Show THE SCHOOL OF DESPAIR In the course of his oration at the laying of tho cornerstone of the GRANT monument at Riverside Park on Wednesday CHAUN CET M DEPEW said The phenomenon of our times and one of the chief dangers to law and order Is the growth of the school of despair The concentrated contemplation contempla-tion of accumulated weafth and tho hopelessness hope-lessness of acquiring it paralyzes industrial indus-trial energies and true ambitions and plants I the seed of socialism and anarchy In these remarks Mr DEPEW touches not only the phenomenon of our times but the overshadowing evil of our generation one which men will be compelled to face in real earnest and treat heroically for it will not down nor can it much longer be postponed I post-poned It Is fast multiplying itself and appears on every hand Its settlement cannot a great while longer be deferred de-ferred by the smooth phrases of orators ora-tors giving roseate wordpictures of the happy state of the working classes as compared with those classes in past centuries cen-turies It cannot be denied that the condition condi-tion of the masses is immensely improved over that of the same class of people of a century ago and the generations which preceded that century But that is not the I thing If the comforts and conveniences of tile classes havo increased of late generations gene-rations so also havo the luxuries of the rich and doubtless today the difference in the standard of comfort between the wealthy and the working classes Is even greater than in former generations This is a matter which seems to escape the at ten bon of the orators employing their time in the vain endeavor to pacify tho discontent discon-tent of the masses and yot it is a circumstance circum-stance to which those same masses refuse Ito I-to close their eyes and it Is an important factor to be considered in dealing withthis I subject A pioneer community for instance is perhaps the most contented on earth Why is that Its lot is a hard one About tho only thing that is plentiful hard work Food is often scarce always coarse delicacies deli-cacies there are none There is much dan I iItZ r I ger and existence itself is precarious The dwellings are rude and uncomfortable and yet we venture the assertion that n community com-munity of that kind is the most contented and doubtless also the most sociable and the most happy And again we ask why It can only bo accounted for ly the fact that each individual sees in his hard lot the lot of all and man is so constituted by nature that he can dwell in a log cabin with a dirt roof and so badly constructed that the winds may whistle through It and be content con-tent ifonly no contiguous palace rears its head to mock its meanness This hard coarse fare is palatable enough to him so long as no neighbor is feasting on dainties It Is the difference in the circumstances of men that breeds discontent on tho part of the masses and apprehension on the part of the wealthy The poor arti san and the laboring farmer toil long and hard every day and return weary enough to a homo which is but scantily supplied after all with those comforts and conveniences which modern wealth and thought have produced Their food if plentiful is coarse and uninviting They see their children pretty surely doomed to walk in their footsteps Their employer on the contrary lives in a palatial residence with more splendor about it than kings could display in tho generations that are past Every land under the sun yields its dainties for his table luxury and ease do I their utmost to give him happiness His children threaten to form an aristocracy from which the children of the workingmen working-men will be ruthlessly barred Under these circumstances it Is useless to tell the tolling masses that their condition condi-tion is much better than that of the same class three hundred years ago They fail Utterly to draw nnv rnmfnit frnm thnt Inn n nw sideration They are living in the present pres-ent and judge of their condition in the light of modern facts and ideas and especially es-pecially do they view their condition in the light of modern ideas in respect to the standard of comfort in living lu view of all this is it any wonder that the phenomenon phenom-enon of our times and one of the chief dangers to law and order is the growth of the school of despair Every year the rich grow richer and the masses see their condition not proportionately improved im-proved and herce apparently growing worse and worse They will say something some-thing is wrong either in our political or industrial system perhaps in both that makes these conditions possible and the masses once imbued with that idea will make an effort in some direction or other to remedy the defect so that one may say that the elements of a mightier revolution than this world has ever yet seen are collecting and threaten to burst in awful suddenness on the world The movement may not be a philosophical one the people may strike wide of tho true mark but it is pretty certain that they will strike The French peddle of the eighteenth century were not logical in their deductions but their terrible vengeance much of which was wreaked upon imaginary imagi-nary as well as real causes of their woes did clear the way for a better stato of things So it may be with the revolution with which the modern world is threatened But may not that terrible revolution be I averted We do not know It is a problem belonging to and involving the fate of the entire race of men and the race must settle the question More properly speaking it is a world that in some way or other has strayed away it will require a God to put it right Meantime however if men gifted with the faculty for amassing wealth and talented with the wisdom of directing great enterprises were ambitious to benefit mankind within the circle of their influence rather than desirous of pursuing personal ends and absorbing all the results of their Go given powers themselves it would go very lar towards curing the evils growing out of the unequal distribution of the joint products of labor and capital If coupled with this the masses could be made to understand that the aggregation of wealth within the hands of a few seems almost necessary to the prosecution of great enterprises and that after all our capitalists as a rule work extremely hard for their board and clothes albeit they get pretty good board and clothes it might help to reduce the bitterness somewhat that enters into this problem simplify matters not a little and reduce the dangers to law and order that arise from the increase of the school of despair |