The Billings gazette. [volume] (Billings, Mont.) 1896-1919, 1902-07-25
ONLY PARTIALLY TOLD.

ONLY PARTIALLY TOLD.
That luminous exponent of democ
racy, the Johnstown Democrat, takes
advantage of the recent accident in
one OF the coal mines of that place tC
make capital for it's party at the ex
pense of the republicans by giving an
inventory of some of the dinner pals
of men who persisted in that awful
catastrophe. Some of those who were
killed, it seems, went back into the
drifts to secure their lunches and
when their bodies were taken out it
was found that all their lunch consist
ed OF was a piece of sausage and some
dry bread. Because of the frugality
OF the midday meal the men had TAX
en- with them the Democrat takes
the republican party to task and de-
clares that despite the much talked
CT full dinner pail" some of the work
ingmen of the country are starving.
The Helena Independent, when Of
late has become a sort of second cdi-
ton of it's Pennsylvania contemporary.
gleefully republishes the article and
believes it to be a clincher TO it's
W often repeated misstatements
concerning the political party it op-
poses.
In the case of the Independent the
plea of ignorance is possible, but the
democrat cannot make the same plea.
1t is on the ground and knows better.
II the Independent does not know
it, the Democrat does-that the major
ity of the men employed in the mines
and mills Of Pennsylvania are not
Americans o aliens from the north
ern European countries. They come
from the lower countries and no mat
ter what possibilities this country
may hold out to them in the way of
improving their they do not
reach that stage of advancement
where they crave and demand a scale
Of living any higher or better than
that to which they were accustomed
in their own land. To, them a piece
OF sausage and a slice of bread, dry
though it be, represent all in the way
OF food that anybody should desire.
In their own home they had nothing
more than the bread and the addition
OF the sausage makes their repast a
positive luxury. Rather than buy
what the American workingmen re-
CARDS as necessaries, they prefer to
spend their wages for "polsky'' or 9th
equally fiery liquids and hoard the
balance against the day when they
may return to the land whence they
came and live the rest of their lives
in luxurious ease.
If the Independent were inclined to
be honest it would not need to go
TAR away from home to find a class of
of the same kind that
he Pennsylvania paper had in mind
when it wrote about the t'dry bread
piece of sausage" as a refutation
the republican claim of a full din
Ter pail" Within the shadow of the
that surround Helena are
o be found hundreds of men belong
ng to a nationality that may be said
o be almost akin to that of the men
Who burrow in the coal mines of Penn
%ylvania, and who earn the same
sages as the other men engaged with
hem. Yet to them a beefsteak is
Unknown and what in the vernacular
$ termed a square NEAL is some
hing they only read Of and probably
OCCASIONALLY dream about. It is not
hargeable to a lack of wages that
hey live no better. They are salts
ed with the same coarse and poor
God they received at home and want
othing better. What money they do
OF hoard or send away to bring over
Tiers they spend in a manner that
My adds to the poverty of their con- .
ltion and renders their lives all the
lore miserable.
The sort of argument the Democrat
resents and which the Independent
e not convince ANYBODY
no is familiar with the facts in the
ase. 1t only shows to what despera-
the democrats are driven in their
forts to find something out of which
ley may make political capital.
/