Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1901-03-26

we are led to exclaim with Goldsmith,
IN fares the land, to Fastening ills a
prey,
Where wealth accumulates, and men
decay
A word picture was then drawn by
the speaker of industrial conditions as
he had found them, and not as the
newspapers reported them, in the coal
fields of Pennsylvania and Colorado,
and in the corn fields of Kansas. His
picture of factory life in the New
England states was not one to tlatter
the great centers of intellectual de-
velopment. The farmers were said
to be little less than tenant til!ers of
the soil. with poverty staring them in
the face, and with privation their daily
companion The miners upon land
and the sailors on the seas were each
and all referred to as children of a
common Father, but doomed to lives
of wretchedness and discomfort, for
no other reason than that they were
creatures OF environment and an
industrial system both unjust and
damnable III their influence on the
lives of men Josiah Strong was
quoted as saying that the tragedy of
our higher civilization is found in the
fact that knowledge and desire have
multiplied faster than our ability TO
satisfy them Mr. Dewey declared
that it was quite within the power OF
the workers to keep pace with the
civilization of the age, if they would
only become wise enough to make use
of the power already in their own
hands.
Labor's Demands.
'In discussing the rights of the la
borer," said Mr.. Dewey, I'VE are often
told that the laborer asks too much
more than he has q right to expect in
his walk of life AS il any man OH
earth were entitled to more than those
who create it all. And l fervently
pray that the workers will never stop
asking for more until they are previ-
legged to enjoy all that they create.
They tell us the people are now better
off than ever before. That depends
upon the standpoint of observation. II
ability to satisfy has not kept pace
with desire, then we are not as we'll
off as before. Any advance which does
not add to the sum of human happi-
ness is a backward step
Inequalities.
The speaker then declared himself
to be one of the many who, from a
careful study of the worlds Industrial
history, have come to believe that it is
possible to make conditions much bet
ter for all who toll, whether with hands
or brain, and that, too, without any
particular disturbance to society or
the state For why, he asked, Should
the shoemaker who shoes the millions
see his children go barefoot? Or the
tailor wear rage while dressing the
multitude, the carpenter live in hoyel
while building palaces for others. or
the printer, who makes books, be him
self without library; or the farmer
he compelled to feed his own fomily
with that which he could not sell
while the gambler in the necessities OF
life SHOWS fat from speculation in the
products of the soil? Why should any
be in want, when surrounded by plen
typ"
Mr.. Dewey here recited extracts
from Hoods Song of the Shirt" and
| Crawford's Sons of Toll and Danger
with pleasing effect upon his hearers
He then declared that the evil was ir
the system, and must be eradicated il
/ this country was to continue as a ma
1 ton. He saidahe would not array mar
against his fellow man; that was the
work of commercialism. But he would
appeal for exact justice between MAI
and man in all the affairs of life.
Reforms.
The reform movement was next con
sidered at some length, each school o
reform coming in for share of com
ment and criticism. The trade unio1
| movement was endorsed, not because
the speaker believed that the trade I'm
4 ion would ever solve the labor prob
| LEM but because it brought men to
/ gether, and led to q betterment of thei
physical surroundings, and thus mad
an educational work possible amonl
them. The strike, as solution of la
Dor differences, was believed to hav'
had its day. THE only place capita
fears the strike of labor today is at thu
Iallot-box, and that is the only plac
in which labor can henceforth make it
4 power felt" The temperance move
1nent was criticised as dealing with al
effect of a diseased system, and no
with a cause. Poverty makes NOR
drunkards that does drunkards max
poverty. Remove from the scheme Q
life the incentive to make money fror
the business, and there are few me,
or women who would conduct saloon
a broihel or a gambling house. VIII
will lot the temperance people TAX
hold of the root of the evil, and assis
us in its complete eradication"
} Prison reformers were asked to de
4 vote one-lialf as much time, money an
energy to making conditions better 70
honest men and women. as they nov
devote to lettering the environment c
& convicts, and thus do a greater servic
for humanity. Society was held to b
responsible for most of the crime i
the world under present conditions an
} the speaker said, was not to be foun
. inside the walls of the penitentiar.
Mr.. Dewey said no one can great
blame the tramp on the highway, fo
the reason that he had no incentive
!, lead different life. That school {
; reform which would stop all immigr;
tion was referred to, with tribute t
the Barthcldi statue of Liberty in Ne
, York harbor, and the speaker sal