Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1891-04-23
HORACE GREELEY.
BY MERLIEDA sIsINS.


It cannot but strengthen and arouse
the hopes and energies of all who are
enlisted in this great contest to uplift
the hands of the oppressed, to read
the seemingly inspired words of the
great author, editor and philantho.
pist and commoner-Horace Greeley.
While great battle of his life was
waged against chattle slavery, yet,
were he living to-day, he could use
no stronger language against wage.
slavery than the sentiments he uttered
over fifty years ago. The problems
which. he says, necessarily cry out for
solution, and can never be stifed, but
will become ever more vehement I'M
til they are solved are these:
why should those by whose toll
all comforts and Injuries are produc.
ed or made available, enjoy so scanty
share Of them? Why should q
man able and eager to work ever
stand idle for want of employment in
a world where so much needed work
impatiently awaits the doing. Why
should man be required to surren.
der something of his independence in
accepting the employ ment which will
enable him to cara, by honest effort,
the bread for his family !? Why should
the man who faithfully labors for
another and receives therefor less
than the product of his labor be eur.
rently held TO be the obliged party,
rather than he who buys the work
and makes a CORD bargain of it? In
short, why should speculation and
scheming ride so jsuntily in their
carriages, splashing honest work as it
trudges humbly and YEARLY on foot"
Again he announces the eternal
fact that
"Thst so long as life is a battle in
which men fight not for, but against
each other, the victors must necessa.
rily be few and ever fewer, the VIC
Tins numberless and ever more help
less"
Such words must have been written
with pen dipped in the living fire
of eternal truth. Dwelling upon the
fact that the majority of men are
poor and uninstructed, he endeavors
to show how the condition of the
masses can be alleviated by legisla.
tion, as follows:
The State should ordain, and the
law should fundamental, that no man
may own more than q certain, very
limited extent of land that the State
should fix a definition to the phrase,
"a day work ;" that the State should
see to it that no child grows up in ig.
norance; that the State is bound to
prevent the selling of alcoholic bev-
erages.
These great principles were euunci.
ated from his prophetic mind before
an acre Of land had been granted to
railroad corporations. Had they been
needed, the 100000. 900 acres that
have been disposed of would have
been kept for free homes for the
homeless; the great struggle for short
er hours of labor would have been
prevented the thousands of children
that are now being. and have been
for years, dwarfed upon the tread.
wheels of our factories would have
been in school preparing for useful
and exemplary lives. That our pris.
ons, insane asylums and poor houses
would have been robbed of their mum.
berless victims and the millions that
are squandered for drink would have
been expended in procuring the COM
forts of life. He refers to another
crying evil the subserviency of the
clergy to the rich, as follow:
"He may speak ever so fuently and
feelingly against sin in the abstract.
for that cannot give offence to the
most fastidiously sensitive incumbent
of the richly furnished hundred dol.
lar pews. But will he dare to rebuke
openly, fearlessly, specially the darl.
ing and decorous vices of his most
opulent and liberal parishioner-to
say to the honored dispenser of liquid
poison, "your trade is murder and
your wealth perdition I" To him who
who amasses wealth BY stinting hon.