St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-04-22

amounts to robbery. For contributions
OF food and money made in the pres
ence of hostile aud invading force are
practical robbery, and would be so
declared by any judicial tribunal.
The several wings of the common
weaf'-the outward manifestations OF
the common woe-in the Southwest,
West and Northwest, have recently
been guilty of the most high.handed
acts of lawlesSness. Out on the Pacific
coast they endeavored to obtain pos
session of railway train. after vaiDly
endeavoring to obtain transportation
eastward through moral suasiOn, and a
pitched battle ensued. They succeeded
in driving off the railway employees,
but were i'll turn driven off by the lat.
ter. reinforced by officers OF the law.
In Texas the same expedient was re-
sorted to with the same results. In
Nebraska they were more successful,
and held possession of a train for some
time. using it to transport them a
considerable distance. They are now
delayed, and will probably be soon dis
comtited. as the railroad officials and
that end. The Montana detachment is
pursuing the same tactics, and more
trouble is anticipated.
The Coxey armies are not composed
entirely of the lazy and vicious. al
though these are no doubt the control.
ling spirits. There are few misguided
fanatics among them, and sprinkling
OF honest aud industrious men, who
look upon our present industrial aud
economic conditions with grave alarm.
and hope that by thus directing public at
tention to them reform may be sought
and found. And there is much in the
present situation to give rise to appre-
hension in the minds Of the thoughtful.
Never before in our history has there
been so large an army of unemployed
as at present, and never before has the
prospect of the future been SO gloomy.
These conditions are the product of
many causes.
We have been greatly OVERRIDING in
dustry during the past two decades. 1t
has been ''boom" season. There have
been booms in building. booms in real
estate, booms in bonanza farming.
booms In manufacturing industries of
every description. 1t has been an age of
overproduction and of artificial activity
and prosperity, which has been followed
by the legitimate revulsion, and we now
find ourselves in the midst of a crisis
such as no people ever before were
forced to encounter. We have immense
farms capable Uf unlimited production,
but their production has been tar in
excess of the public needs. We have
large and seemingly prosperous cities,
whose buildings seem emul0us of reach
ing the clouds, but the rooms in the
buildings are tenantless and the streets
OF the cities are almost deserted. We
have Immense manufacturing establish
ments, capable of producing machinery
and fabrics sufficient for the needs of
the Whole world. But the wheels are
idle and no smoke ascends from the
chimneys, for the world already has
more than it needs. We have mines of
gold and silver. and iron and coal. but
they are not profitable. Notwithstand-
ing the depression wages are high, and
the markets for such products are de-
pressed, for there has been an excessive
supply.
Where is the remedy for this state of
things? 1t lies in the direction of a re-
turn to the natural order of things-a
curtailment of extravaganza and an
avoidance of booms. There is natural
tendency among men to seek fortune
where others have found it in the past,
q nd n anct hn pt<
prudence has approved and that nat
ural law has decreed as the means of in
crease. Ii man reaps a handsome re-
turn from the rents of magnificent
Office building, every other man of
means in the community thinks he can
do the same thing. and the result we
see in cities of tenantless sky-scrapers.
Ii farmer achieves independence and
competency by entering into the cult
walton of any pecialty-wheat, corn,
hops, hogs, or cattle-every other farmer
sees independence and riches through
the same agency. As consequence,
prices of whatever commodity may be
produced III excess fall, and ruin Is pre-
cipitated upon the country.
There will be armies of the common
veal or woe as long as this tendency
to Oyerproduction in any department of
human industry exists. We have no
excess of labor. but it is not properly
equalized or distributed so as to pro-
duce the most benefeent results. TO
bring about this equilibrium will be the
great task of the social economists of
the future.