The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-02-07


hardly necessary to tender either
apology or explanation for starting
a new department in a paper that is
published for the purpose Of awaken
ing people to a knowledge of their
true condition, and directing the
earnest thought that must arise
from such a knowledge. We have so
few publications which dare to be
frank enough to tell us just how
wretched we are, and actually to
what anextent we depend upon great
capitalists for permission to exist,
that the cry is constantly for more
light, more knowledge, more educa-
ton! There is scarcely a man or
woman of the working classes Of this
country who does not feel that there
is a great injustice somewhere.
Something is wrong, and yet the
dumb, helpless craving for knowledge
is SO often stifed and labeled
wicked" that we are apt to con-
clude that if there be wrongs and in
justice in the world-at any rate they
have always existed, therefore al
ways will be. The self appointed
moulders of public opinion have fall
len into a comfortable habit of
throwing all the blame upon the
workers themselves. They alone are
idle, shiftless, ignorant and pre-
JUDGED. Their condition is better
than such deserve. If there be ground
for complaint the only remedy is
patience"
The time is ripe for different ex-
PLANTATION. The people as a whole
have, perhaps, not too much pa
thence, but they apply itin the wrong
direction. We need that virtue and
every other in the category to enable
us to unlearn the false teachings OF
years, to show us where our true
strength lies, and to make ourselves
the power that shall actually, in
stead Of apparently, govern our own
affairs. Political economists of the
past century have been so busy
justifying existing conditions and
making them seem right, that they
obscure their teachings in a mist of
unexplainable terms and arguments
so that the average mortal gave up
the study in despair.
After all there is a reason for all
things. There is a reason why our
farmers, for instance, are the hardest
working and poorest-paid class in
the country. There is reason why
the railroad corporations. real es-
atespeculators, stock gamblers and
professional politicians grow enor-
mously wealthy without doing any
work at all, except that involved in
keeping track Of their riches. There
is a reason why farmers wives are SO
often broken down and fill the in
sane asylums and hospitals. There
is reason why the sons and daugh-
tiers of farmers grow up with d dis
like of their fathers vocation, amigo
to the city in order to get their liv-
ing in some more "respectable' way.
There are simple and indisputable
reasons for all these things-so sim
pie that we wonder that we did not
intuitively recognize them. Let us
study our condition in this depart
ment, by the aid of reason and COM
mon sense. Adr 'tting the good
things of the present civilization, and
recognizing it's wrongs, we only want
to know the truth and the best way
of remedying the evils. There is no
need of complex sentences and hard
words to express the conclusions.
We need to speak plainly and act
promptly.
One error must be avoided. We
must remember that the present in
dustrial systemis one which grew out
of the system which utilized slavery
and serfdom. The people who take
advantage of the system are not
wholly to blame for the opportun-
tiles which gave them a chance to do
so. Probably the majority of us
would have done no better, had we
been in their places. Don't let us
waste any time in personal prejudice
or bitterness, but let us see to it that
the opportunity of growing wealthy
at ourexpense is denied those people.