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Show 00 WHAT THE COMMON PEOPLE ENDURE. Editor The Standard: Prior to the big war in Europe the people of Ireland were promised what Lhej had been 100 years trying to get home rule. But there was a string attached to the promise and when the war broke out the string was promptly pulled in. The argument used to the Irish patriots was. "We are at war. We are too busy to make any changes now Get in and fight for us and. when victory has been won, we will then flo the right thing by you." Latejy the Irish members of parliament parlia-ment have been showing signs of getting get-ting tired of the delay, and they have been demanding that the promises be fulfilled In Belgium, in 1913. there was a general strike, participated in by the majority of the working people of the country, the object being to secure equal voung power with the rich and the ruling caste generally It seems that while each man had one vote in Belgium, some had two votes and many had three votes. A priest, professor, doctor or other educated edu-cated man had two votes. A man with a certain amount of taxable property had two voles and others had three, according to their wealth It was a very manifest device to keep the power in the hands of the ruling class. The strike was broken when the King promised to have the national parliament act on the question within one year. But the war came and the parliament was never called, or, if it summoned, it took no action. Has the King of Belgium declared in favor of equal suffrage? Not at all. He has only one appeal patriotism. pat-riotism. It would appear that in an emergency like the present he would be willing to give his people anything they ask for. But not so. If he is restored to his throne he wants things to be as they were, and the ruling class of Belgium still want to keep their advantage. The common people of Belgium, who are doing the most of the fighting, stand little chance of winning political po-litical equality as a result of the war. for if the Allies win they will probably prob-ably put King Albert and the ruling class back in charge with their two and three votes apiece. And if Germany wins she will probably prob-ably put a German prince on the throne of Belgium and confirm all the perogatives and privileges of the ruling rul-ing class. The poor roughnecks who have been fighting in the trenches will do well if they save their little old one vote. The above is an especially safe guess, because in some of the states of Germany the plural vote scheme also prevails. In Prussia the election districts are so divided up "Gere-mandered" "Gere-mandered" we call it in America that the cities have a smaller number of deputies in the Diet than the country has. The country is strongly conservative con-servative while the cities are socialistic. In Prussia, also, the land-owners and the wealthy class have extra votes, some men have as many as five votes. The people with only one vote have been fighting against this in justice and especially since the war began. But they have been told to wait. to be patient, the Fatherland Js in danger and it Is no time to quibble over changes in the laws. And thus it happens that in Germany, Ger-many, on one side, and in Belgium and in England, on the other side, the common people are clamoring for their rights for equality but are being be-ing told by the ruling class of their seveial countries to wait. wait, wait get busy and die for home and country, coun-try, but, above all wait. It only Illustrates that saying of Karl Marx to the effect that The rich are willing to do anything in the world for the poor but get off their backs." Even in our country we have a 'Somewhat similar instance to those ! quoted from foreign countries in the threat of the tour big railroad brotherhoods broth-erhoods to strike for higher wages and tj&ia eight-hour day They were to 'nrike on Labor Day. 1916, if their demands were not granted. What a storm of d nuneiation I arose! Why, we were on the edge of war all the time and these unpat riotie railroaders were going to tie up all the railroads. Thousands of babies would die if the milk trains stopped running, etc. So the railroad men agreed to wait until Jan 1st for thejr eight -hour day. But. somehow six months have passed. pass-ed. We are still dangling over the edge of war and the eight-hour day-has day-has not been conceded yet. The railroad rail-road men of America, like thn Irish, 1 he Belgians and the Prussian working work-ing classes are still waiting. The only real patriots are the common com-mon people. 00 |