St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-08-24
WHERE ARE WE?

Is the country going to the dogs?
Men of the Bishop POTTER type say it
is unless we can put check on rising
plutocracy. Men of the VANDERBILT
type say there is no hope for the coun-
try except in the subjugation of the
working classes. Hence it has become
fashionable among certain classes to
despair of the republic. But between
those two opposing forces, who see ruin
approaching from opposite directions,
stands the great body of the people,
with their steady conservatism and
their patriotic devotion to democratic
Institutions. ready and willing to solve
the problem that now confronts the ma
ton. And the people can be trusted to
perform the task.
All recognize that there are imperfec-
tions in our system of government, yet
all realize that the government is as
good as the people from which it sprung.
Its imperfections show its source, and
with the progress of the people and the
improvement of the masses the faults
will one after another disappear. The
census figures, when given out, will
show that during the last decade the
nation has pressed forward with longer
steps than the boldest prophesied ten
years ago. Surely, this is no time to
despair. but it is time to advance with
renewed hope and enthusiasm, confident
from the past that the future can pre-
sent no difficulty that the skill and the
courage of the Anglo-SaXOn race cannot
SurmOunt
Still there is dark side of the pict-
lure, and it is our duty to study it with
a view of Frightening it. The dark
side is as truthful representation of
existing facts as the bright side. 1t tells
of strikes and lock-outs, of mortgaged
homes and farms, of tOiling poor and
arrogant rich, the increase Of great
fortunes and the corruption of govern
ment. 1t presents dreary vision of
future filled with plutocratS and their
slaves.
The dark side of this picture reveals
to us the imperfections which we have
to remedy. and is i'll no sense prophetic
of coming disaster. They may be evils
that kill, yet they can be cured. The
trouble with our pessimist philosophers
Is that they Jump at conclusions before
they have looked around them. All are
agreed that we need a reconstruction Of
our industrial democracy before the
times can be put in joint, and because
the processes of evolution and recon-
struction are not visible to the naked
eye these pessimists jump at the con-
clusion that the reign of plutocracy is
being established and that the masses
are being ground down to slavery. We
admit that things are bad enough, but
they are not half as bad as they are
being represented. At least, the situa-
ton is not hopeless.
Out of all this apparent chaos new
industrial system is being evolved which
will finally assume shape somewhat on
the order of JEvoNs' aphorlsm that
combinations should be perpendicular,
not horizontal" which means a reversal
of the present tendency to combine all
capital against all labor. The new
system will preserve the feature of
combination in its most useful form and
Will eliminate its hurtful forces. There
will still be combines. but it will be a
combination of capital and labor in one
organization, and not the placing of one
against the other in battle array. When
this is done there will be no dark side to
the picture of American destiny, for all
things will have become bright and
hopeful.
How it is to be done, and when it is to
be done, are still open questions. The
processes of evolution are slow in
the social, as they are in the material
world. Still, they may be hastened by
proper and united effort. In the be-
ginning light came out of darkness, and