The herald., 1896-08-10
PINGREE AND POVERTY

Notwithstanding the powerful oppo-
sition of the machine politicians of their
party, the Republicans of Michigan have
nominated for governor Mayor Pingree
Potato patch Pingree," as he is nick
named-of Detroit. Thus again has it beer
demonstrated that the rule of the 'prac-
tical politician" in conventions Is a
| mighty uncertain quantity In these days
| of popular independence. The men who
| have made it their business to carry
around ward and district delegations,
like watches and small change, have,
apparently, this year had need for less
capacious vest pockets. The delegations,
to very liberal extent, seem TO have
toted themselves.
The nomination of Pingree, it might as
well be recognized at once, will compel
the Democrats of Michigan to do some
hustling il they would capture the chief
magistracy of the Wolverine state. in
| the several years that he has served as
mayor OF the commemorative principal
city, he has acquired political assets
of most valuable kind for his guberna
torial campaign and is, in consequence.
stronger than his party. and it is mex
plicable how the latter has been able to
retain its hold on him. A man Of his ad
vanced and sensible ideas ought to have
escaped from such an organization of
! fallacy and fraud long since.
During his official career Pingree has
| done many striking things, but the chief
of them all was the introduction of a
scheme for alleviating distress among
the idle of Detroit which resulted in
his acquiring the sobriquet of Potato
patch Pingree." Unlike most of the
leaders of his party, Pingree has exhib-
tied an ability to grasp fundamental
economic truth--that there should be no
idle labor as long as there is idle land.
In his first term as mayor he saw idle
labor and idle land in abundance in his
city, and the prospect of the ensuing WIN
ter being made woeful with the wants of
the involuntarily unemployed. He set
himself to work to wed the idle labor AM
the idle land His efforts in this direction
resulted in the owners of hundreds OF
vacant lots and tracts of land allowing
their holdings to be used for the produc-
ton Of vegetables by people who could
satisfy the mayor that they were de-
serving and We're threatened with want
because of their inability to obtain en-
ployment in the ordinary way. OF course,
the land thus loaned by its holders was
divided in equita BILE proportions among
the applicants for it. The capital needed
to utilize it, the tools implements, seed
and horses for plowing-and it is sucn
that constitute capital. not money the
latter only represents capital-were
loaned by the city until such time as the
people allowed the use of the land were
able to secure returns on their labor in
vestment. OF course, In very many
cases no assistance Of the kind was
needed from the municipality. In con-
sequence of this marriage of idle land
and idle labor, hundreds were enabled
in an honest and reputable way. to keep
Threshold t n1f f. TfRst Pngfreeo sf otHsn obtHsn Of pefh
ting people willing to do so to help them
selves has been resorted to, with approx
imately as great success in other cities.
thus adding to the fame of the Detroit
mayor But, after all. the latter suiS-
gested nothing original 1t is not Pin
gree's plan, but natures plan.
Pingree did, however, call into action
natures plan, and deserves unstinted
credit for it. He is entitled to marked
distinction when we remember that SO
innumerable host of statesmen and re-
formers are endeavoring to ameliorate
the lot of those that have not through
the agency of plans that nature can have
no possible relationship to- And the sue
cess of this plan in Detroit's limited
sphere is suggestive to the student of So
cial conditions. Millions of human be-
ings, a good proportion of them among
the most faithful of toilers, never know
what it is to have enough of good, plain
food; and yet there Is more productive
land untitled than there is titled in the
world. Millions of people suffer annual
ly, and a liberal percentage perish each
year, from the winters cold, from which
they have neither sufficiency of cloth
ing nor of fuel to protect them; yet we'll
nigh boundless is the area for the pro-
duction of either the animal or the vege-
table creations from which man may
clothe his nakedness, and untold Is the
measure of the mineral substances from
which heat and light may be obtained.
Scattered over the globes surface, mil
lions of men, women and children live
under rdofs and between walls that
would seem to indicate that the earth
had been bankrupted of building mate
rial; vet the earth is as rich in the things
out of which human habitations may be
made as ever and their conversion to the
service of mans needs has, through
mans ingenuity, been made easier than
ever before. The spectacle of the families
of Want camped all over the earth OF
Plenty is as inexplicable as the starva-
ton of person in house with load
ed larder would be. Why is all this thus?
What is it that stands between those
that crave and the earth that has? Who
will furnish the explanation?
THE MONETARY TRUST AGAIN