The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1896-06-10
WANTS M'KINLEY TIN
THOUGHTS OF A WORKINGMAN DUR
ING IDLE HOURS.
Lesson CT the Empty Dinner Pail Laid
Upon the Kitchen Shelf-"Cheap" Goods
Cannot BE Bought by "Cheaper" Labor.
Why the Masses Are For McKinley,

In public discussions as TO the fitness
of the several aspirants for the Repub-
lican nomination 70 the presidency ii
seems TO me that very few important
essentials are entirely overlooked. News
paper writer's who do not appreciate or
who are not in touch with the sentiment
of the masses of the people fail to reach
true understanding of their desires.
Moreover, they overlook all future pos
sibilities, as a rule. There are very few
newspaper writers who look far into the
future or who really think. They are
content with the business of the day,
with the events Of the day, caring little
for the morrow or taking heed what
day may bring forth.
But there is more real earnestness in
the minds and considerations of the
masses of the people than we would be
led TO imagine, Judging by the tenor
and tone of our daily press. And the
events of the past few years have devel-
oped this earnestness of thought Men
have been brought face to face with the
compelled TO take heed what day may
bring forth. "A condition, not theory,
has confronted them" Dwell for mo-
ment upon the position of man who,
year in and year out, has been able to
sell his labor for good wages. He has
lived well; he has given his family far
better education than he was himself
enabled to secure; he is procuring
home for them; he is giving them COM
forts and little luxuries, the ability TO
do which cheers him at his work and
adds zest 10 his homecoming Let such
a man, through no fault of his own, be
brought face to face with the fact that
on the morrow there will be no demand
for his labor, that he cannot sell his
finished productive strength of his
arm and the mechanical skill Of his
braln-in the great markets of the Unit
ed States.
1t has taken many men long time
to realize fully the true depth of what
this means: At work day after day,
wages earned week after week, year in
and year out. But tomorrow cannot
sell my labor. My boss has no use for
it. What does it mean" Imagine
steady, hard working man suddenly con-
fronted with such condition. Imagine
him, if you can. going home to his wife,
to his children, telling them that he is
an idler, that he cannot earn for them
their next days bread and meat. There
is no demand for his strength or skill
Nobody needs him. He feels his arm,
his muscle. It is good and strong as
ever. The paralysis is not there. But the
country is paralyzed-paralyzed with
the cheap labor products Of foreign
mills, sent here from foreign countries,
admitted into our markets by the Demo
cratic party, that promised him higher
wages, more work, cheaper goods and a
period Of prosperity and revelry such as
he had never dreamed Of
And where are his higher wages? He
has no work. Where is that period Of
prosperity and revelry? Alas, he has the
time to enjoy it, his time is all his ownl
But he sees no prosperity, no revelry,
Even happiness, the true happiness Of
industry, has fed from his home. And
the cheaper" goods, the product of
Cheap foreign labor that has sup
planted his own labor, that has made
him an idler, how can he buy these
cheaper goods when he lacks the
money to buy such food as he had been
accustomed to provide for his family
and which they must now do without?
OF what use to him are these "cheap"
goods? They have "cheapened' his la
Dor and stand far more costly to him
today because Of his inability to earn
the money that will buy for him the
veriest trash that was ever made in a
foreign factory or in a European prison.
Such are the Cheap" goods that he