The Pleasantville press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1912-1929, 1917-09-08
THE REAL YELLOW PERIL: NOT
YELLOW MEN, BUT YELLOW
METAL.

WI ~
Editors Pl%easantville Press
Croesus, whose name was long used
as a synonym for wealth. were he on
earth to-day, with all his gold, would
be no match for the modern money
gatherer. Ancient Rome boosted of
her rich men, but today they would
not even be honored with a place am
ong the rich. In former times, if a
man possessed a million dollars, he
had reached the pinnacle of financial
success. According to the standard of
modern money barons, to be the pos
SCISSOR of only a million dollars is but
to have taken the first small step to-
ward commercial conquest. A captain
of finance must possess or control
millions upon millions of dollars.
Many are asking: what is the sig
nificance of all this? Where will it
end? Will this increase of wealth
bring greater happiness to mankind,
and greater security to the home. the
| community. and the nation?" We have
two means at our command by which
we may arrive at a safe answer to this
! important question. One-the less re-
labels the lesson of the history of
past nations, for "history repeats it.
| III IC OIhC IL 6i0otti 10 IN
| prophecies of the word of God.
Great national and individual wealth
followed as it is by luxury, love of
ease, and social degeneracy, have
proved the undoing of many a nation
| and many a person. We have reached
that time again, when not only in this
country, but in the majority of all
civilized countries, by far the greater
part of the wealth is held by the de-
cided minority.
Of this time Isaiah truly prophe-
sied:-
Their and also is full of silver and
gold, neither is their any end of their
treasures; their land is also full of
horses, neither is there any end of
their chariots; their land is also full
of idols; they worship the work of
their own hands, that which their own
fingers have made: and the mean man
boweth down, and the great man hum
bleth himself" Isaiah 2:7-9. This is
Isaiah's picture of the last days, as
| shown in the Introductory verses of
this chapter.
The poor are getting poorer, the
rich are getting richer. To the truth
| fulness of this, the prophecy of James
| bears record: go to now. We rich
men, weep and howl for our miseries
that shall come upon you. Your rich
es are corrupted, and your garments
! are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver
is cankered; and the rust of them
shall be a witness against you, and
shall eat your flesh as it were fire.
Ye have heaped treasure together for
the last days. Behold, the hire of the
laborers who have reaped down your
fields, which is of you kept back by
fraud. crieth: and the cries of them
which have reaped are entered into
/ the ears of the Lord of sabaoth. Ye
have lived in pleasure on the earth,
and been wanton; ye have nourished
your hearts, as in a day of slaughter"
James BIB.
1t is here definitely stated that in
the last days, these combined forces
of capital will apparently be in con-
fict with labor. And the end is not
yet. The European War has compli-
Gated international commercial rela-
tions to such an extent that hereafter
one of the great dangers to the peace
of the world will be the question of
the worlds commerce. This will in
evitably effect first the great manu-
featuring combines, then the middle
moneyed classes, and finally the indi-
vidual worker. The interests of ma
lions cross and recross to an extent
never dreamed of before. The inter
ests of capital and labor cross and
conflict more n more.
The capital and labor problem, ma
tional and international commercial
trouble, the combining forces of all
classes of s~ociety-these are all a full
fllment of the Bible prophecies touch
ing the last days. Our safety is in
making Gods interests our interests,
and in following the injunction of the
apostle James: "Be patient therefore,
brethren, unto the coming of the Lord.
BE We also patient; stablish your
hearts: for the coming of the Lord
draweth night" James ST., 8.
M