The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-06-12
FIN HONESE
COVE lNMENT.
Is the Crying Need of the
Present Time.
SO SAYS THE REV. THOMAS
HINES.
The Government Cheats the Peo.
pie and Squanders More Mil
lions on Worse Than Useless
d. Fleets and Armies
Than Would Feed: All the Starving
Poor Who Have Become Sod.
den in Despair.


den in Despair.
I'VE have freely criticised the great
mass of the clergymen of the country
for their indifference to the wants of
the people and their subserviency to
the Monev-power. We are glad to find
one clergyman-and we believe he is a
Catholic at that, who is loyal to the
truth. The following is from the
Knights Of Labor journal. Show it
to your friends.-ED. REP.
In your issue of May 9, you say in
an editorial note, ''What we need is
a government that will give more
consideration to an honest laborer in
rags than to dishonest idler in
broadcloth. We want the honest la
borer to have the broadcloth and the
dishonest idler the rags To which
I respond, amen. In plain English /,
what we need above all else is an hon
est government. 1t has been said
that IAN honest man is the noblest
work of God" I affirm that an hon
est governmet is the noblest work Of
man. But how can we have an hon
est government of dishonest people?
A government is what the people
make it, and reflects the average SEN
timent Of the people who make the
government. We are dishonest peo-
pie. Like produces like, hence, ac-
cording to the laws of nature, we have
a dishonest government. The gov
ernment is what we have made it;
then why should we complain? Let
us first Of all reform ourselves, and
then we will have reformed govern
ment. Now, an honest government
means righteous government.
The Bible says. sRighteousness ex-
alteth nation; but sin is a reproach
to any people,"
Yes, righteousness exalteth a ma
tion; but where is national righteous
ness-that is, right living and just ac-
tions? On the one hand we see
thousands out of work, many are
starving, others in despair commit
on earth, feeling certain that there
can be nothing in the future life
worse than this. On the other hand,
the rich give magnificent parties, bril-
liant with lights, sweet-scented with
the perfume of flowers, rustling with
silks, glittering with diamonds and
costing thousands of dollars. But
what is the government doing in re-
gard to the matter? 1t is not idle.
1t is doing something for the people.
First it is selling us and our children
into bondage to the Money-power of
Great Britain-for bonds mean bond
age-and what England failed to do
more than century ago by the sword
and the bullet, she is about to accom-
plish without firing gun.
Second, this government is spending
more money in armies and navics, for
which we have absolutely no use, than
it would cost to feed the starving, OF
to build and equip factories to employ
all the idle people. But this is too
humane and honest a thing for a
brutal and dishonest government to
do. Besides, to provide work fol
the people would be paternal gov.
ernment-rank Socialism-and any.
thing is better than that. The
United States government would
rather feed the people with bullets
than with bread;manufacture murder
machines than build factories, or do
justice to the masses of the people.
In another editorial note Of the
same issue you say, "the capitalist
lives by the interest on his money, as
the king by his throne. Let the
workers learn to live without either
and the capitalist will be compelled
to live by his labor-live like the rest
of the world" Again / respond,
amen. This is but the law Of God
when we read, eff any will not work
neither shall he eat" This is ultra
Socialistic doctrine; but l believe
that the man who does not work
should starve. Men have no right to
live like leeches sucking out the life
blood OF others;nor like parasites on
the body politic. Yet we see men
who do no work living in mansions,
rolling in luxury, while their en-
ployes, who produce all the wealth, live
in huts, novels, damp cellars or mis-
cradle garrets in the depth of poverty
They toll early and late for bare
existence, without any of the luxuries
they have produced by their labor,
while their children perish for want
of proper food, fresh air, and medical
care. The American people are in
dignant when they hear or read about
evictions in Ireland for rent by Eng
lish landlords. and justly SO; but there
are ten times more evictions in this
land of the free for rent by American
landlords, than in Ireland. But what
| is a crime in Ireland is virtue in the
United States.
This whole land was Mortified re.
Gently at the cold -blooded massacre OF
| thousands of Armenians by the bloody
| Turks; public indignation meetings
were held, and the speakers demand
ed vengeance. Well, I agree with
them. The "Unspeakable Turk' is a
blotch upon the earth, disgrace to