New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-11-25
THANKSGIVING

THANKSGIVING,
Each revolving year brings with 1t to this
happy people especial cause for than kfulness.
Peculiarly blessed in natural resources and
opportunities; peculiarly blessed in the institu-
tiOns which lift human life in this country to a
higher plane and open larger opportunities for
noble manhood and womanhood; blessed also
in immunity from the Red Spectre which is
present at every feast in many other lands, and
threatens all Europe at this time with destruct-
i've war-a curse to all but especially curse to
the tolers and the taxpayers. the poor and the
helpless-ths country has reason for thankful
ness also because it is now able to share some
part of its Astounding blessings with kindred
across the sea- and to reflect that reviving
prosperity here has at last helped to produce a
real though slow Improvement in the industries
and the trade Of other lands.
1t has been year of general health. A year
ago pestilence threatened; tho disease which
has ragged through Italy, Spain and part of
France, il was feared, would extend its ravages
another season across the ocean. 1t is not easy
to determine how much we owe to the medical
discovery which has certainly in some measure
checked the spread of the pestilence in the
regions where it threatened to become most
destructive. But the onward march of the
disease appears to have been arrested, even in
Europe, and it has not crossed the ocean bring
ing sorrow to American homes. A year ago
there was great anxiety also regarding the
future of the trades and industries upon which
the material prosperity of this people mainly
depends. The cloud of apprehension has
been lifted. General Improvement has come,
10 oh by al If in
dustry. The harvests of the year have been
good. Low prices have given to consumers
part of the benefit of bountiful yield, and the
great industries have recovered activity in a
surprising measure. In most of them, the
years production will prove larger than that of
any previous year in our history. The extern
sion of manufacturing and mining industries in
Southern States has been marked feature of
this recovery and it gives reason for especial
thankfulness, not only because that section can
share more fully in the material prosperity
which the North begins to enjoy again. but be-
cause, sharing in the fruits of a wise and
patriotic policy Of government, the South
begins to break away from bondage to ancient
errors.
Great dangers which threatened business n
year ago have been avoided. Attempted dis
turbance of the tariff was defeated in Congress,
and afterward ut the polls. The completeness
of the defeat gives reason to hope that the
attempt cannot be so renewed this winter as to
cause serious alarm or injury. 1t was feared
q year asa that depreciation of the currency
to the silver standard might bring disaster to
all industry But this danger, if not wholly
escaped, has been at least deferred by wise
measures of administration, aud by the re-
new al of foreign confidence in American in
vestments. Early in the year, the relations
between labor and capital were greatly dis
turbed There followed outbreaks of anarchy,
bloody and terrible, which seemed to threaten
the stability of society in our crowded cities.
But it soon appeared that free institutions
were both strong and wise enough to cope with
the evil that the differences between employers
and employed had no real connection with the
violent lawlessness of strsngers who had not
learned what freedom means, and that the
ballot gives to labor an opportunity of redress
ing all real grievances, by methods Infinitely
better and surer than those over which the
Anarchists and Socialists of other lands are
brooding
There is a deeper cause for thankfulness.
W thin the past year remarkable progress
has been made in awakening public opinion
regarding grave evils which need correction,
especially in the condition and treatment of
the working people. The letters of Mrs. Camp
bell which have been published in THE TRIB-
UNE, for example, have begun to fix the atten-
ton of Christian men aud women upon the
crimes perpetrated by human greed every day
In orr own cities and towns-crimes in which
those have sOmo part who think only of cheap
ness and never of justice when making their
purchases. In this and other directions. there
is distinct progress toward q better state of
public sentiment. There is less of the charity
which insults and degrades and more of the
larger and truly Christian charity which begins
with Justice, and which strives to upift and
emancipate. 1t is not the least of our bless
jngs that the eyes of the people are open to old
evils which must be remedied if civilization
based on Freedom is to endure. But among
the choicest blessings OF the land, for which
we have every cause to be thankful, is still the
civil and religious liberty which the people
enjoy through which they have power TO fol-
low enlightened thought by effective action.
and to cure the diseases of which advancing
Christianity makes them conscious.
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