Alaska sentinel., 1908-01-30
finds succulent morsels.

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 It is apparent that stupendous
 changes have overtaken American
 life in all it's phases. On every
 hand We see fortunes suddenly ae-
 quired by new devices, in no way
 related to patient industry or legit inate enterprise. and so immense that the word millionaire, as defn- ing one inordina.aly rich, has lost its meaning. Individual business independence is rapidly disappear Ling before the march of trade com
 binations. Public and private ex- travaganee faunts is shameful
 waste in the face of poverty and defes the discontent of want To- day we find millionaires on every
 hand. and they are hardly noticed.
 h th.s age when 1t is a mad rush for riches, e man to be notable on
 account of his wealth must be multi-millionaire.
 Money-madness is the key note
 of depravity and sin, all over the United States today, Men and women alike have become drunken with the lust forsold. Their senses are dulled to good charity, and of-
 ten the common decencies of life.
 In the sweat-shops of our cities are
 seen the gaunt, worn-out tottering
 wrecks, driven by the lash of hum
 ger to their daily task a. never
 were the slaves in the cotton fields
 of the South. There are scores of
 women who spend from $25,000 to
 S100,000 year each for dress, and
 immense churches are erected at
 fabulous cost in which to PREACH
 Christian charity, while the sha-
 dows of their gilded spires fall upon
 an army of. seventy thousand chil-
 dren, in New York City alone. who
 march to school without breakfast.
 We have in these United States
 number of railroad presidents who are receiving salaries around fifty thousand dollars year, and up ward, to run the same railroads that employ the poor widow woman with several little mouths to feed, to scrub out the cars at 2 dollar 6 day. Every necessity of life, the food we eat, the clothes we wear, grow higher all the time, while the heads of our big corporations and industries indulge in every extrav- agance and are constantly growing wealthier, with little thought paid to the poor employee and no desire to better his condition. For years it has been taught that money is the one victory in life. Men are exalted for the possession of money until a nobility of gold has been raised up.
 It is certain that our robber mo- nopolies, railroad, mining and all others, can be coped with and con- quered by law, and he is g fool who thinks that the American people are going to be much further de graded into race of drudges, toil- ing to pay dividends to monopolies. There is law, too much lava remedy for every evil. The need is for officials who will do their duty-their courageous duty under the law. If We are to remain a great people, if we are to remain a free people, we must have condi- tions of progress and hope sur rounding all the people as unit. Poverty in itself is not curse; it is the reverse of a curse, if it be hopeful, aspiring poverty.
 What we most need is a revival of the simplicity of the fathers, a moral awakening, q return 10 old ideas, Q return to the good old days when the desires of the people were simple and unperverted, when labor was the common lot, when economy was honorable and extravaganza reproach, when scrupulous honesty and fair dealings were indispensa- 1 2 l l. I