The Progress., 1893-10-14


Russia. 5OOO.GO
bermany ............................ 0,'fh,bO
France. 3OOG 200
Austria. ....-.........--........... -,Up,pO
Italy aly...................... l,50O.OH
100000
With this fearful array of soldiers,
still the ruling powers cry for more, for
larger armies, for larger navies, for more
massive and costly Notifications. for new
guns and implements of war, for new
bills of taxation to meet them.
THE HOUSE OF LORDS.
In England the people have decreed
that Ireland shall have system of home
rule. The classes assembled in the ira
ditional house of lords bids the people
defiance and invites the destruction in
the coming conflict of all the fictiOns Of
their very existence. In the face of pop
ular suspicion and discomfort the profes-
sional politicians everywhere continue
to loot the public treasures, and more
and more the governments of the present
regime are brought into contempt.
In France recently the sickening reve-
latiOns of the Panama gang showed con-
clusively that there were few men at
that time in the nation intrusted with
power who did not have their price in
dollars and cents. When the test of an
election came, the monarchial party. ex
pecting to profit by this fact, was uncer-
enormously swept out of existence. The
party of the masses, the hated and ma
ligned socialists and their allies, sud-
denly appeared in power as the only OPP
ponent of the conservative republicans.
In Italy the power of the government
has been weakened by revelations of Off
cial corruption.
In Germany the honesty of high Off
cials has been impugned before the peo-
pie and no successful answer given to
the arraignment.
CONGRESS SCORED.
In America the present congress has
demonstrated its general worthlessness
in a manner that has sown the seeds of
revolution in thousands of men hitherto
little moved by politics.
A description of the last congress is
typical of the average session. Listen:
At time near the conclusion of
the session of the late congress the
house of representatives appropriated
$24 ,000, 900 in one bill after an hour of
debate. No opportunity was allowed
to offer amendments to this bill. There
was no time for discussion or amend
ments.
Congress had been in session three
months, but at the last moment the
money of the people had to be bestowed
for various objects, which may or may
not have been entirely worthy, at the
rate of 100000 a minute, for want of
time for longer consideration.
Our solemn senate is just now busy
digging the grave of its traditional pride
and courtesy" by demonstrating its ex-
haustless capacity to do nothing in the
hour of nations peril.
How long the people in their silent
suffering millions will stand the tom
foolery of tradition ridden governments
in Europe and America who can tell?
And strangest of all is the fatuity with
which the present rulers pursue the even
tenor of their way.
WEALTH STRUTS AMID SQUALOR.
Second-We observe it in the hearts
and methods of the very rich of our day.
1t is day of lavish expenditure and
vulgar display.
In the midst of hunger and cold and
even starvation among thousands, the
rich are busy amusing themselves.
There has been no time since the days
of the Emperor Nero when wealth strut
ted amid squalor with greater contempt
for its surroundings and with vainer dis
play of all its vulgar trappings of gold
and silver. The palaces of the rich in
the days that preceded the fall of Rome
were pigpens compared with the mar
velous piles of architecture and decorat-
i've art with which our modern cities are
full. The banquets given by the great
gluttons of Nero's day are not to be COM
pared in cost or display to the elaborate
affairs of the year of our Lord 1893, at
time when 10000, 900 Of the human race
are in starving condition.
Tailors are busy inventing costumes
for dogs. while children freeze for
clothes.
Servants are busy airing the poodles
of fashionable women who refuse to
have children, preferring the affection
of dogs and the gay rounds of decay
ing social order. While thousands toll,
half fed and overworked, and fight for
the half pay and overwork, the rich are
busy preparing divorce papers and So
liciting new partners as the results of
half drunken social debauchees at their
palaces. The men who give largely to
the community of their great wealth
are fewer and fewer compared to the
number of very rich.
GOULD AND AMES.
Mr.. Gould not only did not leave the
community dollar Of the wealth it
created, but gave it parting kick as he
did by creating a perpetual trust for
the Gould millions.
Mr.. Ames, the richest man in Boston.
died the other day and left not a single |
dollar to the community that created |