The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1877-05-12

also, by their numerical majority, to dictate
who shall make and administer the laws OF
| eighteen out of the thirty-eght States of the
| Union, and have power, moral and political tC
influence the making and administration of the
| laws of the nation.
Mr.. Young, of the Bureau of Statistics al
| Washington, divides the population of the coun.
! try engaged IN the different pursuits into about
| 5000 900 of agriculturists. 5000 900 of wage
workers, upward of 100000 engaged in the
professions, and less than 800. 900 engaged IL
trade and transportation, i. e., the commercial
| class. 1t is easy to see where the numerical
majority resides.
The metropolitan press has. almost without
exception been controlled in the interest of
CAPITALIZATION.
which Is always popular with the money power
and the mercantile classes Notwithstanding
that the masses have had few great newspa-
pers, no periodicals, and few greatly Landed
leaders to advocate their cause. they have new
ertheless, by their votes for the most part. con-
trolled the Government of the United States
throughout its history
Great political commissions like the slavery
agitation, dlsintegrate parties and make new
divisions of their atoms but the individuals
must eventually subside into the tyo great par
tes-one contending for the welfare of the
many, and the other for the ACKNOWLEDGMENT of
the few.
Your power can only be exercised when the
pOSScSSlOn Vi II Is realized. and the necessary
organization and concert of action is secured
OF your power, hand-workers of Illinois, I'M
der these circumstances of organization and
concert of action, we have this day. and in this
capital, beheld a browning manifestation.
Two years you decided to organize and to
bring your voting power to bear upon the po-
htical affairs of your State Through the
efforts of this and kindred associative organ
lzations. a concert of action was secured be-
tween the farmers, miners and mechanics of
the State. You nominated, voted for and
elected, four members of the national House of
Representatives, more than five members of the
Illinois State Senate, and more than twenty
members of the Illinois House of Representa-
tlves; also, the Superintendent of Public In
struction i'll your State, and Judge of the SUI
preme Court of Illinois, as well as numerous
county and municipal officers. And to-day your
representatives in the General Assembly have,
on joint ballot, broken the states of both
the Democratic" and Republican" politi-
clans and elected the man of your selection
Senator of the United States* All this. be it
remembered, however, is the result of
ORGANIZATION
and effort of two years ago. Since which Won
have almost wholly abandoned your political
organization, and have for the most part been
driven into the ranks of one or other of the
political parties by their "whippers-in." You,
therefore, have an experimental knowledge of
your power when organized, united and active
and of your weakness when unorganized. di-
vided and inactive. You have power and if the
spirit of this annual meeting of the Farmers
Association meets with sympathy and support
the farmers of Illinois will not permit the
power which they evidently possess to remain
latent and unused.
The mere use Of power to secure office for
ourselves or friends for the mere sake of Off
cial emoluments, is not worth an effort But
persistent labor for the advancement OF true
civilization and the full development of the
manhood of our people. by the removal of
those obstacles that have been placed in the
way by government, and can therefore be re-
moved by the action of government. should
command your whole energy and activity.
Without undervaluinf or overlooking the ad
yantages of our present civilization and our
form of government, no thoughtful person
will deny that there are great sOcietary evils
existing among Us to-day. for which govern
ments are responsible and for which they are
providing no remedy. In the old world these
EVILS AND DANGERS
are of the most appalling nature and the evil
dence of the premature decay of our own young
civilization is manifested by great numbers of
tramps In the country, and paupers and those
who are unwillingly idle in our cities, and
other signs indicate that evils peculiar to old
and decaying civilizations are growing upon rs
here.
In England. for example, we have the mon
strous paradox of nation of enormous and
The Supreme Court Of the United States has de-
clded in substance: That the common law power
OF the State Governments to regulate ferries, COM
mon carriers, hackmen, bakers nillers wharhngers,
nn-keepers. etc. applies to railroads and grain ee-
vators, and that 1t has in way been diminished
ana restricted by the construction of the United
States ard that the State Legislatures have the right
TO decide by statute if they please what reason
able rates of transportation. This is called the
Granger" decision, and confirms the Granger laws
Under 1t the farmers cease to be serfs.
growing wealth, in which large and increas-
ing portion of its people are ground down I'M
der the hardest poverty. to physical. intellect
ual and moral deformity. We behold na-
ton which, during its continental wars, was
ready to raise easily vast sums annually, &c
support and subsidize armies and navies, the
great majority of whose people have scarcely
food to eat or clothes to wear a nation where
PAUPERISM
is rising like swelling flood, encroaching con
tlnually upon and ingulhng classes who though En-
themselves on safe ground, being skilled o.. a.
dustrious, and frugal nation whose M lapI Of
saving machinery does the muscular ,idren,
many millions of men, and yet whose cn li' day
scarcely out of the cradle, have to Noip Grip
ana night, kept awake by the whip aLi "i toii.
pled IN Their tender limbs By rnnat'p"'
as Alex. Mcdonald, the hand-worker -SfTS