FORETOKENS OF OUR LORD'S RETURN
By Prof. George W. Rine
TYRANNY OF COMBINED MILLIONS.
(Continued from last week.) Predatory Harvester Trust.
The trust buccaneers are ever on the lookout for new seas of trade whose treasure-laden argosies will yield rich plunder. Of all the piratical ships that have swept the commercial ocean in quest of black-flag booty, there has been none to maintain at the mast-head of its rapacity a keener lookout for rich loot than those who are exploiting the farming communities. It could hardly be expected that a prey so numerous and easy as the agricultural classes would be overlooked. In stating that the production of American farms, in round figures, is each year $4,900,000,000, is to show how opulent is the agricultural field for trust exploitation. It is about three times the gross earnings of all the railways, and nearly four times those of all the mines. To produce that yearly crop the farmers spend annually $100,000,000 for implements and machinery. It was for the conquest of that $100,000,000 that the harvester trust was conceived and put into operation, in August, 1902. The trust is known as the International Harvester Company, and was incorporated at Trenton, N. J. In the picturesque phrasing of Alfred Henry Lewis, its mission is tersely sketched: "Being thus launched at those old familiar shipyards of modern piracy, the New Jersey-Trento Yards, the harvester trust, without reserve or setback, has marauded agriculture ever since." Mr. Lewis insists that there is no exaggeration in saying that the harvester trust, from that colossal bonanza of $100,000,000, pockets a yearly profit of more than $40,000,000, eighty per cent. of which may be counted as sheer rapine, attained by methods that would shame a footpad, and are wholly criminal in the eye of the law. That is to say that of the $40,000,000 profit, $32,000,000 is naked plunder. The truth of this ugly charge is established by the fact that since the farmers have been compelled to buy their implements from this predatory monopoly they must pay $32,000,000 more annually than they did before the birth of the octopus. This trust-monster, tho not yet three years old, has sucked in practically all competing concerns, so that it now controls more than nine-tenths of the farm-implement trade; and by methods of extortion, constriction, and law-breaking, it so dominates the market situation as to compel what little opposition still survives to do business at a loss. That little opposition is inexorably doomed. As soon as this $120,000,000 trust was on its feet and ready to prosecute its ebon mission, its first thought—ever the first trust thought—was to kill off innocent, helpless rivalry. The most effective and expeditious move in doing this was to begin life as a lawbreaker. "This need not cause a shock," says Mr. Lewis, "it should be kept constantly before one, as a defense against shocks, that the great purpose of trust conception is crime, and to destroy competition by defying the law." The trust spirit is to secure to itself a monopoly by whatever methods, fair or foul, may lie nearest at hand. To this end its first effort is addressed to the railways. If it can wrest from the common (?) carriers a rebate in rates and thus have its products distributed at a lower cost than can its rivals, that will be all the lawless advantage it requires to effect its sinister ends. "It can use that rebate, as a thug uses cord and crease, to stab and strangle competition." Like most trusts, this one cares as little for law as a cow does for a cobweb. Was it not ordained to walk through the law? By such Satanic means has this ravenous mastadon of trade attained its pitiless power to crush, to destroy, and to feed and fatten on its victims! So we see again that the honest, hard-working farmer is systematically mulcted every year to the tune of $32,000,000, solely for the purpose of enabling one marauding band of commercial adventurers to indulge its lust for blood-money. Lack of space precludes my giving anything like a full sketch of the malodorous history of the clutching "combine" known as the Beef Trust. A few bold strokes must suffice. This band of exploiters, like its brethren, has grown rotund on the cryptic, miracle-working rebate on transportation rates. In short, Mr. C. E. Russell declares: "We may as well face the plain truth, that if all the men that have taken or have tried to secure illegal rebates were to be imprisoned, some of our business streets would look lonely indeed." With this trust monster, as with others, we shall see that the trail of the rebate serpent lies through lawlessness, through the spoliation of great populations, through business panic, through embezzlements, ruined lives and homes, and through suicides, all the way up to the throne of our national god, Success. In order to make themselves the absolute masters of all those who breed and feed cattle and other stock to supply the demands of the world's markets, the great packers of the whole country drew together into a compact, steel-bound trust. This having been effected, they were in a position to dictate the prices they would pay for stock on the one hand, and the prices the consumer must pay for dressed meat on the other. They were also rich enough to say to the railway companies, "Give us the rates we want or we will build our own railways." "Henceforth the bid of one firm was the bid of all. One market was all markets." The change was revolutionary. All the profits and a great deal more dropped away from cattle-feeding. The farmer continued to feed cattle at great losses, confidently expecting a speedy return to old normal prices. But the winter of his discontent never ended. The flush and inspiration of the long-looked-for spring of fat prices seems as remote as ever. You must understand that the business had become enormous; millions of capital had been invested in it. Yet the entire industry was, in practise, at the mercy of only one buyer. From July, 1903, to July, 1904, the average loss on every head of cattle fattened and sold was eight dollars. The resultant catastrophe fell chiefly on the Middle West. The Iowa State officials report that "the total losses of the cattle-feeders in Iowa in 1904 was $12,500,000. In 1903 and 1904 forty banks in Iowa failed, . . . and at least seven bank officers committed suicide." They declare that even in times of national business depression and panic there has been no such record as this. In its annual review of the progress of the state, the South Dakota Historical Society makes this startling statement: "The machinations of the Beef Trust almost destroyed the flourishing live-stock industry of South Dakota." The secretary of the society has estimated the losses in 1904, to South Dakota cattle-men, at $10,000,000. As a direct result of the failure of scores of banks in each of the Middle West states, thousands of local business firms were driven into bankruptcy. Similar havoc was wrought in other states; but the coffers of the trust marauders are bursting out—not with new wine,—but with the economic life-blood of the people of the Middle West. It would be easy to fill a book with the story of the tactics of these mighty despoilers of the common people; but I must forbear. The facts herein given are only a tiny bundle of typical illustrations of the conditions which prevail throughout the economic world. The sole aim of this short discussion is the enunciation and enforcement of a most solemnly important truth—a truth foretold by prophets. Read thoughtfully the second chapter of the prophecy of Habakkuk, and note that verses 1, 2, 3, 8, 14 and others, show convincingly that the chapter covers a prophecy which has its application primarily in the closing years of the Christian age; that is, when the Christ is about to come again—to come as King of kings, in power and great glory. In this prophecy, the Holy Spirit paints a character-sketch of the typical man of the last days. In verse five and onward we read regarding this characteristic man: "Who enlargeth his desire as Sheol [the grave], and he is as death, and can not be satisfied, but gathereth unto himself all nations. . . . Wo to him that increaseth that which is not his! . . . Because thou hast plundered many nations, all the remnant [the last] of the peoples shall plunder thee. . . . Wo to him that getteth an evil game for his house, that he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the hand of evil! Thou hast devised shame to thy house, by cutting off many peoples, and hast sinned against thy soul." Sheol, or the grave, is ever yawning; it is never filled, is never satisfied. Death still claims its victims by multiplied millions. Death knows no limit. Even so, declares the inspired prophet, will be the men who control the marts and money tables at the time that the "vision, . . . hasteth toward the end, and shall not lie." Do not the facts adduced in this fragmentary article show that men are to-day moved and actuated and pitilessly swayed by the demon of greed? Was there ever an age so marked by ruthless, clutching avarice—an avarice literally insatiable, as is Death? Are the multi-millionaires satisfied, contented? No, indeed! We all know that the more they get the hotter burns their passion for more. Like the horse leech, they cry "Give! give!" "and can not be satisfied."9It is admitted by all publicists that there are persons who, within a period of twenty to twenty-five years, have amassed from one hundred to seven hundred millions of dollars' worth of property. Dr. Gladden and other great thinkers emphatically declare that these men could not possibly have acquired such enormous fortunes honestly. This is the consensus of judgment on the part of all serious men. Now note the prophecy: 'Wo to him that increaseth that which is not his! . . . Wo to him that getteth an evil gain for his house!' Is this end-of-the-age prophecy realized in this our day?—Yea, verily; and with what accuracy, and to what practically unlimited extent! How grateful we should all be to our Father, for the beacon light of prophecy! Will we believe? and live and watch and work in harmony with such belief?