TWO-DOLLAR WHEAT by T.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 16, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 24.

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TWO-DOLLAR WHEAT.

By T.

For the last few days such head-lines as the following have been appearing in the papers:—

WHEAT TO REACH TWO DOLLARS.

Big Deal Will Be Closed Next Tuesday.

By Clever Manipulation a Young Chicago Millionaire Has Made Big Money.

It might seem that two-dollar wheat would be an indication of great prosperity, and that the farmers would now be gathering a well-merited reward for their toil. But things are not always just what they seem. Instead of the farmer getting any great good out of this unnatural rise in the price of wheat, it is only a trick in the gambling with grain by which a man who already has his millions is turning another fabulous sum—no one knows how much—into his already overflowing vaults.

Every one who buys a loaf of bread or sack of flour is forced to contribute to this great fortune. The man has a “corner” on wheat and has set his price, and there is no alternative but to pay it. The poor widow who is working day and night for a pittance on which she can barely live; the decrepit man with pain in every joint, and who nevertheless has to drive himself along in order to secure a few mites with which to feed his impoverished family; the pale-faced, consumptive girl who sadly toils by day and wearily though devotedly watches at the bedside of an aged mother by night; these, together with all the vast multitude of poverty-stricken and helpless human beings, must come forward and each cast in their share of the great sum that swells the millions of the man who has been keen enough to get a “corner” on wheat.

A man may feel a certain kind of satisfaction over the feat of acquiring millions of dollars, but when those dollars are actually wrung from the very life-blood of unfortunate fellow-beings, there must be hours when a sense of shame and remorse steals over the mind. There must come the unbidden vision of haggard and pinching want that the great army of the destitute are forced to suffer. And there must also be a continual inner consciousness that the distress caused by the grasping of wealth will have to be accounted for before the great Judge.

But the danger on the part of the poor and oppressed is that they will take the matter into their own hands and by violent rioting make bad conditions very much worse. The signs of our times all show that the end of this world is very near, and the One who knows no injustice or oppression is about to arise to execute judgment. And amid these times of evil He exhorts us: “Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Grudge not one against another, brethren, lest ye be condemned; behold, the Judge standeth before the door.” James 5:8, 9.

Read carefully and thoughtfully the whole of this fifth chapter of James. You will see that it is giving valuable instruction for us in these “last days.” The “heaping” together of treasure for the last days, and the oppression of the laborer, are mentioned, and then we are exhorted to patience.

God will Himself soon straighten all these difficulties by destroying the evil. Leave it to Him, and it will be done right. Take the matter up yourself, and only ruin can result. T.