Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1903-11-28


will ever dislntegrate as long as earth
ly time shall last, we do believe that
the statement in reference TO the sup
porting area of Texas is not overdrawn. !
Germany in 1895 had population OF
52,279,901 inhabitants. but TeXas ls |
larger than Germany. France in 1875
had a population of 3S.5l791o inhaD-
itants, but Texas is larger than France.
Italy in 1895 had population OF 3D.
1O2. 1893 inhabitants, but Texas Is near
ly two and one-half times as large as
Italy. Great Britain and Ireland col
lectlvely have an area of l2O,sO9 square
miles and by the 1891 census 3Ii3Z'-
022 inhabitants, but Texas is over twice |
rs large as the areas OF Great Britaih
and Ireland combined. California, MOL
tana or the two Dakotas united are as
large as any of the European monarchles
I have mentioned. oh. the immensitles
rs well as the geographical posslDiil-
ties Of our American possessions! "A
noted English statesman once SAID:
"The American people, in reference 10
their enormous valuations OF land' are
like a lot OF spendthrift boys who nave
fallen heirs to fabulous fortune. Iney
do not know how to appreciate their
good fortune. Born with golden spoon
in their mouths. they think all other
nations eat their soup with the same
kind of q ladle." Let us today thank
God first for our national possessions
geographical
Cnuse For Thnnkfulness.
Another cause for national thanks
giving is our country's industrial pros
perity. 1t is one thing to possess for-
tune; it is quite another thing to De
able To make that fortune interest bear
ing: one fact to be Land rich,' an
other fact to be "land poor" Many ana
MANY a man has been hurled against
financial wall and his business Ire
squeezed out in the bankruptcy court
not because he did not own q fortune,
hut becausc he could not make market
able at the time the securities he pos
sessed. Many years ago a prominent
railroad man was taking thanksgiving
dinner at our home in Brooklyn. Dur
ing walk that afternoon our guest
made statement which will never
leave nv memory. DE witt. said he
to my father, for tLcy were old school
friends. "if live one year moro shall
be worth a million dollars: If three
years. three millions. But II | ole
within six months my estate ana IN
yestments are in such an involved con
dition that | shall be worth practically
nothing" He died within SIX months
and his fears in reference to his estate
were verified. Now. our country mas 10
be thankful for its blessings geograph-
ical during the past year. Ii mas also
to be thankful because 1t has been
blessed industrially. Never since our
goyernmen; was founded have there
been greater harvests or yaster tide
Of Transportation west to east and east
TO west; never a time when our rae
tories have been so overworked; never
q time when there has been so much
money to spend and in circulation;
never n time when labor has been re-
ceiving so much for its services. so
overcrowded are some Of the factories
with orders that, though they may
work night and day. they cannot sup
nly the demand for shoes. gloves, hats.
linen. hosiery and overcoats and um-
hrollas. wagons and automobiles and
all the necessities and luxuries OF lfe.
The only scarcity today in the business
world is the scarcity Of men. Work.
There is plenty Of work for every hon.
est man capable Of doing any mechan-
ical work who Is not n shirk, loafer
or an incapable. Today ought we not
70 be thankful that every man is able
to earn his bread by the sweat OF his
brow-that work, blessed work, is with
: in the grasp Of all?
Our Industrial Prosperity.
The opportunities industrial with
! which this Thanksgiving day OF l9Oo
has been blessed are the more to be
appreciated because they have for
dark background the financial panics
of 1895 and 1896 and 1897. In busi-
ness so extensive and diversified as
/ ours there have been losses and perils
and omlnous disturbances, but we have
survived them. and the general trend
has been prosperous. They tell us that
orr laborers receive two and one-half
times as much as those of England
three times as much as in France, four
times as much as In Germany, hve
times as much as in Russia and six
times as much as in Italy. They tell
lis that in some parts Of Europe the
peasants wear wooden shoes and that
there are countries where the wives
and mothers and daughters of farmers
are sometimes hitched together as cat
tie to drag the plows through the fields.
They tell us that in India capitalist
can hire clerk or q laborer for cents
a day to work for fourteen long hours.
and upon that 4 cents per day the poor
wretch has to board himself. He lives
for the most part upon daily handful
of rice. and when a time of scarcity
comes unless charity saves him ne
starves to death. But. though foreign
labor may receive but mere pittance
for its services. some OF US can remem-
ber. during the panic days OF 1896
when hundreds and thousands Of men
here could not get work at any price
We remember when at night the floors
of the Chicago station houses were
crowded with a half starved. unkempf
mass Of humanity. striving in every
way to get work and yet unable to find
It. If you have not fathomed any OF
the deep miserics Of those dark years
then read a tragedy as intense ana
vivid as William Shakespeare eve,
wrote. Read the pathetic autobiog-
raphy Of Walter Augustus WyckoH'
the Princeton professor who wrote the
two books called Workers East and
workers West" In order to learn by