p. 3 | OMINOUS UTTERANCES by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Sep 16, 1897

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 23, No. 36.

OMINOUS UTTERANCES.

By Editor

LIKE the low mutterings of thunder before the breaking of the storm-cloud are some of the utterances of the organized but helpless hosts of labor, at the recent convention in St. Louis. One of the leading speakers of the convention was Eugene V. Debs, whose sentiments, it is reported, dominated the assembly. Below are some of his utterances:—

“I believe the gravity of the industrial situation in this country is well understood. It is quite evident the delegates to this convention recognize the fact that civil liberty is dead in America. I have said, and say again for the last time, I have appealed to the courts for justice and shall appeal to them no more. The A. R. U. expended $45,000 to have the question of civil rights tested in the Supreme Court of the United States, only to be told that we have no rights that capital was bound to respect. Shall we appeal to the Supreme Court again?—No. We appeal to this convention and the country for an uprising of all the common people in every walk of life to beat back the courts and re-enthrone the rights of the American people. . . .

“Labor is the cheapest commodity on God’s earth, and yet there are those who would have it at a lower price. . . . From justice of the peace to justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, all the judicial powers of the United States are directed against the laborer. All the organized sources of society are against the laborer, and if labor expects emancipation, labor itself must do it.

“The time has not quite come to incite the population, but we are on the eve of another meeting in Chicago which will be attended by all branches of labor. That convention will take up these same questions and will institute agitation and keep it going until the public conscience and the public heart is aroused.” Then will come such an uprising as the world has never seen. Never in my life have I been more hopeful than now. . . . When the people are ready, and that day is not far off, my friends, there will be a spontaneous uprising. The Supreme Court will be abolished, Congress dispersed, and the sacred rights of American citizens and American freedom will be enthroned.

“On bearing arms, I hope in this march of common intelligence we will reach a point where we will be able to settle these questions without appealing to the sword or bullet. I can not tell. Certain it is there are thousands of our fellow-citizens suffering, and certain it is this can not last. The time will come to incite this populace. When this time comes you can depend on me. I will not stand in the rear and ask you to go ahead. I will be in front, and say to you, ‘Come on.’

“I shrink from bloodshed, but if this is necessary to preserve liberty and our rights, in that event I will shed the last drop of blood that courses through my veins. . . . We no longer have a republic. There is not a vestige of it left. The judiciary of this country has placed a padlock on my lips, forbidden me to walk on the public highways, and destroyed all of my rights.”

As Mr. Debs finished, says the report, the delegates jumped on their

hats in the air, and crowded forward to greet the speaker.

The sixth resolution passed by the convention read as follows:—

“Resolved, That no nation in which the people are totally disarmed can long remain a free nation, and therefore we urge upon all liberty-loving citizens to remember and obey Article II. of the Constitution of the United States, which reads as follows: The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”

That labor has its just grievances every candid man knows. The conditions of the underpaid miners who are making their losing strike, reveals a state of things which ought to arouse the sympathy of every true man or woman. And the injunction of courts under judge-made law are certainly not assuring. In such a battle as is now being waged, the laboring man is sure to lose. And the great corporation king who will not listen to the reasonable demands made by labor, will have himself to blame for bringing about a state of things which he can not control. Our sympathies are ever with the oppressed; our principles are to abide by every law, even tho it be unjust and oppressive, as long as it does not infringe the rights of conscience. It is better to commit every righteous cause into the hands of a righteous God. But when men, both rich and poor, do not believe in God, are taught, both by precept and example, to live in, and look to, only the now, if peaceable remedies will not accomplish a long-desired end, violent means will be resorted to. We do not guess at this. The causes in operation in the fall of the Roman Empire and in the French Revolution are now operative; and, more than this, the prophetic Word of God has forewarned us of the evils to come.

“Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you.” See James 5:1–6.

“Shall not all these [the nations of earth] take up a parable against him, and a taunting proverb against him, and say, Wo to him that increaseth that which is not his! how long? and that ladeth himself with pledges! Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee, and awake that shall vex thee, and thou shalt be for booties unto them? Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all the remnant of the peoples shall spoil thee. . . . Wo to him that getteth an evil gain for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil!” See Hab. 2:1–17, R. V.

“And the songs of the palace shall be howlings in that day, saith the Lord God; the dead bodies shall be many; in every place shall they cast them forth with silence. Hear this, O ye that would swallow up the needy, and cause the poor of the land to fail.” See Amos 8:3–8, R. V., margin.

Thus it is that God gives faithful warning to the rich oppressor. But to the oppressed poor among his people, he says, “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.” James 5:7.