Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1903-05-14
OUTSIDE POINT OF VIEW
scod Times, Hard Times and ReIis-


one Sunday evening recently the
writer attended church services in one
of our larger cities in Iowa. A magnifi-
cent building, costing $4,000, was
where we gathered II was what is
called a rich church Their voluntary
Easter offering was only {. little short of
Sl,O0V This church Offers its members
an elaborate musical program every
Sunday. has u large boy choir as we'll
as paid organist, ard a quartet OF
adult singers. The minister is "brainy"
man. And yet on this beautiful May
evening. with all of these attractions,
the audience in that church was smaller
in number than those engaged as per-
formers on the platform. And this is by
no means an unusual case. Religious
observance of Sunday has settled down
to attendance at one service, and that
il. the morning. Men are everywhere
Liberal givers to churches and all forms
of religious works, charitable and 9TH
erwise. But the men of this country
especially is this true of the so-called
laboring class, take little or no interest
in religion of itself. The women are
doing the work in the churches and the
attendance is at least three times as
many women as men. These are facts
not to be disputed any more than that
this country is enjoying phenomenal
period of good times. The writer thinks
there is cause and effect right here
All over this country strikes are nu-
merous and effective in raising the
wages of all classes of our citizens. The
~. &c H.,
While wages from the farm hand to
the mechanic have advanced 20 to so
per cent. the prices of what we eat,
drink and wear have also proportions
ately been raised. Now there's going to
be an end of this some time. The wri-
ter does not say when. Neither is this
a pessimistic screed crying out of a
nearby business panic. But the his
tory of all good tines is followed by
that of hard times" While wages are
the last to be advanced, they are the
first to be lowered. We are importing
into this country thousands of laboring
men every year. Sure 1t is that the
supply of labor will in me near future
be in excess of the demand. AS labor
ing men are thrown out of employment
they will be unable to hay as much as
at present, and prices of all kinds of
manufactured articles VIII go down in
price, thus throwing more men out of
employment. This will go on till an
equilibrium is reached till business
matters adjust themselves to the new
condition of affairs. Much suffering will
occur, and lucky the man who has laid
by for this coming rainy day.
And when this readjustnent occurs
the writer believes this country will
witness the greatest religious revival
ever known. Our churches, ministers
pairing the ground. 1t may be now too
early to SOW the seed, but the harvest
will come in due season. Some of us
remember the hard times of 81. We
also recall the great awakening of
that year. "NNhole communities find
ing they were unable to Ia J up any more
treasure on earth evinced great desire
to open bank account in heaven. Men
out of employment and women out of
bread flocked to the church doors. They
listened to the voice of the preacher and
were comforted by thousands. And it
was a. real. genuine conversion. real
change of heart. Witness the consistent
Christian lives of some of our old men
from that day to this Ard so if there Is
any moral to all this it is to encourage
our Respondent church workers. both
in and out of the pulpit. BE not weary
in we'll doing" The harvest is sure to