Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1906-02-14
THE REFLECTIONS OF coMnoNER
On the Observations of an Aristocrat.
byW. E. Butt

ten business failures, notes by e. NJ.
Rogers in an afternoon drive down Bish-
op Branch and back via Brookville: and
the way the writer told of the failures
OF flour mills, sawmill9, shops and de-
| serted villages shows he was impressed,
| yet he didn't say whether he was sorry
or glad The general needs to read
Goldsmith's Deserted Village" espe.
cially these lines
"Ill fares the land, TO fastening Ills prey
Where wealth accumulates. and men decay;
Princes aud lords may flourish or men fade /;
A breath can make them. as a breath has
made;
But bold peasantry. their country's pride.
When once destroyed can never be sup
piled"
| thought of sermon l heard on fail
ures wherin the preacher told how the
! leaves wither and fade, how springs GO
| dry and how nothing 10 constant but di
vine faith. And then [ wondered what
would be the reply of the writer
| If he was asked TO name a success to
contrast with these failures at otd mill
sltes, with the historic water wheela like
De Fries mill. would expect him To
| say Millionaire Pillsbury's Best, 10 spite
the fact that among the New Years
! resolutions at the front of J4nualy's ET
cry tody's magazine is this ont W.
| shall not measure success ia th.s world
! by mans money For years wa have
| seen our country drifting into hand Of
paupers and prices II Is said that last
winter in New York City there were
| more evictions of tenants from their
homes for non-payment Of rent than
there has ever been in dowa-trodden Ire,
| land for the same length of time Our
census shows that workmen earn an av
erage of s. per day and get e. per day
| therefor. Many home surroundings are
| little better than those of the slave who,
/ being property, got wholesome food,
| good medical care, warm homes and saf.
| ar places to work in, which are often de-
! MED the,white siave, for If he gets disa-
+, oied, they can discharge him and hire
another at no loss to the master. La
! Toilette tells us that wages have in.
creased ten per cent while the increased
| cost of living is twenty-seven per cent,
but you and | and other fools are expect
ed TO cry Prosperity rsh rah
Today our best citizens are fighting
these revolution breeding germs and
| they find it is among the theiving rich
where anarchy thrives among the men
| who a few years ago cried national
| honor and "full dinner pail and scott
1 cd at Truth, which crushed to earth
arises again We find that illegal rail-
road rebates to such men as Pillsbury
| and Rockefeller and Armour, contrary
to law, have made them rich and miser-
: able ard have left many families of those
who shouldered muskets for this coun-
| try, poor and miserable, patient though
| they have been about complaining and
| TO wind up the farce, cold hearted men
are made poor commissioners men whose
| welcomes are worse than kick. Turn
| ing to Russian conditions which we ale
| approaching, we read in Tolstoi's Re-
| surrection" Chapter 32), He knows
| that the government is robbing him,
knows thst we landed ~Tropristors have
robbed him long since, robbed him OF
the land which should be the common
property of all, and then, if he picks up
| dry woCd TO light fire on that land sto-
| len from him, we put him in Jail and
| try to persuade him that he is thief
| OF course ne knows that not he but
| those who robbed him of the land are
thieves, and that to get any restitution
| Of what has been robbed is his duty tow
ards his family" ANY wonder these
men are poor soldiers In the 18th cen
| tury the entire trade of the city of Paris
was carried on by six great and forty
four lesser corporations which the French
revolution destroyed, and now others ex-
| ist with much less power.
Who represent the. corporations and
! millionaires in this country Chief Of
| all in Wisconsin are Babcock and Spoon
er. who are paid to represent us Last
sprirE we rsad that Roosevelt upbraid-
ed B4bcocks District Of Columbia COM
mi tee for grading streets in the out
| skirts of Washington for the purpose of
putting values on private lots Being
Instrgent leader his followers must de-
! fen4 him After the coal strike, r 'ose
welt sst a tc nave the tariff on coal re
moved The coal barons said n :" and
| Spooner, tn" mediator, put It at oBe
| year, 1hirh was no relief Roosevelt
7 got the name, SpooDer got the game aud
! the people got pneumonia American
/ favored the Nicaragua route but ~
| az. Mt frnm P srja came over - sec sbr1
J 81 iJ.z rs tht p naua r.ue f sBr- h44
isc~fdea tn aReu - q fuut -s}ah as=
81 .uHl 0nG Snd1eni{ oH1 a. s-pae-en
i 6atlvts favored P4.sma Ihr pe p
cked aud Sp,noel qtirted them ~ith
( .uothtr worthless proviso and RI se-
, Welt got the name, SpOoner got the game
/ and s., 0ot taxed Which is The worst,
! + Sp,oner 70 eel on or for hte follow
srs t., give Them elves away When
Tilm.o 4rraikntd the ipsuFdbce com
! pAnie- 10 the sen IT,, Spo ineI wAsn',
gratt ia enough 70 those ho sent him
here, 10 be silent and butted in and
aid Y ~houIdu't expect pay ment ~
j "a de4 n Bn, being "A mutual company
( with $I5 O0D, 900 reserve. their agents
! l-t d this as chief argument to entrap
7 he s4Vings of poor men and Instead OF
/ dividing the reserve they lavishly ca.
| rouse and spree, and III leave it to any
| fair man to say whether Cleveland had
I be cared 10 be square, would have cut
! Hydss salary to 500, 900 instead Of $50. =
600 per year. But the Equitable want
/ ed Grover one who was safe and
sane, "one that any woman could
! drive. After the war General Lee was
. cHered big salary by an Insurance
company Of New \ ork he replied that
/ lie was unable 10 earn such sum The
/ company reassnred him. saying his in-
ruence in the south was worth II and
then he replied that h6 was not for sale,
Some think that we got rid Of tluarles
but he IL more dangerous than before,
That public nuisance, the | nited States
senate is safe and sane without him
and "our representatives got him on
the bench where ie can favor "ultra
Yirea' acts OF corporations IN hostile
state. Bryan was dangerous, /. g. to the
1 I tyAs 4 V1F =