The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1877-08-02

The Decisive Cause.

The New York Sun says that there is
now among the people of this country an
amount Of distress and suffering for want
of employment and for want of money,
such as was never known in the United
States before. Great strikes and riots,
with the military Of several states under
arms, afford the most startling and
most conclusive evidence OF this universal
distress,
It is exceedingly important for all peo-
pie, and especially for those workingmen
who suffer and are to suffer the most
deeply from this tragical situation, to un-
derstand the causes which bring such mis-
cry upon them.
These causes are several, and the des-
perate remedy which the railroad engi-
neers and firemen have fallen upon is not
only utterly Intellectual against them, but
can only result in bringing greater priva-
tons aud deeper suffering upon those who
resort to it. Of the great trunk railroad
companies, one is already in bankruptcy
and others are upon the verge of it, while
the strongest Of them cannot continue to
pay dividends from its earnings. The
railroads themselves are thus at starvation
point, and there is no alternative for the
managers but to reduce to starvation point
the wages Of their employees.
The several causes which together result
in this state Of things we have discussed
and expounded from time to time; but
there is one among them, the most recent
and the most decisive, which the victims
Of this crisis should never forget and never
overlook This decisive cause, worse thar
all others together, is the Electoral Con-
spirpcy Of last fall, by which the mar
elected President by the people was
deprived OF that election, and another
man, who was not elected, was installed as
President.
For years from the panic of 1878 on
the country had suffered from stagnation
of industry aud business, aggravated by
political corruption whose poison extended
to every vein and nerve of the public body,
To remove those evils the people resorted
to the ballot boxes They elected Presi-
dent pledged to reform; but the heads and
managers Of the Republican iparty. sup
ported by the moral retormers and senti-
mental rhetoricians in the ranks Of that
great organization, determined that this
election should be set aside. They set il
aside by frauds the most glazing and unex-
ampled; and in the whole of that great
party, with all its array of intelligence and
all its pretensions to uprightness, only two
men, two Republican members of Congress
from Massachusetts, were found to protest
against the wrong
Before this crime was consummated
business bad begun to revive. Times werr
becoming better, very much better; peo-
pie had confidence and hope But tn,
crime killed all confidence and all hope
just as, for the time being, it paralyzeC
the constitution and nullifed all law. Con
fidence. hope, industry, and business havt
not revived from the deadly blow; and j
does not now seem likely that they cal
regain their normal vIgor aud activity
until after another Presidential election.
Let those men who have no work auC
those who can only obtain work at starva
ton wages, reflect upon these facts ant
prepare themselves to execute justice a
the ballot box when the right time comes