The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-10-25
CLASSES VERSUS MASSES.

trines.
CLASSES VERSUS MASSES.
With increasing and alarming fire.
quency we are hearing from hastings
and seeing in the press the terms
Glasses and masses and demagogic
speakers and writer's make appeals to
the one against the other the piece de
resistance of their efforts 1t is said
that, when Mr.. and Mrs. Bryan re-
turned from the convention that placed
the husband in nomination for the
presidency, some one asked the wife
what was going to be the leading issue
in the campaign her husband was to
inaugurate and press, and she senten-
tiously replied, "the masses against the
classes" Whether authentic or not,
Mr.. Bryans course gives it counte-
nance. But he is not original or unique
in this. The cry has been heard for
years from all those agitators who seek
to stir up discomfort and strife that
they may find profit in it and it's re-
suits. For twenty years we have been
made more and more familiar with the
thought that here, in this free republic,
our citizenry is being separated into
classes, with hostile interests, the line
of division running generally between
those who work for wages and those
who employ them.
The ultimate end of such teaching is
revolutions like that which deluged
France in blood a century ago, and
whose minor consequences we have
seen in this country in strikes and lock-
outs and in the riots at Pittsburg, Buff
falo and Chicago. That it will work
out its legitimate and bloody end here
if 1t continue to make progress at the
rate 1t has for twenty years; is as GER
tain as is anything that can be pred
icated on human action following hui
man motive. 1t is well to begin to ana
lyze 1t, to trace it's sources, and, so far
as is possible, remove it's causes The
first and ineradicable one is envy. to
which even intelligent minds succumb,
but that alone would never gather head
to rise to a force that would threaten
the peace of society. 1t is where envy,
is reinforced by sense of injustice, of
unfair favoritisn, of unequal opportun-
ity enjoyed by some and withheld from
others, that envy takes on bitter
ness and desperation that vents it
self in violence If there is anything
in our policies or laws that aids in ere
ating this feeling it behooves us to re-
move it.
1t is, we repeat an anomaly, a con-
.tradiction, that in this republic, whose
government Is based on the declara-
ton that "all men are created equal"
and which was instituted to insure to
each of it's citizens the equal right to
life, liberty and the pursuit of happi-
ness" there. should exist a feeling
that there are classes to be envied and
masses to be irritated by the discrimi-
nations that create the former. It is
a singular outgrowth of freedom that
there should be so prevalent feeling
among those who work for wage that
their employers are their enemies, and
that capital and labor are naturally
and inevitably in a position of antago-
nism. One can imagine such a condi-
ton under a government that recog-
nized rank and noble birth, even if
history did not teach the fact. In such
a government the basic theory is that
the mass Of people are unable to take
care Of themselves, to direct their ener-
gies, to manage their own affairs.
whether private or public They are
children, and the government is the
watchful, wise and just parent, shield
ing. guarding, protecting them. The
classes are merely the agents appointed
to carry into effect the purposes Of the
government. The king partitions his
kingdom among the nobility, and they
in turn are charged with the care Of
the subjects.
Glasses and masses are natural and
inevitable in paternal governments or
in those whose policies are directed on
paternal lines In such countries one
might expect that, when the king and
his agents became negligent in their
trust, or when, Influenced by that sell
fishness that is universal trait, they
abused their trust for their own ad-
vantage. one would see, as the world
has seen, discomfort among those cared
for rising into revolt, and the asser-
ton Of the capacity of the Individual to
take care of himself. One would ex-
pect to see, as we have seen, the care
takers more and more relieved of their
duties, and their power changed into
freedom Of the subject And one would
expect to see, as we have seen, the
distinction of class either obliterated
or made IAN empty and mere borrowed
thing from dead mems dust and bones.''
The serious question then, for every
one who loves his country, it's peace.
good order and prosperity, is to in
quire whether there has grown up and
into. the policies of this republic any
thing akin to the distinctions among
citizens in monarchies, whether there
have come any of the theories and
practices of paternal governments. and
if go. to set himself to their removal
as the most dangerous and threatening