West Virginia Democrat. [volume] (Charles Town, W. Va.) 1885-1890, 1888-09-21
SENSIBLE.
Extracts nom "worker." in N f.1ilnes.
We all know that this is q great


We all know that this is q great
country. It has vast extent Of
land net yet wholly occupied, much
of which is very fertile and very lit
tie of which has had its strength ex-
hausted by long cultivation. We
have great variety of climate adap-
ted to all manner of natural product.
ions. We have forests Of timber and
quarries of stone and mineral depos-
its OF great richness and variety. We
have u vast coast line with innumer-
able good harbors and great sys-
TEN of lakes and rivers, affording
means of communication. and we
have built up net work of railroads
containing nearly half the railroad
mileage of the world. With this
great continent, this variety Of nat
ural resources and advantages,
which have been used for compar-
atively short time, our population
amounts on the average to only
about % persons to the square mile
even in the region east of the Mis-
sissippi River. while for the whole
country, not counting Alaska, it is
considerably less than 20 persons.
England is an old country and has
about 400 persons to the square
mile, while for the whole United
Kingdom the number in 1871 was
265. Belgium has over AGO persons
to the square mile. Germany and
Italy over 200, and Austria nearly
as many, while certain separate
States, like Saxony, for instance,
have over 400.
Besides we have free Govern
ment and institutions and social
conditions that were intended to
give an equal chance to all. We do
not have to support a great mon
archical and aristocratic system,
which costs much and produces
nothing, and which restricts the act
ion and opportunities of the people
by hard social and political condi-
tions. Every man has the prospect
of rising and bettering his condition
by industry and energy. We do not
have to pay for great armies and ar
maments, which take hundreds OF
thousands of men from productive
employments and make them costly
consumers, and which absorb large
amount from the production of la
Dor. Our people as whole are
supposed to be more intelligent and
better educated than those OF other
countries, and this, with the fact
that they have better chances and
greater incentives to effort, makes
them more skillful, Industrious and
energetic than ether people. At least
that is what we claim as one of The
results OF our free institutions, and
it certainly ought to be so.
Now with this great country, with
its vast natural resources and adj
yantages, its institutions, and its
active and intelligent people, the la
Dor of each man surely ought to pro
duce more and be worth more, and
he ought to get more for it, than is
possible in old and more crowded
countries, with repressive conditions
and traditions. Do not these cir.
cumstances afford reason enough
why this country should be prosper
Gus, why it should build up its in.
dustries rapidly, why wealth should
accumulate and men not decay, why
labor should be well paid and com
Portable |? When we think of it, il
seems as though our people, espec-
tally those who do the work which
is the source of all production OF
wealth, ought to be better off than
they are. There ought not to be so
many cases of poverty and distress
so many strikes and lockouts and
labor troubles, which, by the way,
arc almost always in the protected
industries. Is it not quite possible
that this system OF taxation, which
stimulates here and represses there,
which draws from the mass of the
people and bestows upon special in
terests, really interteres with pros
perity, making it less general and
widely distributed than it would
otherwise he May it not put toe
much of that national wealth which
seems SO great in the statistics into
the hands of a few men, and leave
too little of it tn the people at large,
and especially to those who do the
actual hard work of producing the