The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-12-18
A SICK ROOM LETTER.

A SICK ROOM LETTER.
KIND AND GENEROUS THOUGHTS
OF THE PRESIDENT OF THE
STATE ALLIANCE.
Dover, Dec. II, 1895, midnight.
Editor Representatives:
After weeks of watching and waiting
our son begins to gradually come back
towards life. 1t has been my intention
to put in the last half of November and
all of December in Alliance work, but.
alas, how easily our plans are scattered
to the winds. l have scarcely left nv
house for seven weeks, and all the time
filled with that anxiety that we are all
called to feel when our loved ones are
lowering between the grim monster and
life. All thoughts of sleep leaves us;
we watch for some little symptom on
which we can build a mountain of hope;
we find it, our mountain is built; how
bright everything looks, few hours of
grand, buoyant, all inspiring hope; when
10! we notice the temperature is rising;
the pulse becomes quickened, our noun
tain of hope has vanished, the foetd
waters in the slough of despond are in
it's place. So go the days and weeks. We
pay no attention to business; hundreds
of dollars are paid out to skilled surgeons
for few minutes work, without
thought of the price of grain; yes, a
lifetime of toll would be thrown in for
one substantial ray of hope Yes, these
are our feelings and thoughts as we sit
by the bedside Of our sick children
How selfish we are! What a. selfish
world this is,-this Christian civilization
of which we have been SO proud. One
great capitalist, like George A. Pullman,
can cut down the wages of his men until
the little boys (who are as dear to their
parents as my boy is to mel are starved
and deformed, and as long as the wage
paid the father will keep life in the fam
lily, so long will he labor on. While
George A. Pullman gives few thousand
dollars of the blood money he has taken
from these wage slaves and gives it
to some church or school, our great daily
papers in their next issue proclaim to the
world and the next Sunday all the fash
ionable divines cry out in the pulpit:
Behold, what a Christian gentleman he
is! He has a heart like an ox!' Rookie
Teller presses the button, and up goes
kerosene two, three or four cents a gall
lon, making him millions of the pro-
ducers' and wage slaves blood money
Many and many a sick room is in the
dark tonight; the sick can only feel the
kind ones who are watching and waiting;
but this coal oil king gives few thou
sand dollars of this Sick-rOom robbery,
and the leaders of society cry out with
one accord,-"Behold the great-hearted
gentleman A few foreign capitalists
combine with our millers to control the
price of -four SO that hunger is added
to the other suffering of the sick room.
But how easily our great Christian civil
cation can swallow this great robber COM
bine, if a few of the leaders only pay a
few thousand to foreign missions to place
this kind of rum and robber civilization
on the balance of the world. Tonight as
I sit here, looking onto the haggard face
of my son, the thought comes:-"Are you
warm enOugh?" Eyes, papa, there is
plenty of fire. But how many sick
rooms are cold tonight; no fire. My God,
how I would feel tonight if this room
was dark, cold and no food! And that
is the case with thousands of sick rooms
tonight in our great Republic. But why
should they be cold? We have millions
of tons of coal, but a robber coal COM
bine is in cohorts with the r. R. COM
panies and has placed the price of coal
so high that many a sick one, lowering
near deaths door, must lay and SILVER
with cold But what cares our great
Mammon- worshiping leaders Of society?
All the suffering is forgotten when the
robbers drop few dimes in the contri-
button box.
Our Government was not organized for
the benefit of these robbers, and it is our
fault if we are robbed. We can throttle
every combine in this land if we will
Let the government own the R. R. THAT
means the People, the great common peo-
ple.) Let us have graduated property
tax that would dissolve great combina-
lions of wealth; prohibit the alien owner
ship OF land; and above all let the peo-
pie have a full legal tender currency,
made of gold, silver and paper; with no
bank of issue.
Come, friends; call your Alliance meet
ings; get up clubs for reform papers.
We must not allow our organization to go
down. Organized we can do something, yes
everything; unorganized we can do moth
ing. Let none grow faint-hearted, he
greater the disadvantage under which
we fight the more courage we should
have for the more is required of us. Oh
that we might have a thousand delegates
to our next state Alliance meeting. How
we would make the great monopolst open
his eyes. }. l.. VERMlLYA.