The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1890-05-16

70 Coming Age sends out the
N ow1ng address. Mark 8 copy and
- Il to your Congressman:
B 10 the Honorable Senate and
HounN OF Representatives, Of the
|United States in Congress assembled.
Your petitioners, Citizens OF the
United States and residents of
the State of.
respectfully represent that they have
read, with great interest, reports of
III proposed increase in the salaries of
yariOns persons occupying official
positions in our national govern
Inent.
AZ these officials are servants of the
people, and as the servant should
not be above his master, we respect
fully request our senator's and in
strmtl our representatives to enquire,
at the same time, what adequate
and proper steps may be taken to
rise the pay of farmers, mechanics
and working men to the same level.
And'in for the following reasons:
/. OF all the great truths lying at
the foundation of our government
these are chief, to-wit: That all men
are created equal; that life, liberty
and pursuit of happiness are among
the fnAlienable rights with which all
men are endowed; that to secure
these rights governments are insti-
tuted among men deriving their just
powers from the consent of the gov
rned.
2. Some of our honorable repre-
entatives appear not to have remem-
bered these truths They have, we
fear. been. SO engrossed in the pursuit
Of their own happiness, as to have
forgotten that of the people. To
prove this let facts be submitted.
Our honorable representatives. and
principal government officials at
Washington and elsewhere, receive
from fifteen to one hundred and fifty
dollars per day for their dutiful ser
vice; in private life most people re-
eeive from to five dollars a dayfor
their labor, while many willing men
women all over this blessed country
and are hungering and suffering for
want OF work at even a dollar day.
Many of these, our servants, live in
mansions worth ten thousand to one
hundred thousand dollars-built, fur
nished and adorned in the most ex-
quisite style of art; the homes OF the
people cost less than a tenth of these
sums, and even to such homes. a
mortage is one of the most common,
most enduring, attachments
These, our servants, we are also in
formed, often give public receptions
at which are served many courses OF
rich food and costly viands, five or
six kinds Of wine or other exhilerat-
ing drinks included! The people, at
Ntheir receptions, rarely afford more
than the simpler varieties of food,
and their commonest wine is cider
or Adams ale
At the official receptions the news
papers boast that our servants
their wives and daug hters-are clad
in the most costly raiment of silk and
satins bedecked with diamonds and
precious stones; the people at home
| who by their labor create all this
wealth, wear only the plainest cloth
ing, and apparently need not the
foreign aid OF ornament, at all. Yet
their plain clothing is taxed by the
enactments OF our representatives
nearly double the duty which they
impose upon the silks and diamonds
OF their own use.
Our servants ride in grand CARR
ages, Or on passes for which the peo-
plepay while the farmers only carriage
is too often lumber wagon.in which
he hauls his wood or grain to market.
Our honorable legislators impose
a tax OF Is cents per ton upon coal,
for want of which many cultivators
of the soil burn their corn for fuel!
These hOnored servants of the peo-
pie sell their services for fifteen to
twenty dollars a day while many OF
our farmers sell the dozen bushels OF
corn or oats they earn in the same
time for as many cents a bushel "a
price which gives no income above
cost to the seller.
Some widows OF recent senators
and generals are voted $4,000 pen
sions by your honorable body, while
widows of private soldiers who died
tor their country on the field OF bat
tie, receive annual pensions OF less
than 5000.
Other would-be-servants move
! L I