Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-03-18
WASHINGTON LETTER.
Poverty In Rags and Dives in Fine Lin
en- and official Purple.
The Lords OF Mills and Mines and the
Royal Republican Empire.

Special Correspondence OF the Gazette
Washington, March l4.-Nobody
need be alarmed and and nobody Is
alarmed because Mr.. Morrison propos-
es a horizontal reduction oftarff rates.
No tariff reform bill can pass the sem
ate, and none over the presidents veto.
Every Eastern mill-owner knows this,
and yet, to alarm the country, mill
and mineowners punish their
employees and make the Morrison
bill preteXt for the reduction of
wages or for lessening the hours of la
Dor. III tariff rates be advanced there
is no corresponding advance in wages;
ana since there is no tariff on import.
ed labor, it happens that If laborers de-
mand share OF sums legislated out Of
the purses of honest toll and into those
OF "lilies of the valley that toll not,
neither do they spin" these mill-own-
ers import pauper labor by the ton.
Labor is never protected" and only
capital. Capital iiourishes and labor
starses. The few are arrayed in pur-
pie and fine linen; the many in rags,
yet Republican orators and wspa-
pers do pirate Justify about the ''splen-
did prosperity Of the country" The
country" means the rich. The poor,
when battles were fought, were "the
country" now the rich of armies are
peusioned nobility; the poor, unless
wounded, do starve, and manned sons
of poverty are awarded miserable pit
tances. The splendors of Arthur's inn
perinl court, the pensioned nobility
the tariff and shoddy produced aristoc-
racy, unjust distinctions between men
who bore muskets and dug bitches
and those bedecked with brass and
feathers, Arthur's gorgeous festivals,
gilded coaches and lace-bediZened
coachmen of the great place
holders, persistent class-legisla
ton and steady usurpation
of unauthorized powers by congress,
all show that this great republic, like
its historical predecessors, lapses
steadily into Imperialism. The tariff
system supplies the government-main-
tanned nobility, the retired pension
list, the blue-blooded aristocracy. and
one hundred thousand officers OF high
and low degree, graded system of
swellheadism.
If the masses of the people could see
and measure the dangers and forces of
these progressive calamities, robbing
them of their liberties as surely as of
their money, the approaching political
contest would be a revolution instead
of an election.
THE IMPERIAL FEAST.
Each of tifty-four plates with con-
current stomachs at Arthur's last royal
feast, cost $50. The average congress
man comes to Washington as one of
the common people, but soon under
goes thorough transformation, His
sympathies are directed by his associa-
tons. He Is poor, and is taught the
advantages and power incident to
riches. Money sways the scepter of
empires. Society is delectable, and only |
accessible to votaries of Plutus. The |
convictions of most men are shaped |
rather through their stomachs or peck |
cts than their heads and con-
sciences. A bottle of wine con-
tains more logic than the |
choicest specimen of forensic elo-
luence ever uncorked. Therefore the
delicious splendors of Arthur's enter
.ainments. They are Webster's and
Clay's orations distilled and glittering
IN the celestial glory of soft electric
lights, and each fifty dollars invested
IN the courtly presidents plates lifts
some innocent congressman uncon.
sciously out of the sphere of his birth
ana beyond the reach of his people.
me subtle poison elevates as well as
cNhllarntes, and lie who imbibes this
VINE lmblbes poison. 1t steals through
ms nerves aud into his brain. and
lVerturns at last his theories of repub-
lean government. He is no longer
)ne OF the masses. He is rich and loo
states for the rich. Mere
hVeslltuie with Office becomes
patent otnobility, and thenceforth
MS utlemnces of fidelity to American
in government are emp
lest words OF vulgar demagogism.
PROCLAMATION OF THE EMPIRE.
But Holman and many like him re-
nam, Ike Morrison, true representa- ,
ives OF the masses of the people. Bnt
flolmans are few, and this Is no longer
Le peoples government Every
'eclee OF courts and act OF congress eX- /
,ahdmg the purview of federal power.
= only an assertion that the people are {
Incapable OF self-government, and that
hey are only fit to be robbed by tariffs |
ma banks and corporations, and that !
ney deserve to be stripped of local and (
lersohal freedom, One watching the 4
tead y progress of Republicanisni to. \
wards imperialism in the capital must v
iiecessarily anticipate, at an early dav /
ne open proclamation of the final ~, \
of the empire on the ruins !
II the republic. The fact we have, the
'roclaihallon is only withheld. Its &
'rohulgatlon will be purely formal n