The Progress., 1893-10-28

all hope of great improvement for nm
under present economic conditions.
While it is n question for debate as to
whether he has actually improved his
condition, it is no question for debate
whether the life of the rest of mankind
has advanced
Under these circumstances the cOndi-
ton of the workingman of today is be-
coming for him more and more an intol-
cradle one. He has learned to read and
to think. He has hundred wants and
aspirations now where he had one a hun
dred years ago. What his father was
content with he will not accept. He
lives in a bigger world. Forty years ago
the postOflice of Great Britain carried
36,OO0,O0 newspapers. Now it carries
$50 ,OO0,O 900 annually. The total number
of papers issued in America is estimated
at 3,36S, 900 900 annually, or 81 copies for
every inhabitant. The masses of the
people now read, and this for the first
time in the history of the world. The
preacher of the past generation could
reach few hundred people n week.
The printed sermons of this pulpit reach
millions. So i'll every department of
teaching and even III greater degree.
DIR. Strong in his recent book graphically
says: I'VE shall not be surprised that
reading has operated as an unequaled
stimulus upon wOrkingmen when we re-
call how promptly it quickened the up
per classes in the sixteenth century.
This was not the only cause, but it was
one of the chief causes of that wonder
full awakening of genius and energy
which marked the century of Shake
speare and Bacon and Raphael and An
gelo."
The railways of 1891 carried 495 ,000,- /
600 of passengers in the United States. /
Travel has increased with reading. and |
the same writer says travel and the
press have made the modern working /
man a cosmopolitan"
The cOsmopolite is one sort of being. /
The village workman of the last genera
ton was another What was tolerable
for one may be the flaming issue of a
revolution for the other. The masses
are deeply and sullenly discomfort with
their present condition. They declare it
intolerable, and they contend for such
reorganization as will make it toler-
able. They do not believe it just for
one man to receive $40 and 299 men 10
cents each in the distribution of the
worlds goods. Thousands of them be-
lieve their very lives are at stake.
WHERE GOVERNMENT FAILS.
The ultimate seat of our present gov
ernment is with the sheriff and his posse
His ability to handle the posse depends
on the feeling of the posse. The govern
ment failed utterly at Homestead. The
posse was on the other side.
Let our great and wise men see to it,
Here lies the latent possibility of vio-
lence or peace and prosperity. We face
in these issues the possibility of higher
and freer and purer civilization or re-
lapse to the darker slavery of ignorance
and brute force. Shall we call each 9TH
er names while the opportunity for res
cue passes?
Let us not deceive ourselves into be-
lieving the discontented represent few
sore headed labor agitators in towns and
cities The farmers are equally de-
pressed, and have equal cause for de-
preston, and have joined the army of
the radicals. The farmer, too, has be-
gun to read and think. "Tho multitude
have already tasted of the tree of knowl-
edge of good and evil and have become
aware of their nakedness. The supplies :
which cover the mere necessities of life
are the mere fig leaves. The masses will
never be satisfied until their wants aIe
supplied with the fullness of modern civ
lliZation."
How will the strong meet these issues?
For the first time in any threatened rev.
olution the people have full political
power.
Will the ftrtunate and powerful know
their opportunity or lose it?
Will we do our duty-we who are
called to authority-or will we fight one
another?
A policeman and a fireman got into
an alteration the other day at a fire and
fought one another while the house
burned down. Some one else did their
work. And the next day they had to
stand before the tribunal and give
reason for their existence.