Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1886-02-26
The Vail Of Poverty.

The Vail Of Poverty.
The Tacoma Ledger, lately, in q
well-considered article OIL the riots
in London, at Bradford, Pennsyl-
vania, and at Seattle, all occurring
on the same day-the ill-fated Sth
Of February-thus proceeds to con-
slider the causes which has led to
these eruptions:
Does any one imagine that tho
causes which led to these ominous
disturbances in widely separated
quarters of the globe were merely
local? ? That the coincidence of the
events mentioned were accidental?
That with the restoration of quiet at
Seattle, Bradford ard London, the
social world. society in the broadcast
meaning of the term, will continue
to jog along in tho old ruts? If
there are those who lay such flat
terlng JUNCTION to their souls, they
should be aroused and made to
understand that there is a deep-seat-
ed cause, operating throughout civil
lied society the world over, to which
may be traced these widely separated
social eruptions. This cause, what
ever it is, cannot be removed by
stationing few policemen here and
few soldiers there. When the
body is afflicted with numerous ul-
cerated sores, cure cannot be effect
ed by the application of a healing
salve to the spots where the disease
manifests itself. The surface may
be healed over, but the Gagged poison
will break out again with greater viru-
lence In other parts of the body
where it meets with less resistance.
If real cure is to be effected, the
cause of the various local symptoms
must be discovered and removed.
And so with the disease which
afliicts society, its cause must be
discovered and removed if we are to
witness cessation of the distur-
Dances which have been occurring
with constantly Increasing frequency
for the last few years. Instead of
shouting ourselves hoarse in denun-
citation of the outrages committed
during the course of these social
eruptions, it should be the study of
every friend of his race to discover
the real cause Of the deeply seated
social disease which produces the
outward manifestations, so univer-
sally deplored and denounced, of in
herent unsoundness.
There must be some monstrous
evil at the foundation of our social
and political structure to render it
as weak and topping as it is. This
evil, to produce such direful results
as the wholesale slaughter and star
vation of men, women and children,
must be something SO glaring and
out of keeping with properly Or
dered social system as to ronder it
discoverable. What is it?
The characters of the morbid
symptom displayed wherever mod
ern civilizations has had time TO de-
velop its tendencies is such as to
demonstrate with unerring certainty
that poverty is the source of most of
the degradation. wretchedness and
crime prevalent in every wealthy,
highly civilized county. Not that
it is the poverty stricken only wko
commit crimes, but aDject poverty
implies also great wealth, and both
tuo poSCIty otllChcH ubtt Iuc uuuuiy
rich are exposed TO irresistible temp
tations to commit crimes. The great
evil, therefore, which underlies our
entire social structure, rendering it
weak and dangerous to abide in, is
the unjust and inequitable distribu-
ton of the products of labor where
by thousands live from hand to
mouth in filthy, diseased and crime
epgendering novels, while the lucky
few waste the substance of the land
in vain display and luxurious living.
To devise methods for effecting a
more just distribution of the pro-
ducts of labor without removing any
proper incentive to sobriety and in
dustry; to so modify our system that
every person shall obtain the pro-
ducts of his own labor or its equiva.
lent; is the problem which it is