Echo de l'ouest. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn.) 1883-1929, 1918-07-26
''Echos" du II Juliet

sweat OF Cne1r DfOWS. Ou farmers
of Goodhue county with your magni-
fcent farms, fine herds Of cattle and
expensive automobiles lead today
more luxurious life than the kings of
old. Why then, should some Of the
farmers always complain OF things as
they exist in free America where,
with free vote and an untrammeled
and patriotically inspired press, any
group of citizens can correct the mis-
takes unavoidable under all human in
titutions even the most perfect. To
show anyone Of you, but specially the
chronic fault finder, that the average
farmer or city worker of today has
but little to complain Of in this coun-
try, you will permit me to recall to
your memory what one of the most
celebrated writer's of France, Labruy-
ere, says about the condition of the
soil tiller, two hundred years ago un-
der the greatest King of France,
Louis XIV. Passing through France,
Labruyere utters cry Of horror and
indignation at the sight Of the soil
tiller, "Look at him., says he, "Sun-
burnt and faint from starvation, eve
ry day the farmer digs, turns and
returns the soil with unr1r1ng patien-
ce. When perchance he stands up, he
looks like a human being, and he is
in fact a man. o mockery, says he,
and glaring injustice: the man who
plant and gather, so that others may
live in idleness and comfort, have not
even the right to share with those pa
rasites what they produce. Like
animals they live in dens where they
subsist with their children on black
bread and water" Such was, ladies
and gentlemen, the pitiable condition
of the French peasant during count
less generations. Was the farmers lot
more happy in Germany, Austria and
the Scandinavian countries? l will
give the word to the great philantro
pist, Thomas Munzer of A1tstedt in
Germany, he was a contemporary of
Martin Luther, the great reformer.
It seems that in moment OF mental
alteration, Luther had said that all
the peasant farmer of Germany was
entitled to, like the Jackass, was a
little straw and water. After critici-
zing Luther sharply for his heartless
remark, Thomas Munzer makes the
following stirring appeal to mobiles
and clergy about the peasants, sorry
lou. we dIt oil, says Ao, 1Aue.AAAo
sons. It is then supremely unjust
that some should live in affluence
while the multitude starves. In the
primitive Church says Munzer, food
and other property was IN common.
Why has the Church changed such
condition? We have all been created
equal, and as such entitled to equal
share in the soil productions. Why
then peasants should you drag an
existence stepped in misery, when
others have more than they need. Rise
up friends. IF you read the holy scrip
ture right, you will find inspiration;
shake off your yoke at once and secu-
re liberty. Such was the language
of Thomas Munzer and such was, du-
ring the 10th and 18th centuries, the
condition of the farmers, in France,
Germany and the Scandinavian coun..
tries, under the beneficent rule OF
Kings and Kaisers, and such is their
lot this very day in Germany, Aus
tria and Turkey under rulers by dlvl-
ne right. Is not that literally true?
Why this difference, when France raj
ses about what she needs even In the
course of the present war? For the
simple reason that the farm property
of France which before 1889 belonged
exclusively to privileged classes has
passed by the great revolution in the
hands of four millions Of soil tlllers
who cultivate it properly ana sell Its
products at fair prices to their fellow
men of the cities, while in Germany,
Austria and Turkey the mobiles and ca
pitalists who still own all the landed
property, exploit it for their profit, |
of the outcry and needs OF
the working class.
There lies the difference.
Now, after much depression, l come
to the event in French history whose
memory we have gathered here to
evoke event whose occurrence constl-
tutes so to speak the first milestone
for France on the road to republican
institutions. mean the fall of the ce-
lebrated prison-fortress, La Bastille.
Built. under Charles V Of France
in Paris at a time when failure to pay
ones debt, or criticism of the Kings
administrative acts mean sometimes
life Imprisonment, the Bastille with
it's somber towers had seen for five
centuries the most illustr1ous sons OF
France rotting by turn in it's dingy
cells. Even Voltaire and Mirabeau, the
Intellectual giants whose writings and
speeches had such decisive influence on
the course of the 1889 revolution were
loked up like common culprit in the /
Bastille. For all, in Paris specially,
the Bastille was an object OF terror
and hatred. One can then readily un-
derstand that any reason TO destroy
It was eagerly awaited by all France;
That reason sprung up in july 1889
as most of you probably recollect. In
1889 the misery through France was
50 great from maladministratlon that
the King Louis XVI, to work sorely
needed reforms, was compelled to call
together the then three great delibera-
tive bodies of France, the clergy. the
nobility and the peoples representatl-
YES. From the opening of the conven-
ton. they could not agree, as the NIL
nority composed Of the clergy and
the nobility attempted to dictate to
the majority, the peoples delegates:
After vain attempts lasting several
weeks by the peoples representatives
to bring the privileged classes to act
fairly and squarely, those representa-
tives justly provoked selected Tor
their deliberations, new nall where
they solemnly took the oath not to Sc
parate, until they had grven TO Fran
ce constitution.
The fact was reported to the King.
Realizing that such step. by the peo-
ple's representatives, meant the cur
tailment and perhaps ultimately the
destruction of his powers as SOW
ereign, Louis XVI ill-advised by reac-
tionary noblemen threatened to evict
the deputies and close their hall OF |