The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1877-07-26
KENOsHA july %. 1877.

y
ling capitalists to support them as gen
teez 2dat0ers, while they organize mass
meetings, pack caucuses, and elect Of
ficers pledged to higher rates of taxa
ton" This from the Chicago Times,
and with the true Times stamp upon
it. It is cruel in it's irony as sensa-
tional in intent and composition, and
if the word capitalist is used to convey
the idea that the owner of money,
bonds or mortgages, pay taxes, is fraud
ulent: but, using the term in it's proper
significance and applying it to the
owner of real wealth, it has an applica-
ton to the present condition of our
people that calls for the most serious
consideration Of the taxpayer.
The real capitalists are those who
own the material wealth of the nation,
not it's representative; who stand be-
tween the money owner and the opera
tive, and using the money Of the one
and the labor Of the other constitute
the backbone" Of society. These cul-
tivate farms, run foundries and facto-
ries, construct public highways, build
school houses, churches, cities, and
clear up forests, invent, and make dis
coyeries, and thus ameliorate mans
condition here on earth; smooth the
rough places, straighten the crooked
paths, and point to higher humanity
and a destiny more exalted than the
qualification Of passion and appetite.
These are the capitalists, the men who
support the great army of non-produc-
ers who live SO daintily on the earnings
of others = the ge7lteeJ paupers- and
upon these must fall the burden of
supporting not only the discharged
operatives" who, for the time being,are
thrown upon the cold charity of the
world, but also the natural born pau
per, the outcome Of vicious legislation
and wrong application of social con-
ditions upon parents, who are support
ed, so foolishly in too many instances,
out Of the great store houses owned by
the men who so to make up Gods army
on earth, who protect the weak, provide
for the helpless and direct the energies
Of the nation. And these men are SO
busily engaged in directing the great
industries of the country, that they
give over to the "ge2teez pGupeg'" the
opportunity to 'organize mass meet
ings, pack caucusses and elect officers"
who, if not pledged to higher rates of
taxation" do really govern so that oc-
casion is given for q higher taxation
from necessity.
No country in the world, to-day, has
before it q more difficult problem than
the United States, Or one that calls for
a more serious consideration. The
present elimination of a difficulty in
railroad "strikes," is only the begin
ming of onr troubles brought to the
light Of day, troubles, that, if not pru-
IDENTIFY dealt with, will soon eclipse the
war in Europe and bring us to worse
condition than Turkey.
These men whose difficulties are with
the managers Of railways are not alto
gether in the wrong, to grind them
down until their wages will barely sup
port their families with the commonest
and then to put double
work upon then, is grinding process
that would make the best of men
squirm, but unfortunately the dissolute
and the idle have joined in the melee.
and these are SO numerous and SO reck-
less that the outbreak is portentotls of
events that cannot be measured in their
magnitude or defined in their intensity.
And yet how few have been able or
have striyen to be able to appreciate
the warnings that have been given of
the coming storm, and still how much
less have our people allowed them
selves to look under the surface of
things to find out the real cause of the
distress that is upon us, Or are they
striving to direct our destinies in the
line of progress, righteousness and JUS
tice.
1t is time that moneyed men were
looking at the factors in this social
problem and striving to work out the
result of present exigencies. Follow
ing the practices of England too closely