W. N. G by William N. Glenn

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 3, 1893

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 19, No. 34.

W. N. G

By William N. Glenn

COL. ROBERT J. INGERSOLL is credited with the following statement of the labor problem, which contains food for thought:—

Rich men meet in the bank, the clubhouse, or parlors. Workingmen, when they combine, gather in the street. All the organized forces of society are against them. Capital has the army and navy, the legislative, judicial, and executive departments. When the rich combine it is for an "exchange of ideas." When the poor combine it is "conspiracy." If they act in concert, if they really do something, it is a "mob." If they defend themselves, it is "treason." In this country the political power is equally divided among men. Why should the rich control? There are certainly more poor men than there are rich. Why should not the laborers combine for the purpose of controlling the executive, legislative, and judicial departments?

Being an infidel, of course Colonel Ingersoll does not reason from a Bible standpoint, but his statement of the case calls to mind a plaintive cry of labor against capital predicted by the inspired word, and which is evidently near to fulfillment:—

"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.