The farmers' union. (Memphis, Mo.) 1891-1895, 1894-05-24
A PORTENTOUS OUTLOOK.
The Signs Of the Times are Un-
nistakabie.

wages, increasing hours Of toll, in
creasing debts, increasing mortgages
and mortgage foreclosures, increasing
taxes, increasing rents, increasing
ejectments, increasing suicides, in
creasing crimes mean nothing to you?
Does the righteous demand for work
by unemployed men, does the fam
lshed mothers entreaty to earn bread
for her hungry little ones, does the
pale, pinched careworn cOuntinenance
Of the child toiler in the factory be-
token "all is we'll for our industrial
system? Does it bode no evil to :he
existing order Of things that labor
is observant and sullen, that armies
Of men are marching and demanding,
that there is an impenetrable dark
ness Of lowering discomfort Ger
spreading our land? Do you read
naught that is ominous in the signs
Of the times? DO you see no re-
Election of the past history Of dead
nations in the atsmospherc OF the
present? Does the agitation, the
speech making and pamphletecrlng
OF the present mean no repetition Of
the awful past Of an ancient civili-
zatiOn? DO you not divine the
the awful consequences of the future
rs forcslIadowed by the present?
Are you familiar with the rise and
decay of Egypt's once glorious civili-
zalion? Her mighty pyramids arc
among the grandest monuments of
human hist ory. Her science and
and her astronomy were remarkable.
But what Of Egypt now? She is a
vcrtabIc old fossil. No progress, no
enlightment any longer possible.
! And why not? Because of her OPP
preston OF Gods workers, through
their impoverisilmcnt. For while
wealth piled heap upon heap noun
tain high, the laborcrs of Egypt were
forced in consequence to work so
cheap rs three cents per day. When
Egypt died one percent of the people
owned all the lands No nation can
remain great, no nation can progress,
no nation can long exist in the midst
of such criminal Inequalities amongst
its people. Have you studied the
history of Babylons greatness, of
Babylon's sin against Gods toilers.
of BABYLON decline and fall in con-
sequence? Have you thought that
Meuo-Pcrsia followed with the same
train Of evils. to the same inevitable
ruin and decay of her civilization?
OF the people of MedoPersia Plato
says: so great was the distance
between the prince and subjects that
the latter were looked upon as slaves
while the king was looked upoE no,
oniy rs their sovereign, their absolute
lord and master. but us king of Il
divinity In word. the peculiar
character OF Asiatic nations was strvi
tude and slavery. Luxury to mad
ness on one side and wretched pov.
crty and abject servitude on the other
When Medic Persia died. one per cent
of the people owned all the land anG
80 per cent were tenants, serfs ano
slaves Although the law OF Mede>
and Persians. written in blood wer,
supposed to change not, yet even
this immutabilitv did not save Medo
Persia from the disasterous mutation:
which reckless doings is sure to bring
Have YOU never wondered tha
Greece, pride of the world in intel
lcctual attainment, center shining
light of literary acquisition among
old world countries. too de
cavcd. The following explains it
The Greeks fell bllndly into tho
snare which gave the mortal blow te
their liberty. The principal cause
were disseminating among themselves
sectional strife. The Persians who
ua,l laarne.; the power OF the Greeks
resorted to their gold, and the pol!c,
Of bribery There were Greeks, who
secretly took these bribes and con
veyed into the hands of foreigners the
substance of Greece and her bert,
was lost. Do we see any likenes:
here between Grecians turning thei