The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1908-10-02
THE BREAD LINE.

THE BREAD LINE.
An extensive banner spread over
one of the streets of lower New York,
where repeaters have their lair, and
Tammany hirelings are trained to vote
early and often, tells the passerby to
take a night of to see the Broadway
bread line, and then vote for Bryan
and Kern and bring about a change
in these conditions.
The suggestion that a change in
conditions would be brought about by
the election of Bryan and Kern is true
enough, judging from past experience.
If Bryan should be elected, and a
Democratic administration inaugural
ed, New York would have soup houses
in addition to the bread line, and a
good many other places would have
soup houses, too. For many years,
in times prosperous or otherwise,
there has been a bread line in New
York. With inhabitants numbered by
the millions, with flotsam and jetsam
from all parts of the union and all
parts of the globe, New York has al
ways had more or less poverty, and
the bread line represents part of the
charity which relieves the immediate
wants Of the homeless wanderer and
the utterly destitute
For more than a quarter Of a cen
fury however, the soup house has been
specially characteristic of Democrat
ic national administration. In 1884,
SIS, when the Democrats were last in
control of national affairs. and had
succeeded in bringing about revision
of the tariff, according to Democratic
ideas of what the tariff ought to be,
industry was paralyzed, business at
standstill, factories were closed, and
villages that had been Furnishing I'M
der Republican protection, became
scenes of hunger and suffering. Manu-
facturers who had been hard hit in
pocket by their own operatives who
had voted to blast the very industries
that supported them. were called up
on to contribute, and did humanely
contribute to start soup houses and
other aids for those same operatives.
Business men in New York and other
cities also contributed largely, and
the soup house continued to be a ma
tionat institution until the Democracy
went out of power, and Republican
administration started the nation
again on career Of prosperity. gave
employment to labor, and abolished
the soup house by abolishing the caus-
es which made the soup house neces-
sary.
The election of Bryan on his plat
form of tariff for revenue only would
halt American industry in its steady
progress toward better times, 1t would
shut the gates now opening to unem-
ployed labor. it would close the purse
Of capital. and stop the march Of en-
terprise. Two classes would benefit
by Bryan's election-the class of alb
solute leisure, with money to burn"
who could spend that money on Eu-
ropean made goods without having to
pay the duty which Republicans have
imposed to protect the American work.
er, and the worthless vagrant, who
would not work under any circum-
stances. and who could get free soup
at the. Bryan soup houses. Every ele-,
ment contributing to the industry, ac-
tivity and vitality Of the nation would
suffer from the Bryanite blight, and
for the honest, self-respecting wage
Garner free soup doled out as charity
would be miserable substitute indeed
for weekly wages and q happy homo.
The election Of William H. TAFT
means that prospects already bright
will continue to grow brighter. that
there will be work for al and prosper