The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1909-05-12
The Need Of a Visible Devil.

The Need Of Visible Devil.
We record not with envy but with
admiration the "monstsr' demonstra-
ton in Philadelphia Monday night. A
Gibbon Of the Record preludes thus:
"Thpndsseusiy tbs voice Of the people Of Phil
sdelphia. silent 50 long on the Issues That vitality
sfect them. buys lqr,h last night in stern. com.
manding protest sgainst the browning lndig nifty
ylseed upon them by The Rapid Transit Company
IN Increasing tho rates Of trolley fare by 20 per
cent. That eaAsrs In the Republican o rganlxa.
non reesivsa ~ bruq, 81 the attack told no
sordd tale hf parincl wartars. Rather did "
'serye as the h~snd~ris,ug on the wall for that
great machine, giving rere but ominous warning
Of judgment to con for the temerty Of those
leaders In seizing contro Of the sickly corporation
and seeking to remedy It's mertted financial Ills
with money niched from the pockets OF the
people" @
The Republican machine can be de-
etroyed by means of direct nominations.
A for ttansit companies, of whatever
Kind or name, all earnest and hopeful
s~ociologists are laboring for the happy
day when the roads shall pay the pas
sengerssnot the passengers the roads.
Meanwhile we turn proudly but sadly
sway from these thunder voiced mani
festAnts; from the marching thousands,
tbs flags, the cheers, the gigantic trans
parencies end ~plaoards; the crowded
hail in which only a hundred seats were
vacant, left 50 by the infamous police
which closed thedoors the frantic enthu-
Siam in the newspapers which have been
begging and praying and acoelerating
the peepls to rise and manifest. Enough
TO say that the spirit Of Independence
Hall is not dead in Philadelphia, and
That trolley fares can't be raised with
out raising Cain there too.
Proudly but sadly. A loathsome cor
poration-the adjective is Pathological
but relieving-screws up prices openly
and instantly, and several thousand
people rise at tho request Of the news
pagers and protest and illuminate and
biloxi of steam. Such is the benefit of a
visible devil, the corporation. You can
~ and swear at your enemy.
For some years now the cost Of living
has bsen shooting up like J~ack-in-the-
box or his bean stalk. II is no paltry
i've Or ten cents a day, this growing tax
upon all Of us, Ask the women folks to
compute it. Look over your old bills,
Ertands Of mderstatement, unffiends
Of rhetoric and the tropical, we make
no guess at the percentage, But the
hard pinch is on every thin or moder-
alta income, hard, harder, apparently
permanent. No doubt the causes are
various and subtle, some Of them per-
haps inevitable. But there is no visi-
be personal devil to receive the kicks
and maledictions,
Nobody marches, manifests, writhes
md howls in wrath about the cost of
living. A tempest at a trolley fare;
not q whistle at sos consecutive days
qf steep and sleeper prices for about
everything. Would anybody in Phila-
delphia eroan and march through "a
pelting rain" to manifest against the
tariff which pumped down from heaven
into Pennsylvania? No, cheap. any
hing protected by the tariff would
sake a cheap man" A visible devil is
sthe great need of the hour"