Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1873-10-15

~ 0e done ~ the n0ro hand OF iaOOr, IN
sweat and toll I ID fatigue. Tho Legislature
6 ants no charter for the working man to built
houses withous labor, and to grow rict
without being industrious.
1t was once forciblY stated by distin
guished scholar and divine, that Satan ha'
adopted this class of spectators upon poo
meu's earnings as his own, aud when hs
cannot otherwise arrest or defeat any good Of
great object, he modestly proposes to become
himself the postiliion. that he may hasten it,
, progress. Men are 80 ignorant of his devi
ces, th It in their zeal to 6 go atead" they
J give the reins of the car to this jehu, anG
thus hope to hasten on, even good chance
while the derit drives. And that this ancient
driver has lost none of his destructive charac
teristics, since he drove another as herd o
swine down q steep place into the sea, F" neee
produced by this class, in the present secu
lar affairs of our nation, must be alarmingly
apparent to all. Witness the rage for spec
ulation and gambling in stocks and req
estate, which has engulfed so many of ou'
fellow citizens in all parts of our country
No wonder that the laboring classes. from
time to time, should cry out, s. Hard times.
See the strife and tumult, in relation to the
ury, excuses, and widest extravagancet
which are exhibited, and the heated contro.
versies which have dissolved the ties oil
friends and brotherhood Witness the state
of the press, that should be the grand palla.
dunn of civil and religious liberty, and
which, in many instances, is perverted tc
base purposes and listen to the harrangues OIL
ie deelalmers aud demagogues, on almost
every topic of excitement.
Were [ allowed TO partioularlzs, L might
point you to the great crash that recently
threw Wall St. into commissions, and made
many a millionaire read the hand writing on
the wall, " Meme, Meme, Tekel, Upharsln, "
which being interpreted. means, {" tnou ar,
weighed in the balance and found wanting.
The whole cause of the trouble lies In nut
smell, and is capable of being understood by
the smallest capacity. We have been building
railroads in advance of the national wants,
and they have been pushed forward, On d
vicious system of selling bonds wh CHI have
no basis but the public confidence, when it
was taking away money from the needs OF
every day business. We are told that last
year 600 miles of new railroads were
built 10 this way, not over Que tenth OF
which was really needed. Some Of these
railroad schemes turned out to be mere SWIM
| dies, which awakened q general dlstrust.
| Then came the - Credit Moblller develop
nent, then the farmers oranges, Or anti
monopoly movement at the west, all giving
capitalists to understand that the whole sys-
ten of railroad building was soon to undergo
a scrutiny never brought to bear upon it be-
| iore Under these com blned causes, occurred
The failures OF Jay Cooke Il Co.. and Fisk &
| Hatch, and then came the panic. And such
a panic The black Friday, as 1T was termed,
was not circumstance to the terrors OF this,
and 81 will be wiped out by this fatal 10.
| BurleIgn, 10 writing an accouat OF this lear
| full panic, says, " FIVE thousand men close
the week in poverty, who opened it IN wealth
and position. Jay Gould is the on J mao on
the street whose note is worth more to-day
than it was ten days ago. He has made
millions by the disaster"
And again. he says A man who has
lost terribly SAID yesterday: Il have los.
my money and my energy, and the worst of
OF it Is, am twenty years older than | was
yesterday A dozen men rule and ruin
New York. Dog will not eat dog, but
| pull will eat bull and bear will eat bear. Ia
Wall St. the son wall turn against tue father,
and the son-in-law will rum the father-ln-
| Jaw. No man trusts the honor of any man
On the street, except in the mere matter OF
payments. The man who hetrays his asso-
| cIates first, 10 the snarpest fellow
We think it is time that change should
take place in the financial CONCERNS of our
country. Were men of small means to act
IN this way, as do the stock je1bers, they
would be branded as " insane,'' unfit TO Natic
| IN stocks, and even incapable OF taking care
IT themselves. These gamb ,ers do not see
the end from the beginning, and consequent
ly they wildly rush on, and are punished.
Do we wonder, fellow citizens, that cotnbi-
nations are formed by the labJrIng classes for
| self-protection? Can We blame them for So
doing? | think, from this day forward, no
| nan can be elected to Congress who would
vote another rood of land for iancItul specu-
lation and | am proud 10 saying that our
present member OF Congress never IN one
instance, voted away the proposed land Tor
railroad purposes-nor is he guilty of appro-
priatIug thousands OF dollars into his own
pockets, for hack pay," KNOWN as the
:. salary grab" That honor is lett for the
| Buffers of the East, and the Carpenters of
the West.
| The only trouble that l apprehend can
| arise from these Combinations OF the labJrin {
classes is, they may eract too much, and thus
defeat the object they desire to promote. II
the oranges " that seem springlng up like
magic all over the land, will only adhere to
the policy they have foreshadowed, they may
tmelorate somewhat their condition. Their
cree1, as [ understand it, consists Of eight
articles:
l. g. The protection of honest industry in
all it's branches against the entertainments
of aggregate capital.
| 2. Equal and exact justice to all classes
and special privileges to none.
| 3. The control of railroads and other cor
porations by National and State legislation.
f. A tariff for revenue purposes, but none
for the support of special interests.
Opposition to salary grabs and all other
| government steals.
g. Rigid economy in all parts of the public
service.
T. No more land grants for railroads or
pthar corporations, but reservation OF the
public domaio for actual settlers.
8. Honesty and capacity the only test for
official position"
Let these principles generally prevail,
and we shalt hear no more of exciting puaics
5aat convulse our nation-nor corners - in
& our and wheat and other commodities,
Which often distress the lsboring classes,
making the common necessaries of life so
high that it is impossible for them to lay
up shilling for rainy day-even if they
get enough to give them comfortable living
As general thing | do not approve of
strikes" Too many times the laboring
classes are unreasonable in their demands
but | can conceive of cases where they
are justified. | have noted instances where
workingmen's wages have been Sd low and
provisions SO high that they were obliged to
deny themselves many of the subs1antlals OF
life-whlle ar the same time their employers
were feasting daily upon roast beef and plum
pudding, and declaring yearly good dividends
NV rule would be not to take the roast beej
and plum. pudding from the employer, but to
give the worklngman such wages that he