Los Angeles herald., 1908-04-26

privilege, or as favor granted to him
by superior powers that have been or
dained and anointed to rule over him
and decide whether he shall live or die,
feed or starve? Is he really under
present conditions a sharer in the ma
tional earnings? Or is he merely
slave and useful subject of those who
control the national earnings? What is
the relation of a starving man to the
society amid which he starves? What
is the relation of the employed man to
the country and community for which
he is an active producer? Our entire
industrial system is dependent on what
workingmen produce, yet today many
of them, with their wives and families,
lack the food which they help or have
helped to produce, lack the cloth
ing which they help or have
helped to produce, lack the shelter
which they help or have helped to
create, and they have had to tramp the
streets wearily in a vain search for en-
ployment, while children are employed
in the factories, performing for small
wages the work at which adults should
be employed at living wages. 1t is not
| to be wondered at that every year the
percentage of illiteracy in the United
States grows higher, that every year
shows a decrease in the number of men
owning their own homes, that every
ear shows a smaller percentage OF
pupils enrolled at the high schools ana
that every year shows an increase In
figures representing premature elimina-
ton of children from public schools and
n increase in the number of children
robbed of educational advantages in
order that they may be put into fac
tories, mines. mills, saloons and depart
ment stores and WORKED for small
wages. Is this the result of the boasted
prosperity of which so much was heard
from Republican orators while Repub-
licans were asking the country to put
them in power and keep them in power?
Surely it is time for responsible Ameri-
can citizens to stop to inquire why the
Republican party has broken down.
why it has not made good. why after
such pitiable spectacle of itself with
its sorry performance. We ask our Re-
! publican brethren to tell us why when
food, clothing and shelter are abun-
dant, and there is enough and t
spare of everything for every
body, twelve million women and chill
dren should be engaged In all manner
of gainful occupations, at stores, rae
tories, sweatshops? Why are there
bread lines in every city in this broao
land? Why are the hungry deprived OF
the opportunity of earning the food
they must eat?
Why are unscrupulous combinations o1
| corporations allowed to juggle for gair
the prices of the foodstuffs they are
permitted to control? Why is the meat
trust allowed to increase arbitrarily the
price of meat, while it as arbitrarily
forces down to a starvation level the
Drice of beeves on the hoof, giving the
cattleman practically NOTHING for his
toll. trouble and skill, and taking every
| thing possible from the consumer?
All these questions and many more
which will suggest themselves to oul
| readers may be asked, and to such per
tinent and timely interrogations the
probable Republican candidate has is
sued a stereotyped reply, which, for Its
finality, conciseness and precision caf
never be rivaled or beaten, for wit OF
man cannot devise an answer more
witless and more convincingly satisfac-
tory in it's grotesque insufficiency anf
unsatisfactoriness than Taft's "GOl
KNOWS"