The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1894-08-09
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WHITTIER ARE WE DRIFTING?
BY MEMBER OF CLASS d.

Whittier are we drifting? By glance at
events transpirng throughout the world it can
be readily seen that the poor are becoming poor
and the rich richer. Should we credit the
Review of Reviews, an exceedingly trustworthy
magazine, in regard to England, we see that the
poor and even the middle classes, have about
the same show to raise themselves from poverty
as a ticket holder would in the once famous Lou
siana State Lottery by drawing the capital prize.
1t has certainly taken large per cent of the
bone and sinew of the above mentioned country
to pile up the fortunes of the ROthchilds and
their ilk
America has witnessed scenes within the past
year that to any sane mind can have but one
cOncluSiOn-revOlutiOn. The causes can be
attributed to innumerable sources, chief among
these, we believe. the avarice of wealth is in a.
great measure responsible.
We See here, in a country unsurpassed for fer
tility of SOIL for diversity of products for health
fulness of its people, for educational advantages
and with territory enough to produce sufficient
of the necessities of life for the known world.
Still we see actual want depicted upon the faces
of hundreds of our citizens men whose sun
burnt faces and rough hands tell no tale of idle
ness; we see tallOw faced women and children
treading the paved streets of our great cities
early and late and in thousands of cases whose
stomachs are knawing for the necessities of life.
We have seen men convicted of all species of
crime. men whose acts have caused thousands
of lines to be written by morasts and wOuld-be
philanthrOpists. But take into consideration
that these individual cases cause suffering to
few. We have read somewhere an estimate that
it would take seventy thousand common laborers
to earn, at existing wages, the income of one of
true or not is mmaterial; we know it would take
quite a number. In all sincerity ask you
which. in the eye of God. humanity or reason is
the worst, the man convicted of the most
heinous crime against one. or to be liberal say a
dozen of his fellow men, or the one who uses his
wealth to keep seventy thousand laborers dur
ing their natural lives to produce a surplus
which he is unable to use even though he feasted
on all the known luXurieS, wore the finest raj
ment the world produces and travelled in all
lands known to man. The world holds the
former to be a criminal, and in this cOnclu-
sion even the most debased heart acknowledges
tSelf-inwardy if not Openly-amendable to the
law.
But with the latter it is different; with cold,
unfeeling heart he sees the sallOw faced woman
and child, the rough handed man, work day by
day while health and strength last; he sees many
drop out of his employment unable longer to en-
dure the life of want. and disappear.
The universal brotherhood of man, while prob
ably the most beneficial agitation that we nave
witnessed in life, falls upon these rough and stony
hearts as the waters of tiny rivulet upon bed
of granite. In ages the rivulet will will wear
away its confinement, but avarce in the heart
of the sordid man knows no law, knows no God
save that of wealth.
Listening to the patriotic utterances of the
Fourth of July celebrations have often
thought of our late civil war, of the thousands of
poor, brave souls on each side who barred their
breasts in defense of the things which they con-
ceived to be right; of the rich nabobs who
set back and dictated lines of encouragement
and with the same pen offered aid financially to
the government upon terms IsadOr Goldstein
the pawn broker would blush to ask Take any
leading newspaper and you will see in flowing
headlines accounts of strikes. riots and even
bloOdshed, in all sections of this country. The
rich will tell you it is anarchy; the poor will tell
you the causes originated with such men as Car
magic who for years, like an Indian vampire. has
sucked the blood from thousands of American
citizens, and when oppression became danger
GUS hied himself to his foreign castle in Scotland.
having nhuman tools to carry On the work of
devastation and ruin of many poor and unfOrtu-
nate homes. 1.-TWO wrongs never made a right"
We would not for a moment have one to believe
suffered since the day that Lazarus begged the
crumbs from the rich mans table, until this day
doing the same thing. But we must, shall and
WILL have the poor protected: if we do not.
man must degenerate. Rendered desperate by
seeing. his wife and children in misery and want
we will see war of determination. For ages
the common lot of man has been about equal to
the African slave before the war. No doubt one
will say: Look at the hundreds of poor boys
who have risen from povety to wealth, who have
risen to be presidents like Abraham Lincoln and
James A. Garfield" We answer by saving: ITO
a hundred you show us we will show you a mill
ion who have failed not only failed, but have
passed through life without having the necessi-
ties of life, brought to untimely ends by working
in crowded tenements. working in mines. work.
ing in factories and other places where it is inn
possible for life to reach the allotted time. The
future can not drag on like the past. Education
has opened the eyes of the poor: the yoke will
either be cast aside or it will be put where it
was in the dark ages. The commencement has
been made. No one can tell the ending.