Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1882-04-03
LETTER FROM NEW YORK.
LspecialcOrrespondence Ofthe Monitor.l


ness. Where politics come in, too,
however remotely. every one is sure
to be interested. Like the old gen
tleman and his wife, who came across
the story of the last prize fight in
their newspaper and fell to fierce de-
nunciations of its brutality, but man
aged to read it right through, notwith-
standing, from title to finish, our
staidest abhorors of the muddy pool
of politics never fail to step up with
their little vote on election day, and
do a good deal of amateur housing
around every day, and pretty well
besides. After continued howl for
a series of years against the Grail
road Kings for their management of
the transportation lines by which
they are so quickly absorbing a large
percentage of the earnings of the peo-
pie, there has been, if possible, a
louder howl, in the most inconsistent
style, against a movement CHAMPION
ed by Mr.. F. B. Thurber, the anti
Monopoly leader, and Purveyor of
Pure Provisions. who has elaborated
a scheme for a peoples railway which
would by it's strenuous competition
knock the underpinning from the
combined cormorants of the day.
| The absurd statement is made that
he is a monopolist himself.
Among other of it's provisions is
one to give work to all unemployed
laborers who may temporarily prefer
to earn even bread and water rather
than starve, while they wait for big
ger wages, at 81 day. If the
strikes now going on all over the
country are to continue, it might be
better in the long run for the strikers
to get right to work on road which
will, by low freights, cheaper the
cost of what they eat, drink and
wear, even at 81 day, rather than
hang around the scenes of their trials
and discomfort with their wives and
children fading into paupers' graves
before their eyes, and being decimat-
ed by the occasional arrest and pos
sible execution of the fiery spirits
among them whom despair may drive
to crime. There are strikers and
strikers and your Radix deprecates
strikes, but when corporation which
distributes 80 per cent. dividends and
carries over huge surplus for the
purpose of extending the scope of its
operations by building more facto-
ries, or acquiring more or changing
existing machinery, cuts down the
pay of it's workpeople 80 per cent. ii
would appear to be a perfectly legiti-
mate rebuke if the outraged sufferers
were to shake the dust of such inhos-
pitable toilshopmasters off their fee
and start West to dig on railroads
or hoe their own potato patch, o.
anything rather than submit to sucl
cruel slavery. An exodus of this
kind, if generally participated in b,
the aggrieved, would bring the mos
. soulless corporations to their senses
for the immediate effect would be
great rise of wages, both in order tt
retain those about to 90 and as
: --~evsee.ry vvI4eeaee.>ee ef doplc
ton of the labor market. Nor coult
foreigners be imported to fill the vac
uum. The fact of the exodus woult
shine forth as a beacon of dangers t
be avoided, and if Lawrence, Mass.
or any other manufacturing town, i
;, once branded as unfit for free men t
live in, it will be ruined. No on
will 60 there while there is room i
any other parts of the continent.
- But some strikers are merely hogs
and very brutal and treacherou
swine too. When skilled mechanic
=, are kept busy at large wages, an
l. ought to feel good. it is the quintes
sence of sordid treachery for them t
wait till their employers have mad
contracts and then strike, so as
wipe out every possible margin for til
- men whose brains and business tai
have secured work that supports thel
in luxury unknown to the artisans {
* other lands, and which enables thel
D. easily to accumulate comfortab
'e bank accounts.
I'll The values of real estate have
ly most parts of the city, and in a les
IN degree everywhere in the vicinit,
~ been going up fast, and but for th
uncertainty as to the attitude of tt
er various worhmen required for tt
lis complicated building operations ,
5., the present day, when a multitude {
en- what may be almost called new trad,
lg come into requisition, there would /
a a boom in building unprecendente
i'd since the labors of the Hebrews
er Egypt; but people are afraid
It. strikes, and capitalists button I
ed their pockets when they consider Il
Sc prices they may have to pay. It
t., quite possible that within mon
er hod-carriers who don't read or wri
K may get S. day, but if they get II
81 days year at that rate it will be Il
very outside. Wouldn't it be bett
II, if they worked 800 days at So da
lis The Trades Union demogogues S.
DIS not, but even a small boy in the pl
mary class can figure out that $9t
is more than $500, and there isn't
ny much time for the man who wor]
lie 800 days to get drunk and squand