The evening herald. [volume] (Shenandoah, Pa.) 1891-1966, 1894-06-04

stroyed more OF money, men and char
acter than war, pestilence and famine
combined.
We used to boast of government "of |
the people, by the people and for the |
people'-nor was our boasting vain. But |
alas, it has been transformed into gov.
ernment Of the saloon, by the saloon and |
for the saloon. No one can question that
the beer keg is the mightiest factor in our
political life-that it receives more con-
sideration in our legislative halls and
many OF our courts Of justice than all
the crosses, churches, bibles, homes, |
widows and orphans of the land put to.
gether. There is not q nation on earth
that has demonstrated its utter incapacity
to deal with the rum traffic, and to en-
force its laws against this legaizad muir
der, so thoroughly and so clearly as our
own. With a sentiment on this question
IN advance of the world we have, pro
portionately. the least TO show for it.
While few men are doubtless better
than their business, 1t is still true on the
whole that the christian temperance ele-
ment lies prOstrate at the feet of law
less fraternity Of drunkard-makers God
and conscience have no chance when
saloon keepers and beer glasses come into
competition. African slavery was
blessing compared with the slavery Of
rum. That was not inconsistent with the
best type of morals and the loftest forms
OF spirituality among its poor victims.
precious
thing except the rum sellers pocket
From many a southern cabin angel hands
released earthly fetters and bore away to
the palace of angels and of God the
happy spirits Of multitudes whose flight
was but hastened by their hardships. Not
so with slavery TO rum This ruins both
master and slave alike, and blasts and
damns everything 10 touches. 1t Is the
enemy of earth and the friend of hell.
1t spreads moral pestilenCe abroad and
the spirit of rebellion around; it dethrones
reason and affection within aud destroys
hope and heaven beyond. Yet some OF
| the worst toes of slavery in the South are
among the best friends of the worse
| slavery Of rum. How sad to see so many
who once, regardless of family interests,
social ties, religious preferences and po-
litical affiliations, forgot all but their
cOuntry's peril, now elling every precious
interest for the sake of party -poils. But
saddest of all is to find that most of those
engaged in he dreadful traffic are mem
bers OF some branch of the christian
church and are ''Crucifying their Lord
afresh and putting Him to an open
| shame
But we have more recently been
| brought into slavery to n moneyed aris-
| tocracy. We find the most arrogant
| forms of PlutOcracy embosomed within
our boasted democracy Let US not for
| get that it was under the emblance of
| popular government that Caesar under
mined the Republic of Rome. 1t was
while disclaimiug Imperialism and re
| fusing the title of Dictator that he played
the role of dictator and founded the most
Imperial form Of Monarchy. So is it to-
| day. Under the semblanCe of popular
| government the liberties of the people are
being stolen and the foundation principles
of the government are being undermined
1t is while prOclaiming the liberty and
equality of all men that our money kings
H.
Congress to the throne of pOwer-that
they assume that might makes right.
that in defiance of the laws of GOD and
supreme contempt for the moral rights of
man they are trampling the necks of our
toiling millions beneath their feet.
What means the industrial unrest Of
the age What means the general up
rising of the masses against the classes
the conflicts between capital and labor
the riot and the bloodshed-the strikers
and the militia Doth the wild ass bray
when he hath grass, or loweth the OK over
his fodder % How shall we account for
the multitudes of idle workmen who are
crying for work and for bread, in this
land of plenty, while bloated bondholders
! are rolling in unimaginable wealth for
, which they never rendered an equivalent
! and for which they have no legitimal e
luse 1t is a disgrace to any industrial
system or to any form of government
! when three-tenths of one per cent. of the
population control seventy per cent. of
{ the property. And careful writers tell us
) that is our precise condition to-
! | day. They say that if the oldest man
I who hears me to-day should get a job at a
: thousand dollars day he would have to
I work without a single day off till he is
4 six hundred years old before he could
: earn as much as some of our princeliest
g milliOnaires are worth. Yet we have in
our own Pennsylvania coal mines sixty
, Thousand men whose wages in lSS9-the
| L. s. Bureau of statistics being witness
9 averaged S. 30 per week, and who are only
q sorry they cannot earn as much this year
n | If these are not European conditions upOI
a American soil what are they The ques
q tiOn not how do our wages compare
with those of former times nor how dc
y our comforts cOEl pare with those o1
q foreign lands. The question is doe.
: labor receive its fair share of its OWL
= productive industry ~ The colossal for
4 tunes of the age as well as the revolution
q in the air respond with an emphatic no
and all heaven sympathizes with the
response. The system of government
that fails, ultimately, to bridge the chasn
between the classes and the masses fail
at the critical point and is destined to e
down. And yet, while our peace is dis
4 turbed and the foundations of the bod!
n polite tremble dignifi-d officials at Wash
n ington are making bigger fools of them
n selves than CoXey and caring more for th
e grass on the CapllOl GROUNDS Jnau IOf Jni
lightning that flashes in the lndustria
e skies. Our labor troubles are simply
i determined effort of stified life Il
o Breathe o, God, give it breath Lik,
II Diogenes of old our industrial problem
i are cropping through the land with {
e lighted candle in quest of man-but cal
V find only a generation of poor little pigmy
d politicians who are rattling around in tn
e boots of our dead statesmen.
IS But what of the future? l cannot tell
c My faith o'erleaps the near and graspl
, the far Astronomers tell us they know
! nothing of the regions just beyond, bu
e taking the spectroscope and dissolvinl
O rays of light from remotest stars the.
IS speak with much assurance. So the chris
d tian philosopher with the spectroscope o
i faith in hand the bible dissolves at hi
n feet rays of light from the counci
i cham hers Of the Infinite God and is as
V sured that delivers nee will come though
d he cannot tell just how;