Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1900-10-25
PROVES PROSPERITY.
The Nations Condition Shown in
Labor Day Demonstration.
Striking Contrast Compared with the
Conditions Which Surrounded
the Same Class CT Men
Four Years Ago.

| Four Years Ago.
| The demonstrations in every city
and hamlet in this country on Labor
day, when the industrial populations
poured through the streets in march
ing order, were certainly gratifying,
esuue display of the forces of so
ciety or as a token of the united
spirit which guides the destiny of the
nineteenth century workman. Rank
| after rank the marchers in labor
great annual parade presented the
most convincing evidence of the indus
trial prosperity that prevails through
i out the United States. In its personal
appearance, as well as in numbers, the
testimony admitted of no question.
For hours an army of well-fed, we'll
dressed cheerful workingmen filed
through the streets of all large cities,
and in small hamlets the parades were
none the less marked. This years
Labor day parade was essentially a
demonstration of the employed fairly
aglow withthe signsof satisfactonover
| plenty of labor at more remuneratlve
wages than labor has known in six
years. This years demonstration was
| the largest, the best-dressed, the best
fed and the best paid procession of
workingmen this country has ever
seen. There was expansion in its step,
| its smile and its waist measure.
Scarcely four years ago, under the
last Democratic administration, there
was a great agitation for free soup
/ houses where the workingmen who
were out of work, under President
! Cleveland's administration. could get
! free soup to keep them from starv-
! ing. Those same workingmen, under
only a couple of years of William Nc
| Kinleys administration, are now eat
| ing sirloin steaks, and the grounds
where the thousands of soup houses
stood four years ago. are now covered
with factories, employing thousands
of men a good wages. Yet the dem
ocratic party leaders, from Mr.. Bry-
an down. are trying to have the work
ingmen to vote to go back to the soup
house condition again. The American
| workingman will not vote himself out
of a good steady job at good wages
| for all the soup houses that the last
! Democratic administration produced.
| They are all voters. Every man who
holds in his hand an implement of la
Dor also holds a ballot. For the first
| time in the history of the labor move
ment in this country and under re-
| publican administration, the general
| prosperity of the country includes the
| prosperity of labor. The steadily in
creasing prosperity in the business
world was distinctly reflected in the
neat and satisfied appearance of the
| different organizations. The men and
women marched like people who are
self-confident and self-assertive-who
know that they are mighty force in
the work of widening and strengthen
| ing the nations fields of industry.
| They marched like men who dignified
labor by stamping it with their own
| manliness.
OF all our annual exhibitions none is
more impressive than that of Labor
day. 1t is grand demonstration OF
wealth-producing forces, and of the
opportunities which come TO men in
this free country under a republican
| form of government and administra-
ton. The thousands of workers who
make up these annual parades are in
| truth, as is often said, the Drawn and
sinew of the nation, but they also rep
resent progressive intelligence such
as ii would be impossible to discover
| in the same citizenship of other lands
From their ranks will spring many OF
the men of affairs and influential pub
lie men of the future.
Questions of politics should not be
mixed with the principles which are
| at the root of all labor organizations.
Labor is organized for purely eco
nomic purposes. But this year the
| issue at stake is one which vitality af-
| fects the economic welfare of the
| whole people. and II is only natural
that the workingmen should regard
it as worthy OF their best study, both
az individuals aud as members of
trade organizations. They will not
let democratic calamity howlers fool
them. as they have not yet forgotten
the last democratic times" OF only
| few years ago. We hear of their
philanthropy and immense donations
TO the poor. but when they give q
dollar they take two dollars off the
workers wages.
majority of the people OF this
country don't want to ruin the indus
tries of the country nor do they want
an aristocracy of class. They want
a government by and for the Peo-
| pie. such as we have had for the past
/ four years. and will have for the next
four. labor ENTHUSIASTICALLY perhaps
for its own prosperity.
When the workingman is prosper
Gus. the whole nation is prosperous
BETTER Lend Than Borrow.
Mr.. Bryan views with alarm" the
| fact that Americans are lending