Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1903-11-26

not believe thiS government or ours
VIII ever disintegrate az long rs earth
ly time shall last we do believe thu,
the statement in reference 10 the sup
porting area of Texas Is not ovcrdrawn
Germany in 1890 had population OF
52,2ID001 inhabitants. but Texas Is
larger than Germany. France in 1896
had Il population OF 3S51T,915 inhab.
itantS, but Texas is larger than France.
Italy in 1890 had a population of 81.
1U2,S33 Inhabitants, but Texas is near
~ two and onc-half times as large as
Italy. Great Britain and Ireland col
lcctivcly have an area of 100. 500 square
miles and by the 1891 census 81 1872
022 inhabitants, but Texas is over twice
as large rs the areas of Great Britain
and ireland combined California. Mon
tana or the two Dakotas united are rs
large as any of the European mOnarchies
| have mentioned. oh. the immensities
as well rs the geographical possible
tics of our American possessions \
noted English statesman once said.
"The American people in reference to
their enormous valuations of land, are
like lot of spendthrift boys who have
fallen heirs to fabulous fortune They
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 ladle" Let us today thank
God first for our national possessions
geographical
Cause For ThanIsfulness.
Another cause for national thanks
giving Is our country's industrial pros
pcrity. 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 man has been hurled against
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 prominent
railroad man was taking Thanksgiving
dinner at our home in Brooklyn. Dur
made statement which will never
leave my memory. "De Witt" said he
to my father, for they We're old school
friends, III live one year more | shall
I've worth million dollars; If three
years. three millions But il | die
within six months my estate and in
vestncnts are in such an involved con
iii IN ha, 70 al 10.
nothing He died within six months,
and his fears in reference to his estate
were verified. Now, our country has to
hc thankful for its blessings geograph-
zeal during the past year. 1t has also
To be thankful because it has been
blessed industrially. Never since our
government was founded have there
been greater harvests or vaster tide
Of transportation west to east and east
10 west; never a time when our fac
tories have been so invoked; never
a time when there has been so much
money TO spend and in clrcua ton:
never n time when labor has been re-
ceving so much for it's 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 UNI
brcllas, wagons and automobiles and
all the necessities and luxures Of life.
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-
zeal work who is not shrk. a oafer
or an incapable. To-day ought we not
to be thankful that every man is able
10 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 Thank sgiving day of 1903
has been blessed are the more to he
appreciated because they have for IA
dark background the financial panics
Of 1898 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 lahOrprs receive two and one half
times as much as those of England
three times as much as In France, four
times ms much as in Germany five
times as much az in 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 as cat
tie to drag the piows through the fields
They tell us that in India capitalist
can hire n clerk or laborer for 4 cents
day to work for fourteen long hours,
and upon that cents per day the poor
wretch has TO board himself He lives
Tor the most part upon n daily handful
Of 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 pittance
Tor its services, some Of us can remem-
Der, 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. unkenpt
mass Of humanity striving in every
way to get work and yet unable to find
It, ~ you have not fathomsd any of
the deep miseries of those dark years,
then read tragedy as intense and