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IN TRUSTS WE TRUST

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Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Apr 5, 1899

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 25, No. 14.

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“IN TRUSTS WE TRUST.”

By E. J. Dryer

IN a recent number of the Judge there appeared a caricature which well expresses the social and financial condition of the United States to-day. It was entitled "The New Motto." It represented "Uncle Sam" as standing on the national capitol on tiptoe, reaching up to hang the motto, "IN TRUSTS WE TRUST," on its dome. The old motto, "IN GOD WE TRUST," he had just taken down. Then, in a narrow column at the right, it gave a list of fifty-six trusts, with the amount of capital of each, which now exist in the United States.
The significance of this caricature would be apparent to all who saw it. The common household motto, "IN GOD WE TRUST," which is stamped on every silver dollar as a national motto, is a farce. Truly, indeed, our nation has changed its motto. The moneyed men in all lines of business have been forming these large trusts, representing, in some cases, a capital of $200,000,000. What is it done for? They say, "To protect our business." True, indeed, it does protect their business so well that all the smaller dealers in the same lines of business are unable to compete with them, and failure in business awaits them. Confederacy is the spirit of the age. It has seized all classes of society. The confederacy of the rich is rapidly running the tradesmen and business men; everywhere it is driving business out of the smaller towns and villages, except one or two large department stores, perhaps, which control the trade of the town. Society is rapidly being reduced to just two classes,—the extremely rich and the extremely poor.
Confederacy among the masses began with the confederacy of the rich. The laboring man saw the need of organized protection against the rapid encroachments of monopoly and wealth; and thus the country to-day is filled with labor unions and protective associations of every description. We have printers' unions, barbers' unions, miners' unions, workingmen's unions, farmers' unions, and railroad unions of various kinds, etc., all for protection against trusts and monopolies. But, also for the masses, regardless of their organized efforts to protect themselves, the wealth of the nation continues to flow into the hands of the few at a rapid rate. The masses are beginning to see that their efforts are proving a failure; therefore a spirit of unrest is fast taking hold of them, and constant outbursts of local revolution and anarchy in different parts of the country are the result.
It needs neither prophet nor philosopher to predict the outcome of the present situation if allowed to take its course. It is not only our nation that is in this condition to-day, but the nations of the old world as well.
God, in his Word, predicted this very situation. He said it should be one of the signs of the coming of Jesus Christ, the King of Peace. He says: "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. Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord." James 5:1-7.
No modern writer could pen a better picture of our times than these words of inspiration written eighteen centuries ago. The Lord's admonition to His followers in this closing struggle is, "Be patient therefore brethren, unto the coming of the Lord," "stablish your hearts; for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh." Verses 7 and 8.
The masses to-day are looking to the wrong source for help; their unions and organizations are a failure. The Lord says so. Let us read what He says: "Associate yourselves, O ye people, and ye shall be broken in pieces; and give ear, all ye of far countries; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, and ye shall be broken in pieces. Take counsel together, and it shall come to naught; speak the word, and it shall not stand; for God is with us." "Say ye not, A confederacy, to all them to whom this people shall say, A confederacy; neither fear ye their fear, nor be afraid. Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself, and let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. And He shall be for a sanctuary." Isa. 8:9, 10, 12-14.
God only is our refuge now; all the confederacies and protective associations in this world will not stem the tide of this increasing monopoly of wealth. Our only motto now should be, "IN GOD WE TRUST." The only confederacy or protective association we should join now is the army of the Lord, follow the counsel of the Captain of our salvation, and seek the unity of the Spirit, that God may use us as messengers of mercy to carry to this doomed world the glad tidings of the near coming of Jesus Christ, the King of Peace.
Hamilton, Ont.