Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-03-15
"A Modern Babbk of T0nques
By S. G0gin, Osnabrock, N. d.

When the people of ancient Babylon had become
thoroughly infected with the disease Of nations
their leaders became so we'll satisfied with them
selves and SO sure of their great superiority owe,
the rest and less favored of humanity that they
conceived the idea of constructing a great tower
which was to enable them to ascend right up to and
through the gates of heaven. And therefore they
put a great multitude of slaves to work upon the
construction of that structure which has since been
known as the Tower of Babel. The babel. or con-
fusion Of tongues. soon followed and then that EN-
pire, the greatest OF its day or time, rapidly crumbl-.
ed and was succeeded by a saner and more equitable
government. ..
A careful coming Of the pages OF recorded history
clearly shows that in regard to the fall Of all the
great or prominent governments Of history the
cause and resultant symptoms Of that disease or fall
was in every case substantially the same as it was
with Babylon. And the disease Of those nations was
not the d%ecadence of agriculture, which was merely
an enforced incident thereof; but the perverting and
misdirecting Of the energies of the people and the
resources of that country, and the reduction to pow
erty Or slavery Of the great majority of its people.
Recorded history clearly reveals to us the fact
that whenever the laws Of sanity and wisdom in
government have thus been violated by the ruling
powers Of any great government; the great major'
ity Of its people having been robbed of that heart
and courage SO necessary for them to thrive, prosper
and be contented; resulting in the fires of patriotism
dying out in the breasts Of The great mass of that
people and being; succeedeu by the smouldering fires
of discomfort aud rebellion. then o babble of tongues
arose among the comparative few&who becauss Of
that ,perversion of the energies and resources of
that country aud Its people had concentrated amcng
themselves the preponderant: portion of the financial
wealth of the nation and %arrogated to themselves
lespotic powers. A controversy, born Of supreme
egoisln. as to what TO do next in order to enhance
their powers or prove themselves to be demigods.
The downfall Of that government then followed IN
compliance with natural laws.
Recorded history, from Babylon to the present day,
furnishes no parallel to that Of the fragrant and UNI
called for perversion OF the energies and resources
of this country and its people during the past fifty
years but more particularly during the past twenty
or ten years. And the chief or basic agency of that
perversiou has been the so.called protective tariff
system, or law. ~
Not only was the Unnecessary and unreasonably
high taxes thus levied upon the people of the coun-
try indirectly but finally collected from the farmer
or producer of wealth, but the men thus protected
we're both enabled and permitted to levy other and
still higher and more burdensome taxes upon 1lm
for their own profit, and to collect the same under
protection of law.
And now when through the workings Of this law