The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1881-07-21
HON. G. della MATYR
At Pottsville, Pa.
A STIRRING SPEECH ON
THE ISSUES OF THE
HOUR.
The Right Of the Toilers to the
Results of their Toll.
THE CONSPIRACY OF TIE MONEY
POWER OF EUROPE AGAINST
THE INDUSTRIES OF
AMERICA.
Tho Remedy for Our Financial Evils.

No Kennedy Tor Our Eln9nCl9A Evils. |
At the evening National mass meeting
,eld IS Pottsville, Pa, on the 18th inst,
he Hon. Gilbert De LIN Matyr spoke as
OlloWs:
Mn. PRESIDENT AND FELLOW CITIZENS
shall speak to You out OF the deepest
Of my own heart and mind.
We are facing a revolution Of more i'm
l,ortance to ourselves and to mankind
Than any vet accomplished in the adj
vance Of Christian civilization. will
formulate that revolution. We are assert
Ing, and shall maintain, the divine right
d each toiler to the legitimate results Of
his or her toll against the blasphemous
assumption Of the right Of few, by class
by franchises secured from
the government, to absorb the product Of
the Toll Of the masses. The present form
of the worlds oppression is the absorp-
ton Of its wealth by few; and this OPP
precision is at present more cruel, more
more hopeless, than any the
world has known.
I will give you the facts on which l
base this statement. The first fact to
which I call your attention is this We
have augmented our power to create
wealth at least fifty-fold per capita,
within fifty years, by uncovering measure
less resources stored up by the Infinite
Father when he laid the foundations of
the world. For instance, coal-you know
something about it in this State and in
this community; oil-you have heard of
t.; boundless agricultural resources un-
known fifty years ago. When l was a
boy, west Of the Mississippi was marked
on our map, ssThe Great American Des-
ert." Now it is known that there are fif-
teen hundred miles square Of the richest,
fairest, grandest portion Of the earth, all
Of itcleared by the Infinite Fathers hand,
ready for the pillow. It is traversed by
railroads, and brought within reach. We
have invented and applied to every phase
of industry, machinery within those years.
We have reached into the invisible. We
have seized the occult forces of nature,
the omnipotence of God, and harnessed
that power to onr machinery. When we
were boys, some Of us, reaped our
fields with sickles, cutting our fingers.
Now we reap our large harvests with
machines that reap and bind. A man
riding behind those strong horses, on a
machine, cuts and binds from fifteen to
twenty acres day, or with four strong
horses propelling, cuts thirty acres q
day. Then we threshed with the fail
now the steam threshing machine pushes
itself to the harvest. Then we distribu-
ted the products Of the soil on carts and
wagons now railroad trains thunder oil
over the land bearing the produce to mar.
ket by the ten thousand, the hundred
thousand, tons.
Look at the difference in stock.
I remember when I was a boy
my father tried to fence in some swine.
He was an energetic man, but he failed.
His swine were long-nosed, slab-sided,
and had legs like trotting horses,
Ten bushels Of corn would hardly i'm.
press one Of those hogs, and there is a
great difference in cattle. So much fol
the improvements in creating food.
In the matter Of clothing, there has
been still greater increase. Fifty years
ago our mothers spun the yarn, woye the
cloth, and, stitch by stitch, made up thai
which clothed our households. / shall
never forget the first suit Of clothing thai
I was permitted to wear. watched my
mother as she spun the yarn, . neighbol
woman wove it, and it was then taken t.
little mill. remember it was snuff
colored; but when got that suit on ]
was bigger than Grant ever was; but the
process was SO slow. I have been through
the large manufacturing establishments 81
the East. have seen one man watching
two spinning machines that would reach
across the body of this audience, working
back and forth rs by magic, spinning thous
iands of threads ut each circuit, making
the circuit twice while my mother coult
make it once, and spinning threads abou
twice az long. That machinery, tendet
by single man, could spin more yarl
than several thousand could spin b,
hand. Go into the loom room where Their
are hundreds Of looms, and watch til,
shuttles. They are picked by stee
fingers and thrown by subtitle hooks, ant
you can hardly help feeling that Their
are two little devils throwing at eacl
Other-you can just see astreak back AMI
forth. One girl watching q half dozen 0
these looms will weave more cloth thai
several hundred could weave by hand.
1 went through large carpet manufac
tory in your State. believe the larges
in the world. They take the wool as j
comes from the sleeps back, and put j
into five miles Of carpet every day, EN-
ploying two Thousand hands. It woult
take two hundred thousand to put tina
wool into such carpet by hand.
Now, need not illustrate further. /
is plain that by the added power o
machinery we have augmented our abil
ity to increase wealth fifty fold within tn
memory Of men that are here. Now,
ask You this question, and l ask You T.
consider it; forget that You are Republi
cans, or Democrats, or Nationals, if yo'
please, and simply consider these facts a
men. Ought not want to be banishe'
from the civilized world Ought q singl,
child to cry for want of bread? Ought
child to 90 half clothed? Ought ON in
dustrious family to be without q home
home with not only the necessities, bu
the comforts, yea, the luxuries Of life.
affirm, that with our present power +
create wealth there is no need .whateve
that there should be want and Suffering