Training Forces for the Conflict.
THERE is no one thing that has done more to corrupt governments than the influence of money. There seems to be a fascination about accumulating vast fortunes that especially appeals to the selfish, carnal heart. And so the men who have the disease of making it their life-work and life-long ambition to do the one thing of amassing the greatest possible fortunes have always been ready to spend money to “influence legislation,” and also to train judges and executive officers to do their bidding when it comes to putting the laws into effect. Modern inventions have made it possible for the whole world to exchange ideas daily, and to ship the various commodities of commerce from one side of the globe to the other in a very brief space of time. These conditions have made the present time the one period of all the world’s history when men could embrace the whole earth with their arms of greed and selfish desires for accumulation of wealth. And consequently this is the age that has presented to men the greatest temptations to corrupt legislatures, courts, and executive officers in order that nothing stand in the way of their ambitious purposes to accumulate millions upon millions of wealth. Many of the men of this generation who have had the opportunity have yielded to these temptations of avarice and have gone to insane lengths in building up vast corporations, trusts, and other combines to seize upon all the wealth of the world that they could possibly get hold of. The time was when a millionaire was considered a very wealthy man. But he is no longer a man of extraordinary wealth. We have the billionaire now, and in this rush to accumulate money and property there has been left a trail of corrupted legislators and jurists that has become an appalling menace to society. The men of wealth have taught the lesson of the advantages of combining in order to secure their objects. They have taught a vast army of men how to unionize their interests in such a way that nothing could stand before them without being swallowed up. The capitalist can not accomplish his desired purposes without the help of labor. And in order for him to make the most, the capitalist is always seeking to economize in labor as well as in everything else. And since his object, and his only object, is to make money, he is not at all careful to guard the interests of the laboring man. He is working for economy of production, and to him the laborer looks like any other material that he uses in his product. The small dealer is just as ruthlessly trodden down by the great capitalist as is the laboring man. The records of the legislature and the courts are full of documentary evidence to show that one man after another has had to fall before the great octopus of concentrating wealth. A large force of high-salaried lawyers have been trained to so frame legislation that they can turn decisions of courts in any way they like by means of the technicalities that they raise. The cases of the men of big wealth are not tried on merit, but by the merest quibbles they are allowed acquittal. There is a strong reversal of sentiment just now against this sort of thing, and a big fight is going on to try to bring some of the big men of finance to the bar of justice. But they have themselves so strongly intrenched, and they have their forces so well drilled that it is next to impossible to do anything with them. It is perfectly natural that the laboring men, as they have seen this course of things developing in the country, should also form combinations for the purpose of combatting these encroachments of capital. And the high-handed and unscrupulous methods employed by capital would naturally lead the labor combines to seek to meet these methods with whatever weapons could be made available. And so the strike and the boycott have been made strong allies. And the natural outgrowth of the strike and the boycott is rioting and violence. Another one of the outgrowths of the struggle between capital and labor has been the effort that the labor-combine makes to force every laboring man to join the ranks of unionized labor. The labor leader makes an eloquent argument to the effect that if all the labor of the country is not united in the combine they will not be able to meet the forces of capital with any hope of victory. And so the “union man” is forbidden to work with any one of his fellow men who does not belong to the union. And here again the natural outgrowth of this principle is to engender hatred and exercise violence toward the man who does not choose to join in the union combine of labor. It should be perfectly clear to any one that the course that has been pursued by9the capitalist is subversive of law and order, and that it will lead to revolutionary and disastrous results. And it should be equally clear to any one that the principles of the labor-combines are just as truly revolutionary and subversive of that which makes for the tranquillity of society. When the sentiment is made popular that a man has a right to work if he belongs to the union, and that he has no right to work if he does not belong, it ought not to be difficult to see that a reign of tyranny has been reached. The combines of wealth are growing more and more powerful and grasping. And the combines of labor are extending with even greater strength and rapidity. Any one should be able to see with his ordinary intelligence that these maneuvering forces must soon meet in a rioting and revolutionary combat. But we are not left in this question to our ordinary intelligence alone. God has given us the revelations of his prophetic word. These prophecies have been frequently dwelt upon in the columns of this paper, and it is our purpose to continually keep them before the people. It is not necessary for any one to be found in the camp of either of these warring factions. The Lord of heaven is calling every one to make the character preparation that will enable him to stand without fault before His throne, and having this preparation we will be able to keep free from being swallowed up by the revolutions that are soon to rack the earth with violence. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming very soon. The prophecies make this clear. Have you heard about them? If so, you know that the revolutionary forces of earth are to have their career of fury abruptly broken off by the coming of the just One. This bright and cheering hope of the soon coming of Christ is for every one of us to enjoy if we will. And if we have this hope, every forbidding outlook in the world serves only to deepen and intensify our joy at the knowledge of the return of our Lord. T.