Bozeman avant courier. [volume] (Bozeman, Mont.) 1872-1882, 1878-11-28
HARD TIMES.
THE SURE AND SHORT WAY OFT
OF THE NATIONS FINANCIAL
TROUBLES.

| VI 111E n AI1oN'S FINANCIAL
TROUBLES.
sheach by Col. Robert G. IngersolI in
Boston Music Hall.
| The lovers of the human race. the phi
lanthropists, the dreamers Of grand dreams
all predicted and all believed that wher
man should have the right to govern him
self, when every human being should be
equal before the law. they believed, they
prophesied that rauperism, crime, ani
want would exist only in the history O.
the past. They accounted for misery ir
their time by the rapacity of Kings ant
the cruelty Of Priests. Here in the United
States man at least is free. here man makes
the laws, and all have an equal voice. The
rich cannot oppress the poor, the poor are
in a majority, the laboring men, those who
in some way work for their living, can
elect every Congressman and every Judge
they can make and interpret the laws. and
if labor is oppressed in the United States
by capitol, labor is simply itself to blame
The cry is now raised that capital in some
mysterious way oppresses industry, that
the capitalist is the enemy of the man who
labors.
WHAT IS A CAPITALIST?
Every man who has good health is a
capitalist; every man with good sense ev-
cry one who has had his dinner and has
enough left for supper, is to that extent a
capitalist: every man with a good charac-
ter who has the credit to borrow dollar
or to buy a meal is capitalist, and nine
out of ten of the capitalists in the United
States are simply successful workingmen.
There is no conflict, and can be no conflict.
in the United States between capital and
labor, and men who endeavOr to excite the
envy of the unfortunate, the malice of the
poor, such men are the enemies of law and
ordel.
HOW WEALTH Is ACCUMULATED.
AS a rule, wealth is the result of inuus-
try. economy, attention to business; and.
as a rule. poverty is the result of idleness.
extravaganza, and mat .ention to business,
though to these rules there are thousands
Of exceptions. The man who has wasted
his time. who has thrown away his oppor-
tunites, is apt TO envy the man who has
not. For instance, here are six shoenakers
working in one shop. One of them at
tends to his business; you can hear the
music of his il;tnnler, late ond o..riy. La "a
in love it may be, with some girl on the
next street; he has made up his mind to
be a man, to succeed, to make somebody
else happ. to have IA home; and while he is
working. in his imagination, he can see his
own fireside, with the light falling upon
the faces of his wife and child. The other
five gentlemen work AS little as they can,
spend Sunday in dissipation, have the
headache Monday. and as Il result, never
advance. The Industrious one, the one in
love, gains the confidence of his employer,
and in a little while cuts out work for
these other fellows. The first thing you
know he has shop Of his own, the next a
store, because the man Of reputation, the
man Of character, the mar Of known in
tegrity. can buy all he wishes in the Uni
ted States upon a credit. The next thing
you know he is married, and he has built
him house. and he is happy, and his
dream has been realized. After while the
same five shoemakers, having pursued the
old course, stand on the corner some Sun
day when he rides by. He has got car
riage; his wife sits by his side, her face
covered with smiles, and they have got
two children, their faces beaminS with jov.
and the blue ribbons fiuttering in the wind
And thereupon these five shoemakers ad-
ourn to some neighboring saloon and
pass a resolution that there is an irrepress-
ble conflict between capital and labor.
no OPPRESSION OF LABOR IN THE UNITED
STATES.
There is, in fact, no such conflict. and
the laboring men of the United States
have the power to protect themselves. In
The ballot box, the vote of Lazarus is on
equality with the vote of Dives, the vote
Df wandering pauper counts the same as
hat of millionaire. In land here the |
poor, where the l"boring men have the
light and have the power to make the
avs, and do in fact make the laws, cer-
ainly there should be no complaint. In
our country the people hold the power,
md if any corporation in any State is de-
touring the substance of the people, every
State has retained the power Of eminent
lOmain under which it can confscate the
property and franchise OF any corporation
~ simply paying to that corporation what
uch property is worth. And yet thous-
nds of people are talking as though the
ich have combined for the express purpose
# destroying the poor, are talking as tho
here existed a widespread conspiracy
gainst industry, against honest toll, and
thousands of speeches have been made,
nd numberless articles have been written
O fill the breasts of the unfortunate with
atred.
THE PERIOD OF INFATION.
We have passed through period of,
and unprecedented imitation.
or years we enjoyed the luxury of going
4 debt, we enjoyed the felicity of living
pom credit. We have in the United States
bout $1,000 miles OF railway, more than
noueh to make a treble track around the
lobe. Most OF these miles were built in a i,
eriod of twenty-five years and at cost of
/ least five thousand millions of dollars.
hink OF the ore that had to be dug, OF the ;
on that was melted; think of the thOus-
nds employed in cutting bridge timber .
i'd ties and giving to the wintry air the {
usic Of the AK; think of The thousands I
I'd thousands employed in making cars, I
: making locomotives, those horses of I
ro.ress, with nerves OF steel and breath I
steam; think of the thousands and I
of workers in brass, steel, and f
on; think of the numberless industries r
at thrived in the construction of SO, 900 t
lies OF railway; of the streams bridged, r
e mountains tnnncled, of the plains
OSsed, and think of the towns and cities y