Los Angeles herald., 1892-03-24
OMIEOUS PORTENTS.


lied by such widespread misery as the
present. The pail stretches over the
whole civilized world. In Russia it has
been direct visitation OF Providence.
A scourge so sweeping as that which is
now ravaging the dominions of the czar,
has not been known since the rod OF
Amrons potent son was upwaved around
the coast of Egypt, calling down pesti-
lence, death and unnumbered evils.
Times are hard in Germany, and a par
tial failure OF the rye crop in that coun-
try has supplemented the disasters aris-
ing from the lost crop OF Russia. In
England the times are specially hard,
hundreds of thousands Of people being
out on strike, and the outlook for both
operator and farmer being OF the black
est. Turn where we may-even in these
fair United States-a spirit of discomfort
is abroad. Though the short crops OF
Europe have given our farmers a season
of prosperity, they know that it is but
momentary respite, and that large har-.
vests on that continent during the cur
rent year will make their mortgages
loom up larger than ever.
In Russia the wholesale misery is con-
verting multitudes of human beings
into savage beasts. The number OF
people who are suffering the pangs OF
hunger is said to already reach fourteen
millions, and before relief can be effected
this appalling total will be swollen to
twenty millions. Whole divisions OF
the Russian army are required in Ger.
tain districts to keep the people in sub
lection. Nihilistic ideas are spreading
in every direction and the whole fabric
OF the Russian empire is liable to be
shaken to pieces. The throes OF ma
tion numbering one hundred and ten
millions OF souls afford politco-eco
nomic spectacle which has never yet
been witnessed in the world. No Won
der that We hear rumors of war and OF the
massing of enormous armies on the
Austro-German frontier by Russia,
under the circumstances. Only through
war or bloody revolution does the
Russian problem seem soluble.
In Germany the situation is grave be-
yond measure. Great misery exists
! amongst the working classes, as the
| demonstrations in Berlin, the other day,
very plainly showed, and the unwse
young emperor seems bent on intensi-
flying the discomfort. The German
people will never surrender the consti-
tuition they extorted from their sover-
eign in 1S4S, and unless the kaiser shall
realize this fact, and pursue conserva-
tive course, war to him may be the only
way out of his difficulties. Being by
nature fiery and ungovernable, the out
look for Germany is not such as to en-
courage an optimist to indulge in roseate
dreams. A cabinet crisis following
close upon the heels of the Berlin riots
is not an augury OF good.
England is an interesting theater that
will repay watching. There is a great
deal OF ebuliition there, although the
steam may not have quite reached the
explosive point. With half a million
men out of work at one time, with the
steady spread of the democratic spirit.
with the growing discomfort of the
farmers and the knowledge that nine
tenths OF the lands of England and
Scotland are in the hands OF eleven
thousand people, England is likely
field for revolution if attention cannot
be diverted by foreign war.
As to the United States, notwith-
standing an abundance which is directly
the gift OF the Almighty, things are not
very much better, or would not be were
it not for the enormous extent of terri
tory which gives a certain elas-
ITCHY to the body polite, or which,
rather, secures us a safety valve. One
does not need to be Socialist, an An
archist or even an agitator, to know that
the land is overrun with trusts, that
pampered industries are making dispro-
portionate profits, that though the man.
ufacturer has had the protection &C.
corded to him by the war tariff increased
he has nevertheless lowered the wages
OF his workmen, that the farmer has put
in five or six years working for the
mortgage, that the rich have grown
richer and the poor poorer, and that all
sense of responsibility and common hon
esty have been surrendered by the con.
trollers of many OF our railways and
other public corporations. ANY form of
honest competition by which the people
might obtain relief is forestalled by
some corrupt combination, and it is
said, thus early in the history of the
republic, that one family, the Wander
bilt, is worth three hundred millions OF
dollars, while Mr.. John ID. Rockefeller,
the president of the Standard Oil COM
pany, which has crushed out the com
petition OF the forces of nature herself,
rejoices in an income of $l8,000,000 a
year. What wonder that the farmer,
whose only occupations are the grinding
labors of the day, and nights devoted to
thinking of his mortgages, should organ
ize himself into alliances? What marvel
that the workingman, whose wages are
decreasing day by day, while the gains
of his employers are swelling even be-
yond their old standard, should grow
restive and combine in all sorts of unions