The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1894-06-16
A TALE OF TWO CONTINENTS.

Comments. not always in the kindlest
spirit, on the performance OF the Common
wealers are appearing in European papers.
The general theory of the writers is that
the Industrial Army was fungoid growth
from unsound political lnstitu tions, and
we should not have been troubled by it if
We had had a king and lords and other
monuments of feudality As a matter of
fact the argument fails, because the cir
cumstances which gave rise to it have
passed into history. COxeyism and its
leaders began as rockets and have come
down like the stick.
But, also as a matter of fact disturb
ances very analogous to our industrial feI-
ment have been and are occurring in many
countries of Europe which do not present
what our foreign critics call examples of
organized anarchy" The empire of
Austria Hungary is an orderly nation in
which peace prevails and Intelligence is
general. Controversies occasionally arise
between the Czeehs and the Austrians
proper, but they are relics of race antip-
athies which have lasted from time imme-
mortal. But as rule Austria and Hun
gary are not bad places to live in, and life,
liberty ana property are pretty secure
there. Now, however, in this last decade
or the nineteenth century a serious at
tempt is being made to re-establish feudal-
ism in Hungary, with the consequences
which might have been expected. In the
district of Csanad the small farmers have
been evicted and the land has passed into
the hands of neblemen who farm it through
tenants. The rent is usually a third of
the crops, aud besides this, the tenant
must pay the taxes and work so many days
in the year without pay for the landlord,
besides supplying him with eggs, poultry,
vegetables and garden produce. In fact
the old French cOrUee. which was one of
the causes of the French revolution, has
been revived. Or course the first bad har-
vest beggars the working farmer and in
despair he flies TO arms. That disaster
befell last year and 6000 peasants took the
field. They were duly put down by the
Soldiery and numbers of them killed. The
survivors, homeless and heartsore. turned
their little belongings into money and emf
grated to the United States.
Another example comes from Spain.
There is no part Of that peninsula which
is such natural garden as the valley of
the GuadalquiYir in Audalusia. Poets
have described it as paradise, and in
prOsaic earnest it has fed the inhabitants
of the Mediterranean coasts ever since the
beginnings of history. But from the time
when the sun Of Spain began to set there
has been a gradual drift of land owner
ship into the hands of the gran dees, and
the peasant has sunk into the condition of
a farm laborer. The great landlords are
too ignorant and TOO torpid to cultivate
their estates intelligentIy. They employ
small quantity of labor, though the con-
sumption of a larger quantity would en-
rich them. Thus the workingman is idle.
The thing has reached such pitch that
body of peasants near Cadiz lately seized
tract of uncultivated land and worked it
until they were driven off by soldiers. 1t
is no wonder that the ReriStd de Espdnd
warns the Government to be prepared for
an agrarian instruction in Andalusia.
In both these cases men who are not
idle lramps, but who are willing and eager
to work fol- food. are doomed to hunger by
bad laws. American institutions could
not lead to a more pitiable failure than
this. In this country industry and CON-
meTce proceed by spurts and reactions,
and when a reaction comes a certain num-
Der of people are thrown out of work. 1t
is hard for them, and some whose heads
are not level try to mend matters o. COM
monwealing and Coxeying and calling
upon the Government to carry them on its
back. But sensible men to whom CONNER
cial depression means poverty and want
know that there is but one real remedy for
the ills they endure, and that is to wait
patiently for turn of the tide. Their
situation differs from that of the European
working class. The latter have nothing to
wait for. Relief can only come through
revolution, and the remedy is often as
cruel as the disease. No revival of conf
dence will put bread in the mouths of the
Hungarian or the Andalusian peasant, but
it is mere question of months when, as
in the old time. labor in this country will
90 in search of the laborer.