POLITICS AND BUSINESS PRINCIPLES.
By W. N. G.
The cry is, Reform, reform, reform! The projects for reform are legion, and the ideas of reform are as numerous as the would-be reformers. Yet amidst it all, “evil men and seducers . . . wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” Strange as it may seem, many professed Christian leaders are rallying their followers under the banner of reformed politics. Let us, say they, reform the municipalities and the state with our votes; let us make Christ King by our votes. It is our duty to rule the bad people of the world. One of the theories of this “Christian citizenship” movement is stated by a contemporary as follows:— “Partisan politics in municipal affairs is destined to be subordinated to the larger interests of the city. The tendency is to govern the city on business principles rather than partisan politics. There is no more necessity for introducing politics into the civic management than there is to manage a corporation or a business concern by political methods.” To the casual reader this sentiment has a very catching sound. Politics has come to be regarded as a kind of reproach, while business is still supposed to be the synonym of honest practicability. But just here is hidden the dextrous hand of the arch deceiver. For the nonce, “business principles” is a sort of “siren song,” but it lures to the same old political results. The sentiment quoted above is (unwittingly) deceptive, because it is based upon the supposition that “business principles” are all right, while as a matter of fact the business principles of these times are about as corrupt as the political customs. This is especially true of the great corporations, through whose “business principles” most of the municipal politics is already controlled. In fact, it is the business principles of these corporations that is causing the greater part of the financial distress which the masses are suffering at the present time. When the theory of conducting municipal affairs on business principles shall have been nominally adopted, it will be found that it is the business principles practiced by leading business men and corporations that will prevail. In short, it will be politics by another name. The character of the current business methods, especially in the larger municipalities, is pertinently described by the following report of a recent speech of Mayor Swift, of Chicago, at a banquet:— “Who is it that comes into the common council and asks for such privileges? Who is it who are accused of offering bribes for such franchises? I tell you, these questions come home. Talk about anarchy; talk about breeding the spirit of communism! What does it more than the representative citizens of Chicago? Your high-toned business men, your patriotic men, your prominent citizens of Chicago, are the men who knock at the door of the council and ask for illegal franchises. It is not the common people. Who bribes the common council? It is not men in the common walks of life. It is men in your own walks of life, sitting by your firesides of your clubs. Is it men in the common walks of life who demand bribes and who receive bribes from the hands of the legislative bodies or9the common council?—No. It is your representative citizens, your capitalists, your business men. Who is responsible for the condition of affairs in the city of Chicago?—Your representative business men. If an assessor grows rich while in office, with whom does he divide?—Not with the common people. He divides with the man who tempts him to make a low assessment, not the man who has the humble little house, but the capitalist and the business man. These are plain words, but they are true.” Inasmuch as many of the larger business enterprises are owned or managed by professed Christians, of course the influence of their “Christian citizenship” will be a prominent factor in the coming “municipal reform” on “business principles.” And they will be satisfied, especially if they are elected to office, to have the municipal affairs conducted in the manner in which they conduct their own business. This may be deemed reform from the standpoint of such Christians (?) as look upon Christianity as a scheme for aggrandizing human government, and placing professed Christians in temporal control of their fellow-men; but Christians who know that all true reform is through the Gospel of Christ, and the operation of his Spirit in the individual heart, will not be lured into any political-business substitute as a means of reform in these last-day “perilous times.” The reform message of God for this time is, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come.” Rev. 14: 7. The business principles of the last days, and their results, are thus foretold by the Lord’s prophet:— “Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you.” James 5: 1-6. And what is the duty of the Christian under such circumstances? Is it to raise a cry of “municipal reform,” by means of Christian politics? Is it to start a campaign of overthrow by the physical power of the Christian arm? Immediately following the above is the true counsel to the “brethren”:— “Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. 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.” Verses 7-9. W. N. G.