Distress of Nations by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Dec 13, 1905

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 31, No. 50.

Distress of Nations.

By Editor

Again and again we are hearing from different sources of great distress in London among the working men. What a sidelight it throws on the prosperity of the present time. Great corporations are prospering, governments find sufficient funds to put millions and millions in warships and other munitions of warfare, while thousands of men in the great cities are out of work. In America it is said that of the large army of tramps the great majority do not want work, but that is not the case in England. The men there are constantly demanding work. The London Standard says that "Great Britain with all its prosperity, with signs on almost every side of wealth and the free enjoyment of its varied industries, its enterprise, its gigantic speculations, its merchant navy trading and trafficking to the utmost ends of the world, has nevertheless the canker of a desperate poverty eating into its very heart." In a parade November 20 there were over five thousand unemployed men. Red flags were seen, and banners bearing these devices, "Curse your charities; we want work," and "there is a limit to human endurance." Parliament is endeavoring to do something to assuage or mollify conditions, but the case looks almost hopeless. Truly we are in the time of which the Lord spoke, "distress of nations with perplexity." Following this we may expect in greater degree, until such relief is given, a repetition of the scenes enacted in 1885, when for two days West London with all its wealth cringed and cowered before the maddened mob.