The Progress., 1893-09-30
THE PROGRESS.

they sink into the potter's field or wander off to
die as suicides. The dominant political party
| is on hand and responsible, up to its hips in
fermentation, its feet and legs in dirt and dis
ease rotten. and its above ground portion hur
/ rahing fer Tammany and steadily sinking into
/ hell. As this coordination controls politics,
/ every decent man in city or county is educated
! TO keep ont OF politics, instead of entering that
! field and changing aims and results.
THE TREACHEROUS UNDERTOw.
Can we be satisfied with such facts
/ that are inevitable under our present
! regime? Can we be satisfied with our
potter's field, with our hungry and starry
/ ing poor? Are we Satisfied with the
swarm of little waits that drift through
our great streets thinly clad and half
| starved. who flock to our greatnewspaper
offices for supplies in the early morning
| hours? Some of these little rats crawl
into the shoots of the pOstOffice for
warmth while they are waiting for the
/ paper. One of these small unfortunates
was caught in shoot some time ago by
a fire one Saturday night and almost
/ literally roasted alive. He was still
/ breathing when TAKEN out, but life was
/ soon extinct. Are we satisfied with our
paupers and orphans and homeless boys
| and girls? Are we satisfied with our
/ millions who are out of work and whose
! families suffer?
1t is said that the total number of
| Africans. who are now annually forced
! into slavery by the Arab wretches
amount to nearly 100000. With all
| our advance in Christian civilization,
| human slavery Is yet an awful fact. 1t
/ is as if Georgia or Iowa or Michigan
were entirely transported into slavery.
| This is bad enough, and for it Christen
dom is really responsible. And yet this
is the least sorrow of humanity under
the slave problem of today, for while
! 1900, 900 Africans are taken from low.
savage condition and sold into slavery
countless millions of white boys and
girls are being born into the most hope
less slavery under which men can labor.
They are being born to struggle III the
vicious undertow of our present social
order. 1t is lie to assert that they
have an equal chance to become capital
lists instead of mere wage earners. A
doggerel POEM recently published has
stated with more emphasis and pathOs
than art this great fact:
You hadn't ought to blame a man fer things
he hasn't done,
Fer books he hasn't written, er fer fights he
hasn't won;
The waters may look placid on the surface all
aroun,
An yet there may be undertow a-keepin of him
down.
Since the days of Eve and Adam, when the
fight of life began,
1t amt been safe my brethren, fer to light.
judge man;
He may be tryin faithful fer TO make his life
An yet his legs git tangled in the treach'rous
undertow.
He may not lack in learnin, an he may not want
He may be always workin with the patientest
of pains,
An yet go unrewarded, an, my friends. how
can we know
What heights he might a-climbed up to but fer
the undertow?
You've heard the Yankee story of the hens
nest with hole,
An how the hen KEEP layin eggs, with all her
might and soul,
Yet never got settin, nor a single egg! l trov
dertow.
There's holes in lots Of hens nests, and you've
got to peep below,
To see the eggs a-rollin where they hadn't
ought to so.
Don't blame man fer failin to achieve a laurel
crown,
Until you're sure the undertow amt draggin
of him down.
Third-The only glimpse of light that
we see in the darkening picture of our
present commercial calamities comes
from the spots where social cooperation
has taken the place of competition. We
find here the key to the ultimate solution.
If we are ever to do away with the ever
recurring crisis and collapse of trade, we
must harmonic the two sides of wealth
creation and bring about the era when
production shall become social and CO.
operative, and to this end the organized
power of the state, of the municipality
and of the district must be brought into
concerted and cooperative action. 1t is
inevitable that with the advance of civil
lization the state shall advance in its
functions,
The state is not tyranny imposed
from without. By the state mean the
organic community governing them
selves. There are hundreds and thou
sands of men who are now employed
directly by the state. They are not sub
ject to the depressions of a commercial
crisis. 1t is possible for the functions of
government to be gradually increased
until vast interests now in the hands of
private corporations will be placed en-
tirely beyond the danger of panic. 1t is
possible for the municipality to absorb
today, and that to its enormous advan-
tage great industries, that are in private
hands.
The hour has come when the munic.
pality should control all the great mo-
nopolies of municipal life. 1t should
control the entire system of transit, of
lighting and the supply of water, and
along these lines should continuously
/ an1aroo itc functions 11nfi1 tho r,aop1a