The intelligencer. [volume] (Lexington, Mo.) 1887-1891, 1888-10-06
THEN AND NOW.

Let us put it this way for a change.
A Rip Van WinkIe of the present gen
Grafton mounted his house-iop in 1850,
and looked over the country. He saw
q prosperous, conteDted people. He
counted the rich men from Maine to
Florida, and from the Atlantic TO the
Pacific, and found less than a Thousand
millionaires. He put on his glasses
and could not see a tramp. He looked
over his newspapers and failed 20 see
an account of a labor strike. In TACT.
after jogging his memory, he did not
remember of hearing of one.
Factories and mills were running
upon every hand. The men who own
ed them we're not very rich and the
men and woman who worked them
were not very poor. There were no
contentious among them about the
price Of days work. That matter
was settled, and all parties were salts =,
fed. He looked longer and farther,
but could not discover single organi-
zation- no knights of Labor, no labor
unions, no men meeting in secret to
devise ways and means by which to get,
few cents more on day for their
work. There seemed to be perfect
agreement or understanding betweer
employer and empIove. No friction, no
lock outs, no threats, 10 dynamite, DO
Haymarket tragedies, no mobs, no vio-
leDce, no calling out of the military to
suppress violence, no hanging of
anarchists and no dissension and brois
among the masses.
He took another and last look. He
saw the oceans covered with ships,
hnarin0 Qlnft tho AnaripaTl Han
freighted with American productions
loaded with products of India and
with the wealth of the looms of France
and Germany. He saw a nominal
tariff and country virtually out OF
debt, prosperous and happy, and he
falls asleep.
He slept longer than did the Rip Van
Wrinkle of old, and has. just awakened
with the dust of eight and twenty
years upon his garments. He. rubs his
eyes and looks about him. He ha,dly
knows the country. All the old famii-
lar landmarks are obilterated. The un-
pretentious homes of the employers of
men have given place to palatial resi-
dences; the comfortable cottages of the
wage workers have disappeared, ana
in their stead are long rows of crowd
ed tenant houses and dilapidated huts.
Great mills and factories are running
here and there, and large crowds of
idle men are looking on; some scowl
and mutter imprecations between their
clenched teeth, while others wear an
anxious, hungry look. Discomfort is
seen upon every hand.
He looks again and counts Three
hundred thousand millionaires are
seen, and two million traups are beg
ging from door to door. Glass distinc-
tions are sharply drawn. The very
rich and the very poor are arraying
lagainst each other. A teverish excite
mcnt pervades all classes. Lodge
meetings are nightly held by labor
organizations and hurried gatherings OF
bank and corporation directors are
seen in the richly furnished parlors of
their immense buildings. The peace
and contentment he saw among the
people twenty seven years. ago. arc
gone. There are jcslously, envy, Bit
terness anu STRIFE where once Ieigned
harmony and happiness. American
lships are swept from the seas and
foreign built vessels are carrying the
commerce of the world. There is
sometbing wrong in all he sees. He
looks farther to find the cause, and
sees sixty million people slsvishly
laboring to swell the list of mi lionaires
to halt a million. And then the sealed
book is opened to him, and upon the
pages, written in living, burning let
ters, are the words, "high protective
tarif'-tariff upon everything the
laboring man eats, drinks and wears;
a tariff upon everything his wife and
children use; tariff upon every i'm
plement he employs on his farm or IN
bis shop. Everything he sees upon
the right and left is taxed--and the
money! A word tells it all. Led by
millionaires and followed by paupers,
it is slowly butnsurely finding its way
into the already overlooking vaults of
the national treasury creating monu-
ment to the folly of the government
and catacomb for the hopes of the
people.