The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1893-10-27
a Coming Problem.

uC IuuuebIial oppression reminds
us that the New World is gradually
coming to face the condition in which
cognizance must be taken of the un
employed as a class. The day we hope
Is far distance, and there are signs o.
a restoration of activity on every hand
but the pressure of population is grad
ually growing upon us, and it seems
not unlikely that the winter of 1S93-4
will mark new experience for the
people of the United States, in having
among them, practically for the first
time i'll our history, great numbers Of
needy and well-meaning unemployed
1t has been uniformly the case with
US hitherto that the unemployed have
been the shiftless, and the "idle per-
son" has been synonymous with the
vagabond. But we are about to come
face to face with q new problem in
our society-how TO deal with the un-
employed. For this state of affairs
neither tariff nor monetary legislation,
past or prospective, is wholly response
BILE. We are feeling the first sensation
OF that dread specter which rises con-
tinually before the human race-the
pressure of population. By conserv-
ing our public domain, by judicious
encouragement of labor and righteous
protection of invested earnings we
may for some time delay the rigors of
It's approaching presence. But the
reserve power of an unreserved area
of productive land to be had for the
taking is gradually departing as an
element OF our industrial condition.
We are already realizing the necessity
OF narrowing the generous scope of
that hospitality, which has made the
United States the asylum for the poor
and oppressed of every nation. But
the social fabric is no more proof
against the inroads of an unlimited
lahoring element than against the
more apparent evils OF socialism and
physical disease They are more diff.
cult to check We cannot quarantine
against laborers as we can against
cholera aud anarchy. The pressure of
population must some time be felt in
the United States as it is in Europe,
however long deferred the day may be.
The age OF the pioneer is gone. The
great American desert has been re-
claimed. The primeval forest echoes
with the sounds of AK and saw. Arid
lands are being made fruitful by artifi-
cial methods, and along the coast, fifty
years ago an unknown and trackless
region, every little valley has its set
tiers, every patch of ground at the
base of the cliffs along the Pacific or
the Columbia shows its humble dwell
ing. The explorer has come and gone
and where he took his solitary and
toilsome journey, the wanderer, in
search of work rides along hidden
from view on the trucks of the modern
train. The struggle for existence is
narrowing to sterner lines. There are
more applicants than places in every
kind of work. The shiftless, incompe-
tent and untrustworthy are about
weeded out of good positions and en-
ployment is worth guarding jealously.
We may never see again the "easy
times" and high wages which have
made the United States the goal of
laborers of every land. We hope for
the establishment of new enterprises,
and the extension of old, which will
furnish employment for our idle work
men. At present the ranks OF labor
ers are 80 full that the establishment
of large enterprises in our great cities,
employing thousands, seems to make
scarcely an appreciable effect upon
the labor market, Our hop fields,
which are wont to suffer for the lack
of pickers, are now the scene OF conflict
between different sets OF the hands
anxious for work. Besides the indi-
vidual lesson of prudence and sobriety
we are reminded that new problem
is soon to be forced upon our society
The solution Of it will be long and dis
tressing, because, us in other things,
we arc never willing to profit by the
lessons of history. Human experience
counts for as little with us rs does the
fathers counsel with headstrong
boy. Backwoods statesmen, ioastlng
themselves "in touch with the common
people" will arise to tell us how to
administer charities and corrections,
and by their advice, drawn from soll-
tary specr .ation, unaided by the sue
cess or failure of other times and lands,
the popular voice will be controlled
until hard experience shall have fur
nished new lessons.-Oregonl