TRUSTS AND CORPORATIONS.
By T.
DURING the past few months the newspapers have reported the formation of a cutlery trust, with a capital of $2,000,000. A large beer trust, with a capital of $5,000,000. A large steel trust, with a capital of $200,000,000. A silverware trust, with a capital of $30,000,000. A trust to control electrical appliances and machinery, with a capital of $25,000,000. A tobacco trust, with a capital of $100,000,000. Other trusts have been formed during the year that make the aggregate of capital brought together in this way reach the sum of $1,000,000,000. The estimated wealth of the whole of the United States is $64,000,000,000. Thus one-sixty-fourth of the entire wealth of the nation has been combined by a few men within this one year. Is it any wonder that there should be a cry of hard times? How can a conflict between capital and labor be averted since a few men persist in hoarding millions of dollars that they can not possibly use, while at the same time there are thousands of their fellows who are suffering through lack of the barest necessities of life. Little do these wealthy men seem to know of or care for the calamities that they are bringing upon the world as well as themselves. The word of the Lord to them is: “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. . . . Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.” Would that all men could be induced to consider the overwhelming evidence which shows that we are in the “last days” now, and that they would turn from every oppression and sin, and receive the shield of God’s righteousness that is so freely provided. T.