treasures of the world in their ports on the Mediterranean! In Spain
money talked to all the world. Money in all ages spelled ruin. What
will it spell in ours? Conditions are different; that is true, but the mod-
ern financial woild is more sensitive to its disturbance than the ancient
or medieval. Money which is so much coveted is dangerous alike to the
nations that get it as well as to those that lose it, for the one that has
86 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE
lends to the one that needs, and money scarcity is felt everywhere. We
have learned already how a disturbance in the money market affects every
class of business, how depositors rush to the bank and draw out their mil-
lions. Great money disturbances are certain to come, and it will tax
the wisdom of the world more than it ever has in the past. We may look
for crises.
Shifting the Money Market. The money centre of the world has been
shifted from London to New York, and England is therefore sure to feel
the pinch of the loss of its monetary standing. This is the picture drawn
by the great paper, the London Statist:
"The main cause, of course, of the trouble in which we find
ourselves is the refusal of governments of all parties to prepare,
though they were fully and clearly warned by the enemy himself.
But we must add that the government was to some extent misled
by the London bankers, who, for a quarter of a century previously,
had refused, in spite of all warnings and all pressure brought to bear
upon them, to increase adequately their reserves. The main cause,
however, of the predicament in which we now find ourselves, is
that we, the public of all classes and all conditions, have allowed
the idle rich and the mere talking professional classes to monopolize
the government of the empire. Consequently, we must frankly ad-
mit that a good deal of the discredit rests upon the great public
itself. Will they waken up at last, and recognize that men who
cannot dress themselves of a morning without the help of ser-
vants, cannot be expected to do anything that entails a little trou-
ble, however simple it may be, and that gentlemen whose business
in life is to talk and to interpret an uninterpretable law, are not
likely to be good guides in the days of danger and distress."
Dangers of Chaos. It may be that we have very few men in Congress
who are unable to dress themselves mornings, but we have a good ma-
jority of talking professionals whose business training quite unfits them
for the grave responsibility of financial legislation beyond getting appro-
priations. The raids on our national treasury are often scandalous. The
business men of the United States have withheld themselves from polit-
ical life, and employed their talents in private enterprise. The United
States will require its most competent men when it faces the payment
of twenty billions and much more. Capital is a most capricious thing and
holds in its keeping the employment of millions of men and women whose
daily bread depends upon the working machinery of our industrial life.
This machinery will become more sensitive as the big future financial
problems confront us. Any displacement or break-up would lead to the
most disastrous results. But if we are to become the financial centre of
the world shall we not have plenty of money for mistakes and extrava-
gance? The trouble is that we are likely to lose our hold on what we get.
The nations of Europe will enter into a fierce competition for the recapture
of it. Government operation must be on a scale heretofore unknown to us.
If we deal as wastefully with billions as we now deal with millions, and
graft is not replaced by more conservative and honorable methods, the
results may prove most disastrous.
End of Great Fortunes. In an interview with William Guggenheim,
published in McClure's for October, he is reported as saying:
"I believe the end of this war will mark the end of huge fortunes.
After Mr. Rockefeller, it is likely the world will never again see an
accumulation of a thousand million dollars in the hands of one per-
son. War is making us accustomed to profit control. More and more
people are asking, 'Why should anybody get more than a certain rea-
sonable profit out of any enterprise?' As a matter of fact, why
should they?"
PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 87
Of the incentive to work, he further remarked:
"All men, whether poor or rich, need some encouragement, some
stimulation of ambition to make them put forth their best efforts,
but remember, it is not to accumulate further millions indefinitely
that rich men work. As soon as a man has fifty or sixty thousand a
year to spend, he has about all that money can give him. What he
wants after that is power. He continues to work for the joy he gets
in the exercise of power. In the future our able rich men will find
joy in power by associating themselves with the government, for gov-
ernment is power."
The last sentence is a forecast of our government as a great business
agency in the operation of railroads, telegraph lines, steamships, telephones,
and other public utilities. How will it work out on the question of capital
and labor? The government will derive its power from labor and it will be
also the capitalist. Such a condition is anomalous, and its workings no man
can foresee, except the endless controversy and bitterness that will be sure
to arise out of it. It, like a hundred other problems, will be a new one,
charged heavily for good or evil.
The important thing to remember is that such future conditions, to bring
peace, must be based upon a high state of morality and religion. As things
now stand in the world, the new age will be subject to explosive violence of
the most destructive kind. Is there nothing but danger in the world, nothing
but violence to hope for? Look about you and see. Is it not an age of
explosives, an age of destruction? If present conditions keep on long we
shall witness more destruction in the war now going on than has been wit-
nessed in all the wars from the beginning of time down to the year 1914.
But will not wealth insure us? Wealth is not a preservation of any kind.
It is laden with danger. The greatest wealth of all time has demonstrated
how horribly destructive it can be, destructive in both life and property. We
say it is the "sinews of war." It is likewise the death-rattle of war.
Rivalry. -What will be the position of the United States financially after
the war? Read further from the London Statist:
"In every direction competitors are growing up. But there are
two who are specially dangerous. First our kinsman across the Atlan-
tic. They are considerably more than twice as numerous as we are
in these islands. They are among the very best business men the
world holds today. And they are in possession of soil which is capa-
ble of maintaining five times the population it has at present. They
have therefore illimitable room to spread and to multiply, and they
have resources which, with the exception of China, no other country
possesses. Under any circumstances, therefore, they would distance
us in the long run. As it is, three short years of war have suddenly
deprived us of our financial primacy, and threaten to land us in a posi-
tion in which we shall be dependent upon the lending powers of
others, and incapable of lending ourselves."
"The second really formidable competitor is Japan. Her people
are far less numerous than our American kinsmen, and her soil is in
no sense equal to theirs. On the other hand, she has a wide territory
now, and she has a people as capable as perhaps any country upon
earth. Her trade is growing at a rapid rate, her credit is rising sur-
prisingly well; and above all and as a proof of all, she has been able
to lend to Russia, to France, and to ourselves, while she has supplied
Russia with a very large proportion of the munitions which have en-
abled Russia to make such fight as she has made up to the present.
There is no scarcity, then, of competent communities to take our
place."
Dangers of Money. Money is, and always has been, the firebrand of
war. Two things are necessary for a conflagration: one, proximity; the
88 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE
%
other, competition. American and Japanese possessions are interlaced.
Both nations are proud and avaricious. Can they maintain peace between
themselves? We have witnessed Japan's sensitiveness over her people in
our Pacific States, and we have felt her resentment when our country sent
to China the innocent hope that the Chinese might settle peacefully their
difficulties. Both countries will be rich and equipped for any emergencies.
The latent dangers between them cannot be concealed. Japan has estab-
lished a sort of Monroe Doctrine with respect to China; but unlike us,
she interfered with the government and resources of China in a way we
would not think of doing in South America. There are now serious dif-
ficulties between us, difficulties which the war is postponing. Later
they must be adjusted. Besides, China is the coming country
for the exploitation of trade. Two money powers, two financial
centers, are already staring each other in the face. Neither is exhausted
or likely to be exhausted by the present war. The heavens, the earth,
and the sea are filled with explosives. Whenever explosives have been
piled up, something or somebody has touched them off. They are not
very comforting to contemplation nor to personal relation. You say such
pictures are very, very dark. Very well, then, you draw a bright one. The
trenches are not all in France. Capital and labor are entrenched, the
forces of evil everywhere are entrenched. It is a world of antagonisms.
The money markets of the world are face to face in the trenches. Mam-
mon aspires to unrighteous dominion. Men take desperate chances to get
money, and so do the nations. There is a national life moved by the same
motives that actuate individuals.
We shall be proud to see the money center of the world transferred
to our own great financial metropolis. Ninety per cent of all the trouble
in the world has its root in money. It creates, wherever it is abundant,
social, moral, and business trouble. And it is the one thing almost uni-
versally craved, notwithstanding its evil associates. Is there no hope?
Yes, there is one hope, and only one, and that is that some day God will
bring light to this old earth as he did to its creation.
Revelation. "And all things shall be in commotion; and surely men's
hearts shall fail them; for fear shall come upon all people" (Doc. and Cov.
88:91; Read also Sees. 70 and 72, Doc. and Cov.)
XXXV The Negro Question
Its Origin. The Civil War did not end the negro question. The free-
ing of that race from the bonds of servitude brought about one of the most
destructive and hate-engendering wars that the world has ever known, and
gave rise to what is known in polities as the solid South. During all of
the period of reconstruction the animostities between members of Congress
from the north and south were often wholly beyond control, and disputa-
tions on the floors of the Senate and House sometimes led to physical en-
counters. Economic conditions in the early history of the United States
were responsible for the transportation of hundreds of thousands of black
men from their home in Africa to the land of freedom and to conditions
wholly unlike those to which the black race was inured. It was no fault
of that unfortunate people that they came in contact with the Anglo-
Saxon race. They were creatures of the slave trade carried on generally by
the Arabs in Africa and were the victims of a slavery that is often por-
trayed as in most instances heart-rending.
Liberty is a very precious boon. The lowest of races prize it. The
freedom of speech, the right to move about as one sees fit, is one of the
boons of government for which the world has been struggling for many
centuries.
The Prophet Joseph foresaw the war which the negro question would
bring about, and his prophetic utterances are historically familiar to all
the Saints. He would have solved the question by the purchase of the
PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 89
negro's freedom. Such, however, was not permitted to be (See Era, Dec.,
1917, p. 170). The question of whether or not the negro should be free
was a burning question between two important sections of our country the
North and the South. It was not simply a question of compensation. It
was a question of arguments, of long standing disputations, and of hatreds
that had grown out of political conditions in view of the division between
the North and the South. It was one of those forces that had passed human
adjustment by any visible means, and it led to a most fearful war, whose
consequences in our national hatred have been felt for more than a gen-
eration.
Effects of Emancipation. One extreme often follows another. The
negroes were lifted out of a condition of servitude and placed not only into
a new world of social and financial freedom, but were given all the
political rights which belonged to the white race. They were grossly in-
competent, they were unsuited for self-government, and above all, they had
proven no capacity for rule in a government such as ours was. That was
no fault of theirs, unless it may be said that it was a race incapacity.
There has been a world of discussion as to whether it was a wise thing,
politically or economically or socially to do. The question has been
thrashed out for upwards of fifty years on the floors of Congress. How-
ever, it is an acknowledged fact, at times it brought the people of the
North and the South to the verge of armed forces. Unhappily, the ques-
tion is not solved in our own day and there are prospects of future trou-
bles which give anxiety to the best, most thoughtful minds of our age.
The question will not down. It confronts us in numerous ways, and all
the time there is a world of hatred growing out of the differences between
the black and the white races. Hatreds in time bear fruitage. They have
their evil consequences to future generations. They are a part of our in-
heritance, and thus we go on accumulating, year after year, the most dan-
gerous explosives to our social, economic, and governmental life. Even
now the last echoes of an awful tragedy between the negroes and the
whites at St. Louis has not died away. Our government is, at this writing,
carrying on the trial of colored soldiers who in Texas made a raid upon
one of the cities and killed a number of inhabitants. Wherever the ne-
groes find themselves at any advantage whatever they are quick to resent
the wrongs which they believe, and which they have been taught to be-
lieve, have been piled upon them for generations. We have frequent ac-
counts of the burning of negroes at the stake. Many of that unfortunate
race have been led in ignorance to commit outrages upon whites outrages
that are not entirely unknown to the white race but there is a psycholog-
ical barrier between the two. What is done by the one is unspeakably more
horrible than that committed by the other, and the ethnological barriers be-
tween the two have no prospect of breaking down.
Intermarriage. All practices of intermarriage have brought the off-
spring of the two races completely on the side of the colored man, and
even when this intermarriage is carried on for a number of generations,
eliminating almost entirely the color of the skin, the so-called "taint of the
blood" is there. The gulf between them is impassable.
The Irrepressible Conflict. For a long time the people of the North,
out of the zeal of the Civil War, were the advocates of negro rights. They
resented through the press what they considered the unjust treatment of
the black man and his failure to receive the political recognition that was
rightfully due him. The negro question was the absorbing question of
the South. More and more it is invading the North. Into all the large
cities large numbers have migrated, only to be compelled to occupy cer-
tain districts isolated for their habitation. In the North it is also becom-
ing an industrial question. The black man is not invited into the great
labor unions; as a rule he is excluded from a large number of employ-
ments; he is often discriminated against in the schools. The ideals, there-
fore, which certain northern people erected with respect to their nnfortn-
90 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE
nate colored brethren of the south, have not been successfully carried out.
They are not today, so far as human interest can aid, capable of any sat-
isfactory realization.
The Economic Phase. The negro question is therefore becoming
more and more an economic one, and it is doubtful if the north will be
any better able to solve the problem than the people of the south have
been. In such antagonisms there is always more or less injustice. Views
necessarily become extreme, and extreme convictions lead to unjust results
and violent antagonisms. These antagonisms are growing. The problem
looms up on all sides. Violence is done to the black man, sometimes by
the black man to the white man. Growing hatreds can mean nothing less
than growing violence. Violence begets war, and there are not a few
who sincerely believe that as soon as the negro feels himself competent
to strike, he will strike in the most dangerous manner. We are bring-
ing him into our armies. We are drilling him to fight. We call upon him
to offer his life in any war to which his country may be a party. He
fought, and fought valiantly, in the war against Spain, and will be found
by the thousands in the ranks of the American army now in or moving to
France.
The question is full of pathos. What shall be done? What can be
done? In the days of Noah, the daughters of man were fair to look upon
and the children of God married them. This led to the flood. A mixture
of races at that time, as we understand from our religious doctrines, be-
tween the dark and the white races, led to the destruction of the human
race. We do not believe in the mixture of these two races. All experi-
ence forbids it. Our religious teachings give us fundamental reasons for
the differences which should be maintained.
The movement of the negro is now growing rapidly from the farms
which he has cultivated to the large cities in which he is becoming an
important factor. In the North he enjoys his political franchise. He may
exercise it in such a way as to compel at least some measure of political
respect; but that franchise freely exercised in the North, carries with it
dangers that may lead to violence even among those who have been the
most professed friends of the negro. In the South the views of the repre-
sentatives of this race are irreconcilable.
Conflicting Views. I quote here from an address of Senator Jas.
K. Vardaman, from Mississippi:
"But the door of hope might have remained closed so far as the
progress of the negro was to make for himself was concerned. He has
never created for himself any civilization. He has never risen above
the government of a club. He has never written a language. His
achievements in architecture are limited to the thatched-roofed hut
or a hole in the ground. No monuments have been builded by him
to body forth and perpetuate in the memory of posterity the virtues
of his ancestors.
"For countless ages he has looked upon the rolling sea and never
dreamed of a sail. In truth, he has never progressed, save and except
when under the influence and absolute control of a superior race. His
opportunities have been great. The negro helped to build the tem-
ples of Rameses, he polished the columns of Karnak, he toiled at the
hundred-gated Thebes, he was touched by the tides of civilization that
swept across the Eastern Hemisphere in the forenoon of the ages, and
yet it made no more impression upon him as a race than a drop of wa-
ter on the oily back of a duck. He is living in Africa today, in the
land where he sprang, indigenous, in substantially the same condi-
tion, occupying the same rude hut, governed by the same club, wor-
shiping the same fetish that he did when the Pharaohs ruled in Egypt.
He has never had any civilization except that which has been incul-
cated by a superior race. And it is a lamentable fact that his civiliza-
tion lagts only so long as he is in the hands of the white man who in-
PROBLEMS OF THE AGE 91
culcates it. When left to himself. he has universally gone back to
the barbarism of the jungle.
"Let us consider his condition in Haiti. It will throw a flood of
light upon our own American problem. The negro acquired control
of this island more than 100 years ago. Thomas Jefferson said: This
will test the negro's capacity for self-government.'
"With his usual prescience and foresight, Jefferson predicted
failure. But he said : 'Let him try it. We will help him.'
"Haiti was at that time the gem of the Antilles. The most mag-
nificent cane fields, coffee plantations, and fruit groves graced the
landscape of that delightful little island. Now shift the scene. Look
at Haiti today, after 100 years of negro rule. After 100 years of as-
sistance by the white man assistance with money, with example, pre-
cept, and all of those superior virtues which characterized the civiliza-
tion of the white race, what do we find there today? Sir Spencer St.
John, who represented the English government at Port au Prince for
twenty years, wrote a book entitled, Haiti, or Black Republic. When
this English officer first visited Haiti he looked with compassion upon
the black man. He thought he had been denied an equal chance
in the race of life. He thought he had been the victim of slavery
that the elements of manhood had been stifled by such oppression as
some of the distinguished senators on this floor in this debate have
called attention to as having been practiced in the Southern States
of America. Yes; he thought 'the negro was a sunburned Yankee,
who had not been given a square deal.'
"Sir Spencer St. John remained as the representative of his gov-
ernment at the court of the black republic for twenty years. He made
a close study of the question. He informed himself as to the racial
peculiarities of the negro, and his testimony to the world is that the
negro is incapable of self-government. He is incapable of sustaining
a civilization all his own. Further, he says:
"'After an experience of 100 years, Haiti has proved a failure.
There is no semblance of civil government there, except in the sea-
ports, which are dominated by whites and mulattoes.' "
On the other hand, W. E. B. DuBois, an eminent leader of the colored
race, speaking of the results of the prejudice which held down the people
of his race, writes as follows:
/
"No matter how well trained a negro may be, or how fitted for
work of any kind, he cannot in the ordinary course of competition
hope to be much more than a menial servant.
"He cannot get clerical or supervisory work to do save in excep-
tional cases.
"He cannot teach save in a few of the remaining negro schools.
"He cannot become a mechanic except for small transient jobs,
and cannot join a trades union.
"A negro woman has but three careers open to her in this city:
domestic service, sewing, or married life.
"As to keeping work:
"The negro suffers in competition more severely than white men.
"Change in fashion is causing him to be replaced by whites in
the better paid positions of domestic service.
"Whim and accident will cause him to lose a hard-earned place
more quickly than the same things would affect a white man.
"Being few in number compared with the whites the crime or care-
lessness of a few of his race is easily imputed to all, and the reputa-
tion of the good, industrious, and reliable suffer thereby.
"Because negro workmen may not often work side by side with
white workmen, the individual black workman is rated not by his own
efficiency, but by the efficiency of a whole group of black fellow
workmen which may often be low.
92 PROBLEMS OF THE AGE
"Because of these difficulties, which virtually increase competition
in his case, he is forced to take lower wages for the same work than
white workmen.
"Men are used to seeing negroes in inferior positions; when,
therefore, by any chance a negro gets in a better position, most men
immediately conclude that he is not fitted for it, even before he has
a chance to show his fitness."
"If, therefore, he set up a store, men will not patronize him.
"As to his expenditure :
'The comparative smallness of the patronage of the negro, and the
dislike of other customers, make it usual to increase the charges or