Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1897-09-14

hemispheric The middle classes III
this country, upon whom the nation
has depended for holding the balance
of power and for acting as mediators
between the two extremes, are dimin-
ishing; anG IL things go on at the same
ratio as they are now going, 1t will not
be very long before there will be no
middle class in this country, but all
will be very rich or very poor, princes
or paupers, and the country will be
given up to palaces and novels.
The antagonistic forces are closing
in upon each other. The Pennsyl-
vania miners strikes, the telegraph
operators strikes, the railroad en-
ployes' strikes, the movements of the
boycotters and the dynamiters are only
skirmishes before a general engage
ment, or. if you prefer it, escapes
through the safety-valves of an i'm
prisoned force which promises the ex-
plosion of society. You may pooh
pooh it; you may say that this trouble,
like an angry child, will cry itself to
sleep; you may belittle il by calling 1t
Fourierism, or Socialism, or St. SIM
onism or Nihilism, or Communism;
but that will not hinder the fact that
it is the mightiest, the darkest, the
most terrific threat of this century.
All attempts at pacifcation have been
dead failures, and monopoly is more
arrogant. and the trades unions more
bitter. "Give US more wages" cry the
employees. you shall have less" say
the capitalists. Compel US to do few
er hours of toll in a day" You shall
toll more hours" say the others.
Then, under certain condition, We will
not work at all, say these. Then you
shall starve," say those, and the work
men gradually using up that which
they accumulate in better times, I'M
less there be some radical change, we
shall have soon in this country four
million hungry men and women. Now,
four millions hungry people cannot be
kept quiet All the enactments OF leg
islatures and all the constabularl3s OF
the cities, and all the army and navy
of the United States cannot keep four
million hungry people quiet. What
then? Will this war between capital
and labor be settled by human wis
dom? Never.
shall first show you how this quar-
rel between monopoly and hard work
cannot be stopped, and then | Will
show you how this controversy will be
settled.
Futile remedies. In the first place
there will come no pacification to this
trouble through an cutlery against rich
men merely because they are rich.
There is no member of trades union
on earth that would not be rich if he
could be. Sometimes through a for
tunate invention, or through some ac-
cident of prosperity, man who had
nothing comes to a large estate, and
we see him arrogant and supercilious,
and taking people by the throat just
as other people took him by the throat.
There is something very mean about
human nature when it comes to the
top. But it is no more sin to be rich
than it is a sin to be poor. There are
those who have gathered a great es-
tate through fraud, and then there are
millionaires who have gathered their
fortunes through foresight in regard
to changes in the markets, and through
brilliant business faculty, and every
dollar of their estate is as honest as
the dollar which the plumber gets for
mending a pipe, or the mason gets for
hn
keep in poverty because of their own
fault. They might have been well-ofi,
but they gave themselves to strong
drink, or they smoked or chewed UP
their earnings, or they lived beyond
their means, while others on the same
wages and on the same salaries went
on to competency. l know a man who
is all the time complaining of his pow
erty and crying out against rich men,
while he itself keeps two dogs, and
chews and smokes, and is filled to the
chin with whisky and beer!
Micawber said to David Copperfield:
"Copperfield, my boy, one pound in
come, twenty shillings and sixpence
expenses: result misery. But, Copper
field, my boy, one pound income, ex-
penses nineteen shillings and six
pence; result, happiness" And there
are vast multitudes Of people who are
kept poor because they are the vic
tins of their own improvldence. 1t
is no sin to be rich, and it is no sin
to be poor. / protest against this out
cry which / hear against those who,
through economy and self-denial and
assiduity. have come to large fortune.
This bombardment of commercial sue
cess will never stop this quarrel be-
tween capital and labor.
Neither will the contest be settled
by cynical and unsympathetic treat
ment of the laboring classes. There
are those who speak of them as though
they were only cattle or draught
horses. Their nerves are nothing,
their domestic comfort is nothing,
their happiness is nothing. They have
no more sympathy for them than a
hound has for q hare, or a hawk for
a hen, or tiger for a calf. When
Jean Vatican, the greatest hero of Vic
tor Hugo's writings, after a life Of suf-
fering and brave endurance, goes into
incarceration and death. they clap the
book shut and say, Good for him."