Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 November 1901 — PROSPERITY. [ARTICLE]

PROSPERITY.

They tell us that prosperity is with us. Kind, bountiful, munificient prosperity. The kind that makes you pay twice as much for what you eat, and wear, and use. The kind that gives you the blessed privilege of working every day in the year for the same old wages, notwithstanding the increased price of life’s necessities. The kind that makes the poor man wonder how he is going to keep himself and his family out of the poor-house. The same old kind that has seen dished up by the same old party for a score of years. How inspiring u is to stop outincessant toil long enough to yell that magic word,“prosperity !’’ It seems to be natural yet for a majority of the American people to indulge in illusions. They are apt to stfut their eyes against the painful truth, and list to the song of Ihe siren while she saps Jhem of their substance. They are disposed to be of those who, having eyes, see not, and, having ears, hear not the things that most nearly concern their temporal welfare. Experience is said to be a good teacher, and three more years of schooling, in addition to the last five, will probably be sufficient to teach us our lesson. There is no better way of judging the future than by the past, and, judging by the past, what can be expected of the republican party as long as it continues in power? Nothing but the same old kind of prosperity described above, the kind that when the poor man looks upon it, makes him feel cheaper than a man who Ims just negotiated the purchase of a gold brick. If that is the only variety of prosperity they have to offer, the people would be much better off without it. The republican party is composed of a lot of infant industries — a great numberof baby elephants—and those who operate and feed the same. They have to have high tariffs to protect them, and special legislation to bring them prosperity. And the tariffs and legislation that they procure, brings prosperity such as is described above to the masses of the people. It would be a fine thing if they would pass a law limiting their particular brand of prosperity to those who vote for it.

We know there is prosperity in this country, of the right sort, and lots of it. Likewise there is a good deal of water in the sea, but it is not of much use to a traveler in the Sahara Desert. If the laws -of gravitation could be changed in some way. so as to pour the Atlantic Ocean into it, the great Sahara might be made to blossom as the rose. And, likewise, before the tide of prosperity can be turned toward the laboring man, where it rightly belongs, and where it is needed, the principles of the republican party will have to be altered, or the party will have to be ousted for good and forever. Carrying the “parable” a Uttle farther, the republicans have a way of sprinkling a little water over the desert Sahara, when they feel like it, so that once in a very great while, the people feel a touch of real prosperity, and great is their praise thereof. But the people have become so used to the present dry, stale condition of things, and so used to the cry of -prosperity” from away off somewhere in the Atlantic ocean, that they are prone to believe they are in the midst of it, and that the hot, dry sands of toil are producing adundantly Some time, away off in the hazy future, probably when the cows lay eggs and the ducks give milk, the people will awake to the fact that they might have done better.

Labor is supreme, and lalior shall rule. It mny not bo in our day, yet we fervently hope to see it. We hope to see the time when the laliorer’s daily toil will pay for his daily necessities and those of his family; when in addition to this he will be able to own his home, and to properly clothe and educate his children. We hgpe to see the day when he will reap the reward of his own honest efforts, instead of having others do it for him; the while raising the delusive ‘howl of "prosperity.” Let but the laborer realize his true condition, let him but fully realize the abundant power he holds in the ballot, and he will see to it that he receives his just share of his earnings. (It has been proven by eminent statisticsns that at present the laborers just share is about $7,000 per year.) And what is considered his just share in the present day? Baiely enough to pay rent on a miserable cottage, owned by 6omel)ody else, and buy a precarious existence of trust, be-ridden necessities. His children and wife must neertH work as hnrd as he to keep the wolf from the door. Why is it? Are not all men created equal? Have they not all the same right to liberty, life, nnd the pursuit of happiness? Yet, what part of all these good

things comes to the laboring man? Simply the part described above. The trouble and the remedy both* lie in the ballot. The laborer can continues this condition of things, or he can better it, as he chooses. He outnumbers his opponents ten to one. What he wants, and what he must have, is courage tp continue the fight a successful end. He cannot expect to win such a fight in a few years. He must be resolved to go through hardship, and privation, and trials even greater than those which he now endures. He must be filled with the same ardor and spirit which characterized our grandfathers in the time of the Revolution. Reverses and hard times must not discourage him. He can and will be successful in the end, and when he is, “Government of the people, for the people, by the people” will have been an accomplished fact. We are enjoined by republicans not to stir up class hatred. We are admonished by great lights to come up like lambs and be shorn, we are required to. deliver the products of our toil into the hands of employers, keeping but the tithe for ourselves. i’et, this is a free country, and we recognize no classes. Every man is as good as his neighbor in the eye of the law, we are thankful for that. We are glad that the law deals equally with all, in civil affairs. But commercially, our laws ure not good. They reek with favoritism, and consequent unfairness. Shall we be censured for calling attention to this fact? Can it be wrong to expose a wrong? Call it “stirring up class hatred,” call it anything, it matters not what. So long as this condition exists, so long as we are provided with the present quality of “prosperity,” there will be poverty, and crime, and dissatisfaction. And as long as we have these, men will be found to decry such conditions, and urge the people, through the medium of a free press and free speech, to act in the behalf of themselves, their wives, and their children. %*'