The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1893-09-28

our advance in Christian civilization
human slavery is yet an awful fact. II
Is as IL Georgia or Iowa or Michigan
were entirely transported into slavery.
This is bad enough, and for 1t 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 in 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 man fer things
he hasn't done,
Fer books he hasn't written, or 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,
II ain't been safe, my brethren, fer TO lightly
Ho may be tryin faithful fer to make his life a
go,
An yet his legs git tangled in the treach' 'rous
undertow.
He may not lack in learnin, an he may not want
for brains;
He may be always workin with the patientost
Of pains,
An yet go unrewarded, an, my friends how
can we know
What heights he might a-climbed up 70 but fer
the undertow2
You've heard the Yankee story of the hen's
nest with hole,
An how the hen KEEP layin eggs, with all her
might and soul,
Yet never got settln, nor q single egg troy
That hen was simply kickin gin hidden un-
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 go.
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 e,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. It is
inevitable that with the advance of civil
lization the state shall advance in its
functions.
The state is not a 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 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 ell
tirely beyond the danger of panic. It 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
enlarge its functions until the people
shall in fact manage their own business,
This could be done all the more readily
if society as a society could become con-
scious Of its tendencies and of its needs,
The way is being led now in this direc-
ton, # we but knew it. There are about
200 commercial trusts today monopoliz-
ing the market Of staple goods in Amer
lea, and there are AZ railroad corpora
tions which practically control the rail
road mileage of the continent. These
consultations of interest in the form of
trusts and gigantic companies have been
inevitable under our system of competi-
ton. Their confessed failure in the at
tempt to fight one another and their
coming together for protection and for
the regulation Of the output to suit the
demand points the way in the future for
society to save itself from overproduc-
tion and its consequent ruin.
These index fingers point to the fact
that there are great monopolies today
which can be owned and controlled by
the people in their organic capacity and
lift their vast interests beyond the range
OF commercial disorder. Every coal
mine in the nation today should be
owned by the government, operated by
its employees in behalf Of those who
work them and those who consume their
product. Our mines of gold and silver
should be owned and controlled by the
government, and our currency question
should be lifted at once from the plane
OF sectional politics and placed upon an
international basis, and by such an act
the people would be relieved from a gov
ernment by the bankers, of the bankers
and for the bankers. And the people
will learn it sooner or later. At present
our banking concerns in their bills pre-
sented to congress are having things
pretty much their own way, as they
have had it in the past, but when the
people discover their real power and tho
game that has been played upon them
so long there will be change in the
1t is said that sailor once pitted a
half grown American eagle against n
game cock in South America for n fpht