WHAT NEXT?

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1216, 26 August 1911, Page 10

WHAT NEXT?

Sir,—Although mankind in its most optimistic uicous may look at tho future in tho most favourable manner which the mind may suggest, yet anyone who reads of the daily events which are occurring must at least feel disconcerted, and must havo moments when fear of a special kind acutely presents itself to the mind. In spite of evasions to the contrary, and the unlimited views of universal prosperity and future bliss, the bald fact stares one in tho face, that the world in its history is reaching a crisis—a mighty and an unhearhur crisis. Forces-are generating everywhere which aro rolling society onward to a state of chaos and confusion. Look at the events transpiring in Great Britain—tho land, we might say, which gave to the civilised world its education in Parliamentary, advancement. Certainly the days of Wat Tyler arc gone; and wo are no'w confronted with an angry and restless element in the forces which, like the soothing' billows of ii great hum in ocean, aro now coming ruthlessly into view. Loudon, Manchester, and Liverpool have been unheaved like the sea. Men by the'thousand, with angry faces anil inflamed hearts, :aro clamouring for their supposed rights. Strikes on a gigantic scale have occurred. Progress is stepped, laws aro disregarded, and thousands have thrown down their tools to swell tho ranks of the great discontented ocean of humanity; while the House of Lords has been agitated to its depths over Ihe ereatloii of new Peers and the policy of reform; and oil within tho short stag© of the Coronation. Almost tho whole of England has been upheaved. Subterranean powers havo been at work amid the masses.

Whilo Lord Roberts is crying for compulsoiy soldiers; while tho Germans aro building their navy and coveting Morocco ; while Taft, the, American President, is calling for peace and arbitration, confederated labour and confederated (spiral, like two untimely giants, arp staring and glowering with inflamed passion, eonciliation_ boards are swept aside, royal commissions aro wavered, the glovo of defiance is thrown down, the masses crowd from the workshops into the street, agitators dictate to the populace, Riot Acts are read, the police.aro outnumbered, and tho troops" from all quarters an; called into requisition, not against a foreign roel No, but against the confederated, workingman, tho agencies'behind him, and tho causes which pnjipt him. These aro the signs of the times. Liver, pool, tho modern Tyre, is on tho verge of revolution. London, tho world's great emporium, has suffered spasms. And Manchester, tho homo of the spinning trade, has bron in convulsions. All these signs, Mr. Editor, appear in our genorati'on.''Nof' aro they •co'tihued'io England 'alone. No, the whole world in in a state of agitation. Mankind is restless. Governments aro perplexed, and influences aro at work which will not bo appeased. Laws, too, have become as numerous as grasshoppers. There aro factory laws, divorco laws, compulsory training. laws, labour laws, and strike laws. The world is strangled by laws. They have come on tho earth liko tho frogs did on Egypt. They have leapt upon society by the multitude. But tho law of God. which contains only ton precepts, is little heeded. Laws aro not made for righteous men. Evcy diversity of opinion requires a law. Hundreds of these laws liavo appeared.on the statute-books in, our. generation, and yet with all.these the world is unruly; and to-day, with all our civilisation, what do wo'sco? Is this littlo earth of ours a heaven? Is its legislation acceptable? Is its justice adequate? lias man in tho twentieth century turned the earth into a Paradise? Aro there no crushed ones? Arc therc.no oppressed ones? Are there no dishonest ones? _ Are (■hero no devils? Or are wo all saints? Who?" imurint is upon nine-tenths of world? That of Christ or that of Satan? Who is our leader, and where aro wo? — All that I have to say, Mr. Editor, is that if tho world uses the woapous which are now in its hands the future will not lie llcaven, but Armageddon. ' No man need put new wine into old bottles, for the battles will burst. Certainly tho world is receiving power: but tho nature of the power is not angelic. The subterranean stratum of tho masses is charged with dvnamito. The great, unwieldy mass is moving forward everywhere. The laws which bind it, to-day are as weak as tho cords which bound Samson of old. lhe hair of the giant, though cropped by scientific scissors, has grown again. These immense forces in every nation, being blind, are led towards tho pillars. They stager- in their streiurth, but when they finallv- grasp those pillars, as they will, (hen God pity both them and the Plulisti»es. Tho fall will bo complete.-! am, «*■•-.■ J.B.