The World’s Turmoil

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 5, 1911

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 38, No. 35.

The World’s Turmoil

It has been but a few days since the despatches from England had such headings as “England Hurls Defiance at Germany” and “Asquith Declares that Great Britain Does Not Propose to Relinquish Balance of Power,” etc. Orders were given, so the despatches said, to have the fleet in readiness to move to the Mediterranean in case the Moroccan situation seemed to demand it. Then came other despatches from the continent saying that Germany was pretending to make a joke out of the whole thing, but in reality she was simply smoothing the thing over for the present because France, who was a party to the diplomatic quarrel, was fitting out the largest fleet of air-ships that could be gathered in Europe at the present time. French aviators are in the greatest numbers and have the most skill of any in the world; and the kaiser was not willing to risk further advances until he had time to bring his own air craft up to the standard. It is difficult to say how much of this air-ship talk is rumor and how much of it is fact, yet it is evident that the air-ship has come to be one of the great factors in military affairs, and the monarch who goes to war now must take it into his reckonings. No more than five years ago the air-ship was still but a dream. To-day it is different.

While all the world was watching that war situation with absorbing interest, England was suddenly required to give her strictest attention to a strike that called out some 50,000 of her troops and threw all her business and transportation interests into turmoil. She has temporarily settled this dispute by the appointing of a commission to arbitrate it. But the despatches still tell of the unsettled condition, and announce that the trouble has gone so far that it is liable to break out afresh at any moment. The leaders of the laboring men and of the government as well fear that hot-headed extremists will yet plunge the nation into the greatest labor war of the ages.

What may be the final outcome of that labor war in England can not be stated now; but while it is still unsettled, conditions are beginning to show themselves in this country that threaten to involve this whole nation in a conflict between the railroads and the laboring classes. The Harriman lines a few days ago decided on laying off a lot of men in various of their shops and offices throughout the country; and the labor-unions think it is a blow at them, and so prepare to resist it, some ninety per cent of the men having voted to meet the situation with a general strike. The unions claim that the railroads are preparing for a big fight, for they are building high stockades around some of their largest shops.

We are no party to the contentions on either side. Men are continually telling us about the wonderful brotherhood of man, and how much better this old world is getting, and that we are bordering on the time when wars and strifes will cease. The events of the days as they are passing do not seem to indicate it by any manner of means. On the other hand, they show that conditions are getting more and more tense, and outbreaks are becoming more and more violent and frequent.

The millennium of peace and quietness that has been so long promised is not yet in sight. And if men will just keep their eyes open to actual fact and real conditions, they will see that the Bible prophecies have told the story right. Violence and rioting and the threatenings of war will be more and more intense and active until the mad rush for Armageddon is finally made. And Armageddon stands on the threshold of eternity. There is nothing more clear nor scientifically accurate than the prophecies of the Bible. And the impartial observer ought to be able to see with distinctness that the program of this world is not following along the lines of the theories of men, while it is in actual and perfect accord with every prediction made by the inspired seers. T.