Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D.C. · Feb 11, 1904
Desire of Ages
BY MRS. E. G. WHITE
THIS is an intensely interesting and instructive volume on the life of Christ, magnifying the truth that “God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself.”
In the hearts of all mankind, of whatever race or station in life, there are inexpressible longings for something they do not now possess. This longing is implanted in the very constitution of man, by a merciful God, that man may not be satisfied with his present conditions or attainments. It is God’s design that this longing of the human heart should lead to the One who alone is able to satisfy it. The desire is of him, that it may lead to him, the fulness and fulfilment of that desire. That fulness is found in Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the eternal God. “For it was the good pleasure of the Father that in him should all the fulness dwell.” “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.” And it is also true that “in him ye are made full” with respect to every desire divinely implanted and normally followed.
It is the purpose of this book to set forth Jesus Christ as the one in whom every longing may be satisfied; to present the love of God as revealed in his Son, the divine beauty of the life of Christ, of which all may partake, and not to satisfy the desires of the merely curious, nor the questionings of critics. Even as by the attraction of his own goodness of character, Jesus drew his disciples unto himself, and by his personal presence, by his sympathetic touch and feeling in all their infirmities and needs, and by his constant association, transformed their characters from the earthly to the heavenly, from the selfish to the sacrificing, from small-hearted ignorance and prejudice to large-hearted knowledge and love for the souls of all nations and races, even so it is the purpose of this book so to present the blessed Redeemer as to help the reader to come to him face to face, heart to heart, and to find in him, even as did the disciples of old, Jesus, the mighty One who saves to the uttermost, and transforms to his own divine image all those who come unto God by him.
The “Desire of Ages” will interest all classes; for they were all represented in the various individuals who received help and encouragement from the great Consoler while he was here upon earth. This book should be in every home in the land. It contains nearly 900 pages, and is sold at the following prices:—
Personal Questions and Answers Concerning the Sabbath
By S. M. I. Henry
BY MRS. S. M. I. HENRY
WE have just issued a new edition of this excellent tract. A large number have been sold, yet the demand is increasing.
When Mrs. Henry began to keep the Sabbath, she was National Evangelist for the W. C. T. U. Her correspondence with the leaders of that great organization on the Sabbath question led to the production of “Personal Questions and Answers,” which is a series of questions selected from her private letters, with the answers which were returned, with but few changes. As these questions, so often repeated, are clearly answered in an easy, personal manner, by one especially gifted in language and possessing thorough knowledge of the question, this tract meets a want long felt by the rank and file of our people in their missionary work.
This tract is published as Number Seven of The Words of Truth Series. It contains 56 pages; price, 3½ cents a copy.
Publishers' Page
Conducted by the Department of Circulation of the Review and Herald Publishing Company
The Lover's Love, or John Three Sixteen
On March 1, 1904, the Review and Herald will have ready for delivery the new book entitled “The Lover's Love, or John Three Sixteen,” by William P. Pearce, the author of “If and Why,” “The Tabernacle,” “The Master's Greatest Monosyllables,” “Stepping-Stones to Manhood,” etc.
This book will be a trade book, bearing the Washington imprint, and containing 176 pages 5⅜ x 7⅝ inches, printed in clear, large type, without illustrations, and will sell at retail for 75 cents.
Some idea of the nature of the book may be gained from the following table of contents:—
“Love Counteth Not the Cost” (poem).
“John Three Sixteen.”
The Lover—“God.”
The Lover's Intensity of Love—“So Loved.”
The Lover's Object—“The World.”
The Lover's Proof—“That He Gave.”
The Lover's Gift—“His Only Begotten Son.”
The Lover's Proviso—“Whosoever Believeth.”
The Lover's Purpose—“Should Not Perish.”
The Lover's Pledge—“Have Everlasting Life.”
It is believed by all who have read the manuscript for this book that it will be a blessing to those who read it, inasmuch as it is a mirror of that fadeless, priceless gem of Scriptures, John 3:16, which reveals God's wonderful love to the world. It will inspire the believer's heart, and win souls to God from the ranks of unbelievers. The book contains an important message to the world and to Christian people, and it is confidently expected that it will have a good sale.
Further information about the book will be furnished in the near future, the object of this notice being simply to call attention to its forthcoming.
His Glorious Appearing
This message-bearing little book is a verse-by-verse study of Matthew 24, and a strong, yet simple and convincing exposition of the second coming of Christ. It contains the message due the world at this time, and the thousands of copies that have been sold, and the great present demand for it, speak favorably of its merits and importance.
The new full-page illustrations of the town of St. Pierre before and after the eruption of Mont Pelée, and the assassination of President McKinley, bring the book up to date, and impress the fact that these calamities are signs of the second advent specified in Matthew 24.
Bound in boards, with cover design in colors, 25 cents; bound in fine English cloth, embossed covers, 40 cents.
_Education_
A NEW BOOK BY MRS. E. G. WHITE
A valuable volume on education in its entirety, covering all its phases; especially prepared for parents, teachers, and students; excellent for all classes. The great principles of Christian education are clearly set forth, and invaluable counsel for the education of the youth is placed within the reach of all.
4. Because it is thoroughly hygienic and common sense.
5. Because it tells how to live economically, yet well.
6. Because every recipe in it has been thoroughly tested.
7. Because it contains what every housewife wants to know.
8. Because it is adapted to all classes, rich and poor alike.
9. Because it tells what to cook for health, and how to cook it.
10. Because it tells what to feed infants, and how to cook for the sick.
11. Because its recipes call for materials most housewives have at hand.
12. Because its directions are concise, yet plain and explicit, thus wasting no time in reading.
13. Because the quantity of the ingredients is indicated by measure rather than by weight. Few housewives have scales, but all have cups and spoons.
14. Because its aim is the health and happiness of the people, and not the advertisement and sale of somebody’s manufactured goods.
15. Because, while costing only 25 and 50 cents, it contains nearly as many recipes as some books which sell for several times the price.
16. Because it is durable, being substantially bound, and is what its title indicates, a real friend in the kitchen.
A splendid help for agents. Twelve editions, aggregating over 105,000 copies, already published. It is well illustrated, neatly gotten up and substantially bound in two styles: oilcloth, 50 cents; limp cloth, 25 cents. It should be sold everywhere.
Order of State Tract Societies
Order of State Tract Societies: Review and Herald, Battle Creek, Mich.; Review and Herald, Washington, D. C.; Pacific Press, Oakland, Cal.; Kansas City, Mo.; Southern Publishing Assn., Nashville, Tenn.
The Coming of the Seed
The Church in Babylon Again
BECAUSE the people of God in olden time refused to hearken to the instruction of his Word, and the special messages which he sent to them through his prophets, and because they failed to co-operate with his purpose concerning them that they should be witnesses for the true God in all the earth, the Lord permitted them to reap the result of their doings, and they became captives in Babylon.
Of this experience Daniel writes: “In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon unto Jerusalem, and besieged it. And the Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand.” The record of the later experience under Zedekiah is thus written: “Moreover all the chiefs of the priests, and the people, trespassed very greatly after all the abominations of the nations; and they polluted the house of Jehovah which he had hallowed in Jerusalem. And Jehovah, the God of their fathers, sent to them by his messengers, rising up early and sending, because he had compassion on his people, and on his dwelling-place: but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised his words, and scoffed at his prophets, until the wrath of Jehovah arose against his people, till there was no remedy. Therefore he brought upon them the king of the Chaldeans, who slew their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion upon young man or virgin, old man or hoary-headed: he gave them all into his hand.”
Then the people of God went down into Babylon the first time. The cause is definitely stated in these words: “And Judah was carried away captive to Babylon for their transgression.”
In “the falling away” and the fulfilment of the prophecies concerning Daniel’s little horn, Paul’s man of sin, and John’s beast from the sea, we have the parallel of this experience of going down into Babylon. The name written upon the forehead of the woman whom John saw “sitting upon a scarlet-colored beast,” was “Babylon the great.” In the book of Daniel, where this same power is the subject of prophecy, it is distinctly stated that the people of God would again be given into the hand of Babylon for the very same reason as in the time of Daniel. Note carefully these two quotations from the prophecies: “And he [the little horn] shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High; and he shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and half a time.” Dan. 7: 25. “Yea, it [the little horn] magnified itself, even to the prince of the host [Joshua’s “captain of the host of the Lord”—Joshua 5: 14]; and it took away from him the continual burnt-offering [service], and the place of his sanctuary was cast down. And the host was given over to it together with the continual burnt-offering [service] through transgression.” Dan. 8:11, 12. When these prophecies were fulfilled, the people of God went down into Babylon the second time.
The apostasy of the people of God anciently was marked by a desire to be like the nations around them, and to adopt their customs. The result of this was that “they did evil more than did the nations whom Jehovah destroyed before the children of Israel.” This is in harmony with the words of Jesus, “If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!” So it was in the later apostasy. “Almost imperceptibly the customs of heathenism found their way into the Christian church. The spirit of compromise4and conformity was restrained for a time by the fierce persecutions which the church endured under paganism. But as persecution ceased, and Christianity entered the courts and palaces of kings, she laid aside the humble simplicity of Christ and his apostles, for the pomp and pride of pagan priests and rulers; and in place of the requirements of God, she substituted human theories and traditions. The nominal conversion of Constantine, in the early part of the fourth century, caused great rejoicing; the church and the world, cloaked with a form of righteousness, walked into the church. Now the work of corruption rapidly progressed. Paganism, while appearing to be vanquished, became the conqueror. Her spirit controlled the church. Her doctrines, ceremonies, and superstitions were incorporated into the faith and worship of the professed followers of Christ. This compromise between paganism and Christianity resulted in the development of ‘the man of sin’ foretold in prophecy as opposing and exalting himself above God. That gigantic system of false religion is a masterpiece of Satan’s power,—a monument of his efforts to seat himself upon the throne to rule the earth according to his will.” And thus did the church “through transgression” come under the rule of the great leader of rebellion and confusion, the real king of Babylon. Thus was the church again in Babylon. It is interesting to note in this connection that in his famous book, “The Babylonish Captivity of the Church,” published in 1520, Luther said, “I know that the papacy is none other than the kingdom of Babylon, and the violence of Nimrod the mighty hunter.”
The people of God were given over into the hand of the king of Babylon in both ancient and modern times because of their departure from the true faith. They turned aside from personal trust in the promised Deliverer, in whom alone is the defense against sin and Satan, and for the simplicity of the gospel they substituted the superstitions and the forms of heathenism. When they persisted in this course “till there was no remedy,” the Lord permitted them to go under the power of Babylon, that under the discipline of trial and persecution they might learn the lesson of the truth as it is in Jesus. And in both experiences in Babylon there have been some faithful witnesses to the truth who have preserved and taught the gospel of the coming of the Seed.
Editorial
By Editor
"Like as a Father"
In his life and teaching among men Jesus set out in a new and blessed light the relation which God sustains to us as our Father. “So ready, so eager is the Saviour’s heart to welcome us as members of the family of God, that in the very first words we are to use in approaching God, he places the assurance of our divine relationship,—‘Our Father.’” “The infinite God, said Jesus, makes it your privilege to approach him by the name of Father.” And how tender is the Father’s compassion toward us! “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.” What comfort and courage there is for us in these words, as we reach out for the Father’s help!
“As flows the river, calm and deep,
In silence toward the sea,
So floweth ever, and ceaseth never,
The love of God to thee.”
A Positive Testimony
The time has certainly come when every witness for this truth should bear a positive and decided testimony. Every believer in this message should know that his feet are upon solid ground, that he has a clear view of the issues at stake and that he is on the right side himself, and then he should exert an influence which will be felt in favor of right principles. Any further effort to remain neutral will be disastrous. “He that is not with me is against me,” said Jesus, and this teaching applies with special force just now. We should not seek to stir up strife and division, but when error is being put forward for truth, and foundation principles are being perverted, it is a false view of Christian duty which leads one to make no protest lest he appear to be a disturber of the peace. Elijah was charged with being a troubler of Israel because, according to his word, the rain was withheld in the time of Ahab as a protest against the wickedness of that Baal worshiper. But he answered, “I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house, in that ye have forsaken the commandments of the Lord, and thou hast followed Baalim.” There is great danger now that righteousness and truth will be compromised in the effort to preserve a false peace. This cause now needs men of clear discernment, undaunted courage, and Christ-like love; for it is the time for decided action to be taken.
Truth the Greatest Thing
By L. A. S.
THE world has its aristocracies of wealth, of influence, of title; but the true aristocracy is made by truth. It is the aristocracy of character, character that is formed by obedience to the truth of God.
In all the world there is nothing so great, nothing of such vast importance, as the truth of God. This is so to-day, and it has been so in every age. To know and to obey the truth has always been the highest privilege set before mankind. To be the messenger of God's truth to the world has always been the most exalted calling. Men become great by identifying themselves with the truth. Obedience to the truth is always an uplifting force. Day by day it elevates the soul to a higher plane, and the heaven-bound traveler's tent “is pitched each night on higher ground.”
No greater man ever lived than John the Baptist; and no man was ever more fully identified with a message of truth from heaven. He said of himself, “I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness,”—a voice sounding forth the message of God first penned by the prophet Isaiah,—a message to prepare the way of the coming Messiah. If we look for the secret of John's greatness, we shall find it in the greatness of his message. Never had so great a message been given to the world before. The first advent of the Messiah, which was the burden of John's message, was the greatest event which time had yet revealed to the world in the fulfilment of God's eternal purpose in Christ. John was so fully identified with this greatest message that he was the mouthpiece of God in its proclamation, the very voice of the message, and did not claim or care to be anything else. This is why no greater man than John the Baptist had ever before risen in the world.
But John's message was not the greatest that was to be given to the world; and a greater and more solemn message, preparing the way for a more glorious coming of the Messiah and a greater event in the fulfilment of God's eternal purpose, is now sounding throughout the earth. It is our high privilege to be identified with this last message of God's truth to the world, as John was identified with the message of truth in his day. And surely this message will do for us all that John's message did for him, if we relate ourselves to the work of God as he did. But we must not merely possess the message; the message must also possess us, so that our whole lives shall speak forth the message, and people coming in contact with us shall hear a voice of solemn and momentous import,—a voice crying, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord.” The truly great men of this generation will be those who are made great by the message for this generation, those who identify themselves now with the truth of God, those who consecrate themselves and their all to it. No higher privilege was ever set before mankind than that which now calls us to consecrate ourselves to the Lord in this final hour of the gospel work.
L. A. S.
Pantheistic Theories
THIS is one of the subheadings of the chapter entitled “Danger in Speculative Knowledge,” in “Testimonies for the Church,” Volume VIII, which is now being printed, and which will be ready for delivery very soon. We print the following paragraphs from this chapter as the best possible way of emphasizing the importance of the matter which will be contained in this volume:—
Already there are coming in among our people spiritualistic teachings that will undermine the faith of those who give heed to them. The theory that God is an essence pervading all nature is one of Satan’s most subtle devices. It misrepresents God, and is a dishonor to his greatness and majesty.
Pantheistic theories are not sustained by the Word of God. The light of his truth shows that these theories are soul-destroying agencies. Darkness is their element, sensuality their sphere. They gratify the natural heart, and give license to inclination. Separation from God is the result of accepting them.
Our condition through sin has become preternatural, and the power that restores us must be supernatural, else it has no value. There is but one power that can break the hold of evil from the hearts of men, and that is the power of God in Jesus Christ. Only through the blood of the crucified One is there cleansing from sin. His grace alone can enable us to resist and subdue the tendencies of our fallen nature. This power the spiritualistic theories concerning God make of no effect. If God is an essence pervading all nature, then he dwells in all men, irrespective of character; and in order to attain to holiness, man has only to develop the power that is within him.
These theories, followed to their logical conclusion, sweep away the whole Christian economy. They destroy the necessity for the atonement, and make man his own savior. These theories regarding God make his Word of no effect, and those who accept them are in great danger of being led finally to look upon the whole Bible as a fiction. They regard virtue as better than vice; but God being removed from his position of sovereignty, they place their dependence upon human power, which, without God, is worthless. The unaided human will has no real power to resist and overcome evil. The defenses of the soul are broken down. Man has no barrier against sin. When once the restraints of God’s Word and his Spirit are rejected, man knows not to what depths he may sink.
Those who continue to hold these spiritualistic theories will surely spoil their Christian experience, sever their connection with God, and lose eternal life.
The sophistries regarding God and nature that are flooding the world with skepticism, are the inspiration of the fallen foe, who is himself a Bible student, who knows the truth that it is essential for the people to receive, and whose study it is to divert minds from the great truths given to prepare them for what is coming upon the world.
I have seen the results of these fanciful views of God, in apostasy, spiritualism, and free-loveism. The free-love tendency of these teachings was so concealed that at first it was difficult to5make plain its real character. Until the Lord presented it to me, I knew not what to call it, but I was instructed to call it unholy spiritual love.
Every one who desires to avail himself of the light which the Lord has so graciously given concerning the meaning of the peculiar experiences through which we have been passing, and who wishes that protection for the future which such clear light will give, ought certainly to read “Testimonies for the Church,” Volume VIII, as soon as it is issued. It will contain much help for our churches at this time. Watch for a further announcement concerning it.
The Latest Development of Labor Unionism
By L. A. S.
RECENT developments in the industrial world have forced upon observing minds the query, What will be the end, the final outgrowth, of the organizing movement which is sweeping through the ranks of all representatives of industrial life? This query is partly answered by a striking article in the February issue of McClure’s Magazine, by Ray Stannard Baker, who is a recognized authority on the subject which he considers. Mr. Baker shows what state of things has already been reached in one section of the country where conditions have favored more than elsewhere a rapid development of the monopolistic movement in industry. The chief point in this section is the city of San Francisco. There, when the prosperity of the past few years created a demand for laborers which it was difficult to fill, owing to the isolation of the city from other industrial centers, a condition of things was soon reached under which the labor unions rose to supreme power, and became absolute masters of the industrial situation. What followed from this supremacy of labor unionism is here set forth.
The unionism which was developed in San Francisco was, says Mr. Baker, “a different sort of unionism from that which existed a few years ago.” The new sort of union, he says, “is no longer a mere strike mob, clamoring for something to eat. It is learning business. It has gone to school to Wall Street; and the sooner we recognize the fact that the union is a cold business proposition, often managed by men not only of intelligence and force, but of notable business acumen, the better for the country.”
The country has seen what capital directed by the intelligence and methods of Wall Street, has been able to accomplish in the way of industrial monopolies; it remains now to be seen what labor unionism, conducted on the lines of a business enterprise with methods borrowed from Wall Street, can accomplish for the subversion of the principles of free government.
Some of the principal features of the situation in San Francisco, as set forth by Mr. Baker, are the following:—
1. The union assumes the prerogative to punish such as do not yield ready obedience to its dictation, not only by imposing a fine, but by denying them the right to work at all for such length of time as it sees fit. The following instance of this sort of discipline is related:—
Let me tell you the experience of R. J. Techan, a prominent restaurant keeper of San Francisco. Techan was boycotted because he hired non-union musicians. When weary of the struggle, he finally tried to make a settlement; the musicians’ union demanded that he discharge the leader of his orchestra absolutely. The leader had been a faithful worker, and Techan refused to discharge him. The boycott continued, and finally became so annoying that Techan sold out. His orchestra was immediately thrown out of employment, and the players had to make the best peace they could with the union. One of the members with whom I talked was fined one hundred and thirty-five dollars; ten dollars for rehearsing with a non-union orchestra, one hundred dollars for playing with a non-union orchestra, and twenty-five dollars initiation fee into the union. He was also ordered not to play in the Techan tavern for one year. . . . The leader was also fined, and ordered not to work for one year. Since then he has not been able to get any work at all, and his family has had to be assisted by friends.
Such is the fate of the man who will not go into the union; he is pursued with implacable hatred until he either gets out of town or joins. As a labor leader told me, “If he don’t obey, let him look out for another city to live in.”
When a man is punished by compulsory idleness, he not only loses the money which his work would bring, but suffers demoralization of character as well. The union does not hesitate to inflict moral as well as physical injury upon those who by their non-subserviency incur its wrath.
2. “There have been cases in which unions have ruthlessly forced an entire class of workmen out of employment.” The Stone-Cutters’ Union of San Francisco one day demanded that the stone-yard employers discharge all their planer men, and substitute members of the Stone-Cutters’ Union in their places. The planer men were expert in the handling of machinery, whereas the stone-cutters knew little about machinery. It was not stone-cutters’ work to run the planers; but that made no difference. The employers offered to arbitrate; offered to discharge their planer men one at a time, so as to cripple their plant as little as possible, and show some consideration to their workmen. The union refused all such propositions. The planer men applied for admission to the union, and were refused on the ground that they were not expert stone-cutters. Finally the employers “had to surrender unconditionally, discharge a whole class of labor, and put inexperienced men on their machinery, with the immediate result of numerous accidents and a lessened output.”
3. As illustrating the lengths to which the unions will go in disregard of both the rights and sensibilities of the people, it is mentioned that “the grave-diggers won a strike last year, in the course of which burials were actually prevented by the filling of non-union graves with water, and the blowing up of the crematory.”
4. The new unionism is evolving the labor boss, and setting up in the country a one-man power—an absolute monarchy. There has appeared in San Francisco one McCarthy, who has made himself an absolute dictator of the entire building industry of that city. He has forced his way to the leadership in the Building Trades Council by such means and methods as political bosses make use of to attain to political dictatorship. There are three hundred members of this council, but the controlling power is exercised by a committee of sixty-two, which McCarthy dominates.
Here is an instance of the power of the boss, told me by Secretary Harry Costen, of the Sheet Metal Workers. Because the Sheet Metal Workers would not submit to dictation in the matter of selecting delegates to a convention called at the instance of the American Federation of Labor, McCarthy personally expelled the entire union of one hundred and forty-seven men from the Building Trades Council, without charges and without a trial. Members of other trades, at McCarthy’s orders, then refused to work with the outlaws.
5. The unions even assume the functions of civil government, and cause the arrest of non-subservient workmen, as if by standing up for their rights they had committed a crime punishable by the courts of law. Mr. Baker mentions the following case:—
A Scotch Sheet Metal Worker named Forbes, acting under the directions of his employer, insisted on staying at work on one of his jobs. The foreman carpenter, a union man, called a policeman to arrest Forbes, who had committed no offense greater than that of remaining at work contrary to the orders of McCarthy’s walking delegate. The policeman led him down the street, but did not dare to take him to the station house. Forbes, refusing to be thus browbeaten, went back to work, declaring that he would not stop until his employer ordered him to do so. Then the foreman carpenter swore out a warrant for Forbes’s arrest, charging disturbance of the peace!—and he was locked up in the city prison. Brought finally into court, he was actually accused of keeping the other mechanics on the building out of work, he at the time not being a “scab,” but a member in good standing of his own union.
“He refused to quit when I told him to,” was the complaint made to the court by the foreman carpenter. “The judge took down the statutes, read a list of the6offenses classed under disturbance of the peace, and discharged Forbes!”
6. Unions in some cases have become capitalists. Boss McCarthy approved a strike for an eight-hour day in the San Francisco planing mills. With the money that would have been necessary to pay strike benefits, he built a large new mill, organized a company capitalized at one hundred thousand dollars, much of the stock being taken by the various unions in the building trades. He hired an experienced mill manager, and began operating it on an eight-hour basis, with exclusively union men. The planing-mill employers made overtures for peace, the result of which was an agreement admitting the union mill into the Employers’ Association, and the Building Trades Council agreed to use no material which did not bear the union stamp, or which was not made in an eight-hour mill. “In other words, here was a complete monopoly of the mill-working business, in which the unions actually appeared on both sides of the agreement—on one side as the owners of the second most important mill, and on the other as dictators of the labor employed.”
7. There is to be seen in the unions, “besides the familiar restriction of apprentices, a marked tendency to make it difficult for men to get into the unions. The initiation fee is often a barrier to poor men. Certain unions, like that of the tile-layers and electricians, charge as high as fifty dollars; some also, like that of the engineers, insist upon a difficult examination which, designed with the excellent intention of keeping inefficient workmen out of a dangerous trade, has often been used as a barrier to keep all workmen out, and assist in forming a closer monopoly.” A further manifest tendency is “toward the take-it-easy system so familiar now in England—in effect, a limitation of output.”
8. Unionism is exerting marked political and legislative pull. “We find the labor monopoly pursuing exactly the policy of the trust; last winter the Labor Council maintained a paid lobby in the legislature, of which eight members are already labor unionists. The unions have definitely decided the eight-hour question in California, not by securing the passage of any uncertain and repealable law, but by getting an amendment to the State constitution, and a provision in the city charter limiting the employment of all public service workmen to eight hours, and in the city fixing a minimum wage of two dollars. They have succeeded also in other important legislation.”
9. While adding to their own strength, the unions are decreasing the strength of the State militia, the military force which might be brought against them in time of trouble. The opposition of unionism in San Francisco to the militia “has reduced most of the companies to half normal strength.”
Such is the state of things which has been reached through the development of labor unionism in the city of San Francisco; and as Mr. Baker observes, the situation in that city to-day may be the situation in other large cities tomorrow. And when that shall be so, as erelong it evidently will be unless this movement is arrested in its course, government of the people, by the people, for the people, will have given place in this nation to government by labor unionism, and the man who can become boss in the governing general council—the congress, as it were—of the unions, will be the real president of the United States; or, as it might be more correct to say, the monarch of the despotism into which this republic will have been turned. For while the forms of republican government may remain, of what use will all these be to the man who is denied that most fundamental and essential of all privileges,—the right to work to earn a living for himself and his family? Many men will be denied this right if labor unionism gains the ascendancy in this country; of this the plain evidence is already before us.
And who, seeing what has already come to pass here, can think it strange that such things as inspired prophecy has specified concerning this country should also come to pass; that in the developments which time shall bring, a power should arise which shall forbid the people to buy or sell unless they shall have received the “mark of the beast”? How much more despotic would this be than what has already been done? Who that believes the Bible can doubt that the specifications of this prophecy will surely be realized? And who can say that the day of these things is now far away?