The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-07-06

Waal, they're sellin' g
profit. Commercial farming must con-
form to the same stern law of business
that controls every other line, and COM
pels the successful business farmer to
smallest cost possible. 1t is only the
large farm that pays. There is on the
small farm but single constant tenant,
and that tenant is the mortgage. 1t is
never satisfied, is always hungry Its
mouth is open whether you are awake
or asleep.
I am not, however, a pessimist.
am full of hope. I see a universal
movement the world around of men Or
ganizing and taking advantage of pOliti-
cal equality to obtain economic equal
ity.
I have heard politicians before cleo
tion appeal to the "horny-handed sons
of toll" and speak of their sweat as
more precious than gems in an emper-
men have been misled by these glitter
ing generalities. The workingman is
not respected under the present system.
He is despised as servile animal. After
the ballots are counted, did the work.
ingman ever find himself within the sa-
cred enclosures of the inaugural ball
room? Oh, no. It is then just those
scars of labor on his hands which would
debar him from society. In this system
it don't pay to work, but to work
those who do. They say it is natures
law that some should be born to rule,
others to serve. I don't believe it. A
professor of the University of Chicago
has lately made an experiment. He
advertised for laborers at $1.25 per day.
HIS ADVERTISEMENT WAS AN
SWERED BY CROWDS OF MEN,
LARGELY COMPOSED OF COLLEGE,
BRED BOYS WHO COULD NOT FIND
WORK.
The army of tramps is increasing in
a ten-fold ratio year by year. One
class is growing smaller and richer, and
the other larger and poorer. Even this
false prosperity is but temporary. The
present administration will, of course,
keep it alive until after the next presj
Dental election. Then the bottom will
fall completely out.
The world now is in travail Compe-
tition is war, in which the great masses
of the people are helpless. The tobacco
trust, formed lately, is good example.
Soon as this trust was formed, and the
last capitalist with only two mill
ions of dollars forced into it (for he
could never compete against the many
times that amount in the trust), then
at once the price paid the farmers for a
hogshead of tobacco went down $50.
Eight hundred commercial travellers
were thrown out of employment, for
there being no competing firms, it. was
no longer necessary to drum up trade.
paid the farmers for tobacco went down,
or in other words, costs were decreased,
at the same time the trust raised the
price of tobacco 10 cents pound. Thus
by single stroke many millions were
stolen from the people by their despoil-
ers. Thus it is seen how the trusts
make in both ways.
Corporate capital holds sway inside
the lobby and everywhere. If permit
ted entrance to heaven, private capital
would corner the gold on the streets
and put meter on every sunbeam. The
people have tons of appetite and no
food, and capitalists all the food.
Even the beneficiaries of this system
are cursed. The Rockefellers and Pull
mans are convicts for life, with no par
doning power. Their offices are sur
rounded by detectives. Conscience pur-
sues them. The supreme court has just
granted the penal town of Pullman
what the strikers years ago contended
for. Pullman pressed the legal button
and called out the military. Power was
on his side then. But he trampled on a
moral law. From that moment his