The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1883-05-24
SOCIAL INEQUALITY.
Two Opposing Tendencies Now Face to
Face with Each Other.
The Gravity Of the Social Problem the
Civilized World Must Soon Meet
Work and Want Against Idle
ness and Luxury

help feeling something like pity, if no
contempt, for receding generations.
Comforts, conveniences, luxuries
that little while ago wealth could no
purchase, are now matters of ordnar,
use. We travel in an hour, easily an,
comfortably, what to our fathers wa
a hard days journey; we send in min
utes messages, that. in their time
would have taken weeks. We are bet
Ter acquainted with remote countries
than they with regions little distant
we know rs common things what &
them were fast-locked secrets Of nature
our world is larger, our horizon i,
wider; in the years Of our lives we ma,
see more, do more, learn more.
Consider the diffusion of knowledge
the quickened transmission Of informa.
ton. Compare the school-books usei
by our CHILDREN with the school-book.
used by our fathers: see how cheal
printing has brought within the reacl
of the masses the very treasures of lit
eraturc; how enormously it has widcnet
the audience of the novelist, the histo
rian, the essayist and the poet; see how
superior are even the trashy novels ant
story-papers in which shop-girls de
light, to the rude ballads and last dy
ing speeches and confessions" whicl
wefe their prototypes. Look at The
daily newspapers, read even by the
poorest, and giving to them glimpses oi
the doings Of all classes Of society
news from all parts Of the world. Con
slider such a journal as this, that every
week brings to a million of lockers
its pictures of life in all phases and il
NIL countries--bird's-e views Of cities
of grand and beautiful landscapes; the
features Of noted men and women; the
sitsings Of Parliaments, and Congresses
and conventions; the splendor oi
courts and the wild life of savages; tri
umphs of art; glories of architecture
processes of industry; achievements OF
inventive skill. Such panorama MS
thus, week after week, passes before
the eyes OF common men and women,
the richest and most powerful could not
generation ago have commanded
These things and many other things
that the mention Of these will sugg, st
ore necessarily cxerting powerful in.
fiuence upon thought and feeling.
Superstitions are dying out, prejudice
are giving way, manners and customs
are becoming assimilat od, aympathies
are widening. new aspirat .ons are quick,
ening the masses.
We come into the world with minds
ready to receive any impression. To
the eyes Of infancy all is new, and one
thing is no more wonderful than anotll-
er. In whatever lies beyond common
experience, we assume the beliefs oi
those about us, and it is only the strong
est intellects that can in little laise
themselves above the accepted opinions
of their times. In community where
that opinion prevailed, the vast majority
Of US would As unhesitatingly believe
that the earth is a plain, supported by
gigantic elephant, as we now believe
it sphere circling round the sun. No
theory is too false, no fable too absurd,
no superstition too degrading for ac-
ceptance when il has become imbedded
in common belief. Men will submit
themselves to tortures and to death,
mothers will immediate their children,
at the bidding Of beliefs they thus ac-
cept. What more unnatural than po-
lygamy? Yet, see how long and how
widely polygamy has existed.
In this tendency to accept what we
find, to believe what we are told. is at
once good and evil. 1t is this which
makes social advance possible; it is this
which makes it so slow and painful.
Each generation thus obtains without
effort the hard-won knowledge be-
queathed to it: it is thus, also, enslaved
by errors and pervcrsions which it in
the slime way receives.
It is thus that tyranny is maintained
and superstition perpetuated. Polyga-
my is unnatural. Obvious facts of uni
versal experience prove this. The uni
form proportion i'll which the sexes are
brought into the world; the exclusive
ness of the feeling with which in
healthy conditions they attract each
other; the necessities imposed by the
slow growth and development of chill
dren, point to the union of one man
with one woman as the intent of nature
Yet, although it is repugnant to the
most-obvious facts and to the strongest
instincts, poIygamy seems perfectly
atural thing to those educated in Il So
ciety where it has become an accepted
institution, and it is only by long effort
and much struggling that this idea can
be eradicated. So with slavery. To
even such minds as those of Plato and
Aristotle, to own u man seemed rs nat
ural rs to own horse. Even in this
nineteenth century and in this "land of
liberty" how long has it been since
those who denied the right Of prop
erty in human flesh and blood were
denounced rs Communists, as "in-
fidels," as 'incendiaries, bent Oh up
roofing social order and destroying all
property rights. So with monarchy,
so with aristocracy, so with many other
things as unnatural that are still un-
questioningly accepted. Can anything
be more Innatural-that is to say,
more repugnant to right reason and to
the facts and laws of nature-that those
who work least should get the most of
the things that work produces? ale
that will not work, neither shall he
cd0. Inv ID HOt IiitlelS lht NOIu VI
the apostle; it is the obvious law of
nature. Yet oil over the world hard
and poor is the fare of the toiling
masses, while those who aid production
neither with hand nor head live mxu-
riously and fare sumptuously. This
We have been used to, and II has there
fore seemed to us natural, just as po-
lygamy, slavery, aristoeracy and mon
archy seem natural to those accus-
toned to them.
But mental habits which made this
state of things seem natural are break
ing up; superstitions which prevented
its being questioned are melting away.
The revelations of physical science, the
increased knowledge of other times and
other peoples, the extension of educa-
ton, emigration, travel, the changes iii
old methods everywhere going on, the
rise of the critical spirit, are do stroying
beliefs which made the masses of men
content will the position Of hewers Of
wood and drawers OF water, are soften
ing manners aud widening sympathies,