The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1896-05-07
in our considerations. Let us turn

our attention for moment to the
AstoY- Willing wedding which was
celebrated in Philadelphia in 1892
and is estimated to have cost
100000 exclusive of gowns and
gifts. The bill for flowers alone was
100000. The necklaces, jewels, and
diamonds received are valued Mt
$500, 10000. The gifts all together
are enough to make half dozen
persons exceedingly wealthy. The
greatest expenses lay in the running
Of the special trains and the renting
of two large hotels. What grand
display it must have been What n
gorgeous sight must have confront
ed the aristocratic guests What
Joy, what consolation, what pride
must have resided in the hearts of
those happy guests, if they did not
need To think of any want, calamity,
or woe But who knows how many
poor souls in that one city alone
were suffering untold horrors, were
subjected to privations and misery
that, WREN told, would make the
hardest hearts melt into tears. OF
compassionl Thousands of them
hungering and thirsting, thousands
of children and others but n short
distance from the gorgeous affair, at
that very moment, in extreme pow
erty. lamenting their deplorable con.
dtion Should the suffering mass
be helped out of their dire calaml-
tyl Did God place man i'll this
world with the design that they diff.
fer 50 widely in their worldly re-.
lationsl That few of them should
own the world and the mass of peo-
pie be deprived of their proportion
of this worlds happiness God
created man free aud equal. He en-
dowed each with certain rights and
privileges that are by nature pc.
culiarly their own. Why should
this difference exist?
A writer in the July number 1852
of the .1Hantic Monthiy represents
the President of the Wabash II. II.
exhibiting IT, "A group of friends bis
S2S, ,OOO,OO of Missouri Pacific
Stock, SS,OOO,OOO of Elevated rail
road Stocks and bonds, $40, 900, coo,
of common aud preferred and some
additional S2O,00n,0 200. invested in
various securities; and the writer
tells us, while this successful specu-
lator was spreading out his millions,
n day laborer in the employ of his
company, whose wages had been
kept back that dividend might be
paid its members, said to a reporter
that he and his family were the
verge of starvation and +, an
infrin, old man, in reply les
tions, answered: "My o
dollars a moDsi; nv o
Sia. rL,s leaves US 81 per month
for clothing, medicine and other
necessaries. My pay is 1915 IA
month and 1 have to wait two
months for that" Surely the scene
in the Wood of the Senart is not
more marked by light and shade than
this. And yet this is but one ex.
ample of social inequality which can
easily and indefinitely be duplicated.
No wonder that such state of af-
fairs gives rise to the communistic
prayer:
Lord send us weeks OF sundays,
\ saint day every day
shirt, gratis, alto breeches,
Less work aud double pay.
To some this may seem burlcs-
que but it gives rise TO II fault
which would certainly be found to
exist IN case the theory that the
government should control the in
dustrial affairs of our people. Here
Is where we must draw the line. /
believe it will be impossible Tor the
state to assume control of the in
of productions and do it
successfully. While the other phases
of the Social Question present ia
yorable aspects, the matter of the
state controlling the entire wealth is
a dangerous undertaking and one,
that would result in disastrous
If the mass of
the wealth of our land were
in the nations hands, what an
increase of political corruption
would we institute in our country.
Certainly political corruption and
vice is at present the nations worst
enemy, and to institute this reform
would be worse than to set fire to