War Inventories

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · Sep 12, 1916

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 43, No. 36.

THE United States government has practically completed "an industrial inventory" "in an attempt to mobilize America's resources for war." Chairman Howard E. Coffin, of the Committee on Industrial Preparedness, of the Naval Consulting Board of the United States, has had the work in hand. The campaign of study and investigation has been going on quite vigorously for the past three months. Every factory and other establishment throughout the United States, as well as the railroad, telegraph, and telephone systems, has been carefully and closely studied with reference to having every detail available for immediate use in case of war.

It may not seem to many that there has been any immediate danger of a sudden outbreak of war between the United States and any other country; yet when we stop to consider the matter, we find that there have been constant negotiations between this government and Germany, England, Mexico, and other nations, which might have resulted in war in case of the least slip of diplomacy. And it is more than probable that if the average citizen had understood everything the officials of the government have had thrust upon them from day to day, fathers and mothers would have spent many a sleepless night, fearing that their sons would be immediately called to the great slaughterhouse of modern warfare.

We hear many talks in favor of peace in these times; and would that it were possible for the importance and the rightfulness of peace to be proclaimed by thousands of voices and pens where there is only one at the present time. But regardless of the sentiments in favor of peace, the world is plunging furiously into the mad rush of war. A large part of the factories of the United States are operating at the highest point at the present time, preparing war materials for the fighting nations of Europe. There are immense revenues in these war preparations. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been made by a few men in this country, out of Europe's slaughter pen. Men in this age, which is not only maddened with war, but maddened with greed for gain, are intensely interested in continuing a work that brings them such large dividends.

It is indescribably awful that this should be the case, but nevertheless it is true. The apostle Paul has most clearly told us that the last days would be made perilous because men would be lovers of self and lovers of money. The prophets have forewarned us, in numerous passages, that the last days would be days of terrible slaughter and frightful war and carnage.

The theories of men have not been met by the facts in this time; but the divine predictions of the prophets have met their fulfillment most literally in the events that are passing. Wise men and women, with their open Bibles in their hands, should have no difficulty in ascertaining the meaning of what is occurring. We are in the midst of the thickening perils of the last days. The great climax of the coming of Christ cannot be delayed very long.