The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-09-24

"tarif for revenue only by New York,
New Jersey and Connecticut will not pre-
vent its enactment by Democratic con-
gress at the first opportunity.
How can the poor be getting poorer and
the rich richer under protection when the
farmer gets % per cent. more for his pro-
duct and pays % per cent less for all he
buys, save labor. than he did in 1853 in
New England7 How can the poor be
getting poorer when harvest hands are on
strike in Dakota for more than $225
day?
When the Democratic '.tariff for reve-
nue." was enacted in 1885, domestic serv-
ice was well paid in the country at 81 a
week, and in the city at from $3.50 to 81.
Farm hands received $l2 q mouth, and
day laborers in the town 81 day. Today
the servant in the kitchen gets from $3.50
to IS q week, averaging not less than s..
The farm labor that brought $l2 . month
costs $26 now; with 81 and even So . day
during harvest for extra hands. The gov
eminent commissioner reports the price
OF skilled labor as commanding, for car
penters, $l4 week in New York and
$3.50 in Chicago. Bricklayers get $50
week in New York and $N in Chicago;
and SO on through eighty various kinds
Of employment.
Food and raiment do not cost either
rich or poor any more than they did
twenty-five or fifty years ago, for the blu.
reau Of statistics reports an average de-
cline of All per cent. in the sixteen arti-
cles of most common consumption in the
home since 1860, or in the past twenty.
five years. This list includes -four, pork,
beef, sugar, butter, cotton and wooden
goods and similar necessities.
Certainly the poor are not growing
poorer because wages are lower or prices
higher for food and clothing. If the rich
have been generally growing richer the
low rate Of interest paid by the government
does not show it. Money seeks the ma
tional treasury for investment. According
to Mr.. Blaine, on the first day of January,
1865, there were outstanding United States
bonds to the amount of 81. 739, 49l. 745, yield
ing to the investor an average interest Of
.0662. October 81, 1891, there were out
standing of such bonds seas, 56l, 162, pro-
ducing to the investor an average income
of .0225. The report of the comptroller of
the currency Qs9i) shows that the savings
depositors could buy out every bank and
trust company in the United States and
have enough left to well nigh extinguish
the national bonded debt.
The truth is that the thrifty, the indus
trious, the energetic, the economical, the
sober, the prudent poor not only do not
grow poorer in America, but they never
stay poor very long; while the thriftless,
the indolent, the sluggish. tho extrava-
CANT, the drunken, the improvident, If
they are born poor, are sure never to sur
mount poverty, and if they are born rich
are sure to achieve indulgence.
Dan Dougherty, the Philadelphia law.
yer and brilliant orator, who died the
other day, aged 66, began life with moth
ing but brains, ambition and industry
He was the son of an Irish immigrant. a
day laborer. and ran away from home on
his fathers second marriage. He had but
little schooling and began life for himself
as stable boy. His ambition and bright.
ness made him friends; he entered a law
office in his 18th year and at q was ad.
mitted to the bar; at 80 he was q man of
distinction.
The annals Of American life, whether
business, law or politics, are full of similar
instances OF men born to poverty who
achieve fame and honor, but unfortu.
nately for the peace of the state these Door
boys who refuse to grow poorer are vastly
outnumbered By those who are born poor
and refuse to practice those virtues that
leave poverty behind. and of course hold
the government, the laws, or '.an act of
God" responsible for their general worth.
lessness. These poor, that are, of course.
sure to grow poorer under any flag and in
any political environment, are often asso-
ciated with recruits from the class Of idle,
unthrifty, dissolute, inefficient, worthless
rich who for the lack of the economic vir.
tues that lifted their fathers out of pow.
erty. are sure to leave off just where their
fathers began their upward struggle.
Those, who are born poor and steadily
grow poorer. would be sure IL born rich
to steadily grow poor. The moral and
intellectual difference between the bow
born rich that swiftly sinks to poverty
and the boy born poor that always grows
poorer is not very great; it is lack of the
economic virtues that keeps the thriftless
poor boy poor and makes the thriftIess
rich boy revert to the poverty from which
his parents rose to wealth.
The Peoples party seem to think that
the times are out Of joint because the
world has no use for lame ducks.n
because it does not mistake them
for the geese that lay the golden
eggs. Paternalism in government
which is to be administered chiefly for the
benefit OF society's "lame ducks" is M.
likely to be substituted for government. bv
individualism, which is q government by
natural selection and survival of tha
ft;est: government which considers
chiefly the quick rather than the dead.
that while 1t may endure to be kicked bv
It's crippies is not willing TO be ruled by its
Lame ducks" or administered chiefly fnr
its lame ducks"
|
The Ballard Enterprise. rabid Demo.
cratic parer sneaks of the coiorad r,;r.