The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1894-05-11

it is in no way the province Of the
general government TO do 1t, but is the
work of the local government of the
people in whose jurisdiction the road
may lie, and the cost, whatever it may
be, must be paid by taxes levied within
the same limits.
There would be no improperly in the
people of a county, township or munich
pality undertaking the work of necess-
airy highway Improvement, having in
view the object of giving employment
to idle men, but there is no conceiv-
able way in which the same things could
be done by the National government.
1t seems the strangest fact that men
should undertake to 60, in the manner
these men are going, thousands of miles
to Washington to accomplish what they
could just as well have done in any city
near at home-done by a representative
committee. They have got to act, when
they get to Washington, ia a law-abid-
ing way, and they cannot reach con-
gress except i'm the usual manner. 1t
is very difficult for large bodies of men
to tramp, with an avowed object such
as these men declare, without becoming
in a measure disorderly. They are
menace wherever they go; and thus we
see the authorities along the lines they
travel hurrying them forward, con-
tributing to their progress just to get
rid of them and not from any sympathy
in their object or in the movement.
After all it is not probable that the
numbers who will engage in this tramp
of ION to Washington" will reach any
thing like the total that has been APP
pretended The movement has its
value as symptom. 1t indicates
disease in the body polite. 1t is one of
those abnormal manifestations that
should be carefully diagnosed and IA
remedy sought for and applied. Since
the whole purpose of these congregated
tramps is to reach Washington and in
fluence congress, it is for that body TO
seek the cause of the disorder and apply
the remedy.
OF one thing we are reminded: There
were no such gatherings of unemployed
men until the advent of the present
Democratic regime And the avowed !
purpose of this ION to Washington
craze is to effect a change of the Demo
cratic program. Under Republican
mil ha1
those of them who were industrious |
enough to desire work But now it is
a pitiable fact that in so short time, !
in land teeming with plenty, there
should come so great an industrial
change as to induce men in SO great
numbers to rise up in all parts of the
Nation, from Ohio TO beyond the
Rockies" and commen.e their march |
to Washington; to endure all the hard
ships of the life of the tramp through
days and weeks in the ultimate hope of
relieving want and restoring to this |
people prosperity and the rule of in
dustry.
1t continues to be the fashion for
the Democrat leaders in congress to de-
clare that the people demand the
speedy passage of the Wilson bill and
the fultillment of all the pledges made
in the Democratic National platform at
Chicago. Do this, they say, and general
prosperity will once more resume its
sway. But it was only with their com
ing upon the stage, clothed with the
power to rule, and of their attempt to
consummate this very legislation that
prosperity took its flight from the land
and the present cloud of depression
descended upon us. And one of the
outgrowths of the general stagnation
which the Democratic program has
occasioned is this demonstration of
poverty and unrest which eliminates
in the absurd movement of marching
ION to Washington"
Truly, nothing could proclaim more
clearly that something is rotten in
Denmark" The people in all recen
elections have everywhere declared, as
emphatically as that verdict can be
rendered against the Democratic policy
And pow this assembling of the So
called industrial armies" speak louder
than any words of the necessity of
halt. The facts cry out to the majority
in congress to abandon the consumma-
ton of the ruinOus course on which
they are engaged and which is crushing
the industrial life out of the Nation,
and leave the people TO the enjoyment
of that beneficent policy which has
made us the richest and happiest Nation
on earth.