Cleaning Up a Great City
By Editor
IT passes without saying that one of the recognized problems of this time is the condition of things in our great cities. Practically all the cities have some kind of process or plan in operation most of the time for the cleansing and the betterment of their conditions. Every little while some particular city is held up before us through the papers as a great example of what can be done, and also of what is being done in the way of reforms. We might take as a concrete example a certain Western city. We will not mention the name, because we do not desire the reader to get to thinking about that individual city, but desire instead that he shall recognize that the story of this city is simply the story that is repeated over and over again in practically all the cities, not merely of this country, but of the whole world. This city, that we will not mention by name, had a thorough house cleaning some six or seven years ago. Even the president of the United States took occasion to speak of the work that was going on, and said that it was an omen of better days in city life; that the exposures of frauds and crimes would create a public disgust that would cause a complete renovation. That work wore itself out, and the city was still found to be in a desperate condition. In later days one reform after another has been attempted. The latest was during the past year, when some of the leading newspapers, the clergy, and other reformers united for a general cleaning up of the city. Its vice-laden districts were to be thoroughly cleansed and fumigated. It was to be made, through the united efforts of these reformers, an ideal and a model city, with respect particularly to its lack of open sewers of vice. That work was carried on for quite a while with a great blare of trumpets, and one writer ridiculed the idea that the world was getting worse instead of better. He said, “There are some people who, in order for their theories to succeed, must show that the world is getting worse all the time, but we will show them instead that it is getting better.” They created a temporary atmosphere that was calculated to lead one to doubt the Scripture statement that “evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” They would tempt one to doubt the Master’s positive prediction that the days of His second coming would be as full of violence, crime, and evil as were the days of Noah and of Lot, when every imagination of the thoughts of men was only evil continually. So we could only watch and wait developments, to see whether or not these words of God would stand. If these words are true, it would not necessarily be the case that there would be no attempts at reforms, but it would be true that these reforms would simply scratch over the surface, and would not touch the hearts and consciences of men, where all true reforms must be wrought out. But to return to this city. This great storm of reformation has blown over, and during recent weeks an editor of one of the papers that took the lead in the reformatory work, tells us that a merchant on one of the principal business streets of his city — “says his store has been repeatedly looted by thieves, that he has found many stolen articles in pawn-shops, and that he has always been forced to pay the pawnbroker his price before he could get his goods back.” Then the editor goes on to remark upon these conditions: “We assume that every one knows that the owner has the right to recover stolen goods, no matter where he finds them or who has them. And we assume that every one knows that a pawnbroker who receives stolen goods and who refuses to give them up when he knows they are stolen goods, is subject to forfeiture of his license and to arrest. “It is an astounding condition of things when reputable merchants, doing business in the very heart of the retail district, must buy back stolen goods from the receivers. “Are we to guess that the amicable relations between the police and the bunco-men were rudely interrupted, only to be followed by the establishment of equally amicable relations between the police and the pawnbrokers?” Great reforms have been attempted in city after city all over the world, but corruption has developed itself into a system, and it has entrenched itself in such high places and to such a wide extent that we see it deepening and broadening everywhere. God knew this thousands of years ago, and foretold it. Now it is not for men to sneer at these things. Eternal issues are involved in the right decision upon these questions. The sensible man will throw away sentiment. He will stand squarely upon the word of God, and look the conditions fairly in the face. God’s word gives the truth in the matter, because God has known these conditions accurately, and has taken the pains to foretell them centuries upon centuries before the time arrived for them to occur.