The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1892-07-23
TIMELY TOPICS



On the first page OF one of the dali
ly papers last week were flaming col
umns on the Homestead trouble, fol-
lowed by an account of the Couer
d'Alene miners war. and that by
the announcement that has ceased
from its frequency to be startling,
that "a bloody race war is threaten
ed'' in some portion of the South.
The last resolved itself into a ne
gro mob surrounding Jail, which it
was feared woald not disperse IN
til the sheriff summoned force of
men to compel it to do so.
But in the other two was involved
the great question between capital
and labor, that grows with each con
fiict between them, and seems to
arouse all the stubbornness and Bit
terness and brutality in human ma
ture. If one stops to think, he can
scarcely understand how we have ar
rived at the present stage of affairs.
1t passes comprehension how two ell
ements, SO entirely necessary to each
others existence should be arrayed
against each other in bitter warfare.
Although their interests would seem
to be common, we have labor
saying to capital you shall do thus
and so, and you shall not do other
wise than / permit" and capital re-
turning answer, "You must submit
to ray dictation, or | win take the
bread from your children's mouths"
Oh, there is much to be said on eth.
err side. Unquestionably the work
ingman has rights. Equally unques-
tionable are the rights of his en-
ployers. Capital must learn that it
employs human beings and not beasts
of burden, but it is not advancing
toward the realization of it when its
property is wrested from it's hands,
its guards murdered, or cars of dy-
Mantle are exploded among the non
union workers in its mines.
If only the men on both sides were
great enough, brave enough, and had
enough humanity to meet in friendly
consultation, in which each would
recognize the rights of the other, and
lay aside the selfishness which look
ed at one side only, the outlook
might be hopeful.
One can not wonder that there are
brilliant men among us who earn for
themselves the name Of fanatics, be-
cause they expend their energies in
developing theories aud evolving
idealic social systems. The strikes,
in which labor never wins lasting
victory, but always comes forward
with increasing strength and more
nearly perfected organization, the in
justice that is melted ont to many
wage-earners, and the brutality of
the mobs which too often lead the
strikes, all indicate social system
in which there is room for improve
ment.
1t is not strange that men who
think, who are patriots, and who love
their fellow men as brothers, should
cast about them for remedies for the
existing evils. The schemes may
seem far fetched, their knowledge of
human nature may seem to us to fall
short, but nevertheless an influence
goes out from them that permeates
society, that arouses in us a sense of
the injustices about us, and a desire
to do all in our power to help toward
better things.
~
Perhaps not many have yet read
Caesars Column" by Ignatius Don
nelly, the Peoples Party leader, and
usually considered as erratic as he
is brilliant He goes forward cen
tury or so, and works out what he
regards as the legitimate result of
the present social system. Capital
has gone ON accommodating, has grown
selfish, more absolute in its demands,
more tyrannial. Labor has gone on
organizing, has become more reek
less, more brutal, more anarchistic.
Finally great day comes, when all
over America and Europe there is an
uprising Of the working people, and
the moneyed class is literally swept
from the face of the earth. The
world reaches a stage where every
man really has his price, and the
standing armies unite with the rev.
olutionists under promise Of diyis
ion of the spoils. Caesar is the great
brute leader of the revolution, and
his Column" a vast pyramid built
high with the bodies of the slaught
cred men, women and children who
in life had been rich. This column
of human beings was made lasting
by being covered with liquid cement,
which ran down between the bloody
mangled forms and held them fast.
But the revolutionists had destroyed
those who held the arts and sciences
in their keeping, and they had been
so long under the iron heel of power,
they knew only how to rebel, no one
either knew how 10 rule, or would
they tolerate any authority. No one
was willing TO work, no one could
employ labor. The fields were left
uncultivated, the simplest methods
were at last resorted to to sustain
life, for even the great divided treas
ures could not buy food when there
was none. Gradually the world
drifted back into barbarism, and
whatever civilization the future held
for it had TO be built anew upon the
dead ashes of the old.
OF course the author has his theo
ry, and saved family or two which
he transported beyond the mountains
that guard and render inaccessible
some interior portion of Africa. He
considerably landed them there in
air ships, and they were living very
happily and successfully according
to the theory he has developed.
However, the most interesting part
of the book to me, was, not the rem
nant that preserved the arts of civ
ilization in the heart of Africa, but
the awful results of our own civiliza-
tion as Mr. Donnelly saw them.
x*x
| see that the first edition of Mr..
Barbe's sAshes and Incense is al
ready exhausted, degree of appre-
citation not usually so soon accorded
a poets first book.