Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-12-29
Tramps and Mlllionaires.


William h. Astor who recently died in New
York, leaves an estate estimated at one hun
drcd millions of dollars; all accumulated in
the last seventy-fve years by his father, old
John Jacob, and himself
Thousands of homeless wanderers peram-
bulatc our country, lodging under fences, in
out-houses and barns; begging, stealing,
firing buildings, committing murder.
Does the farmer, laboriously tilling his
land for subsistence and, consciously or
unconsciously, working many weary hour
to increase that, to him. incomprehensibls
accumulation Of riches and power on the
one hand, and to supply the wants of that
mass of beggary on the other-does the hard
working farmer, we say-ever connect
these two very modern facts in America
with each other, in the relation of cause and
effect?
We have Just been reading a newly is
sued public document, from the government
printing office, at Washington, entitled La
Dor in Europe aud America a special re-
sistence, aud the condition of the working
classes in Great Britain, Germany, France,
Belgium, and other countries of Europe, and
also in the United States and British Amer
lea. BY Edward Young PHI d., Chief Of
the United States Bureau of Statistics"
The mass Of facts accumulated and tabu-
lated in this volume Of eight hundred and
sixty-four pages gathered and published,
no doubt for an entirely different pnrpose)
contains lesson Of the very gravsst import
to every man on this continent who earns
his living by the labor Of his hands. 1t CON
tans the proof, reiterated and confirmed by
thousands of examples, that everywhere in
the world except in America, the working
man is the slave aud the victim of the
money power. 1t shows that of the i'm
mense increase in wealth consequent upon
the wonderful inventions of the past hun.
dred years--inventions that have more than
quadrupled the aggregate wealth Of Europe
the working man has so small a share that
no ray of hope for anything, but the chance
to wear himself out in hopeless toll, shines
upon his life. 1t shows that so completely
enthraled is labor, that its masters are not
afraid even to educate the laborer, in order
to make him more efficient slave. For,
along with the education they bestow, they
provide the means of deadly vice, that
destroys the last spark of manhood, while
robbing its victim Of his only chance Of
liberty
These statistics show that throughout Eu-
rope the working men, agricuturists and mo
chanics alike, are unable, by the most con-
slant toll to earn enough 10 buy comforta-
be shelter, sufficient food and decent cloth
ing for themselves and those dependent upon
them and yet, that, out of this insufficient
income, awarded to them by their masters,
they spend twenty-five per cent for intoxi-
eating drink. The masters complain that
this habit of drinking lessons their own
profits, yet they make no effort to suppress
it, because it not only makes the slavery of
their workmen utterly hopeless, but affords
themselves an excuse for their tyranny, in
asmuch as they say that any increase of
wages only results in increase of debauchery.
We have not doubt that this statement
is substantially true but it is not the
whole truth. Drunkenness is vice
that peryades all classes. The canital-
lists are no more exempt from it than the
workmen. While IL has many roots in tbe
nature of man, it always shows its most az
gravated form, when despair fakes po,seS.
sion of the soul To drown misery in drink
has alway, been the pitiful resort of weak
humanity. And what can we expect among
the millions upon millions of men on the
continent of Europe, whose lives are the snort
of n fate enbodied in tho ,o,oy.,o,,a,
no., ,.ho a., no..o1 H., A.
=, W ''''''''o' " '"e
wants. 'ie "'ar'ce' Tue luxury ana the pas
slons OF lew thousands OF their fellows
who, through nefarious laws OF their own
construction. control all the wealth and all
tbo ,o,yor ,ba, Ia, ri,b, si,o,lJ l. =. a..
49, - IL, - WV
"''' " ''''.' WV e'o"'e" WHAT can
you expect OF men VINO see no future Tor
themselves or their children, but a future
hopeless drudgery for mere subsistence. but
that they should DRUG thamselve. with
Itus oho,, aaliri,,, ,,'b;,L e.. IT.. N,
.,,. 80 49,, 40 '''"7' VIII
make '"ein r'cii' 'noush II leave thsm more
ragged more hopeless and more helpless
than before. This vast community of work
men have no religion. The most of them are
utter, scornful unbeleyers in the faith If
tboir mastors Corsooro,,,, ,Lov r.. -.
so,,,oI,, 40 ,o,,.,,a,ioa l. ~. -
~ ."''' "'e'' save III
'"e aioohoiic cup lake Ehgiahd-our
fatherland-as illustrated by this statistical
report. First, as to the agricultural laborer
The social nosi,ion NJ cn,,, who u.th -.
hoa,a -, aor,ia., ,..,'-.N,,.'1 VIZ, "''' 'i''
tended the syyine NJ codr,, ,ho g. ~.
tainlv s,rouoly defined ~, Ia,, ,,s ""' s'
Curth had certain ri,bt. ooa ss'i,
s,,,'.a,is. 80 ""r oe'''' a'hno"ieuseu