Daily capital journal. (Salem, Oregon) 1903-1919, 1904-06-27
A Safety Valve.

tremendously interested in the contin
ued prosperity and welfare of the
country.
To all such the tendency of the
times towards social unrest and the
usurpation of power by ignorant and
irresponsible men rings like IAN alarm
bell at night as Garfield said. The
property owners and reputable, peace
able citizens must unite at the polls
and elsewhere to keep down anar-
chists and those irresponsibles vino
| tend toward anarchy. This growth
does not come from the farms or
small villages. but from the very con.
gested cities and industrial centers
where great riches AMI extreme pow
erty are shown side by side.
In the effort of the discontented to
obtain more money, they very natural.
! ly when under the influence of
strikes and loss of wages, turn TO
violence, and should this tendency be
permitted to grow lone enough, such
malcontents would obtain conrtol of
the legislative bodies and absolute
ruin to property holders would re.
suit.
Macaulay's prophecy regarding this
country, written in 1857, is, the Sen.
try believes, worthy of consideration
at this time
Your fate | believe to be certain,
though it is deferred by a physical
cause. AS long as you have bound
less extent of fertile and unoccupied
land, your laboring population will be
far more at ease than the laboring
population of the old world, and while
that is the case the Jefferson poll.
tices may continue to exist without
causing any fatal calamity. But the
time will come when New England
will be as thickly populated as Old
England. Wages will be as low and
will fuctuate as much with you as
with us, You will have your Man.
chesters and your Birminghams, and
in those Manchesters and Birming-
hams hundreds of thousands of arti.
sans will assuredly be sometimes out
of work. Then your institutions will
be fairly brought to the test.
Distress everywhere makes the
laborer mutinous and discontented
and inclines him to listen with eager
ness to agitators who tell him that
1t is a monstrous iniquity that one
man should get millions while an.
other cannot get full meal In bad
years there is plenty of grumblng
here, and sometimes a little rloting
But it matters little. For here the
sufferers are not the rulers. The su
preme power is in the hands of a
class numerous indeed, but select; of
an educated class; of a class which is
and knows itself to be deeply interest.
ed in the security of property and
the maintenance of order. Accord
ingly the malcontents are firmly yet
gently restrained. The bad time is
got over without robbing the wealthy
to relieve the INDECENT. The springs
of national prosperity soon begin to
flow again; work is plentiful, wages
rise and all is tranquility and cheer.
fulness.
II have seen England pass three or
four times through such critical sea.
sons as | have described. Through
such seasons the United States will
have to pass in the course of the next
century, if not this. How will you
pass through them? l heartily wish
you a good deliverance. But my rea-
son and my wishes are at war, and |
cannot help foreboding the worst. il
is quite plain that your government
will never be able to restrain a dis
tressed and discontented majority.
The day will come when in the
state of New York multitude of peo-
pie, none OF whom have had more
than half a breakfast, or expect to
have more than half dinner will
choose a legislature Is it possible to
doubt what sort of legislature will be
chosen? On one side is a statesman
preaching patience, respect for vested
rights, strict observance of public
faith. On the other is a demagogus
ranting about the tyranny of capital
lists and usurers, and asking why any
body should be permitted to drink
champagne and to ride in a carriage
when thousands of honest folks are in
want OF necessaries. Which of the
two candidates is likely to be prefer
red by a workingman who hears his
children cry for more bread?
Il seriously apprehend that you will