between employers and employees which endanger the continuous operation of the business. We must accept the remedy of public ownership advanced by the Hill democracy of New York State, or we must adopt a system of enforced arbitration of labor disputes. The public ownership method involves a leap so far into the dark as to be contemplated with the gravest misgivings. Especially is this true of ownership on the part of the nation. If the State of Pennsylvania wants to try the experiment, the way stands open to it. But the nation can not enter upon that course without being forced along directly, step by step, to the taking up of other coal mines, other mines of natural wealth, and many other enterprises of a monopolistic nature. It is obviously a proposal not to be entertained until every other means of meeting the problem has been exhausted, and this is by no means now the case. There are laws, it is averred on good authority, which would control these hostile elements, but through the overmastering influence of money and fear of politicians they are not enforced. The New York Independent tells us that while the public will not greatly concern itself about the politicians or their destinies, “the affairs of government in a number of the commonwealths, and possibly at Washington, will to a great extent, pass under a different political control from that which has been ascendent in the last four years.” After speaking of the wrongs on both sides of the present struggle, the right of every man to work, unionist or not, and the stupendous insolence of the mine operators, the Independent continues:— For more than twenty-five years the people have been quietly, thoughtfully considering the propositions that were somewhat dramatically forced upon their attention by the publication of Mr. George’s “Progress and Poverty.” They have been in no hurry to admit that all private property in land is wrong. But no one who reads the signs of the times can fail to observe that the opinion is spreading, steadily and resistlessly, among the great middle classes no less than among the wage-earners, that private property in certain kinds of land and under certain circumstances may be very wrong indeed. The insertion of a plank in the New York Democratic platform calling for public ownership of coal mining lands marks the entrance of this question into practical politics. Once in, it will not drop out. The American people will never consent to an indefinite continuance of such private domination of one of the prime necessaries of life as has been so disastrously exhibited this summer. If the only way to assert control by the public and for the public is found to be through public ownership, the public will take that step without the slightest hesitation. These words from such conservative journals indicate the straightened conditions prevalent in the nation, and the utter ineffectiveness of present remedies. Will public ownership help matters?—In some respects; in some lines it will bring untold evils. We are in a crisis in America. The testing of the Republic is on now as never before. And what is true here is in greater or less measure true all over the world. Men promise themselves relief through law; but law will not convert souls, regenerate the heart’s longing, nor take away the innate selfishness of humanity. Only Jesus Christ can do that, and He must do it through individual men. Truly these days are the fulfilment of Christ’s words of the last days, “distress of nations with perplexity.” And this with other prevalent signs foretoken our Lord’s soon coming.