Polk County observer. (Monmouth, Polk County, Or.) 1888-1927, 1912-06-25
WHAT'S THE MATTER?

What's the matter with things
anyway?
We have heard SO much lately re
garding our hopeless condition, anC
the yawning chasm of oblivion jus
before u.s. that many of us have come
to believe that some terrible calamity
is about to overtake us as a nation
and plunge the whole shooting match
over the brink
We hear about the activity of "the
interests" and the grinding down
of the common people who are urged
to arise in their wrath and smite
somebody with a most awful smite.
But who and what are the Inter
ests," anyway? Can anybody ex-
plain? Show us this monster that
we may rid the world of it's presence
and free mankind from its impending
doom. If the common people" are
being ground they should know
il and get away from the mill stones.
We are certainly in a most awful
condition in this free America, now
aren't we? We look about us with
unprejudiced eyes, vainly seeking for
signs of the trouble, but we fail to
find them. We do discover, how
ever, that the man who works, or
who employs the talents that God
gave him to the best of his ability,
is getting along. Each year sees a
little more added to his nest egg and
in few more years he will have
paid for his home and will be free
from debt. He has no fault to find
with the world and its treatment,
yet, when he harkens to the wall of
the fellows who are out, and want
in. he learns that he is in a most
deplorable condition. He is being
ground down" and the fact that he
doesn't know it, doesn't alter the
terrible reality that others profess to
see so clearly.
The skilled mechanic who, years
ago, was content to work 10 hours
or more for a daily wage of $500,
now receives $4.OO and even $500
and $500 for eight hours yet he is
told that the interests" have got
him in their devouring embrace. He
has nice little home on a nice little |
street: the roses are blooming around !
his shady porch. and his rosy faced |
and healthy children play on the vel-,
vety grass on his close cut lawn. His |
ways are cast in pleasant places. He |
enjoys his work and he enjoys his |
home and its associations. 1t is paid |
for. And he has earned every cent
OF IL, because he has been willing to
give his ability and his industry in
return for the salary that his en-
ployer hands him. Yet, he hears the
soap box orator on the corner who
never worked a day in his life, il he
could possibly avoid il, and who
hasn't home and wouldn't know
how to appreciate one. anyway. howl
about the menace of the Interests"
he opens his newspaper and reads
more about the Interests. He
earns that his favorite political party
$ controlled by them and he reads
/ speech by a celebrated spellbinder.
Who wants office. who declares that
'nly his own success means freedom
4 the people from the CALLING yoke
4 capital. He hears about tha~hor-
ible interests" on the streets. at the
lub, anywhere but. somehow, he )
ant really see where the trouble is.
ut there must be trouble because
they" say So
What is the matter. anyway? u
Did you ever see a man who is in
ustrious. who is intelligent. and who d
mploys his industry and his talents y
idiciously. who isn't getting on in j
le world2 Where Is the man today $
no has these attainments and is D
at it, who is not growing g
ore Independent year by year? The b
dustrious. progressive. mind-hfs
'wn-business sort OF fellow isn't
ally worrying about the Interests" a
hen he pauses and. in retrospective "
God. contemplates the many advan- u
gcs ne and his family enjoy now il
comparison with the conditions
his forebcars found them. ne
lows that he has much TO be thank
for. He knows that the pendu-
m Of time has brought him added e,
vantages which he has been en- al
led 20 secure In proportion as he nj
3 been willing to employ his abil- 5,
ss. and he also understands that an
ose who so through life under the N
LEI that the world owes them a m
inE- and spend their time in de- ar
'rinE conditions which permit one Ri
IN 20 gain wealth, while another ",