(178-195) reply to my question as to his right to do so was instructive, as throwing light upon an incident in the life of our Lord, as to which seme difficulty has been felt. “Tn the early spring, when the first leaves appear, an immense number of small figs are produced, which do not ripen, but fall from the branches, crude and immature, to the ground. To these we find a reference in Rev. 6:13. The true crop is not produced till later in the year. This first crude, ‘untimely’ growth, though of no commercial value, is yet plucked and eaten by the peasantry, sometimes with a pinch of salt, sometimes with bread. Like the wild fruit of our hedgerows A DONATION OF Brother Bohnet writes us that he has gradually accumulated a crop of miracle wheat from the few grains he obtained as a start. He prefers that the first opportunity for obtaining this wheat shall go to THz Watcn Tower readers. He will sell it for $1 per pound, including postage, and give the entire proceeds to our Society. All orders for this wheat should be addressed, Miracle Wheat Bohnet, 17 Hicks street, Brooklyn, N. Y. Tlus will keep mail on this subject separate from his personal mail and from ours. Brother Bohnet promises to be ready to ship this wheat hy August 1. He says miracle wheat should be sowed onefourth as thick as common wheat. Ordinarily it should produce from ten to fifteen times as much proportionately to THE WATCH TOWER Brooxtyn, N. Y. it is free to all passersby. Jt was just at this early season, before the feast of the Passover, that our Lord and his disciples, having walked from Bethany, ‘hungered.’ Seeing a fig tree ‘afar off having leaves’ they sought fruit, but found none. Seeing leaves they had a right to expect fruit. Finding fruit they would have had right to pluck it, ‘for the time of figs was not yet’—the true and valuable crop was not yet produced. This incident he turned into a solemn lesson of warning to the Jews, etc., etc.’’ Yours humbly in him and his service, WILLIAM SMITH. MIRACLE WHEAT the amount sown. To save keeping aecount, money should accompany the order. Watcu Tower readers will have the preference up to August 15, after which orders will be attended to indiscriminately, so Jong as the supply holds out. This wheat should be sown in the fall. BRITISH VISITS OF BROTHER FRANK DRAPER Nottingham, Eng., July 22, 23; Hucknall, Eng., July 24; Bolsover, Eng., July 25; East Kirkby, Eng., July 26; Sheffield, Eng., July 27, 28; Bradford, Eng., July 29, 30; Dewsbury, Eng., July 31; Otley, Eng., Aug. 1, 2; Grimsby, Eng., Aug. 3; Eston, Eng., Aug. 4; Middlesboro, Eng., Aug. 5, 6; Bedlington, Eng., Aug. 7. Vou. XXXII BROOKLYN, N. Y., JULY 1, 1911 No. 13 VIEWS FROM THE WATCH TOWER UNREST IN EUROPE The following ‘‘United Press’’ report from London seems to give a very moderate view of the Old World’s affairs:— ‘‘After an undisputed reign of more than 1,000 years, the European ‘ruling classes’ are beginning to realize that the existence of their order is threatened everywhere. Not even the French Revolution itself—hitherto perhaps the most remarkable social upheaval in the world’s history—was so significant as the present movement of the masses against the classes. ‘“Curiously enough, it is in England, with all its conservative traditions and the freest government in Europe, that the feeling is strongest. To a great extent this is due to the fact that in Great Britain the upper classes and the landed interests have always been practically identical. And the land-hunger which has heen increasing among the English masses for forty years past has intensified popular hostility against those representatives of the upper classes (which substantially means all of them) who have selfishly monopolized the land for their own pleasures. ‘*Reeent advanced legislation, tending toward the breaking up of the great landed estates, has made matters worse, too, instead of hetter. The people who want Jand are angrier than they were hefore, because they have secured only a part of what they consider their due, while the landed aristocracy is furious over having had to relinquish even a fraction of its possessions. “*The change that has come over rural England in the past three decades, is, in faet, nothing short of marvelous. In the old days, if a villager failed to doff his hat to the parson or the squire, or if his wife omitted a reverential courtesy to them, it was a foregone conclusion that that couple would he driven from the village forthwith, or that at any rate, if they remained, their lives would be made intolerable. Today, even in cases where the farm Jahorer retains an outward appearance of respect for those ahove him, he looks on the latter as his natural enemies, and never misses a chance of voting against them at the polls. More than this, he has reached a point where he not only disputes the aristocracy ’s title to monopolize the land which he thinks should he his own, hut refuses to acknowledge its superiority over him in any form. ‘“In the towns, of course, where radicalism has long been rampant, the ruling classes have heen hated for a much greater length of time than in the country. But whereas they were merely hated fifty years ago, their very right to exist is now disputed. Popular edueation and popular newspapers have been mainly responsible for the growth of this fecling. The average mechanic who has to work hard for small wages, denies the right of another to live in idleness upon what his father left him. The present-day British workmen’s creed is that everyone in the world ought to start equal. ‘“To a large extent, the growth of this sentiment has been at the bottom of recent labor troubles in England. Complaints have been made everywhere that the labor unionists have refused to obey their own chief’s orders and have thus precipitated uscless strikes. But this is only partly true. Leaving out the fact that most of the labor leaders belong to a passing generation, and are not in as close touch as they should be with the rank-and-file, there is quite a different reason for the men’s unmanageahility. And this reason is that the feeling of unrest and discontent is so rife as to render the masses of workmen anxious to defy rather than to treat with their employers. Just as the village laborer regards the squire, so the city mechanic regards the capitalist. Both country squire and city capitalist represent the ruling classes to the man who works. THE SPREAD OF SOCIALISM ‘Generally throughout Europe, the growth of Socialism is held accountable by the aristocracy for the masses’ discontent. “In England, for instance, it is the Tories’ custom to refer to any man of progressive political ideas as a ‘Socialist.’ They use the word as a term of reproach, but the truth is that it is really not the right word to use as the Tories use it. “Advanced radicalism’ would be more accurately descriptive. Not many English workmen admit that they are Socialists and not many of them are, ““In Germany they do admit—assent it in fact. And the spread of Socialism in the Fatherland is making the old aristocracy shake in its shoes. No one there would be surprised by a Socialist victory at any election and when the Socialists secure control of the Reichstag the aristocracy’s—and the monarchy ’s—days are numbered. German Socialists, like the English, are advanced Radicals. Their idea is less the rule of Socialism than an evening-up of conditions—with perhaps a not entirely unnatural desire, on the part of some of them, for revenge upon the privileged classes who have oppressed them so long. ‘‘In Austria-Hungary an identical process is at work. The dear-food riots—the revolt against the excessive cost of living —are the first expressions of the popular demand. Exploited, generation after generation by the greedy rich, the masses have lost their patience at last. ‘‘The strained industrial situation in France is due to the same cause. In France, however, the rebellion is not against an aristocracy, but against the ring of capitalists which runs the government and every thing else in the republic. As the memhers of this ring grow richer, the poor—and the middle classes—grow poorer every day. Concessions in one particular trade will do no good in France. What is needed is a change in the entire economic system. ‘‘Russia is no better off. The revolutionary movement there is and always has heen an attempt to ‘pull’ the system of feudal tyranny which grinds the people into the dirt. Unlike his fellows elsewhere throughout Europe, the [4844]
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