The Greed for Gold by L. E. F.

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Jun 6, 1916

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 43, No. 23.

The Greed for Gold

By L. E. F.

WITHIN two days (May 5 and 6), the price of sugar advanced 25c a hundred pounds, making the wholesale price $7.85 and the retail $8.35 a hundred. Commenting on this, one press dispatch says: "The reason for the continued and prospective advance of sugar is due to conditions that give the wealthy plantation owners of Hawaii and Cuba an opportunity to squeeze the consumer. They are availing themselves whole-heartedly of this opportunity. High ocean freights, small European production, and other circumstances due to the war, all claim a part just now in lining the pockets of sugar plantation owners with gold." And this is but one example of a like principle that has fastened its grip upon nearly every phase of the world industries.

Nineteen hundred years ago, the apostle Paul declared that "in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous." 2 Tim. 3: 1, 2. It is this greed for gold that constitutes the real yellow peril of to-day. It is this greed for gold that makes the last days "perilous." It is this greed for gold that causes so much distress in the lower half of the world, that inflames the passions of men without Christianity in their hearts, resulting in threats and deeds of retributive justice by the laboring classes. It is this greed for gold that will act as a spark in setting fire to the mighty powder barrel of force and lawlessness in the coming industrial conflict.

The miseries that will come upon the rich as predicted in James 5: 1-4, will be caused by the infuriated workers, the desperate idlers, the despairing, poverty-stricken wretches, who some day will refuse to tolerate longer such conditions. The times are growing more and more unsettled. It behooves every serious minded person to study earnestly these strained conditions, in the light of the Scriptures, and to obey the divine admonition to set the affection on things above, not on the world, with its golden god, which will soon be destroyed in the fire of the last days. L. E. F.