The Mason County journal. [volume] (Shelton, W.T.) 1886-1927, 1893-11-17
Soup for Workingmen.

.u"c oo,OOO people are In enforced
ldleness in the single district O
kenslngton because the textile mill
have closed. Many times $4,000 arr
idle in the city and in the state. be
cause of the industrial depression
Relief of the idle workingmen O
Kensington being imperative. tn,
Record proposes that "The Souphoust
Movement" shall be at once begun.
The souphouse movement One
year ago all these people. and the otheI
idle millions all over the land who
now hunger and shiver, were fully
employed at the highest wages ever
PAID to labor since man first stood on
earth. At that time the Record, day
after day, instructed the workmen. that
they had no right to be contented
that the employers were pocketing all
the profits procured from an infamous
taS III; that the workmen would never
be happy and prosperous until the
democratic party should come to
power and sweep all tariff legislation
out OF existence. Then according to
the Record, the laborer would indeed
have high wages; then he could buy
his clothing cheaper; then he could
I'LL his stomach and warm his back
and live in such luxry as could never
come to him while the tariff ate up
his substance for the benefit of the
greedy manufacturers. Then ease and
Joyousness and luxury and contentment
would ill the homes of the oppressed
and down-trodden workingmen. This
Was only twelve months ago, and now
the "souphouse movement" is urged bv
the Record to stop the hunger pangs
OF the laborer, and thousands of
Philadelphia's unemployed are being
fed daily at he sOuphouse.
Less than one year ago Colonel Nc
Clure addressed II meeting in the
Academy of Music, which was filled to
the roof with workingmen He also
held up to the envy and the scorn of
bis audience the robber manufacture
ers. He, too, showed 10 his own
satisfaction how the present tariff law
filched from the people their subs ance
for the advantage of the privileged
few. He, too, knew short road by
which the workingman could reach his
own, and substitute fatness for the
leanness to which the iniqutous Nc
Kinley law had doomed the unfortunate
laborer. The room rang with applause
as the colonel indicated the showers
of blessings which would fall if Mr..
Cleveland should be elected. The
echoes have hardly stopped vibrating
the ear drums of those who heard and
now-"the souphousa movement" in
behalf of the colonels hearers has be-
come Il necessity.
On the November night when
Cleveland's election was declared, and
on the following day, the streets of
Philadelphia were thronged by work
ingmen glad to have respite from toll
while they proclaimed their exultation
that at last the yoke of the oppressor
was broken, the iron hand of the tariff
tyrant lifted. Stuffed with lies by
free-trade editors and orators, blinded
to the truth, completely led astray
from the straight road of their own
interests, these unhappy people
tramped the streets and shouted and
waved their banners and cheered the
men who had cheated them, and
welcomed the incoming of q new day
of prosperity and rejoicing for the
horny-hanoed sons of toll. To-day
one of their teachers brings to the
exultant multitudes this cold message
-"the souphouse movement" must
begin!
And that man in the White house
who begin the assault upon the pro-
tective tariff system which filled the
land with industry and the homes of
the workmen with peace; that man
who pretended from the first that he
was the true friend and champion of
the workingmen against the plunder-
ing brigands who own the mills, what
reflections come to him as he consid-
ers the ruin he has wrought? He can
remember the hopes he held out to
the workmen Of the glorious things
which were to come to them If he and
his party should gain control of the
government. The workingmen re-
member, too; and as they look for full
tillment of his promise and his hopes
they encounter, within six months OF
his inauguration, amid the wreck OF
American industry, the declaration
from one of Mr.. Cleveland's most as
siduous worshipers that "the soup
house movement" must begin!
Will the workmen of this country
learn the lesson now, or must 1t be
taught by still fiercer suffering?
It has been well said that the demo-
cratic administration having closed the
mills and factories, it is not inap-
propriate that Mr.. Cleveland should
be invited to officially close the
worlds fair.-The Manufacturer.
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. '9.-The Elk
aminer, the leading democratic paper
of the Pacific coast, to-day publishes,
editorially, Il severe arraignment ct
President Cleveland. Among other
things, it says: "Mr. Cleveland un-
derstands now how the American
masses view his insolent attempt to
play the role OF il dictator. who would
make both congress and the supreme
court the creatures of his will. Eight
months OF Caesarism have done their
work. Mr.. Cleveland has wrecked
his party Congress has been taught
that tits better policy to follow the
democratic platform than obey the
orders of the gentleman whose egotism
closes his eyes to facts and his ears te
advice. For that platform he sabstl
tuled his own pleasure, and made the
mistake Of sunnnsinn fh.t fhe nres: