Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1890-10-31
SINGLE TAX DEPARTMENT.
THE GROWING Discomfort.
A Craze for Wealth ON the Ono Hand
Grinding Poverty ON the Other.

| a Craze for Wealth the Ono Hand
Grinding Poverty ON the Other.
1t was the great Edmund Burke who
wrote so learnedly when giving his
Thoughts on the Present Discontonts. "
and many before and since have noticed
a restlessness among the people. AT
present the discontinued can be found
in all countries. American soldiers have
| been so discontinued that Congress and
leading army officers have cudgeled
| their brains to find some way by which
the number of desertions can be lessen
ed. In England the famous and favor
lite of her majesty's troops have been
sent to India for insubordination And
emute has recently been reported in
Halifax, and the troops in Dublin are
upon the verge of open revolt. Among
the civilian class this discomfort is also
manifest, and is seeking satisfaction in
various ways. In Russia the dissatisfac-
| ton OF the common people has found
vent in an insane attack upon the Jews,
which has resulted in second, and this
time an involuntary, exodus, where no
Red Sea is called upon to open a pas
sage way. The laboring classes in Eng
land are dissatisfied and thousands of
them meet at intervals in Trafalgar
square, and with more or less feeling
discuss the situation. Farmers in this
country are dissatisfied and are seeking
| in various ways to secure relief, while
| the laboring men were never more rest
| less and uneasy.
Philosophers and economists have
been endeavoring to account for this in
vain. The world is wealthier and the
rate of wages higher than ever before.
Mechanics and their families live better
| and dress better than did lords and mobiles
few hundred years ago, and as far as
the comforts and Injuries Of life are
| concerned, the man in comfortable cir
| cumstances enjoys more of them than
did kings of old. Present discontents,
therefore, do not arise from the condi-
| ton of the people, but rather from an
increase of intelligence and a spread of
democratic ideas which demand more
and more every year. What would have
satisfied nobleman in the past will not
satisfy a day laborer now. Men being
born free and equal can not submit
quietly to any system of government or
conditions of life that breeds and fosters
disparities afterward. While one cit-
zen must live in garnet and feed on
crusts, he can not believe that his neigh
Dor who spends 500, 900 on q stable, has
not been partially dealt with to the dis
advantage Of the poor.
However much we may yearn for that
millennium dreamed of by theorists, seen
in visions by philanthropists and pictur-
cd by the artists of the Bellamy school,
there is but little encouragement to
hope that change is to be enjoyed. in
the near future that will bring about
contentment and entire quiet. 1t is con-
trary to mans nature. The more intel
ligence is diffused the more dissatisfac-
ton will exist because mans desires
outstrip his ability to crafty them.
This unrest is the cause of mans ad-
vancement. Were we all satisfied, i'm
provement could not come. At present
the world, collectively and individually,
is engrossed in the task of accommodating
wealth. Not very high pursuit, it
may be observed, because the acquisition
of wealth is merely an animal instinct
which, fired by ambition, has been in
tensiiied into craze. 1t is we'll to obey
the biblical injunction, and provide for
ones household, but the spectacle of
sensible people making life burden to
themselves in the race for wealth that
they can not possibly use is ridiculous.
The dedication of the dollar, the un-
equal distribution of wealth and an IRA
tional view of life may be said to cause
discomfort at present Until people can
look upon the world through different
glasses, or until ambition finds new
parallax, little change can be expect
ed People should learn to enjoy the
possession of what they have, and spend
less time in an insatiate yearning for
what they have not if happiness is de-
sired. tits quite as necessary and as
much duty to provide ones household
with sound bodies, healthy and I'M
warped minds and correct ideas as it is
to furnish lands and estates. The Ori-
entail maiden who makes display of her
burdensome estate of rings, coins and
other trinkets by wearing them around
her neck, we esteem vulgar and foolish.
Yet she is inspired by the same motive
That impels n man to load himself down
with strife and misery in the gathering
and display of a wealth which is worth
less to him because he can never use it,
and which finds its root in the purely
animal desire for the preservation of
life, or, as it is called the law of self
defense Tariffs may be raised or low
cred, the earth may give forth tenfold
increase and people will be better off,
but not less discontinued, until insane
ambition passes its perihelion and re-
edes into space, leaving virtue, purity
md unselfishness the objects of pursuit.
The diffusion of intelligence is hasten
ing the good day.