Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-02-22
From the Round Tablet
7ii3 pro fect7On. I q

"What makes coal so dear. when the
weather is so dreadful cold? God help us
poor ~ comes from between the chattering
teeth Of a toil-worn. care worn, sliiyering
scanty fresh Supply Of fdef to her waning
fire. No cry from her to Government for
projections. No protection to her from the
greed of the strong, the cunning, the ay-
aricious, :" Work for. yourself. Work or
starve. Self-help. Every one for himself.
If Government gave bread or clothes or
fuel to the poor, it would denoralize them.
Take better care, of the pennies you earn.
Lay them up in summer for a wintry day.
Such are the answers she would get if She
asked tor, ,protection-if she turned beggar
No chance Tor her to put in a replication.
The voices of the coal-owners are mighty
to drown hers. II she could be heard; she
would say, ''How can lay up my pennies
when the strong arm of GoYernment takes
them from me, day by day, as fast as L can
earn them, and hands them over to my rich
er neighbors? On every spool of thread i
buy Government takes from me penny or
two to pay over TO the Woonsocket Factory
company, so that they may make dear thread
and II big tqiYidends, On every garment /
wear,,it takes pennies and shiliings from me
wherewith to fill tile purses of the riph
men who make cloth and stockings and
shawls, and who cannot be content with
less than fifty or one hundred per cent,
w
them for making dear clothes for the Amer
ican iaborer. WhenT buy a sto9eo pair
of scissors, must pay some of my hard
earned pennies to support the wealthy IRON
maker of PENNSYLVANIA. / get no protec-
ton to my labor, and 1 ask none. Let us
both alone-me and the manufacturer. As
you let me work my humble way along as
best can, leave him to do the same. Give
him no part of my earnings, and am con-
tent with my little share of this worlds
goods. "' If it'demoralizes society for Gov
ernment to give the poor food and clothes
and fuel, is it not equally demoralizing for
Government to give to the rich and the
strong? And when it gives to the rich by
taking from the comforts of the poor, is iG
not demoralizing society at both ends?
f'tMother, do give me, another blanket,
am so cold,"' begs a shivering child, of a
winters night, on our Northern frontier.
II have no more, child; blankets are so
dear and all sorts of clothes so dear. John,
what makes woolen things so much dearer
than icy used to bt? ..'' -- .''.
Il don'G know; but they do say it's all
done to purtect US poor folk. A tonguey
man told us the other night that the Gov
erntnent must purtect US from the blanket
makers in England and other foreign coun-
tries" '.i-
have nothing but English blankets, and
you can buy two blankets there for what
one costs here. The English blanket-ma-
kers don't seem to be SO hard upon poor
'sW. II, I can't tell the story exa tly; but
The tonguey man made it out all clear. /
think he said, too, that wool wouldn't grow
on our sheep unless they was purtected."
why, John, you don't mean that they
kiver our. American sheep with blankets to
make their wool grow, and that's the reason
blankets are so scarce and dear?"
swell, ] don't know about that; but he
made out that the sheep must be purtected
60 git the wool, and then the men who
made the wool into blankets must be pur
tected; else we'd have to use the cheap
foreign blankets, and then he said we'd be
worse OFF, .-'- -'t' -a+t1 .-.
''John, don't you think the tonguey man
was pulling some wcot over your eyes? If
[ could get two blankets instead of one to
<eep the children warm, the sheep could
10 well enough with their natural kivering.
1t seems to me that we poor folk, What don't
have any natural kiver of wool growing on
our backs, want purtection more than the
sheep" no a.'
"Wall, that's just what Deacon Welloff
says; he, says these high prices purtect us
as we'll as the sheep; and you know the
Deacon subscribes good deal of money for
the DOOR, ~ ibFi-SsI . ~ ttIa
,%"Tbat's all true, John; but then the Dea-
con don't seem to get any poorer for all he
gives away; andthe Deacon has got good
many sheep of his own, and whatever is
good for. his, sheep must be good for the
Deacon's own pocket; and they do say that
he owns part Of big Blanket factory down
in Rhode Island and 50, maybe. the Dea-
con wrongs us poor folk out of ten dollars
aud then gives us back one dollar of it in
charity; maybe, if the poor had cheap
blankets and cheap clothes, they wouldn't
want anY charity. You can't make me be-
lieve we're any better off for having only
one blanket when, if they was cheaper, we
might have two" etss' 0H' - 1881 ""s
The parable of Dives and Lazarus might
be useful reading tor those who are getting
fat divide nds from ''Woonsocket." l' =