Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1903-11-27

Cause For Thankfulness.
Another cause for national thanks
giving Is our country's Industrial pros
perity. 1t is one thing TO possess for.
tune; II is quite another thing to be
able to make that fortune interest bear
ing; one fact TO be "land rich" an
other fact to be "land poor" Many and
many a man has been hurled against a
financial wall and his business life
squeezed out in the bankruptcy court
not because he did not own fortune.
but because he could not make market
able at the time the securities he pos
sessed. Many years ago a prominent
railroad man WINS taking Thanksgiving
dinner at our home in Brooklyn. Dur
ing n walk that afternoon our guest
made a statement which will never
leave my memory. "De Witt" said he
to my father. for they were old school
friends. If live one year more shall
years, three millions. But IL I die
within six months my estate and in
vestments are In such an involved con-
dition that l shall be worth practically
nothing" He died within six months.
and his fears In reference to his estate
were verified. Now, our country has to
be thankful for its blessings geograph-
ical during the past year. 1t has also
to be thankful because IL has been
blessed industrially. Never since our
government was founded have there
been greater harvests or a vaster tide
of transportation west to east and east
to west; never a time when our fac
tories have been so overworked; never
time when there has been so much
money to spend and in circulation;
never a 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
ply the demand for shoes. gloves, hats,
linen. hosiery and overcoats and um-
brellas, wagons and automobiles and
all the necessities and Injuries Of life.
The only scarcity today In the business
world Is the scarcity Of men. Work 2
There is plenty OF work for every hon.
est man capable OF doing any mechan-
lcal work who is not~a shirk. a loafer
or an incapable. Today ought we not
to be thankful that every man is able
to earn his bread by the sweat OF bis
brow-that work, blessed work, is with
In the grasp of all?
Our Industrial Prosperity.
The opportunities industrial with
which this Thanksgiving day OF 1908
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 bust
ness so extensive and diversified as
ours there have been losses and perils
and ominous disturbances, but we have
survived them, and the general trend
has been prosperous. They tell us that
our laborers receive two and one-half
times rs much as those of England,
three times as much as In France, four
times as much as in Germany. five
times as much as I'm Russia and six
times as much as in Italy. They tell
us 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 rs cat
tie to drag the plows through the fields.
They tell us that in India n capitalist
can hire clerk or a laborer for cents
day to work for fourteen long hours.
and upon that cents per day the poor
wretch has TO board himself He lives
for the most part upon n daily handful
or rice, and when n time OF scarcity
comes unless charity saves him he
starves to death. But. though foreign
labor may receive but a mere plttance
for Its services. some OF us can remem-
Der. during the panic days OF 1896.
when hundreds and thousands OF men
here could not set work Mt any price.
We remember when at night the floors
or the Chicago station houses were
crowded with half starved. unkempt
mass OF humanity, striving in every
way TO get work and yet unable to find
IT III you have not fathomed any Of
the deep miseries Of those dark years.
then pead a tragedy as intense aud
vivid as William Shakespeare ever
wrote. Read the pathetic autobiog-
raphy OF Walter Augustus wyckorr.
the Princeton professor who wrote the
two books called workers East and
Workers West" In order to learn by
personal experience the condition Of
the unskilled worker. he left his pro-
fessorial chair during those dark years
and tried to support himself as q day
laborer. He plodded through the
streets OF our great cities day in and
day out. He pleaded for work. He
pleaded with starving eyes and parch-
ed tongue. He lived among human
brutes who were once men. but who
had become embruted by hunger and
We're wild because they were starving
and could not find work. o my broth
er, on this coming Thanksgiving day
De grateful Deep down In your heart
be grateful that there Is now work.
plenty OF work. for all honest, capable
men who arc willing to work.
It's been hard times for the country
Under the stripes OF red,
Giving US thorns for roses
Giving us stones for bread
Sut they're singing song OF promise
That rings from the wales and hills,
Ano were hoping 70 hear the music
OF the wheels OF the grinding milia
It's been hard times for the country
And never the fault of the sell:
The seed still followed the sunlight
And climbed to the scythe OF toll
And the fields wsre piled with plenty.
but stui by the wales and hills
mere was never the song Of the turning.
The hum Of the turning mills
Hard. hard times for the country.
nut darkness has nown to the past
Is the song OF the seas and the mountain
The answer Of God at lastf
Yes. at last the day Is breaking.
And the lights on the hills and rilhn
And the firm. fair world Is shaking
with the throb OF the moving mills.
4 Nation Of Happy Homes.
Another cause for national rejoicing:
We are. as a nation. a great collection
OF happy homes. As a people, we love
our own hresides. The name that IL
most honored in our ears is not that of
general or prince or king or cardinal
but that OF father and mother. hus-
band, wife. brother. sister. son, daugh- |
ter. grandchild. So honored are the
domestic terminoiogies among us that
one OF the greatest encomiums ever Civ |
en- To Our ma rfvras5 vraot1a,x