The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1895-07-05
TIE PROBLEM OF LABOR
Murat Halstead Takes a Hope
full View.
A GOOD WORD FOE MONoPOLIEs.
The Real Relief OF the Peopie-Revolu-
tions of Peace and Evoiutions of Plenty.
Inventions, Finance, Government Own
ership and the Supply Of Gold.
Copyright. 1895. ]

lnventions, FINANCE, Government own
ership and the Supply of Gold.
copyright. 1895.
There are always many men who believe
themselves as we'll equipped for great ca
tinction, and they are on the lookout for
issues, in the development of which new
crop of statesmen may be evolved, and
they mean To furnish the craftsmanship
and accept the contingent emolument.
The success of antislavery men in becom-
ing national leaders and abolishing the evil
they warred against has inspired all spe-
cialists with uncommon zeal. The Prohi-
bitionists fancied for several years that
they had patent for the greatness that
was TO belong TO those who overthrow the
giant evil of intemperance, and there was
at once desire to restrict the laborers and
passion To go into the politics of the ref
ormation and arise as governors and sena-
tors, and the display of intolerance was
extraordinary as tho enthusiasm. We
doubt whether the good old temperance
cause has been aided in good works by the
peculiar flavor impaired TO its politics. We
have had "a series of gentlemen variously
educated ana inspired, engaged in hand TO
hand encounters with the money powers,
and they have had remedies for all the
evils of inequality of fortune and other di-
versities of existence discoverable in the
conditions of our race. Paper money has
been much recommended. The destruction
of credit is esteemed specific. The object
OF the unlimited coinage" of paper money
is to swamp the securities that represent
the exchangeable forms of capital. The
accommodations of industry are held to be
the endorsements of mankind and the
enemies of the poor are those who have
saved earnings and planted them in -four
ishing situations.
Proposed Panaceas.
The latest freak of progress as 1t is in
terpreted by persons who are in the habit
of discovering wonders is that there is
something in labor that must go into poll
tics and impart "a new set of principles for
the conduct of the public. Barring faith
in flying machines and perpetual motions,
there is no surer sign of an cratic under
standing than belief Fat there is some
thing in the commonplace air that is about
to produce marvels The weak are always
wondering and have a fixed policy of dis
covering in trivial things amazing conse-
quences. Quackery in politics is even
are cure alls for all public woes-.the pat
ent medicines Of popular maladies. All
that is wanted is that some particular strip
shall be given or plaster applied, and all
will be well. The names of advanced and
less sanative are applied, and there you are
ready for anything incredible.
There Is fashion of assuming that there
aln IN ha laI1 ~ hat will al
everything for verybody-according To the
great Bill OF Tittleblat Titmouse-and the
less man knows about his own business
the grander he is for the management of
public interests. There is propaganda to
the effect that there is only little time
left before there will be revolutions, and
there are persons ready to rush to the front
and see that everything revolves and no
are made. The wages system, we
is to be- abolished as a sort Of
slavery. There is to DO "a strike that is to
become universal No workingman who
Is not ORGANIZED shall have any rights any
where. Tho people are TO take all the rail
roads for themselves and run them, and
all the telegraphs and telephones also, and
there Is To be no line of public Transports
ton that is not the property of the public,
When a walking delegate walks aboard
Pullman car or steamboat after the revo
luton it is his The people are to own
the government, and tho government is TO
take care of the people The railroads are
to be vastly extended, and so also the tele.
graphs. The farmers are all to have wires
run into their Kitchens and every man is
to toe furnished with "a newspaper which is
to give him all the official information he
wants and tell him just what to do. The
whole people are TO constitute an official
class, and while wages are To be abolished
salaries arc TO be abundant. The govern
ment will absorb all functions, and al per-
sons are TO do very much according to
their pleasure. There is TO be rich mo-
notony OF existence. The cult of the
fashionable madness that the majority OF
men arc wronged and desperate is that
there must lac an uprising. The republican
form Of government, we are instructed is
to be abolished as a failure like all the
rest The accustomed vociferation of the
anarchists and the labor socialists is that
the state Of things is so bad that there
must be awful Neutrality-suspicious., tidal
waves, earthquakes, floods and fires. The
first law is not to be order, but anarchy.
Let us ,1ause and inquire What is the
matter with things? Is it permitted to
doubt lii,,t the conditions of humanity are
altog,~rGr deplorablo to desperation? Is it
alloS,uble to imagine that there is not any
thing stunning about to occur anywhere?
Mag we ask where is the fire that makes
tie smoker Could or should one survive
tho fancy that centuries will come and go
without cracking the shell of the earth? 1t
would not do, Of course, to venture the
opinion that labor is not SO badly off as has
been alleged provided work is not aban
doned. We mean other work than that of
agitation. There is, however, good deal
yet 10 do beside diverting labor into poll
tics as trade occupation and profession.
Persons may be found capable of believing
that people can live several years without
the confiscation of railroad corporations
The grievances of labor that are so con-
stantly mentioned might be rendered more
ineligible If they were formulated by
men familiar with more than one work
bench. Before practical politicians leave
the old roads they want to know where the
new ones are known TO lead. Have we not
been studying astronomy too much and
geography too littlep Labor should be
practical if politics becomes its leading in
dustry.
Elevating Influences.
We propose TO examine the potential in
fluences that are changing the face of the