THE BILLION-DOLLAR TRUST.
By T.
VERY much has been said and is still being said in regard to the billion-dollar steel trust that was recently formed, largely thru the management of Mr. J. P. Morgan. Viewing this big combine of wealth from the purely economic standpoint, there are a great many opinions expressed concerning its outcome. But there is a prophetic side to it that has not been given much attention, and a few facts viewed from this standpoint will not be out of place here. The New York papers state that it took Mr. Morgan forty days to make this big deal, which put practically all of the steel interests of this great country in one combine, under one management. For doing this business he received $12,500,000 in the stock of the new company, and the cash value of this stock the day he took it was $7,453,125. Hence his income for those forty days was at the rate of $186,328 a day. Mr. Charles M. Schwab, a young man of thirty-eight, who has come up from a poor boy, gets the erstwhile kingly salary of $800,000 a year for managing this trust after it is formed. In 1789 Congress fixed the salary of the President of the United States at $25,000 a year. It remained at this figure until 1873, when it was increased to $50,000. But such a salary as that of the President of the United States seems very small now compared with the almost million-dollar-a-year salary of Mr. Schwab. Twenty-five or thirty years ago a yearly salary of $50,000 seemed like a fairly good sum; yes, even ten or fifteen years ago it was considered a reasonably good salary, especially for a private citizen. But how wonderful have been the strides and how intense the rapidity with which a complete change has been accomplished! It begins to look as if the time was not far distant when some of the men who have the ability to manipulate finance will get salaries of a million. Indeed, it is even now stated that Mr. Schwab has demanded that his salary be raised to $1,000,000, and that it has been granted. Millionaires used to be rare enough to occasion general remark; what is the significance of the changes that make it possible for a man to get a million dollars a year as a salary, and for another man to make $7,500,000 in forty days? These things mean something, and you ought to know what it is. In Paul's second letter to Timothy he has these words: “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud.” 2 Tim. 3:1, 2. Here is something that the Word of inspiration tells us we are to “know.” A thing to be known is not something to be guessed at. That which He tells us we are to know is “that in the last days perilous times shall come.” The “last days” are to be days of peril. The Lord tells us to “know” this, and knowing it we should be prepared for it. There is another thing that we are to “know,” as shown by the verse just quoted; that is, that the peril of these last days will be occasioned because of the fact that men “shall be lovers of their own selves” and “covetous.” We may try to gloss it over in any way we will, seeking to make it appear that this great accumulation of wealth is a good thing; but the Lord reveals the real facts in the case by showing that it comes from self-love and covetousness, and this develops into the most grasping greed. These accumulations of wealth are built up by a greed that cares nothing for the human, except to use him as a means of getting gain.9 These are the simple facts, and God says that they will make the “last days” “perilous.” Who can not see the perils that are coming up in every quarter of the globe because of this great rush and drive for wealth? The days that are ahead of us are full of perils beyond anything that we have ever seen or dreamed of. The Lord has told us to know these things, and we know them because we read it in His Word. The last days are here; and the perils of the last days are hanging as a dark shadow over the world. God has bidden you to “know” these things. He has gone farther; for He has provided the very evidence by which you may be assured of them beyond the shadow of a doubt. And if you do not “know” them, upon you alone will rest the blame, and upon you alone will fall the eternal loss.