THEY HAVE NOT SOLVED IT.
By George T. Wilson
WE mean the labor problem. It is a problem with which every civilized government is wrestling at the present time. And none of them have yet found a cure. In an Australian paper called the Argus, of Sept. 26, 1892, the Bishop of Melbourne is reported as saying, "That problem, alas! is not solved." Again he says:— We cannot but feel that there is no finality in any of the well-intentioned schemes which have been set on foot. They are specifics, but they offer no cure for the social disorder which is agitating not Australia alone, but the whole civilized world. Society seems to be moving blindly onward towards some unknown goal. Meanwhile whatever honest attempt may be made to cast light upon the darkness, deserves consideration; and I commend to the study of clergy and laity a book entitled "The Condition of Labor. An Open Letter to Pope Leo XIII." The author thinks that if the change which he proposes is to be effected, Pope Leo XIII. is the man to effect it; in this I do not agree with him. He writes also as if he thought that his plan, if adopted, would inaugurate the millennium; in this, too, I differ from him, because he makes no provision for a change in human nature, the depravity of which is the chief obstacle to the coming of the millennium. The bishop truly sees where the real difficulty is in the solution of these labor troubles. It is in the depravity of human nature. Bishops and statesmen may tremble at the sad prospect of seeing "society . . . moving blindly onward towards some unknown goal." But the student of prophecy can see what is coming.