The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1877-05-12
THE WORKERS
OF THE
Mississippi Valley.
Their Power and RespOn Sibility.

An ADDRESS DELIVERED BEFORE THE ILLINOIS
FARMERS ASSOCIATION IN THE SENATE
CHAMBER, AT SPRINGFIELD, ILL, JAN. %
1877, BY SYDNEY MYERS.
In order to be practical we must both study
| and think. We must study the past and
think about the future, that we may make the
best of our circumstances, and guide our steps
in our daily walk.
We must know and use what comes to us
from the past, and know and avoid the mis-
takes of those who have lived and labored be-
fore us.
The period between the sixth and sixteenth
century-between ancient Rome and the time
of the Reformation-is called the Dark Ages
yet, as Emerson says. ''These Dark Ages
have given rs the feet Oh which we walk, the
eyes with which we see the mariners COM
pass, and the lens for our microscope and tele-
scope To this period we are also indebted
for printing, glass, paper and many other
things now deemed Indispensable From the
Dark Ages we received the ''Magna Charta y
| all the principles of which are by no means
practically applied. Friar Roger Bacon, who
was feared and hated by the populace, as one
leagued with internal associates, produced
|
the Thrall to cope with the iron-clad Knight :
and finally gunpoacder abolished the te,tdal
system.
SIX HUNDRED YEARS AGO.
| Friar Bacon. penetrating the future even of
Liverpool, New York and Chicago, predicted
that the time would come when ships would be
propelled by machinery faster than by MANY
rowers, needing only pilot to steer and that
carriages would also be driven upon the land
| by the power of machinery, faster than any
animal could run. He thus recognized the
possibilities of the steamship and the railway.
He was not popular man in his day he was
| feared and hated, as a magician end one
| leagued with Satan, by the ignorant masses.
and was imprisoned and prosecuted as a sub
versionist and a dangerous character, by his
| superiors in office.
We are proud of
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
| of its achievements, It's progress. 1t is true
| that we have realized Bacon's prediction in the
| steamship and the railroad. We have i'm
proved the printing press, so that it can print
and perfect newspapers at the rate of fourteen
| miles of papers in an hour. We have the
electric telegraph, the sewing machine. and
improved farming implements. We no longer
thresh out wheat by beating it with two sticks
tied together with a thong We have the
steam engine our slave to do our painful Ia
bor-our toll.
We have machinery which. if placed under
society, would raise it to higher grade. as
5000 jackscrews placed under great hotel in
Chicago raised it TO higher grade without pro-
ducing any shock or disturbance of its guests.
or interrupting its business. Much has been
done in the nineteenth century; but for these
mechanical inventions which are most conspicu-
GUS. and regarding which we feel the most
pride, we are indebted to the poor and obscure
hand-workers.
Great progress has been made in the inven-
ton of appliances for changing the raw ma
terial which Nature has supplied Us with in
lnexhaustible abundance. into things useful to
man: into
FOOD. SHELTER. CLOTHING,
furniture and means of instruction. and in the
means for transporting these products through
space; but corresponding progress has not been
made in improving the means of interchange
and proprietary distribution
We have made little progress in the improve
ment Of civil government. either as to efficiency
or economy. We have vet to realize govern
ment . of the people, for the people, and by
the people. We have now government of
the people by a class and for class. We do
not all realize that we are governed by an oil
garchy composed of professional office-holders
and otfice-seekers that our elections are usually
merely contests between two sections Of this
class, and the result merely decision as to
which section OF the oligarchy shall govern and
enjoy the emoluments arising from the control
of government
Neither do we sufficiently realize that gov
ernment of the people by the real representa-
tives of all classes is practicable and that it has
been proved to be practicable by many years
experience in another country.
PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION
by the preferential vote is system under which
the ma or1ty rules, but under which the various
interests opinions and desires of all are pro-
poruonately represented system under which
law making bodies become society in miniature.
ana laws the accurate and orderly expression
of public opinion.
addressed the Illinois Farmers Association
one year ago on the subject of government and
the possibilities of its Improvement. ] shall