A SIGN OF THE TIMES by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jan 13, 1887

A SIGN OF THE TIMES.

By Editor

UNDER the heading, "The Foe of Civilization," the San Francisco Chronicle, of January 2, speaks editorially as follows:—

"The most dangerous enemy to the civilization of the century is to be looked for, not in the ranks of outside barbarians, thirsting for conquest and plunder, not in the forays of an Attila or Jenghis Khan, but in a debased and demoralized public sentiment. The reversion of the civilized world to barbarism will be brought about, if at all, by a laxity of morals and a disposition to minimize the gravity of certain public offenses, and to tolerate, if not to encourage, the offenders.

"The danger lies chiefly in the line of excusing or palliating breaches of confidential relations existing between employers and employes, or principals and agents. Such relations, which were formerly considered so sacred as to be absolutely inviolable, are now broken every day and constantly, and their frequent repetition seems to have blunted the popular perception of their enormity. 'Skipped to Canada' seems to be a standing caption in the Eastern papers, while the measure of the guilt of the offender is not the offense but its detection. Embezzlement, fraudulent conversion, breach of trust, and similar crimes have grown so common as to scarcely excite comment, and even if remarked upon, it is generally from the standpoint of the ill-fortune of the employer, not the crime of the employe.

"This vicious tone of public feeling is not confined to the United States. In England, France, and Germany the same sentiment prevails, though possibly in a less degree. In those countries, as well as in our own, successful rascality is looked up to, and the man who has made a fortune by robbing others, provided he has been adroit enough to escape the law, is quite as well received and quite as highly esteemed as he is under our more modern and less polished civilization. There, as here, the measure of success is the amount of money, and not the way in which it was obtained; and society is very careful how it throws any mud against the walls of the town mansion in London or the palace in Paris, even though its occupant may have made his fortune by robbing his employer or appropriating trust funds."

The Chronicle then goes on to say that it cannot be expected that laws against such offenses will be enforced until they are supplemented by public opinion. But there is where the trouble comes in, for it is the defective public sentiment that makes these offenses so common. Who is going to reform public sentiment? Only the law of God could do that, and that is being scorned even by professed Christians.