The Iowa plain dealer. [volume] (New Oregon, Howard County, Iowa) 1867-1895, 1884-06-12
Shall II BE Done or Not !!

Jbhn S,Cinton's PAPER says most truly
that "to turn this young, free, heroic,
fruitful, blooming country of ours into
an imitation of those European coun-
tries that feek With the debauchery of
ages, Is poor piece of business.
tt is worse than poor piece Of busi-
ness; 1t is crlno against human ma
ture; it is a crime against common
sense!
For what made this young country
free, heroic, fruitful, blooming, other
than the fact that it was country
where man was considered more than
property, and life Of more value than
money; or, in other words, that the
early successes of this country, with all
the disabilities it inherited from tho
old world, were socialistlc, were de-
signed to enlarge and increase the
scope Of the general life, not to grant
privileges to the few.
In 1867 "The Farmers Letters" first
appeared in the Philadelphia newspa.
pers Of the time, and were largely re-
printed in England and In the other
colonies. They were written by John
Dickinson, of Pennsylvania, and by
them his reputation became SO great
that he was considered one of the lead
ers in the first Congress. An extract
from these letters will he MS timely to-
day rs they were when they first APP
peared.
He calls the colonies
"A great American asylum. In 1t the
poor from tho various nations of Eu-
rope by some means met together. To
what purpose should they ask one an-
other what countrymen they were?
Alas, two-thirds of them had had no
country! They had been numbered in
no civil list but that of the poor. They
had not owned single foot Of land.
They had no harvests from the fields
they had titled. Their lives hal been
scenes of sore affection or of pinching
perjury. They had been assailed by
hunger, want, and war, and they were
only as so many useless plants, want
ing the vegetable mold and the refresh
ink showers But in this asylum they
| rank rs citizens. They are stamped by
the law with the symbol Of adoption.
" He is an American. who leay-
| ing behind him all his ancient preju-
| dices and manners, receives new ones,
braced, the new Government he obeys,
and the new rank he holds. He be-
| comes an American by being received
in the broad lap of our good Alma
Mater"
We have half-educated set of rich
men who feel that the something wanting
in the social organization of the coun-
try is system of aristocracy, the
privileges and the pelf of which they
feel themselves perfectly competent
to fill.
We have set of State and national
Legislators who are prompt and eager
to aid and promote all schemes for
robbing the nation of its territory, of
its circulation and its common wealth
for the benefit of individual spectators,
but sheer and mock at every suggested
aid to labor or any proposition for the
benefit Of the people.
We have set of editors, lawyers,
parsons, college professors and other
teachers of all kinds who believe and
constantly inculcate the doctrines
/ which have created and now sustain
and strengthen the various aristocracies
of Europe.
Against this prodigious force work
ing ceaselessly to undermine and over
throw the socialist principles upon
which this Government was based, we
have only the Greenback Labor Party,
the organized labor of the country, in
its trade unions, and the large scatter
ed force who are afraid or ashamed to
identify themselves with these.
It looks like a hopeless ease, but so
it has always looked to the weakened
and the ignorant, in this fight which
has come down to us from the origin of
history, and the successes which have
brought up the whole race from the
condition of naked savages, fighting
with the animals for the shelter oil
their caves, to what We are to-day; and
it can not fail before the workers take
possession of this world and see to il
that it is fitted and prepared for the
life of honest, free, and independent
mcn.-Chicdgo Sentinel.