New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-12-25
Tile GIET TILT GROWS.

The glorious Gospel of Peace and Love has
not vet eliminated all strife and self-seeklng
from human society. The necessary conse-
ouence is that there are still suffering and
want ignorance, brutality and crime. Against
these the preachers and the officers Of law, the
teachers the moralists and the reformers, strug-
gle not always with encouraging success. At
times hope grows dim, and the CHASTITY spec
tacle of human suffering kindles in honest
hearts a flame OF indignation. Benevolence
bends over the manned and broken with
zeal not always wise in its remedies. The
spirit of reform sometimes grows passionate IN
the presence of obstacles which seem lmpreg-
nable and eternal. And yet does the world
MAKE no progress from one Christmas Day to
another? is there not, in spite of all, sure
and steady gain for all that is best and highest
in human endeavorP
The wear does not always include both seed
time and harvest in moral and social helds,
and the worrhiest achievements of 1888 may
not be realized until eyes now bright with
youth and purpose shall be dimmed with age
But looking back little distance along the
pathway trodden by any nation, can we not
comprehend that the change for the better has
been far beyond the widest hopes of the most
sanguine? Not many generations have passed
since the English laborer was in all essentials
slave, and the victim of expressions which
would now appear intolerable. France knew
only a people mad with suffering, and aristo-
Gratis mad with terror. Russia had sefdom,
Brazil slavery, within the lifetime Of men not
yet old, and even this free Republic sent back
fugitive slaves At what other period in the
worlds history has labor been so well reward
ed or so comfortable in condition and clrcum-
stances as it is now? Always, as now, the
workers have been the great majority, and
their condition has determined the condition
of the people as a whole. 1t is not necessary
to dig down, with Professor Thorold Rogers
into long buried records of early English life |;
at his best and highest, the worker OF that day
| lived in his serfdom life which no laborer OF
to-day however needy, would consent to live.
The centuries have brought great changes, and
the movement has not been always in one dl-
rection, but the great and lasting changes have
all been for the uplifting, the freedom and the
happiness Of mankind. Even in this land
where patriotic ancestors planted religious ana
civil freedom with the rareS. opportunities, each
half century has brought new world ana new
life. During the recent campaign millions
learned from public discussion something OF
the changes wrought since 1860. One party
holds that those wonderful and beneficent
changes have largely resulted from its policy
the other, that they have come in spite of that
policy but no party disputes that they have
! in effect created a new and happier world for
American workers. Better houses better
food. more suitable and abundant clothing,
education inaccessible and comforts never mag
ined thirty years ago are now within the reach
of every honest worker, through better re-
turns for less eXhauSting toll.
If there is much to be accomplished, all past
experience gives ground for hope. The better
and brighter age advances in which the
brotherhood of mankind shall be everywhere
recognized, not only in word but in deed, not
only at voting-places but in workshops and in
all relations of life. 1t advances in spite OF all
hindrances, conQuering crime subdung pas
sion. making education and uplifting for all
necessary to the interest Of each, and compel
ling even human selfShness to labor for its
/ fastening.