Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1907-12-19

the struggling multitudes about them.
Tho Bargain Counter Lesson.
But the bargain counter teaches us
another lesson. Though most people
are having hard time financially,
there are great number who fatten
themselves upon the msfortunes of
others These modern vandals or
ghouls of the night are not producers
or developers They are human beasts
of prey whose business in life is to
find some victims In distress and then
to pounce upon them and make profit
out of their misfortunes. They are
like the wreckers OF old who used to
patrol the western coast Of England.
When merchant ship was approach
ing the coast they would, with false
lights decoy 1t upon the rocks. Then
they would gather up the wreckage
and take the plumber to their homes
and sell it. SO from time immemorial
men have increased their own for
tunes by living upon the wreckages
and the shipwrecks of other lives. The
tragedy of our last national panic
proves that what | say is true.
During the financial stringency in
October there were certain men In
New York city who had ready money.
Some of these men began to run up
their premiums 90 and 80 and 70 and
even 100 per cent. In other words. in
order to borrow $40 from you I would
have to give $50 in return. Because
these men had cornercd the money
market they attempted to take from
their follow men every dollar they
possessed. These plundcrers were fat.
tening their purses upon the misfor.
tunes of their fellow men. And had
not the secretary of the treasury and
men like J. =. Morgan and others of
that ilk brought millions upon millions
of dollars into Wall street this coun-
try would have seen the darkest days
in its financial history. Alas, Wal
street is no different from every other
street. In every country there are
lot of human vultures. Like haunting
spcctcrs, they are lowering around
ready to banquet upon the carcasses OF
the financially slain. AS soon as any
man gets into trouble they pounce up
on him and rip and tear him to little
pieces. Like the ghouls of the night,
they live by desecratng the grave
wards. Like the robbers of stranded
ships, their incomes are derived from
the wreckages of their fellow men.
Be Just to Others.
Now. my brother. If you have a good
income and are not in abject want be
morally and spiritually honest AS you
expect men to pay you just price for
your labor, you should be willing to
pay others just price for their labor.
Because a poor seamstress Is unfortH-
nate and cannot get work do not give
her - cents a day for her services when
you ought to pay her $50 If you have
an industrious boy IN your employ who
is doing the work Of a full grown man,
do not pay him simply the wages of n
boy. Pay him the wages Of a man.
Because you have merchant In a
financial hole" do not squeeze the
life out OF him. Be honest. BE fair.
Pay Just price for all labor-that IS.
pay as you expect others to pay you.
The tragedy of the bargain counter
teaches us another great lesson. When
an article has to be sold below cost.
the unseen sufferers are those who are
hurt the worst 10y the financial sacri-
fee. The clerk who sells you the goods
over the counter may not he the suf-
ferer. Neither Is the man who is at
the head of the great dry goods en-
porium the one who ought to be the
most pitied But the unseen sufferers
nre the men and women whose names
You never know and whose faces YOU
never saw. These are the people who
should be commiseratcd.
A Civil War Tragedy.
The tragedy Of the bargain counter
Is like the tragedy of the late civil
war. ! have been over many of the
great battlefieldS of our country Per,
haps you have also been to some of
them. Then, like me, you have stood
before the plain white tombstones in
our national cemeteries and said:
Poor fellows! Poor fellows, Most
of these martyred soldiers were only
boys. Think Of the long marches and
the days OF hunger and cold Think
Of those soldiers falling in the awful
charges and the despair that must have
overwhelmed them when they fell
Think of the horrors Of the opera ting
table and their agony when dying"
But though no man hOnors the dead
soldiers of the late civil war more
than l do. yet | would tell you that
those who Gied for their country did
not make the greatest sacrifices. 4
living sorrow is a far heavier burden
to bear than n dead triumph Did You
ever stop to think Of what became of
the wives and the mothers and the
children Of those dead soldiers when
Jc breadwinners We're stricken down?
Did you ever think Of the soldiers
whose health and strength were De.
: Btroyed, discharged from service be.
cause they We're unfit for further duty
and who came home with manglcd
: limbs, doorled to lifetime of physical
! decrepitud and pain? All, these were
the creates sufferers OF the national
! carnage, not the men who felt the
, tlnglinS OF the bullet ana then with a
cry Of "Oh my God. I'm shot, fell
, dead, The greatest sufferers OF q ma
tons wars are the unseen sufferers.
Who, then, are the martyrs of the
bargain counter? ! will tell you. In
al probability thoe goods which are