The weekly Oskaloosa herald. [volume] (Oskaloosa, Iowa) 1855-1885, 1872-07-11

fearful ravages, and in our large cities, Is,
probably, on the increase. A calculation
based upon Commissioner Wells report
for 1870, shows that the entire expenditure
in time and money, for liquors in the Uni
ted States, will not fall short of two and
half billions of dollars. This sum would
liouidate the national debt in a single year,
It would build and richly endow college
in each county in the Union; or it would
clothe and feed all the orphans, support
all the missions of the chur ches and leave
millions besides for extraordinary chart
ties. Such tyrant should not be permit
ted thus to reign in free country. But
the calculation made ignores the more Sc
rious considerations of blasted hopes, de-
monized families, perditioned souls, and
political imbecility and corruption directly
attributable to this monster crime. We'll
did President Jefferson say 1T would
be my first question to acandidste seeking
official position, DO you use Intoxicating
drinks p Our nation needs men in every
station of trust of incorruptible integrity
and morals, like the virtues of Caesars
wife, above suspicion. Fellow citizens,
seek To cast your ballots for none other.
We will trespass upon your time only to
briefly discuss a single further threatening
danger-a question which at this practca-
bic time, especially in the great mdnufac.
turing and commercial centers, is busying
the public mind more than any other. We
refer, of course, to the labor question. To
save time and labor under this heading.
we use some paragraphs which we have
already given To the readers of the Eoan-
getist.
"Our exchanges come to US ladened with
the accounts of strikes" in the important
cities of this couatry and Europe, in al
most every department of manual labor.
The question arises, Why is this discomfort
among the working men of our cities? To
our mind it is mistake to attribute it TO
the ten hour system or the eight-hour sys,
TEN; to too low wages or too high wages
1t lies rather in felt antagonism between
hopoi oho Sapieai MIG ctdtC vi dndll hdS
long existed in the Old World but it is
comparatively new thing in America.
OF late, we speak of the "laDoring class
es" and of the capitalists" or monied
classes. The lines that separate these are
becoming more and more distinct each day,
till already the social barrier is almost I'M
passable. The good days of social equality
of our fathers, when all labored and all
were capitali sts-when there was happy
commingling OF capital and labor have
well nigh passed away. Accumulated
hundreds of thousands and millions of dol
lars strong and soulless corporations, and
successful jobbers are fast separating our
people into "csstes," the poor and the rich,
capitalist and labnrer The INTEL gent la
influence. If this current is not soon
changed, disastrous results must follow :;
but how to change it is not so easily de-
termined. The Increasing mOnopolies and
concentration of capital on the one hand,
and the trade unions and strikes on the
other, are ominOus of the terrible social
and political storm that is gathering. Un-
less there can be harmonizing, there will
certainly arise in this country as we'll as
In Europe, an "nrepressible conflict" be-
tween labor and capital that may drench
our land in blood and end in anarchy Nor
will concessions on the part Of operators
as to hours per day and wages per day per-
manently remedy the matter. Operators
can afford to make any concessions in
these directions that they may be demand
ed, provided only that they have time to
adjust the prices of their products. The
difference viii; simply be added TO the price
of the articles produced. The disease is
deeper seated, and the remedy must be of a
more radical nature. Let the, press, the
pulpit, and the teacher impress upon the
minds ofall the youth of our land that
manual labor is the normal and rghtful
condition of all, and let the wealthy, by
example, make labor respectable and let