THE MEANING OF MILLIONAIRES by T.

Pacific Press Publishing Company · OAKLAND, CAL., KANSAS CITY, NEW YORK · Nov 28, 1900

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 26, No. 48.

THE MEANING OF MILLIONAIRES

By T.

CHAUNCEY DEPEW says that capital and labor is the century-vexing problem. And there are a great many persons who are very naturally casting about for the best reading matter upon the subject. An ancient author by the name of James, whose writings have not been studied nearly so much as they should have been, has given us a genuine classic on this labor-and-capital problem, and it will not be very difficult to see from its perusal what will be the sure outcome of it. His most significant utterance upon this theme is in the following words:—

"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." James 5:1-6.

This scripture very plainly tells of the miseries that are coming upon the rich because their "riches are corrupted" and their "gold and silver is cankered;" because they "have heaped treasure together for the last days," and caused the distressing cry of the laborer; because they "have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton," and have "nourished" their heart "as in a day of slaughter." It matters not what view mankind may take of this capital-and-labor question; the Lord Jehovah, in the thrilling words quoted in the foregoing, gives the correct and real truth. The Lord directly tells us that treasure shall be "heaped" together "for the last days." And those who have amassed this great wealth will be living in hilarious luxury, while an army of helpless poor will be crying out for the necessities of life.

Three-quarters of a century ago a millionaire was a great rarity. A London gentleman of about sixty-five years recently said:—

"I well remember, in my boyhood, my father's reading in the Times an account of the death of a man (a merchant, I think) who had left a fortune of a million, as something altogether marvelous, which he had never heard of before."

But now there are scores of them in England and Europe, and in this country it is estimated that there are about two thousand. In England the estimated earnings of the whole people is £1,350,000,000, and one million of the population get hold of more than twice as much of this income as the remaining twenty-six millions, while in America there are 4,047 families who own about five times as much of the property as the remaining 6,599,796 families.

Mulhall's statistics give $7.20 as the average weekly income in England. The skilled mechanics get much more than this, hence there are thousands of families that do not have more than about half that amount to live on.

Last year two thousand corporations were chartered in New Jersey, authorized to issue stock to the amount of $3,500,000,000. Six hundred of these were capitalized at a million or more, while fully one hundred of them were absolute monopolies.

Every one knows that all the wealth of the entire world is being "heaped" together by a few men. And can you not see that it is a literal fulfilment of what the Word of God tells us would take place "in the last days"? Are you prepared for the issues that are even now before us?