The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-03-27

has. hanged them. when, indeed, only for
that cazse shey have been most uosthv to
live. Thou dost ride in foos-ciofh, doss
thou not,
.ssay-what Of THAR
s4Cads-Aa-ry. thou oughtest not 70 let
fby horses wear . cloak, when honester
men than thou 90 in their boss and deuo-
lets.
'-Dick-And work In their shirt, too: ~
myself, for example, sha: am butcher"
This passa1s IL as a6mirahls BIT Of
satire on the ignorant and malicious phil
osophy OF modern populism and socialism
rs If IL had been written for cur own day.
Cade accepts the logical Issue Of his phil
osophy for he declares in favor Of sexual
communism Surely there is nothing new
under the sun; the Populism that shak-
speare sa:irizes 10 good enough in its ac-
curacy 20 serve a. caricature Of the Pop
ulisn OF today.
The industrial army" that At Los An
geles. Cal. demanded food Of the city and
county. and transportation Of the railroad
companies was dispersed under thu vag.
rant act. and Coxey's industrial army It 10
likely viii meet the same fate. Its rank
and file are a. rule nothing but crowd
Of ''hobos," calling themselves the ''heiots
and slaves Of industry" when 90 per
cent Of them would not today saw wood
TO pay for their breakfast. A mob OF this
sort recently visited the Massachusetts,
state house and threatened TO take the law
In their own hands. crying Down with
the police; down with capital" The gov.
ernor cowed their leaders by the firmness
with which he faced them and said:
Now. my friends. you say you want pub
lie works TO be started and you want the
state TO furnish you with employment
Let me suggest some Of the difficulties
which stand in the way. What is the
state7 The state 10 the taxpayer. the
workingmen and women of Massachusetts,.
No public work can be undertaken in this
commonwealth unless, first, it is neces-
sary: second. unless IL Is beneficial; third,
unless there il enough money in the treas
ury to pay for it."
The Ermness and common sense talk Of
the governor saved Boston from the dis
grace Of such riot and bioodshed as fol-
lowed tho Lord George Gordon mob
and parliamentary petition of malicious
ignorance State socialism would be sure
to end either in social despotism as brutal
n that of Sparta, or il would end in an
archism. No more pernicious doctrine
was ever preached from the pulpit than
that which declares that poverty is the
consequence Of injustice" In individual
cases this is sometimes true. but in a broad
sense the great army OF thriftless ne'er-do-
wells 10 recruited from the ranks Of those
who have thrown away every early oppor-
tunisy through stupidity. drunkenness.
dishonesty and unsteadiness. As long
ago ~ the days Of Augustus G asar that
astute statesman refused to make en- or
nous donations Of corn to the populacs
on the simple ground that it only served
to saddle the state with an army Of loaf
ers, tramps, suckers and deadbeats who
would never till the soil so long as the
government donated corn. Thus the
steady and prosperous would bear a
perennial and perpetual burden Of
incidence, animalism and incapacity.
Thus the hard-working. decent. industrious
poor would be obliged to support all the
incompetents and indolsnt paupers Of the
country in addition TO supporting them
selves. OF the results Of state paternal-
ism in bad times the New York Erening
Post says that in case the state offered
opportunities to workingmen in bad
times. it would. of course, find itself with
immense quantities of goods on hand for
which there was no market. for the de-
mand for opportunities would be greatest
when the demand for goods was slackest
These goods. like all goods made by men
who have neither pride in their work nor
fear of dismissal before their eyes, would
probably be of poor quality, and, in de-
fault Of purchasers. they would have to be
stored. and being stored woIid depreci-
ate. The outgo for wages and material
would. however, continue, and would
have 10 come out of the taxes, and the
worse the times were, of course, the
heavier the taxes would be. and IL is the
industrious men who found their own
opportunities who would hava to pay
them. How long would they stand this
system9 How long would it be before
they withdrew the opportunities and
drove the opportunity men to the work
house OF the waste lands"