The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-02-07
PROPHECY VERIFIED
A FEW RULE THE EARTH, AND THE
MANY ARE WITHOUT HOPE.

MANY ARE WITHOUT HOPE.
Can We Look the Situation In the Face and
Think What It Means?-Elements That
Never Entered Into Our Past Calcutta
tions-Possibilities Through UNITY.
Especial Correspondence
Fifteen years ago heard this proph-
ecy:
1.-The time will come when there will
De thousands upon thousands of people
who will have no place to go, nothing to
eat, nothing to wear and nothing to do
Every civilized country will see this
same condition, for the land and all it
contains can be bought and sold-it will
become the property Of a few men. A
piece OF parchment gives them the right
to drive all other human beings from it.
Ihese beings, having nothing but the la
Dor OF their hands to offer in exchange
for their needs, will compete with each
other until they will work for almost
nothing. The time will come when no
one will need or demand the labor of
more than a small number of them.
They will possess no raw materials; they
will not be allowed to make their own
medium Of exchange, so they cannot
work for one another. What will be
left for them? The seap The air? Will
death quickly and pitifully remove them?
Or will they cling to existence, painful
y, slowly sinking and dying, their mis-
cry prolonged by the sufferance of aims
or the risks and degradation of crime?
The ruin and destruction of civilization
will come unless the course of civiliza-
tion shall change"
How much of the prophecy has come
topass? Dare the cities, with their hordes
Of clamorous hungry at the doors, an
swer? Can we look the situation in the
face and think what it means?
In vain it is urged that this is an emer-
gency; that crisis is upon US; that some
mysterious, causeless condition places
really worthy working men in idleness
and want; that tive have only to be "char-
table" to tide things over to the time
when we shall reach some inexplicable
good somewhere in the future. No one
can assure US that it is true, or what is
to come out of chaos to relieve the situa-
ton. Nothing but the old faiths, the old
reliance in the teachings of an always
mistaken past, can so assure US.
We believe, Of course, that somehow,
some time, these crowds of hungry I'M
employed will disappear, because-be-
cause they never entered into our calcu-
latiOns; they are not an essential element
of free society (and such it is supposed
we have); they are an unexpected, I'M
pleasant factor in problem we had be-
heved was nearly solved. Their existence
spoils all the teachings of our good old
conventional code. our patriotism, our
fine old thrifty proverbs-all with which
we have been nurtured throughout our
lives We may lay their existence to
accident, to bad management Of parties,
to the ignorance of the working classes
in clamoring for more than they get,
but accidents and mistakes can be recti-
fed. And so we continue to establish
souphouses and breezy lodging places,
to rake up scavenger work for educated
men to do in return for charity tickets,
to Jail starving petty thieves, to coax,
bride or silence the desperate, danger
OuSs ClCIuOlOuO uO1uC, NOLOl1lS Cuc U1Iu6
when it will all miraculously cease.
How can we be so certain? How can
we know that the present situation is
not the slow Outgrowth of deep lying,
long existing causes, working through
the strata of ages, finging up wrecks of
humanity like driftwood and threaten
ing destruction all along its way? How
can we know that peace will come soon
when this mighty force is still at work
among the foundations of society?
For what has made misery in all the
centuries past is making a climax of
misery in this the end Of the nineteenth
century. The earth is still bought and
sold. Its owners may turn it into vast
hunting grounds, pleasure fields or syn
dictate farms, to the destruction of happy
homes for the masses. The richest cor
porations can yet secure the greatest
privileges. The common people, disor-
ganized, defenseless, needy, must strug
gle on, receiving the least that will sup
port life in return for their toll. Is it not
plain that as long as this is true the
armies of the destitute, the idle, the starv-
ing, must ever be on the increase?
Up to within a few years the vast
rich expanse Of our continent has been
never failing resource for the popula-
ton crowded out Of the centers Of in
dustry and trade. Even under the worst
possible schemes for absorbing the wealth
of the country, absolute poverty by the
wholesale has not until recently ap-
peared. But even continent has limits.
and when it is being given away, not in
homes, but in corporation tracts by the
millions of acres, the end must come
some time. Where now can the people
20 for homes? Only to the deserts, the
Businesses of the mountains, the mac
cessible lands, for all else is ''fenced
round with parchment SCROLL"
To whom can they apply to sell their
labor? Only the few rich can buy it,
and their servants are plentiful. Be-
sides, they have harnessed the forces of
nature to wheels of steel to do their bid
ding, and the hands of these needy mil
lions are not wanted. So here they are,
these despoiled beings for whom it seems
no one has any use. What is to be the