The advocate and Topeka tribune., 1893-12-20

Il
ductive power OF labor ought therefore
to increase the comfort Of the lsborrer.
The advance in civilization ought there
fore to increase the independence and
comfort of "the working class" lsthis 30?
On the contrary, We find as our ciVilizR-
tion advances the working classes be-
coming more helpless and more hopeless.
In our most highly civilized countries
we find great bodies Of men reduced to q
condition with which the vsriest savage
in anything like normal conditions could
not afford to exchange!
Above all the centuries which have
preceded it, this marvellous century now
drawing to close has been marked by
the increase in the productive power Of
human labor. Giant forces, OF which
previous generations never dreamed,
have been pressed into mans service,
and discovery after discovery and inVen-
ton after invention have multiplied the
power Of human hands to satisfy human
wants. But what has been the result?
Wealth has indeed increased as never
before. But instead Of being difused
among the masses it is concentrating in
the hands Of the few. While monstrous
fortunes are arising an equally monstrous
poverty is developing. Labor is becom-
ing, not more independent, but more
helpless. In spite Of our discoveries and
inventions, the masses and it not easier
but harder to get a living, and social
conditions are steadily approximRting to
the social conditions OF Europe, from
which our fathers thought they had for
ever esc8pedl
remember when ] first saw q liver
led carriage on an American street. It
startled me, for had associated liVeries
with the sristoCracy of Europe. But in
the streets OF our great American cities
liVeried servants are no novelty now.
And as the Rristocracy Of wealth has de-
Veloped among us, 80 has developed the
poverty and psuperism, which is it's COM
plement. There is q certain class OF
statisticians who are never sired Of pa.
rading figures by which they seek to
show that the condition OF the average
American is constantly improving. Their
argument is OF the same kind as that by
which it might have been attempted to
prove that the proletariRns OF imperial
Rome were better off thRn the independ-
ent husbandmen who preceded them,
because they could witness grRnder
games and slske their thirst from more
magnificent Rqueducts. Common facts
and common knowledge disprove 1T.
Talk to any man OF mature age and OBJ
serving mind; ask him whether it is as
easy now for the young man who starts
in life with but his labor to get ahead
and be sure to make comfortable living
for family as when he was young, and
if he answers without bias he will tell
you it ia not.
| talked some time ago with u dis.
journalist OF New York, Os-
wald Ottendoffsr, man of wealth and
position, whom the world has dealt we'll
With, who is not "reformer," and GER
tainly not what is sometimes called in
Kansas q "cslamity shrieker." He tod
me how he came to this country, blown
over by the revolutionary storm Of 1848,
and landed penniless. What most i'm
pressed him, he said, were the crowds on
the streets, the hopeful, confident air
shown in look and manner and move
ment-the air Of men who felt that they
had Q foothold and q place, who enter
tanned no doubt Of their being able to
make an easy and independent living
without the fear or favor Of anyone.
And then he went on to tell me, sadly,
how with all the marvellous growth he
had witnessed in the years that had
elapsed, he missed that air now. In
those days the young farm hand
looked forward with confidence to the
time when he should have a farm Of bis
own; the clerk to the time when he
should be q merchant; the mechanic to
the time when he should be Q master.
But now, in the eastern parts Of the
country at least, we are steadily differ