THE year 1911 was in many respects one of the most eventful and ominous of modern times. It marked a turbulent high tide of unrest in almost every field of activity.
Speaking of the unsettled condition of the world, a despatch from London in September of that year said the following:
To-day's news gathered from all parts of the Old World tells of socialistic uprisings, food riots, general strikes, wars or preparations for war, in every important country in Europe with the exception of Holland, Sweden, and Switzerland. A careful analysis of the situation in each of the countries which are now taking part in a general movement of unrest such as Europe has not before experienced in the present generation, reveals the fact that in every case Socialist agitation of a revolt against the fast increasing cost of living, is at the bottom of the disturbance.
A month earlier "Leslie's Illustrated Weekly" reviewed the condition in the world in the following striking paragraphs:
The world seems to be upset. Agitation, unrest, and distrust prevail. Kingdoms are being uprooted, monarchies undermined, while rankest Socialism seeks its day.
Great labor disturbances with loss of life are chronicled on both sides of the ocean. Bombs and dynamite do their fearful work.
Lynchings, north and south, of innocent and guilty, are reported. Mobs gather at slightest provocation and defy the authorities. Rioters, young and old, desecrate the Sabbath. Peaceful excursionists are insulted in our cities by young toughs and rowdies of both sexes.
The divorce courts are working overtime, and young women parade the streets in costumes that the chorus girls of the stage have made notorious, ridiculous, and indecent. Chorus girls are on every street in flimsy, clinging garments, and the white slave traffic increases by leaps and bounds.
Legislative bodies are debauched by demagogs, and rankest municipal corruption is wide-spread. The prosperity of the country is overlooked, while upstart "uplifters" clamor to be heard, and climb for every office in sight.
The blazing sun consumes the crops, and the water supplies of cities great and small are threatened. Rain refuses to fall, and vegetation is parched.
The theaters are crowded, while the pews of the churches are empty, and religion is at the lowest ebb.
Under what sign of the zodiac are we living?
These pictures tell us a graphic story of what dynamite has been doing in different parts of the country. The one on the right is the wreck of Albert Von Spreckelson's planing-mill, North Street and Highland Avenue, Indianapolis, blown up at midnight, October 22, 1909. The one on the left is the wreckage of the Indianapolis new library building, blown up by the dynamiters; also mentioned in Detective Burns's statement.
But God reigns, and the world will still survive.
When the year was almost spent the "Wall Street Journal" expressed itself in regard to the situation as follows:
We are going through just such another period of unrest as that of 1848. Labor troubles have never assumed such formidable dimensions as in
The young sultan of Persia, Ahmed Shah, from a recent photograph—the tiny monarch who doubtless would be glad to be rid of his throne, and play and act like other boys, but whose very kingdom is in a critical position just now, between Russia and other powers. Russia demands the dismissal of the American who is putting her finances in order. Among other things, the energetic young man has brought Russians to time, and demanded of them what was due from them to the Persian government. Persia refuses to dismiss Mr. Shuster. What the outcome will be is difficult to say.
the recent past in England and France. Germany is afraid of her own citizens, so rapid is the spread of social democracy in that country. Of the conditions of the Iberian peninsula it is needless to speak. Old established monarchies are trembling, and the hour is thunderous with the reverberant shaking of thrones.
The foregoing paragraphs present the situation as it actually exists in the world from the view-point of various writers, but all are unanimous in showing that the entire world is hanging on the brink of an indescribable revolution. Some of the world events that have occasioned such statements as are found in the foregoing paragraphs may be mentioned:
The Field of Labor and Capital
In the field of labor and capital there has been perhaps no other year in the history of the world when there were such unsettled conditions and such wide-spread unrest and rioting. England had its great strike, which was compared to an actual civil war because of the strong military force that had to be called out to suppress the rioting. Portugal and Spain had similar labor riots, altho not so strong, perhaps, as the one in England. There were bread riots in France and in Austria. There were labor disturbances in Germany, and even far-off Japan has begun to feel the impulses of the Socialist movements that claim to be working for the betterment of humanity, but which so frequently result in warlike clashes between the laborer and the capitalist.
In our own country a strike was declared, and a most bitter struggle was threatened. The sudden and complete exposing of the great dynamite conspiracy through the confession of the McNamara brothers seems for the present to have quieted the apprehensions in regard to any immediate difficulties between capital and labor in this country; but incidentally this confession shows the determined and bitter struggle that is on between the men of wealth and the men of brawn. And while the course of the struggle may be changed by this confession, the bitter fight will go on just the same, because we must reckon with strong convictions on both sides of the controversy, even tho these convictions in many instances are based upon the strongest sentiments of selfishness.
War Among the Nations
Early in the year Diaz was driven from Mexico by the revolutionary forces, and Madero was placed at the head of the affairs of State. But the turbulence has gone on, and the end is not yet. War was declared on Turkey by Italy. This war is still in progress. The revolution in China has been bitterly waged, and the outcome is not yet fully known.
And then, in addition to these actual wars that have been in progress, Germany and France have bitterly quarreled, and for a11number of months it was feared that there would be an actual outbreak. England and Germany, who have been quarreling for the last two or three years, have not fully settled their difficulties. Russia and Persia have been in a quarrel, troops were mobilized, and war may yet be declared. Conditions in India were so very much unsettled that some of his best advisers requested King George to refrain from his journey to that part of his realm to be crowned as emperor.
And while these greater disturbances have been in progress, many minor ones that the reader will readily call to mind have agitated and disturbed different localities.
Preparation for War
During the past year a new implement of warfare has made marvelous strides toward perfection. The aeroplane has come to be an established fact, and one nation after another is providing itself with these fleets that sail the skies. And while early in the year Mr. Carnegie was much lauded throughout the world for his donation of ten millions toward the peace movement, yet the various nations of the earth have laid down one of the great Dreadnought battle-ships on an average of about every ten days; and while there was ten millions of money given by Mr. Carnegie for peace, the nations have spent over seventy times that much, or seven hundred millions, on their battle-ships. Thus there is much peace talk, but the preparations are all for war.
In the Religious World
Mighty movements are also working strongly in the religious world. The strongest of these movements is that toward a great world federation of the various religious bodies, so that their combined influence can be brought to bear upon the civil power to compel what they believe proper reforms. Many of these reforms in themselves are good; but the religious despotism that they will establish in seeking to promote these reforms, will simply be a repetition of the history of the past. There has never been a religious despotism but what has been a mighty persecuting power. A number of notable conventions during the year have been held, the central theme of which seemed to be to turn the minds of men toward this great federation movement. The Methodists had a meeting for the purpose of combining the various orders of Methodists into one church, and their speakers also expressed themselves in favor of having all religious bodies united in one great federation. The convention of the followers of Alexander Campbell that met in Portland had for its central theme the uniting of all religious bodies, not excepting the Catholics. The Good Citizen Movement had a convention in Chicago, and one of its great thoughts is to combine the religious sentiment of the world in favor of certain reforms.
The latest photograph of Maha Vajiravudh, the new king of Siam, whose coronation at Bangkok began December 1 and lasted several days. He has six beautiful sisters, but these must be consigned to "single blessedness," for fear of their rearing, in any marriage they might contract, some rival to the throne. Of course there is a possibility that they may be joined to some royal harem, but they can not be first wives and have a household of their own.
The capital of Persia, Teheran, toward which Russian troops are now going. Sharpshooters in the Persian army — men who, if Russia and Persia go to war, will take an active part
Then there has come to the front, and perhaps is attracting the most attention of anything just now, the "Men and Religion Forward Movement."
But standing out above all of these movements, and destined in the end to lead every one of them, is the advancement that the Catholic Church is making in the United States. We had during the past year the jubilee celebration of Cardinal Gibbons, and also the appointment of three more American cardinals. The Papacy has become very aggressive, and the call for three more cardinals in this country is merely an indication of what the Catholics themselves regard as well-nigh a marvelous advancement that they are making in this great nation. The Papacy boasts that she never changes; and the same principles that actuated the Papacy in the Middle Ages, actuate it still. One of the strongest and most repressive efforts of the Papacy during the last year, was directed against the "Modernists." By this fact alone we can see that she is determined that modern principles and modern views shall not break in upon the cherished history and traditions of the Papacy. She may seem to give way to these modern notions at times; but when the Papacy finally rights herself to take the lead of this great federal movement that is so strikingly active in the modern Christian world, she will be the Papacy of the Middle Ages.
The reader may smile at the idea of the Papacy's being placed at the head of these great federations that are being formed; but if you will closely study the prophecies of the Bible, you will see the clearest and most striking evidence that such will be the case; and if you watch closely the events of the passing days, you will see that these prophecies are being very clearly enacted into history.
Criminality
It is only necessary, in passing, to make mention of the fact that the newspapers and the magazines of the day are filled with accounts of the most unspeakable crimes. Jurists, politicians, and reformers are declaiming against these, and declaring themselves fearful for the outcome. And if we will but watch the gathering storm of criminality and violence as it is rising to sweep over the world, we will see an unmistakably clear fulfilment of the words of Jehovah which say that evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Thus may we see, as we briefly scan some of the leading events that have disturbed the minds of men during the past year, that there was an abundance of cause for alarm; and the years that lie just before us will serve only to intensify and increase these troubles and disturbances. And while the great religious movements of the time were not in the minds of the men who wrote so alarmingly, yet are these movements filled with ominous portents. They foreshadow the great religious despotism that is to be one of the leading conditions of the closing hours of time.
Men may call it pessimism to talk in this way; but that may only be called true optimism which deals with actual facts, and refuses to build our hopes on fable and fancy. This old world is passing through her death agonies, and there is no mistaking it. The second coming of Christ lies just before us; and it is the most glorious event, and the most to be desired, of anything that has occurred in all the ages. We desire to have the optimism that will see the meaning of the turmoil and strife that is in the world, and that will know of a surety, from God's prophetic Word, that while the end is at hand, it is only12the end of sin, of strife, of crime. The beginning of the glorious day of eternity when Jesus the Saviour of men will reign supreme, lies just beyond. T.
