The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1894-06-07
WHAT NEXT,

WHAT NEXT
There would seem to be some attractive
or cohesive power about misfortune and
disaster. Some kind OF devilish, intelli-
gent iwpulse by which one calamity fol-
lows another to fasten on the throat of
the victim. The unhappy MASTER" Of
whom Poe sang, and whom unmerciful
disaster followed fast and followed faster. :"
IL one whom we have all known. As in
the individual. so in the general, when q
community or nation begins to suffer. I'M
numbered evil things seem to tumble
over each other in their savage delight to
fasten their fa,gs on the prey, though
they know they can only rend and hurt,
not kill. We are being subjected to this
worrying process at present.
First comes political reversal and con-
fusion. This was a misfortune especially
to the democrats. It was due to dissatis-
faction with tie former administration
and apprehension OF business congestion,
which was too far advanced to be pre-
vented by economical changes, and which
was FASTENED by the unwise course OF re-
publican alarmist newspapers. Then
came the financial panic, stagnation OF
trade, the fall in values and the evanish.
ment Of many hard-won competence.
Next the epilepsy Of labor. with its
savage, licentious destructiveness, en-
phasized and encouraged by state execu.
tive power. What a CHASTITY farce is the
travesty Of government which we see in
Kansas, Colorado, South Carolina and
Illinois; farcical were it not for the
agonized grin of tragic mask.
Then come floods, sweeping away the
hard and honestly earned accumulations
OF tens of thousands Of sturdy, toilinc
lives. We have been spared the pesti.
lence, but for how long7 For added fear
the shadow Of the populist seems to be
projecting itself athwart the scene OF
heaving disturbance, and from this doml.
nation we must have protection, even II
old party lines be less clearly drawn. The
scenes and scandals Of Kansas, South
Carolina and Colorado should not be per-
mitted to read.
We have ourselves to thank for some
of our troubles. Look at the Cripple
Creek rioters. Do We recognize them and
are they our own people? Are these ig-
norant and cowardly dynamters Amer.
cans? We indignantly spurn the sugges.
ton. They are the dregs OF Europe's
lowest and most vicious orders. We LEI
them come and the bars OF citizenship
were down. An American citizen il, or
should be, the peer OF any knight or
noble OF the proudest aristocracy on
earth. And We made these Cripple Creek
and other thugs American citizens by
the thousand, by the miIlion--our peers.
our brethren. And we keep on do ng it
as though we liked it, in a fatuous, easy
way we have got into, like simpering
idiots smiling into the very jaws OF hell.
And our immense monopoles and trusts
brought these ''citizens" over They got
rid OF American workingmen and shipped
the Huns and Dagoes over to replace
them. They were cheaper--didn't know
our language or our laws, and had not
the intelligence to combine: but chiefly
they were cheaper.
Have they been found so? There is an
element of grim satisfaction in the horri-
BILE spectacle of mining lawlessness. The
importer OF cheap brute labor is getting
It where the chicken got the ak" and
we have no pity for him.
Ii would seem that the cherished and
much Wanted doctrine Of state power and
sovereignty tlimited) must do something
to justify itself, or the uncircumcised may
triumph. Even now there are not
wanting those who point the finger OF
scorn at the fair idea, and, while admit
ting that she is fair, declare that she is
too frail to be much longer helpmeet
to the central power.
They are wrong everlastingly wrong
but they must be proved to be so. II it
be thatin any state the ignorant, vile and
lawless element is able 10 control things
tand this catastrophe does not now ap-
pear to be impossible) what next?
II we do not wish to become the laugh
ing stock Of Europe, the jest OF the world,
aye, ii We wish TO preserve our national
life We must rouse ourselves to cleanse
the body polite Of this perilous stuff that
is sapping its life.
Our vacant lands, (the safety valve oil
population pressure) are almost all taken
up. At least such OF them as are prac-
tically cultivatable. Let us call halt
and get things adjusted,
We need more exacting voting qualfi.
cations. We need less ignorant, brute,
foreign labor. We need less patience and
more determination tGod help u.s.
that Columbia shall be the home OF the
free and not of the slave TO either labor
or capital. What we can do, that we
must do. and We can vote right-all of
US.
Let us put first the honor and we'll
being OF our county, our state, our
nation. Let us rouse ourselves, and stay
aroused.
The great storm Of Saturday last had
its counterpart for the populists in Ore
gon on Monday. II snoRed and Il