Rensselaer Republican, Volume 26, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1894 — TOPICS OF THESE TIMES. [ARTICLE]

TOPICS OF THESE TIMES.

LESSONS OF THE STRIKE. The lessons to be learned from the incidents of the great Ppllman strike are manifold. About many questions raised by the troubles there will necessarily be a diversity of opinion. But upon leading points all reasonable persons will agree. One as the most important of these is the jbvious moral: “Keep away from Chicago.” There are too many people there now. All of the suburbs are overrun with a surplus population that have been drawn thither .ike moths to a candle,only to perish Jr get badly singed. All thinking people after reading the descriptions of the tenements at Pullman — Disenable little flats of two rooms crowded with families of from eight to ten persons —must be forced to the conclusion that people who are oy force of circumstances compelled to exist under such daily • aggravations are hardly to blame for committing unreasonable and violent lets. Long provocation will sour the sunniest tempers. “Constant Iropping will wear away a stone.” And yet the testimony appears to sustain the claim that these miserible domiciles are superior in every way and cheaper than the same flass of people are able to obtain in che city of Chicago. The terrible congestion of population in Cook county has made life an awful struggle for thousands of people. Pover-. ty in any large city is vastly more repulsive than in the smaller towns md rural districts. The hardships ff the farm laborer have been universally commiserated. Yet, the ’arm laborer is assured of an abundance to eat, and a lavish supply of mesh air, bright sunshine and every ’acility for cleanliness and health— Advantages absolutely unattainable oy the lower classes in Chicago. These common blessings which are accorded by Nature to all who will remain in Nature’s domain are ightly valued until the stress of misfortune brings home to the unfortunates cast by unhappy chance idrift upon the seething caldron of I great industrial revolution their value and untold blessings. Any ible bodied man who is compelled to support himself or a family by manaal labor stand a vastly better chance in anv small town, or even in the country, than in any large city. Keep away from Chicago and Pullman —at least don't settle there till present conditions are vastly improved and wages doubled.