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Show I A MORAL DECADENCE. We agree with a writer in the St. Louis Republic that the occurrences of today mart a Btep backward, a long one at that, by the citizenship of this nation. Our theory of the dignity of citizenship is a self-sustaining, dignified digni-fied and manly independence. The man who pays in honest, faithful labor for his keep is, so far as this circumstance circum-stance coes, the full equal of him who pays in money. The epectacle today of men combining to ask one class of their fellow citizens, the municipal, county, etate or national governments to furnish them work, money or bread, is not edifying. It does not furnish bright hopes for the future, It unmans our men by destroying their independence, independ-ence, thus sapping their self-respect. When men sink to hat leyel their fr et are in the pathway which leads to the lower level of crime. We are to in- nnirn tViia pppnintr aia t.r Tchr 5a nt fanlt- i 1, - .. the citizen or the government. Great brawny men, hard fisted men competent compet-ent to do efficient service on our farms, in our mills and in our workshops are banding together to march to Washington Wash-ington to demand of the government 'work or bread." In this catch phrase there is both treason and hypocrisy. Doubtless if times were better, especially especi-ally as the land is full of all manner of breadstuffs, there would be little of this incipient treason although, even -- .t tYiat tVer would be found a certain percent, of men who would brow-beat the municipalities and the government out of the means of support rather than to do honest woikfont. A little excuse ex-cuse goes a long way with people who are viciously inclined and laiy and phiftless as well. Our idea is that the government should furnish the opportunities tor work by the equalization of the living chance to all, rich and poor, and when I that is done, set its face sternly against all such exhibitions as this which Corey is making, A few years since there was no such thing as a professional profes-sional tramp, now the country is full of them. The threatening circumstance circum-stance is, that they are beginning to coaleeee and are matching on Washington. Wash-ington. The spectacle is a redicalous one noWv but after a while we will not laugh at it. Its threats are ominous of revolution which contemplates an Utopia outside of law and where order is not contemplated. We will have to meet it soon or Coxey's army will ere many years have passed, be too strong for the mere physical arm of the gov ernment. It can ba met successfully, in our judgement only by a broad righteous righte-ous policy of government which will more nearly equalize the liyiug chance. In other words, money must be relegated to its own proper place in the public econ omy. It must no longer be permitted to dominate this government and all its branches, as it haB been doing ever since plutocracy was set up in place of the liviDg chance. Wall Street has used her power too ruthlessly. She has had too little fympathy for the laboring labor-ing millions of the land. Like the patient pa-tient horse or ox these millions are etill ignorant or careless of their power. The missionaries of anarchy are busy teaching them and eventually they will become dangerous, vicious aha bloody; To meet this situation we must take these economic questions out of partisan part-isan politics. The money of one class and the misery of another must not be used to secure the success of this, or the defeat of that party, bat all must work together to put the country back where it was when all were busy, at work and happy. We must go back to where we were thirty or forty years since when the wealth of the nation was not held by an hundred or so of men, but where all shared alike, and all were alike, prosperous and contented. con-tented. This problem is not an obscure ob-scure or difficult one. Any non-partisan, honest man can solve it. The sooner our government sets about the task of its solution, the sooner will we have peace, confidence and satisfaction. The Coxeys will droop and die and anarchy will soon have flown back to its origin in the slums of the big cities of Europe. |