The Army of the Unemployed and the Growing Discontent
MANY sections are now grappling with the problem of their "armies of unemployed." In some places, as in Los Angeles, in Colorado, and in Oregon, there have been clashes that threaten more serious outbreaks and violence. As usual, men of differing political persuasions are seeking to lay the blame of these conditions at the door of the political party that is in power. Such a course may be very wise from the standpoint of the politicians who are seeking to create sentiment that will give them votes and enable them to regain their lost political power; but the man is a very superficial and short-sighted thinker who can not see that the conditions which are so rife in the United States, and which are seen also in quite as remarkable and portentous proportions in every other part of the whole wide world, are but the beginning of the reaping from the seed sowing that has been in progress for half a century. Men of wealth have been combining and concentrating until a mere handful hold the control of the financial resources of the world. As this concentration of wealth has been going on, the Socialists and the leaders of organized labor have been discussing it. They have been decrying these "economic conditions" that are giving a few men a superabundance, while the great mass have but a small comparative portion of wealth, and millions upon millions of human beings are in the dire straits of poverty. It is said, on competent authority, that there are ten million people in the United States alone who are verging upon destitution, the vast majority of whom do not know where they are to get their next meal. These conditions have been discussed on street corners in every part of the world. Lecture halls have been crowded with discontented men who have heard the story of the oppressions and the luxurious extravagance of the wealthy. Train loads of literature discussing it have been sent out. Some of the papers that have the widest circulation of any in the land are those that carry the socialistic sentiments. There is no denying the fact that the wealthy men have furnished a big text from which the Socialist and the labor organizer could preach. Sympathetic congregations have listened to their doctrines. Men may wax very indignant in condemning the Socialist. They may organize to overthrow the labor movements. But after they have done their best, still these conditions remain. And we have advanced to the place where there is a far larger problem before the world than the mere discussions of the right and the wrong of the parties to the two sides of this great international question that has produced a world problem. We have had the seed sowing, and the harvest is here, and the reaping of results is about to begin. The strongest of men believe that we are facing a world revolution. If you have not studied these conditions in the light of the prophetic Word of God, you are in the dark; but if you have studied them under the guidance of the inspired prophets, you know just what they mean and where they will end. The wise man in this time will throw his theories to the winds, confront the facts of the actual conditions, and take his stand with the only One in all the universe who was able to point out years ago that these conditions were coming, and to tell us what they portend.