THE PRICE SHE PAYS by S.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 11, 1901

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 27, No. 37.

THE PRICE SHE PAYS.

By S.

For months Cuba appealed to the liberty-loving people of the United States for help, and the voices of such people were loud in denouncing the political bands that held her, and in urging the United States Government to take a hand in her behalf. Even those who deprecate war on general principles, for the sorrow it brings and the expense it incurs, refrained from censuring the government for ordering Spain from Cuba, and enforcing its order.

Time has passed; and while Cuba was being tutored in the principles of republican government, a tyrant more powerful than Spain, and more conscienceless, has bound her with a chain of steel. That tyrant is human greed in the person of corporate monopoly. Already the exploitation of the island has begun, and the power of wealth is securing to itself what individual effort would not have been able to obtain. Altho the Foraker resolution forbade the issuance of Cuban franchises, an American and British syndicate is reported to be engaged in building a railroad from one end of the island to the other, connecting with every important port and town, destroying all possibility of that competition which alone can keep the transportation rates within reasonable bounds. This syndicate is reported to be securing possession of the most valuable sugar, tobacco, coffee, and timber lands in the island. Thus is this combine able, within a few months, to grasp a great portion of the material resources of the island, and make the transportation of the products of all the island subject to its arbitrary charges; and all this while Cuba is unable to lift a hand to help herself.

This is not the fault of those who helped to free Cuba from the rule of Spain. It is the fault of a degeneracy which is creeping over the world, insidiously but surely, making the noble principles of liberty, equality, and humanity—so far as it is concerned—subservient to the worship of self, mammon, greed. It was a sad day for Cuba when the priests of this worship took a hand in the liberation of that island. It was a sad day for the great republic of North America when it came under the influence of that worship, and learned to laugh at the great Constitution, and spurn the principles of the great Declaration, and marshalled its forces against oppressed peoples struggling for the privilege of being free men and governing themselves.

There is no one man to blame for this, any more than there is any one man to blame for the growth of the trust, or the religious declension in the churches. It is the spirit of the times, which is the spirit of antichrist working mightily in the earth. The spirit which is causing men to heap together treasure is a spirit which the Word of God tells us would be prevalent in the last days; and to that spirit—the worship of money and self—is due the breaking away from principle so manifest in the recent course of our country. It is that which is causing Cuba to pay the price she does for her release from the Spanish yoke. The power of that spirit is increasing with leaps and bounds, and will continue to increase until the consummation of all things; and its almost incredible increase is one of the infallible signs that this consummation is close at hand. S.