The Louisiana populist. [volume] (Natchitoches, Natchitoches Parish, La.) 1894-1898, 1895-09-06
YOU SHOULD THINK.
WHO is 1T THAT'S HELPED'BY
GOVERNMENT.
Where Is the Trouble? Is it in Produc-
tion, Distribution or is 1t In Our Cur
rency system, or Does Monopoly Rule
This Country:

1nis country
| You have heard some smart and
important" men declare that .'gov-
erment cannot help the people, :"
haven't you? Did you ever think
about this? Did you ever try to find
out whether these very men were not
themselves being helped by gov
ernment? Let US look at it and be
honest:
Are not national bankers prosper
Gus because they have government
help"
Are not bondholders prosperous be-
cause they have government .help?"
Are not the thieving trusts and
scheming syndicates prosperous be-
cause they have government ''help?n
Are not the owners Seldom the in
ventors) of valuable patents prosper
Gus because they have government
''help?"
Are not those who hold valuable
land out of use ard set legal owner
ship above natural ownership pros
porous because they have government
'.help?"
Are not the owners of street rail
ways and gas plants and electric
light plants prosperous because they
have government "help?"
Fanally, is not many an otherwise
impecunious lawyer, who defends the
whole brood of monopolists, prosper
GUS because he gets government
''help?"
Don't you think you would be pros
porous if government would help
you to monopoly or something the
people were compelled to use?
The fact is, friend, that nobody is
anybody in America to-day without
government .help?" The fellows
who are being ''helped" by govern
ment rather enjoy the '.help;'' they
live sumptuously and die comforta-
bly,; they have seized upon govern
ment Tor their own advantage. Now,
is 1t not clear that the duty of the
masses-the workers-is to seize the
government for the general benefit?
Ii it takes twenty pounds of cotton
to get dollar. isn't there something
the matter with the dollar?
II you have to work ten hours to
get dollar, when you used to get
two for ten hours, what's the matter?
Isn't the matter in the dollar?
If it takes two bushels OF wheat to
get a dollar, isn't there something
wrong with the dollar, when you
used to get dollar for one bushel?
II you have to sell twice as many
goods to get dollars enough to pay
store rent as you once did, is tho
trouble iu your goods or the dollars?
Ii the trouble is not in the dollar,
where is it? Wouldn't it be a good
thing to locate the trouble, wherever
it Is, and then cure it? Or, do you
think good times will cure it? If
you do. what do you say to this fact:
With the same kind of ''good times"
as we have had in the past, ard the
same concentration of wealth in the
hands OF the people who don't create
it, all the wealth in fourteen years
will be owned by a few monopolists. |
Who will own you then? Who will |
own your children? Can you think? |
Don't flatter yourself that the lone
idea Of more money will settle the |
labor problem. 1t will bring relief, |
but this is an age of machinery and
the machines that make shoes.
clothes, coats, hats, wagons, plows,
that bale hay. plant, harvest and
stack wheat, set type, print, cut and
fold newspapers, pull stumps. plow
corn and work roads and in fact do
all kinds of labor so much better.
cheaper and quicker than you can,
will find employment while you are
idle, no matter how plentiful money
may be. Nine million producers now
supply the wants of our sixty or sew
enty millions of people. few more
inventions equal to the type-setting
machines. hay-balers and stump
pullers and that number will be re-
auced one-half. You see the labor
ing man will soon be largely like an
outgrown suit OF clothes. Coming
nation.