The Advocate and news., 1898-11-02
The Ability to Read and Write.
OLD OsAWATOMIR,


We boast Of our ability to read and write
and point with pride to the small percent
age Of our population outside these quail
flcations The glory of this would be
greatly increased provided those able to
read, did read. Then the boast would have
practical significance and be productive
Of great and beneicent results But how
Is 1t on this respect? What are the facts.
With pretty extensive and intimate ac-
quaintance of society both here and IN
one Of the older States, 1 aver that one
quarter Of the electors Of the country never
read anything at all from one end Of the
year to another. Another fourth patronize
the story papers and blood and thunder
emanations Of the great cities, and per-
haps run over the village or county paper
for the gossip 1t contains Still another
fourth Is made up of the small politicians,
office seekers and office-holders and their
echoes and heelers; and to these the coun-
try editor weekly administers his plcka-
yune doses of peanut politics made up Of
mud singing, Misrepresentation and dis
tortion and they gulp it down with relish
Of genuine satisfaction and greed. That
leaves fourth Of the electorate as consid-
crate and thoughtful citizens, who duly
value their rights and privileges, socially
religiously and politically, and strive to dis
charge their duty to God and their coun.
try in an honest and conscientious man
ner. But II is astonishing how few Of
even this class understand the fundamental
principles Of society; they are so welded
to the traditions and teachings Of the past.
They are largely given to religion and
make that their chief subject of contem-
plation and thought, and yet as singular
as 1t may appear, very few Of such COM
prehend the fundamental grounds of their
religion When questioned as to this, they
answer, "Why, q belief In and reliance
upon the Savior" But way back of that,
what made this belief so indispensable and
why the necessity Of the ifterposition Of
providence by way of Savior? l won't
add why did God permit sin to come into
the world and why did he not wipe it from
the face Of the earth, ETC. Because these
are the great questions that cracked the
brain Of the celebrated orthodox divine
and commentator on the scriptures, AL
bert Barnes, of Philadelphia, and brought
hun to a lunatic asylum and the grave.
And still less have the wisest of us
thoroughly comprehended the province ana
duty of government-that it is the province
of organized society to see that all enjoy
equal rights and opportunities and have
their share of the earth and air and light
and heat that God has provided for all;
and the bounden duty of governments las
Jesus Christ, the first and original demo-
crat and Thomas Jefferson, the second,
taught) to sympathi2e with and take care
of the weak and lowly and protect them
from the domineering and the strong;
whereas our governments actually give
and grant franchises and privileges to ia
vorites and to the powerful that author
ize and employ them to prey upon poor
humanity and aggrandize themselves or
the sweat Of it's face and its labor and toi!.
1t Is coming to be generally understood
that every man not only has the right to
live but has right to a share of the good
things of this world. That right Is given
by God and nature, the mother of us all.
And the right to live includes the means of
living; and no one Is empowered or COM
mlssiOned to nullify this right or set t
aside Whenever that Is done a gross
wrong is committed against our common
mother which somehow or other and some
time or other will be avenged. For GOD
and nature sooner or later aVenge thelc
own wrongs. And as a condition OF ex-
lstence every man is entitled to the earn
ings Of his lands. And yet the astounding
fact was developed by the last national
census as stated by Carroll D. Wright,
United States Labor Commissioner, that
the millions of workers in our mechanical
and manufacturing industries reap but IL
per cent. of the products of their labor
seventeen cents of every hundred produced,
though labor constitutes from 80 to 50 per
cent. of such product and in no country
in Europe does it receive less than 30 per
cent. and from that to so. What becomes
of the other % per cent. in our case? Where
does that land? Why, In the pocket OF the
employer, is absorbed in capital and trans
portation. And what Is the result; what
the consequence of this unfair and unjust
division OF the proceeds OF toll? II is seen
in the sudden advent of few thousand
mlllionaires in the country, who neither
toll nor do they spin, but by manipula-
ton Of our money and laws, by bonds and