All in One Day by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Mountain View, California · Oct 9, 1907

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 33, No. 41.

All in One Day.

By Editor

THE papers that came to us on September 16 were about like the usual run of the daily products of the press. The most striking feature about them is their record of casualties, crime, and social discontent. A brief record of the doings of that day in this respect might be of interest, and will be also instructive if we consider the matter in the light of what it means.

A Pittsburg mob nearly hangs a detective, having mistaken him for a non-union man who had shot a union member. Such is the significant heading to one column. Another heading in the same column says—

England Faces a Railway Strike.

Mr. Victor Grayson, M. P., recently elected by the Socialists to the British Parliament. He is the first out-and-out Socialist to be elected to such a high position in England. It marks a very significant step. The matter was quite fully treated on page ten in our issue of September 25. Those who read that article will be interested in the above portrait, and those who see this picture but who have not read the article will certainly miss much if they fail to do so yet.

The decision will be made on the twenty-eighth of October, and the men are urged by their leaders to be prepared to strike. The contention, in the main, is for an eight-hour day, and larger pay for overtime than is paid for the regular day. The railroad company refuses to recognize the union, and the strike will not only seek to get the shorter hours and increased pay, but will also demand that the union be recognized.

A conductor was shot by a man that he was putting off his train because the man refused to pay his fare. The conductor was severely wounded, but shot at his assailant in self-defense. Some of the passengers joined in the shooting, and among them a shot was fired that killed the man. When his body was turned over to the coroner it was found that he had on his person more than enough money to have paid his fare to the place he said he was going, in addition to a railroad ticket to the same place.

A Seattle woman goes insane in church and creates a scene by hitting her associate worshippers with her umbrella. These sudden collapses into insanity are simply an index of the high tension to which so many people are constantly strung and such sudden breaks as the one herein mentioned are of frequent occurrence.

The brutal act of the Seattle police in taking a woman away from her small children and holding her in jail is mentioned also under a large type heading.

The Japanese trouble in Canada is considered, and the plan of indemnity proposed by the Dominion Parliament is discussed.

Mrs. Hetty Green sees dull times ahead because the guilty oppressors of the innocent do not meet their just deserts in courts of justice.

Rioting women in France are marching the streets of Paris, demanding that death be meted out to the men who have been so shamefully mistreating little girls. There is said to be a regular epidemic of crime of this sort. In the same article the story is told of another criminal band styling themselves the "Apaches" who "in the secluded sections almost daily maim and rob, and sometimes murder, their victims. Their weapon always is the knife, and gathering in bands, they often wantonly stab pedestrians and frequently policemen, merely for the sake of stabbing. The Director of the Paris police declares that his force is entirely insufficient to cope with the situation."

Organizing the railroads to fight the threatened strike of the boiler-makers, the blowing open of a safe by some daring cracksmen, and four boys under thirteen years of age arrested for thievery, are among the other items that are mentioned.

Every one knows that the foregoing is but a fair recital of the average contents of the daily papers. Many people see the trend of the times in these criminal and violent directions and are alarmed because of it. But there is no occasion of alarm. The word of God pictured out this situation of things hundreds of years ago, and we may know what it means if we will but study the prophecies. We are in the time that just precedes the second coming of Christ, and these conditions will grow worse and worse till the very end is reached. But every one who is trusting in the arm of Jehovah for protection will be sheltered from the gathering storm.