The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1897-09-10

ke4i4.|atA
-''--"AN N"A"" between the two
REV TALMAeE- extremes, are di-
minishing, and if things go on at the
same ratio as they are now going it
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 Pennsylvania
miners strikes, the telegraph opera
tors strikes, the railroad employees
strikes, the movements of the boycott
tiers 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
explosion 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 it
by calling it Fourierism, or socialism,
or st. Simonism. or nihilism. or COM
munism; but that will not hinder the
fact that it is the mightiest, the dark
est, the most terrific threat of this
century. All attempts at pacification
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. Com
pei us to do fewer hours of toll in
day You shall toll more hours"
say the others. Then, under certain
conditions, we will not work at all, F"
say these. Then you shall starve."
say those, and the workmen gradually
using up that which they accumu-
lated in better times. unless there
be some radical change. we shall
have soon in this country 1000, 600
hungry men and women. Now. 4, OOO,-
600 hungry people cannot be kept
quiet. All the enactments of legisla-
lures and all the consta bularies of the
cities, and all the army and navy of
the United States cannot keep 1000, 600
hungry people quiet. What then?
Will this war between capital and Ia
Dor be settled by human wisdom?
Never. The brow of the one becomes
clinched.
But that which human wisdom can
not achieve will be accomplished by
Christianity if it be given full SWAY.
You have heard of medicines so pow
erful that one drop will stop disease
and restore patient; and l have to
tell you that one drop of my text prop
erly administered will stop all these
woes of society and give convalescence
and complete health to all classes.
Whatsoever We would that men should
do to you, do you even so to them"
l shall first show you how this quar-
rel between monopoly and hard work
cannot be stopped, and then l will
show you how this controversy will be
settled.
Futile remedies. In the first place
there will come no pacifcation 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 fortu-
nate invention, or through some ac-
cident of prosperity, a man who had
nothing comes to 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 lit is no more sin to be rich
than it is sin to be poor. There are
those who have gathered a great estate
through fraud, and then there are mill
liOnaires who have gathered their for
tunes 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 pipe, or the mason gets for |
slilding a wall. There are those who |
Geep in poverty because of their own |
fault They might have been well off, but |
they gave themselves to strong drink. |
or they smoked or chewed up their |
or they lived beyond their /
means, while others on the same wages /
and on the same salaries went on to /
l know a man who is all /
the time complaining of his poverty
anu u Y AliS OuL dSdlLlSL IACtA AI4cls white
he himself keeps two dogs, and chews
and smokes, and is filed to the chin
with whisky and beer,
Micawber said to David Copperfeld:
''Copperfield, my boy, e income, 2Os cd
result, misery. But, Copper
field, my boy, Il income, expenses 19s
Cd; result, happiness" And there are
.,aonla who ara Liant NOR bacausa tbav- !
are victims of their own improvidence.
1t is no sin to be rich, and it is no sin
TO be poor. l protest against this out
Try which l hear against those who,
through economy and self-denial and
have come to large fortune.
This bOmbardment of commercial sue
,ess will never stop this quarrel be-
tween capital and labor.
Neither will the contest be settled