ONE IN PURPOSE by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Feb 24, 1904

ONE IN PURPOSE.

By Editor

A PROMINENT daily newspaper that has been waging a bitter warfare against the great combines of capital, and has been equally zealous in support of labor unions, admits in a recent issue that the two antagonistic forces are working on the same principle and to the same end. This is what the SIGNS OF THE TIMES has been showing all along, for which reason Christians can not unite with either class. If there were nothing in prospect but the possible selfish gains of this short life, in which one man's elevation means another's humiliation, or, perhaps, the downfall of many others, then there might be some ground for the doctrine that "the end justifies the means." There might be some pretext for retaliation in kind against grievances (after the manner of savages) or even of maintaining unprovoked combinations equally oppressive upon others. But the Christian can not enter into the world's contests, especially into contests such as that between organized capital and organized labor, in which the rights and interests of the masses are utterly ignored. When men argue solely from the standpoint of worldly interest, it is not at all surprising that they will condemn one class of combines and uphold another which admittedly aims at a similar object by similar means. Here is the point in the press argument to which we allude:—

Why do business men combine?—In order to reduce competition and raise profits.

And that, precisely, is the reason why workingmen combine.

When union men resort to violence to accomplish their end they break the law.

Are trusts slow to break the law in order to accomplish their purposes? The lawlessness of the trusts is, of course, no excuse for any lawlessness of which trades-union may have been guilty, but it does stop the trusts from virtuously lecturing organized labor on the duty of respecting the law at all costs.

It is an undisputed fact that the reduction of competition is against the people at large; it is always in the interest of the few who combine to reduce it,

and against public interest. This is a standing, stereotyped argument of all opposition to the capital combines, yet we have here the frank admission of a labor-union journal that the unions have in view the same principle that the capital combines have. Hence they must stand in the same light toward the people at large. Surely, then, it is unreasonable to condone law-breaking on the part of the unions because the capital trusts have been guilty in that respect. Shall we do evil that good may come?—Nay; but “recompense to no man evil for evil.” The Christian can well afford to follow this counsel, and to rely on the promise, “Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed.” Ps. 37:3.