Jasper County Democrat, Volume 4, Number 37, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 December 1901 — WHAT PROSPERITY COSTS. [ARTICLE]

WHAT PROSPERITY COSTS.

President Roosevelt, commenting on the prosperity of the country in his first annual message to Congress, says: “During the last five years business confidence has been restored, and the nation is to be congratulated because of its present abounding prosperity. Such prosperity can never be created by law alone, although it is easy enough to destroy it by mischievous laws. If the hand of the Lord is heavy upon any country, if flood or drought comes, human wisdom is powerless to avert the calamity. Moreover, no law can guard us against the consequences of our own folly. The men who are idle or credulous, the men who seek gains not by genuine work with head or hand, but by gambling in any form, are always a source of menace not only to themselves, but to others. If the business world loses its head, it loses what legislation cannot supply,’’ etc. Dunn’s index number for December, says: “If a man purchased bis supplies for one year on Dec. Ist, they would have cost $101.37, while the same quantity of the same articles would have aggregated only $72.45 on .July Ist, 1897, the lowest point on record, and $121.75 on Jan. Ist, 1860. ♦* * * ♦ Prices are now at the highest point in many years, and in fact, surpass all records since present improved methods of manufacture and distribution came into use.’’ Now, what’s wrong here, anyway? The President of the United States comes up with his lenghty message and says that the country is abounding with prosperity; while Dunn’s, the leading commercial reference house in the country, submits facts and figures which prove that it costs more per capita to live, than at any other time since the war of the rebellion! The sum total of all prosperity amounts to only the difference between the amount a man can earn and the amount it takes to keep him. There is not a laboring man in the United States that will not tell you that it is harder for him to make a living today than it was in 1897, the first year of McKinley's first term The reason is simply that the increase in the price of the workingman’s necessities is greater than the increase of his wages. Yes, yes, let us congratulate ourselves on account of the return of prosperity.

This condition of things can have but one ending, as it has always had in all civilized countries whenever it became necessary, and i that is, the formation of a strong labor party in antagonism to capital. Many attempts in this line have already been made, bu t they ■ have all fallen short, principally on account of the fact that the I conditions now prevailing have not, at any previous time, been severe enough and wide-spread enough to attract the united attention of the whole body of labor-ing-men together. The President, however, says in his message: “The American people are slow to wrath, but when their wrath is once kindled it burns like a consuming flame.” , Labor and Capital go hand in hand, one cannot exist without the other. Hard times and prosperity alternate with each other, and when labor enjoys the one, Capital suffers the other. When Capital enjoys the one, labor is struggling with adversity. It is but natural that each should combine its strength in its own behalf, to take care that valuable rights be not trampled under foot. Labor is strong, clumsy, unweildy, Capital is alert, cunning, grasping. Unseparably united, their interests are diametrically opposed. Like two boys on a “teeter board,” when one is up, the other is down. When one stays up and the other down, the fun stops. The boy that is down shows an inclination to quit. If he doos and leaves his end of the board suddenly, there is a great crash, and the fellow at the other end is the worst off. But if both stay on the board, and have another boy in the middle, whom we may call Congress, to favor the one who is down, the “teetering” may be kept up indefinitely. But the boy in the middle must do his part, and do it right. Thus in our political teetering, the republicans put a boy in the middle who is always trying to keep Labor down, while the democrats want a boy that will put Labor up. In either case it is bad for all concerned, and there are several cases on record where both boys and the whole caboodle were badly wrecked. The fault lies in the fact that the boy in the middle wants to do to much teetering himself. There areNery few, if any, Congressmen or Senators who are not directly or indirectly interested in financial undertakings, which appeal more to them than does the trust that the people have

reposed in them. So, I say, they want to “teeter,” and they throw’ their influence on the side that will most benefit them, not caring whether school keeps or not. So, when the President speaks of the abounding prosperity of the country, he speaks only for that part of it which may be known as Capital, and- a few years ago during the great stress of “hard times” Capital was also doing the talking, while Labor was doing as well as could be expected, which was a great deal better than at present. New principles will be presented to our political parties in the future, a great many old ones will still find place, we may have another political party, but what we must have to keep our nation going onward and upward is honest men to make our laws’; men who are above the influence of money and greed, men who fear God more than they do their fellow man. and who will stand for the right against nil who would assail it. There are many such men in both the old parties, but have they the courage to stand by their views? And is their number sufficient to overcome the evil influences which are everywhere noticable? Have the laboring men been at the bottom long enough,and have they been trampled on enough, to cause them to rise up in a body and demand a betterment of conditions? I think not, for their number is so great; and their united influence would be so powerful, that their demands, expressed collectively at the ballot box, could not be denied. Yet when millions of men unite their prayers in our houses of worship for the poor and down-trod-den, and then go to the polls apd vote for something else, how can they expect their prayers to be answered, and how can they expect a betterment of conditions? Every man is criminally negligent who does not carefully study these questions for himself, and try to ascertain from bis own experience and observance whether the country is prospering or not, and whether he is voting for the interest of his own family and his own class, or for the interests of another class. Capital could not live if Labor was to mass its forces against it. And Labor could do more foolish thing than, Sampson-like, destroy the temple that would cost its own life. For. as stall'd above, one cannot exist without the other. Labor should, however, guard itself against the cunning and greed of Capital. Labor should see that it is favored equally with Capital in the matter of legislation. For the * reason that Labor has no money to buy favorable legislation, they must have honest man in Congress who will not take bribes from anyone. If we were all rich, we might all be thieves and rogues, in fact, anything and everything that we ought not be. Bpt the poor man has to be honest,

probably the very reason he is poor. And if he does not have honest men to make laws for him, he will become poorer and poorer. We only hope that he will rise up and fight for his rights before he gets so poor he can’t. Truly if the country abounds in prosperity, IT IS COSTING AN AWFUL PRICE OF COMFORT AND HAPPINESS TO MAINTAIN IT. The finding of the court of inquiry in the Schley matter was no more than was to have been expected. The majority decision could just as well have been delivered before any evidence was introduced. The supreme court has again held the fee and salary law of 1891 constitutional, this time as regards the salary of county recorders. Wm. E. Schilling, recorder of Marion county, collected vlO,451.15 in feesand kept it all. while his salary for the period covered was but $6,813.89. The county commissioners sued in the name of the state to recover the amount illegally witheld and were given judgement The supreme court affirmed the judgement and now Schilling or his bondsmen must fork over. The Wheatfield Telephone man in discussing Jasper county’s candidates for Judge Thompson’s toga, mentions the names of M. F. Chilcote, Charles W. Hanley, Jesse E. Wilson and Ralph W. Marshall, and then says: “The candidacy of Mr. Marshall is not to be considered for an instant.” And why not Mr. Marshall? He fought, bled and draws a pension for saving the country, has a good record for “strenuousness” and is a brtoher of the illustrous editor of the Apologist. Why not Mr. Marshall, Robertson?