Corporate Lawlessness and Coming Perils
Judge Wellborn, in the United States District Court on November 7, imposed a fine of $330,000 on the Santa Fe Railroad Company for rebating. The fine was what the judge called "an intermediate penalty." The maximum which might have been assessed was $1,320,000 and the minimum $63,000. The government is making a strong and determined effort to compel the large corporations to live within the law. This effort will no doubt steady things for a time. But any one can see, in the light of the financial panic that the nation is just passing thru, that there is also a strong determination on the part of the big moneyed interests to have things their own way, and the outcome will eventually be disasters that are hard to predict. But we know that they are coming, for the prophets have described these conditions and told us of the perils that will result. If there was ever a time when Christians should heed the Scripture admonition to pray for our rulers it is now. And if ever there was a time that Christians should heed the Master's injunction to send forth laborers into the harvest it is now. For truly there are conditions springing up in the world with an intensity which shows that the time for working in comparative tranquillity is about over.