Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-06-21

are not acceptable to notions of equity.
In the East the rich have beon content
with corporate power in tho West thew
grasp at political influence, and their 90
cial immoralities prove the presence of
such men in the nations council chambers
to be sign Of our political degensracy.
Brute force or the power of wealth must
not be the dominant idea in q republic
that is to endure. Labor must be digni
fed, and the undue accumulation of
wealth checked. Rings have become the
arbiters of politics, and inequalities of
wealth minister to them and are promoted
by them. These incidents of our civiliza
tlon attract hither an immense horde of i'm
igrants, many of them restless spirits and
agitatOrs, whose heresies grow with what
they feed upon. In ten years the addition
to our population from this source has
been five and half millions, many of
them the lowest classes of the old world
citizenship. But the dangerous classes"
are not only to be found among the poor,
the ignorant and the overt criminal or
ganized wealth and corporate power,
conspiring to defraud the public, making
''corners" in stocks and the necessary
commodities Of life are to bc as much
feared.
For the relief of the producing classes
one panacea is low taxes and cheap gov
ernment. They ultimately pay all taxes
and are entitled to the largest relief from
this oppression. While officials almost
never are reduced in number their salaries
constantly increase. A check to this
tendency will make better officials. Lavish
appropriations regardlessly made by the
state to private charities are demoralizing
Tho tot oh NIL he, -,
where made absolutely necessary by the
failure of the wealthy to provide for the
| INDECENT and helpless. The private bene-
ticence of Peabody, Packer and Cooper
was lauded rs fit example sfOr the rich.
Careful observers must see great ques.
tions arising beyond the party issues OF
the day. Thorough training and classical
| culture viii better fit men for the work of
solving them. The student must bs deaf
| to the passions and clamOr of the hour.
The laws of theory must be applied to ths
stern facts that confront him. More indie
pendent thinkers and true statesmen are
| demanded to solve the great problem of
why, with our vast material progress, the
condition ef the individual worker has not
been improved. The subdivision of labor
has contracted thought and the corrective
for this is wider opportunity for mental
development, leisure, recreation, museums,
| art galleries and libraries. The advance
ment of those who constitute the bone and
sinew is the broad base upon which pros
perity and permanence arc to ba built.
The division of the population into rich
and poor classes must be avoided. Small
land holdings are one source of protection,
and the safeguard of our civilization. The
small farmer is labOrer and capitalist at
once, conserving the issue between these
classes. Arbitration aud cooperation are
remedial and protective principles, and
equality of opportunity must bs maintain
cd. Our social prosperity and political
future depend upon this and upon the
equitable division of property. How best
to preserve these is the politico- -econom mic
problem for our statesmen to solve.