The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1872-07-04

oppressors ana tue Oppressed and at
last even the Law steps in % widen the
breach between them, to build up the
aristocracy and impoyerish tho. masses.
From great cities ss from great sore
spots, corruption spreads ike : plague
into the farming regions, the last abid.
ing place Of liberty and virtue, aud
when the agricultural population sue.
cumbs to the evil influence of the time
the republic is already dead.
Who shall cry out against these
evils
answer: you, gentlemen of the
press. You who have tho ear and to 4
great extent the confidence of the peo-
pie; you who are perpetuslly talking
to them in their workshops and At their
firesides you who bring to them fact,
incident, inspiration. You who are, to
use Lord Bacon's phrase, "a perpetu.l
dropping" you who wear your influence
into every heart and brain around you.
1t is as impossible to measure your in
tiuence for good or evil as it is to
measure the effects of the suu's rays
upon our planet. 1t is not too much to
say that the newspapers Of the United
States hold the destinies of the peo.
pie of the United States in their
hands.
Your responsibility is great; You
should rise to the full = easure Of it.
You should set aside all considerations
Of personal advantage OF Advancement,
and teach the people that which is for
'helr good and you should even re-
eist them when in your judgment they
are going wrong. You are the might
lest educator of the world it is your
duty to educate great people to
wisely choose between life and death.
lfyou can arouse a feeling among
the people that the republic is in dan.
ger if you can prove to them that no
temporary gain to themselves will com-
pensate them for the evils which will
result to the country from the corrup-
ton Of the ballot box, you will have
done much to stay the food which is
now sweeping us onward to ruin.
What arc the causes of this state
of things? Some of them are inherent
in human nature; but there are others
that grow out Of the peculiar condition
of our society and laws.
| The most favorable state of society
for the preservation of free institutions
is that wherein property is nearly equal.
ly distributed among the people;
where there is no great aristocracy on tho
one side and no vast pauper population on
the other, but where each man has
something at stake in the continuance
of good government. Then the ballot
box represents the virtue, intelligence
and honesty of the people.
But whenever the laws of the land
step in and practically tax large part
of the people for the benefit and enrich
ment of minority, and thus concen.
trate the substance of the many in
the hands of the few, it runs . great
line, an ever widening breach and gulf,
through the middle of society, with =
multitude Of paupers ON one side and
an array Of princes on the other. It
lessons the interest Of the masses in the
welfare of the nation, and increases the
power of the wealthy to corrupt the
multitude they have already imroverish-
ed. Government then ceases to repre-.
sent the people !; it represents the mon
ey paid for the ballots in the ballot
box free institutions become a mock
cry, and ruin inevitably follows. In
New Eng land already the votes polled
represent to large extent the wages
paid by the employers and the fears of
the workmen the laborers must vote
an open or peculiarly colored ticket at
the dictatiou Of the great corporation
that employs him, or he gets bis dis
charge the next day. He is compelled
TO chose between principle and pover-
ty, and as Burns says:
"Those winsome things called wife and weans,
Wad move the very hearts of stone"
The so called system of protection,
which excludes foreign competition and
leaves the people the prey of wealthy
manufacturers who iupoverish them by
the increased prices they demand for
the necessaries of life, is one of the
prolific parents of that corruption from
which we suffer. Such system, con-
tinued many years longer, would pro.
duce in our country all the results
which feudalism- has produced in Eu-
rope; it would change our noble mid
die class and yeomanry into wretched
peasantry, and elevate our wealthy
aristocracy into an all powerful oliga..
| chy, until some horrible revolution
swept every thing into destruction.-
In the words Of the great poet Of the
people, Goldsmith @
Ill fares the land to fastening ills prey
Where wealth accumulates and men decay,n
Another chief cause of our troubles
is the fact that wo have in this oun.
try an army of sixty thousand persons,
office holders who are dependent upon
ceotral head, the President, whose
interests require chem to sid in the
decentralization Of the people. I speak
not now of any particular politicslparty
! but of the system itself. "s