Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1894-05-07
DANGEROUS.

DANGEhOOO.
No one who looks at the condition Of
affairs in the United States to day can
consider it other than dangerous. The
misfortunes of the past year in bust :
ness, the destruction and impairme ent
of many Industries, the losses to pri-
vate individuals, tx almost utter de-
struction of confidence, and the alarm
on account of the condition of things
in congress and in politics, taken al
together might seem enough for one
time, but there are matters outside Of
these that are threatening. 1t is easy
to look at the Coxey matter as a farce,
but it is an unpleasant thing to know
that the times are such that an army
of tramps, vagabonds and criminals
can be found in the country, of such
purposes, vicious Or otherwise, as to
be willing to start on tramp to Wash
ington on an errand utterly useless,
unlawful in it's designs and dangerous
in it's tendencies. The avowed pur
pose is to besiege congress with some
absurd projects in the line Of law
making, thing unheard of in this
country.
Strange as it may seem, there are
many thousands of men in the coun-
try foolhardy enough to start out on
a mission like this. Many of them
are foreigners, who have found homes
in this country and are ignorant, but
all the more dangerous on this ac
count. Assembled together as mass
of hungry, ignorant, excitable men,
they will form an element of cOmbus-
tible material which may give the
Washington authorities a great deal
of trouble. Their pretense is that
the truth is they are tramps, and men
of a hundred sorts, who prefer almost
anything to work. They are an off
spring of populist parentage, and have
a standing which that theory in poll
tics makes tOlerable in certain Iocali
ties. Already bands and "armies'' of
these men have been seizing ira ms
and committing acts that have caused
the ordering out of large bodies of po-
lice and put in readiness Federal
tro ops, which will assist in their ar
rest if need be.
Another dangerous condition Of
things in the country is the existence
of societies, federations, leagues and
orders among almost every class Of
labOrers or craftsmen, who are bound
by rules and oaths to obey leaders,
presidents, etc., who have the power
to order strikes and to stop, not only
their own branch of business, but to
do harm to CO. ordinate branches and
to the country itself. At present
more than a hundred thousand coal
miners are out on strike, losing
their own time, using up, if they have
any funds, all that is laid by and do
ing great harm to general business at
a time when every man ought to be
at work Besides the colliers, men of
other crafts and occupations are plan
ming great strikes. This is notable
among railroad employees, where some
great roads are at present tied up,
while there are threatenings on many
other roads. A great harm in these
things is the spirit of enmity that
springs up among laboring classes
against the owners and capitalists
who fiZsd employment for the thous
ands who have neither desire nor
ability to find employment unaided.
These large bodies of strikers become
dangerous when they are reduced to
poverty and hunger by want of en-
ployment, and it requires only the in
citement of some crazed or vicious
leader to cause bloodshed, the de-
struction of property and various
crimes.
Among the worst class of foreign
ers, anarchists, socialists, bomb throw
ers and dynamiters are bred and edu-
Gated to deeds of violence and of
horror. 1t will be strange if this class
of lawless and terrible men does not
increase during times like these. It
Will not be necessary to eXpatiate on
the dangers growing out of ballot
box crimes, of the complete disre
gard of law and justice in the sup
preston of the colored vote of the
South, of the great evil of intemper-
ance, increase of murder, ,incendiarism,
robberies and other crimes; nor will it
be pleasing TO think of the dangers,
the frauds, the dishonesty that threat
ems men who nave money to save, in
vest or put to business uses.
Much that has been alluded to is
the result of the general misfortunes
to business, but there are dangers
which seem to be begotten of pros
perity. It will be year of appre-
tensions if not of serious troubles. and
it will demand wisdom on the part of
government and officials and the best
efforts of the patriotic elements of
the country to ward off the dangers
which assail us.
PROHIBITION IN RUTLAND.
If the successof the prohibitorv law