TALK TO YOUNG MEN.
DR TALM AGE ON THE EVILS OF
GOING IN DEBT.
Instructive Influences of Society
Keeping Up A ppcirancea-Temptc
Hons of City Lire Ilnncm of the
Wine Cap.
Our Weekly ftrmon.
Dr. Talnmge iu this sermon shows how
running into hopeless debts and skepti
cism haze undone young men in town aii'l
"ouutry. The text is Proverbs vii., 22.
"As au ox to the slaugbtei."
There is nothing in the voice or manner
of the butcher to indicate to the 01 tuit
there in death uheud. The ox thinks he is
going on to a rich pasture lield of clover
where all day long he will revel in the
herbaceous luxuriance, but after awhile
the men and the boy close in upon him
with sticks and stones and shouting and
drive him through bars and into a door
way, where he is fastened, and with well
aimed stroke the ax fells him, and so the
anticipation of the redolent pasture field
Is completely disappointed. So many a
young man has been driven on by tempta
tion to what he thought would be para
disiacal enjoyment, but after awhile In
fluences with darker hue and swarthier
arm close in upon him, and he finds that
instead of making au excursion into a
garden he has been driven "as an ox to
the slaughter."
Society to Mam.
We are apt to blame young men for
being destroyed when we ought to blame
the influences that destroy them. Society
slaughters a great many young men by
the behest: "You must keep up appear
ances. Whatever be your salary, you
must dress as well as others, you must
give wine and brandy to as many friends,
you must smoke as costly cigars, you must
give as expensive entertainments and you
must live in as fashionable a boarding
house. If you haven't the money, borrow.
If you can't borrow, make a false entry or
subtract here and there a bill from a bun
dle of bank bills. You will only have to
make the deception a little while. In a
few mouths or in a year or two you can
make all right. Nobody will be hurt by
it, nobody will be the wiser. You your
self will not be damaged." By that awful
process 100,000 men have been slaugh
tered for time and slaughtered for eter
nity. Suppose you borrow. There is nothing
wrong about borrowing money. There is
hardly a man who has not sometimes bor
rowed money. Vast estates have been
built on borrowed dollar. Hut there are
two kinds of borrowed money, money bor
rowed for the purpose of starting or keep
ing up legitimate enterprise, and expense
and money borrowed to get that which
you c!iri do without. The first is right, the
other is wrong. If you have money enough
of your own to buy a coat, however plain,
and then you borrow money for a dandy's
outfit, you have taken the first revolution
of the wheel down grade. Ilorrow for
the necessities; that may be ell. Borrow
for the luxuries; that tips your prospects
over in the wrong direction.
The Bible distinctly says the borrower
is servant of the lender. It is a bad state
of things when you have to go down some
other street to escape meeting some one
whom you owe. If young men knew what
is the despotism of being in debt, more
of them would keep out of it. What did
debt ilo for I-ord Bacon, with a mind tow
ering above the centuries? It induced
him to take bribes and convict himself as
a criminal before all ages. What did debt
do for Walter Scott, broken hearted at
Abbottsford? Kept him writing until his
hand gave out in paralysis to keep the
sheriff away from his pictures and statu
ary. Better for him if he had minded the
maxim which he had chiseled over the
fireplace at Abbotsford, "Waste not, want
not."
Going in Debt.
The trouble Is, my friends, that people
do not understand the ethics of going in
debt, and that if you purchase goods with
no expectation of paying for them, or go
into debts which you cannot meet, yon
steal Just so mm h money. If I go into a
grocer's store and I buy sugars and cof
fees and meats with no capacity to pay
for them, and no intention of paying for
them, I am more dishonest than if I go
Into the st re, and when the grocer's face
is turned the other way I fill my jiockets
with the articles of merchandise and car
ry off a hum. In the one ease I take the
merchant's time, and I take the time of
ilia messi ngei to transfer the goods to my
house, while In the other case I take none
of the time of the merchant, and I wait
upon myself, and I transfer the goods
without any trouble to him. In other
words, a sneak thief is not so bad as a
man w li contracts debts he never expects
to pay.
Yet in all our cities there are families
who move every May day to get into
proximity to other grocers and meat
shops mid iipolheciiries. They owe every
body tire balf n -nilc of where liny
now Ine, and next May they will move
into a tii-l.it.t pari of the city, finding a
new lot of victims. Meanwhile you, the
honest family in the new house, are both
ered day by day by the knocking at the
door of disappointed bakers and butchers
and dry goods dealers and newspaper car
riers, mid you are asked where your pred
ecessor is. You do not know, it was ar
ranged you should not know. Meanwhile
your predecessor has gotii- to some distant
part of the city, and the people who have
anything to sell have sent their wagons
and stopped there to solicit the "valua
ble" custom of the new neighbor, and he,
the new neighbor, with great compla
cency niul an air of allluence, orders the
finest steaks and the highest priced sugars
and the best, of the fanned fruits and
perhaps nil the newspapers. And the
debts will keep oil accumulating until he
gets his goods on the 30th of next April
in the furniture cart.
No wonder that so many of our mer
chants fail In business. They are swin
dled Into bankruptcy by these wandering
Arabs, these nomads of city life. They
cheat the grocer out f the green apples
which make them sick, the physician who
attends them during their distress and the
undertaker who fits them out for depart
ure from the neighborhood where tbey
owe everybody when they pay the debt
of nature, the only debt they ever do pa;,
( uiii mcrciyl l.thlCH,
Now our young men are coming up in
this depraved state of commercial ethics,
ml I am solicitous about them. I want
to warn them ngalnit being slaughtered
on the sharp edges of debt. You want
many things you hnve not, my young
friends. You shall have them If you have
patience and honesty ami iudustry. Cer
tain lines of conduct always lend out to
certain succckhis. There is a law which
controls even those things that seem hap
hazard. I have been told by those wiio
have observed that it is possible to cal
culate just how many letters will be sent
to the dead letter olllce every year
through misdirection; that it is possible
to calculate just how many letters will
be detained for lack of postage stamps
through the forget fulness of the senders,
and that it is possible to tell just how
many people will fall in the streets by
slipping on an orange peel. In other
words, there are no accidents. The most
insignificant event you ever heard of is
the link between two eternities the eter
nity of the past and the eternity of the
future. Head the right way, young man,
and you will come out at the right goal.
Bring me a young man and tell me what
his physical health is and what his mental
caliber and what his habits, and I will tell
you what will be his destiny for this world
and his destiny for the world to come,
and I will not make five inaccurate proph
ecies out of the 500. All this makes me
solicitous in regard to young men, and I
want to make them nervous in regard to
the contraction of unpayable debts. I
give you a paragraph from my own expe
rience. My first settlement as pastor was In a
village. My salary was JHtK) and a par
sonage. The amount seemed enormous to
me. I said to myself, "What, all this for
one year!" I was afraid of getting world
ly under so much prosperity. I resolved
to invite all the congregation to my house
in groups of twenty-five each. We be
gan, and as they were the best congre
gation in all the world, and we felt noth
ing was too good for them, we piled all the
luxuries on the table. 1 never completed
the undertaking. At the end of six months
I was iu financial despair. I found that
we not only had not the surplus of lux
uries, but we had a struggle to get the
necessities, and I learned what every
young man learns, in time to save himself
or too late, tht you must measure the
size of a man's body before you begin to
cut the cloth for his coat.
When a young man willfully and of
choice, having the comforts of life, goes
into the contraction of unpnyable debts,
he knows not into what he goes. i''or the
sake of your own happiness, for the sake
of your good morals, for the sake of your
immortal soul, for find's sake, young man,
as far ns possible keep out of it!
Irreligious Ymmir Men.
But I think more young men are slaugh
tered through irreligion. Take tiwny a
young man's religion and you make him
the prey of evil. We all know that the
Bible is the only perfect, aystem of morals.
Now, if you want to destroy the young
man's morals, take his Bible away. How
will you do that? Well, you will carica
ture his reverence for the Scriptures, you
will take all those incidents of the Bible
which can be made mirth of Jonah's
whale, Samson's foxes, Adam's rib. Then
you will caricature eccentric Christians or
inconsistent Christians. Theti you will
pass off as your own all those hackneyed
arguments against Christianity which are
as old as Tom Paine, as old as Voltaire,
as old as sin. Now you have captured his
Bible, and you have taken his strongest
fortress. The way is comparatively clear,
and all the gates of his soul are set open
in invitation to the sins of earth and the
sorrows of death, that they may come in
and drive the stake for their encamp
ment. A steamer 1,500 miles from shore, with
broken rudder and lost compass and hulk
leaking fifty gallons the hour, is better
off than a young man when you have rob
bed him of his Bible. Have you ever no
ticed how despicably mean it is to take
away the world's Bible without proposing
a substitute? It is meaner than to come
to a sick man and steal his medicine,
meaner than to come to a cripple and steal
his crutch, meaner than to come to a pau
per and steal his crust, meaner than to
come to a poor man and burn his house
down. It is the worst of all larcenies to
steal the Bible which has been crutch and
medicine and food and eternal home to so
many. What a generous and magnani
mous busluess infidelity lias gone into
this splitting up of lifeboats and taking
away of fire escapes and extinguishing of
lighthouses! I come out and I say to
such people, "What are you doing all this
for?" "Oh," they say, "just for fun."
It is such fun to see Christians try to hold
on to their Bibles! Many of them have
lost loved ones, and have been told that
there Is a resurrection, and it is sin h fun
to tell them there will be no resurrection!
Many of them have believed that Christ
came to carry the burdens and to heal the
wounds of the world, and it is such fun to
tell them they will hnve to be their own
savior! Think of the meanest thing you
ever heard of, then go down l.OtMl feel
underneath it, and you will find yourself
at the top of a stairs 1H) miles long; go
to the bottom of the stairs, and you will
find a ladder 1,000 miles long; then go to
the foot of the ladder and look off a pre
cipice half as far as from here to China,
and you will find the headiiiarters of the
meanness that would rob this world of its
only comfort in life, its only peace in
lea ih and its only hope for immoi tul'ty.
Slaughter a young man's faith in find,
and there is not much more left to slaugh
ter. Physical and Moral Wricks.
Now w hat has become of the slaughter
ed? Well, some of them are in their fath
er's or mother's house, broken down in
health, waiting to die; others are in the
hospital, others are in the cemetery, or,
rather, their bodies are, for their souls
have gone on to retribution. Not much
prospect for a young man who started
life with good health and good education
find a Christian example set him, and op
portunity of usefulness, who gathered all
Ids treasures and put them In one box and
then dropped it into the sea.
Now, how Is this wholesale slaughter
to be stopped? There is not a person who
Is not Interested iu that question. The
object of my sermon is to put a weapon
iu each of your hands for your ow n de
fense. Wait not for Young Men's Chris
tin ii Associations to protect you or
churches to protect you. Appealing to
(iod for help, take care of yourself.
First, have a room somewhere that you
can call your own. Whether it be the
house or n room In the fourth story of a
cheap hslgliig I care not. Only have that
one room your fortress. Let not thp dls
sipater or unclean step over the threshold.
If they cotne up the long (light of stair
and knock at the door, meet them face to
face ami kindly yet firmly refuse them
admittance. Have it few family portraits
on the wall, if you brought them with you
from your country home. Have a Bible
on the statnl. If you ran afford It and
can play one, have an Instrument of music-harp
or I! ute or cornet or melodeon or
violin or plnno. Every morning before
70a leave that room pray. Every night
after you come home in Hint room pray.
Make that room your (iibraltar, your Se
vastopol, yi.nr Mount ion. Let no bad
book or newspaper come into that room
any more than jju would allow a cobra
to coil on your table.
Take ci re of yourself. Nobody else
will take care of yon. Your help will not
come up two or three or four llights of
stairs; your help will come through the
roof, down from heaven, from that (iod
who in the (i.iHHI years of the world's his
tory never betrayed a young man who
tried to be good and a Christian. Let me
say in regard to your ad'. erne worldly cir
cumstances, in passing, that you are on a
level now with those who are finally to
succeed. Mark my words, young man,
and think of it thirty years from now.
You will find that those who thirty years
from now are the millionaires of this
country, w ho are the orators of the coun
try, who are the poets of the country, who
are the strong merchants of the country,
who are the great philanthropists of the
country mightiest in church and state
are this morning on a level with you, not
an inch above, and you in straitened cir
cumstances now.
Yonnii Men in Great Cities.
There is no class of persons that so stir
my sympathies as young men in great
cities. Not quite enough salary to live on,
and all the temptations that come from
that deficit. Invited 011 all hands to drink,
and their exhausted nervous system seem
ing to demand stimulus. Their religion
caricatured by the most of the clerks in
the store and most of the operatives in
the factory. The rapids of temptation
and death rushing against that young
man forty miles the hour, and he in a frail
boat headed up stream, with nothing but
a broken oar to work with. Unless AI
mighty (iod help them they will go under.
Ah, when I told you to take care of
yourself you misunderstood mo if you
thought I meant you are to depend upon
human resolution, which may he dissolved
in the foam of the wine cup or may be
blown out with the first gust of tempta
tion. Here is the helmet, the sword of
the Lord (lod Almighty. Clothe yourself
In that panoply, and you shall not be put
to confusion. Sin pays well neither in
this world nor the next, but right thinking
and right believing and right acting will
take you in safety through this life and in
transport through the next.
I never shall forget a prayer I heard
a young man make some fifteen years ago.
It was a very short prayer, but. it was a
tremendous prayer: ") Lord, help us! We
find it so very easy to do wrong and so
hard to do right! Lord, help us!" That
prayer, I warrant you, reached the ear of
(iod and reached his heart. And there
are .100 men who have found out 1,000
young men, perhaps, who have found out
that very thing. If is so very easy to
do wrong and so hard to do right.
O friendless young man, ( prodigal
young man, O broken henrled young man,
discouraged young man, wounded young
man, I commend to you Christ this day,
the best friend a man ever hud!
l orrt in Benion,
Many stories are told of the eccentric
P::rson Adams, minister in Lunenburg,
Massachusetts, for over forty-five
years. He was a man whose character
won respect from laymen as well as
from his brother clergymen, and tvIiohc
Influence was widely felt.
At one time be went, to preach in a
town some miles distant from Lunen
burg', niul stopped to pass the night at
a friend's house. It was a cold winter
night, nud the clergyman was both
tired ami hungry. It was proposed to
have prayers at once anl then supper,
after which the minister could go di
rectly to Ills bed, and get a long night's
rest. To this he agreed, and the fam
ily were called together.
The supper was to consist mainly of
Indian cukes, which were set to bake,
on platters In front of the fire. The
parson's seat was opposite the kitchen
door.
The service began, but hi a moment
Parson Adams saw that one of the
cakes bad fallen down and was burn
ing. He piiusisl and looked toward his
hostess, who seemed unconscious of
any culinary crisis.
"Mrs. Blank," he said, gravely, "we
are told to watch, as well as to pray.
I cannot help seeing that one of those
excellent cakes is burning. I will
thank you to attend to it."
The cake was rescued, and Parson
Adams resumed his Scripture reading
with tin cnsy mind.
The Kcnl Work.
The rml work before the Christian
church to-day Is to show that, while
the gospel of love has displaced the,
gospel of fear, It has done so in the
Interest of higher Christian living. In
the IMist the gospel of fear restrained
men and somehow at the same time
produced men whose lives were flllt'd
Willi reverence and hope anil holiness.
The gospel of love, if rigidly proclaim
ed, must lead to a profoiimler rever
eiwe, to fuller and purer hopes and to
greater holiness. Otherwise It were
better to return to the old gospel of
fear. The freedom of this new gospel
Is not a throwing olT of the restraints
of life, but a putting of Impulses to
right In tholr dace; it Is the freedom
of the sons of Cod. The call is to 11
freedom In which we can honor (iod
best by serving man lnisst.
In the Hour of T ciiirtutloii.
To realize that He, who Is our cre
ator, our daily guide and ruler, our
tenderest friend, knows all things and
moans to use that knowledge for our
good is full of comfort. It Is a help in
the hour of temptation. We are check
ed, when likely to yield, by the recol
lection that the Divine eye Is upon us
and that all the oonsocueueos of our
sin are foreseen by Him. It Is a help
in the (lay of trouble. It Is consoling,
In some degree, to Ik- sure that (iod
known why we have been ulllletod and
how good can lie made to result from
our bitterest trials. Whatever knits us
closer to our Heavenly Father Is of
present, permanent and the utmost
lienetll, and our consciousness that Ho
Is nll-luiowlug as truly as allloving
helps to bind us fast to Him.
Near Alachua, Kla., a man who had
Just put some tools into a client at ap
proach of a storm was struck by light
ning and killed as he stood under an
oak tree, which wan photographed per
fectly In hta body by the fluid. t
LOANS TO THE PEOPLE
A DEMAND FOR GOVERNMENT
SAVINGS BANKS.
Jt Baa Reached Froportlona that Will
Make It an Important luue t the
Coming: eaalnn of CoagreH-Spread
Populist Doctrine.
Plea for Postal Banks.
The demand for a government sav
ings bank system has reached propor
tions that will make It one of the first
and most important Issues of the com
ing session of Congress. Tbe move
ment is gathering new strength every
day and the dally press of the entire
country Is joining in the demand. That
this movement has had Its origin as a
party measure, Inside the ranks of
I'opullsm, will probably not be disput
ed, but that the movement has out
grown the limits of ajy one party is
now certain.
There are, however, many points in
connection with this most important
Issue whic h should not be lost sight of
and the agitation of which must come
through others than the millions who
have so recently come into the ranks
of those who are insisting on postal
savings banks. On those who have
thoroughly studied the questions in
volved, yet are free from the selfish
motives which Umpire certain business
enterprises, must devolve the duty of
settling this question if It is settled
right.
Tbe deposits In banks form the basis
for a large volume of business which,
If drawn fiom the ordinary channels
of trade, would seriously unsettle and
disturb tbe business world. To many
It seems an unreasonable proposition
that, bank deposits are far In excess of
the total circulation of money in the
country, yet such 1s the case. Tbe facts
are that money is deposited and then
loaned out, then paid to other parties
and again deposited; the process being
repeated over and over until the fig
ures shown by deposits In banks, and
a report of "loans and discounts" bear
but little relation to the actual money
in circulation, but rather, indicates the
extent of confidence In the batiks, and
the willingness of tbe banks to extend
favors in the way of loans.
This well-known fact, that the money
of depositors is the real basis of the
banking enterprises of the country,
and the very natural suggestion that a
government savings institution would
hold all deposits out of circulation has
called out frequent objections to the
proposition, and well it might were no
means proposed to solve this obstruc
tion. As the matter now stands the
bunks and their whole power is being
exerted to secure a postal savings
bank law, and the general agitation Is
largely due to the fact that they expect
to be abb; to fully dictate Its provis
ions. Now that the question is an issue
and with the well understood fact that
the measure has been pushed to the
front by Populist agitation, every ex
ertion Rhould be used to see that the
question Is solved correctly and a law
passed that Is an improvement over
laws existing In other nations of the
world where the money power has dic
tated the terms. There is no reason
why methods which obtain in a mon
archical government should be pattern
ed after if there be better methods
which might be adopted.
There can certainly be no reason why
the government should loan the mon
ey accumulated by this system to cor
porations rather than to individuals on
real estate security. No other security
is considered superior to real estate,
unless it be government bonds. There
are questions raised as to the advisa
bility of investing in State or munici
pal bonds, and there Is certainly a
question about many banking corpora
tions being seund.
Tbe point Is well understood that for
the government to accept deposits and
make no provision for distribution by
some system of loans would lead to a
congestion of the money now in circu
lation and a retirement as complete as
though the money was locked up In a
vault or buried; and such a plan could
not fail to cripple business, but among
the many proposed bills the provision
for placing the money again in circula
tion Is to let the banking corporations
put It out again.
This question should be met by active
work on the part of evt ry l'opulist ami
the work should be done right now.
Tbe government should provide for
loaning direct to the people Instead of
to banking corporations. Every bill
that, will be presented will provide for
placing a large per cent of the postal
deposits out at Interest or In certain de
positories. This Is right and is the only
true system for a banking business of
which a savings system Is a vital part.
The main point now Is that the govern
ment should place this money directly
with the people Instead of giving It to
the bankers.
One duly of government Is to see that
justice Is rendered to all the people, anil
there is no n ason why certain corpora
tions should be granted the right n use
these funds, either free, as may be the
case through political favoritism in se
lecting depositories, or at n nominal
low rate of Interest, while nil others of
tbe great nation of people ar ? subject
to the demands and requirements of
these favored few.
The position the Express lias main
tained in a steady fight of many years
for postal savings banks, Is that the
government should make loans direct
to the people and at n low rate of In
terest. Now that the m hole country is
falling Into line In favor of the savings
system every true advocate of reform
should exert, an Influence II favor of
Hie declarations of the Omaha plat
form, which la explicit on thn, subject.
The government would bo rbsolutely
secure agaltvt loss and the borrower
would be reiyved from the ruinous
rates of usury charged by the banks.
Tbe millions of dollar whkh have
been hidden away or loewd up in safe
ty deposit vaults wulch will by a gov
ernment savings system be brought
out, would, if placed directly in circula
tion, stimulate every industry and
bring an era of prosperity.
If this question can be settled right,
and a measure is passed providing for
loans direct to the people, it will prove
to be the most important legislative act
of the century on the money question.
It will destroy tha fangs of the money
power more completely than could any
other proposition, for when the individ
ual is freed from all obligations to the
banks it will mean an era of liberty
which the people have never enjoyed.
There is no reason why the govern
ment should loan to a corporation and
refuse to loan directly to the individual,
when the security offered is good. The
government should most assuredly pro
vide a plan to save depositors from be
ing robbed, but why may it not also ar
range to save borrowers from beiu:i
held up by the same gang of bandits?
The millions drawn out of hiding, if
turned over to the banks, only adds to
their power, and there is no reason why
the government shall be made tbe
agent of banking corporations iu their
speculative enterprises., The duty of
government is to deal Justly and act
for the good of all. The question is up
for solution, and the only true solution
is loans direct to the people. Chicago
Express.
How Populist Seed.
The seed sown by word of mouth
and by the distribution of reform liter
ature may not germinate immediately,
but it will in time. Don't think the
seed you have planted has fallen on
the rocks because the man you have
argued with or gotten to read is as
much opposed to reform principles as
ever. Even If he seems more opposed
to them do not consider tliat as a bad
sign, for sometimes ever anger is a
good indication. Total disinterested
ness is the most discouraging s'.'rn, but
remember what one reads is stored in
the mind and some day may be years
hence it will be taker, off the shelf in
the mind's warehouse, and used.
Pieces we learned and repeated at
school Friday afternoons come into
good play now, though we hadn't the
least idea of their meaning then. We
learned them because it was required
of us, but what they meant did not in
terest us in the least. Wc used to have
an old book of proverbs at home, with
the best proverbs illustrated. One of
them read, 'The longest way around
is the shortefct way home." The illus
tration showed two brothers returning
from school; one attempted to cross the
fields and was plunging through a
swamp, only half way home, while the
other who had stuck to the good road
was nearly to his destination. We did
not then realize what that meant. We
can now see that if every reformer will
obserre the truth of that proverb we
wll' succeed much sooner than if we
take short cuts across the swamps.
Millions of minds are stored with re
form knowledge, which are not yet
(.onverted, but which only lack some
event, some condition, something such
as a weakening of faith in the old ways
to cause them to suddenly, earnestly
and intelligently espouse the cause of
reform. Let the good work of spread
lag the light go on, regardless of im
mediate results. The mother cautions
ber boy against evil associations; he
1-uighs it off or endeavors to close his
ears to what she says, but her words
are stored in his mind in spite of his
indifference; he does not realize It;
could not repeat what she said. Years
later he remembers her loving advice;
can repeat every word Just as she said
it; remembers the solicitude that was
w rltten on her face It Is all as fresh
to kirn as if it had occurred but an hour
la-fore, though hii mother may have
been sleeping in her grave for many
years. Workers la the reform move
ment, your warnings and arguments
are not lost; your missionary work
with reform literature is not in vain;
keep active In tbe good cause. Let no
man's mind escape a knowledge of the
principles and arguments of the reform
movement. Vi'-tory may be nearer
than we think !t Is. Tbe knowledge
stoi'Hl away in the minds of the people
through the grand work of the noble
men who for many years have labored
so bard and expended money iu the
interest of right and progress will be
the ni.'uus of tinhing in the reform
movement men In Irresistible numbers.
Keep 011 In tlw grand work. Let us
never give up trhlle there is life in our
bodies. Labor accomplishes all things
and l'sir will accomplish the great re
forms we advocate and bring blessings
untold If we will not falter by the
wayside. Patriotic men may tempo
rarily V divided as to policy, but they
cannot long lis kept apart after they
bocoino. enllgbtened. No earnest re
former can stray so far from the re
form organization but what he can and
will find his wny back. We cannot per
manently lose a single patriot. If any
of us get into the wrong camp we will
find It out nu1 make haste to find the
true standard. In '88 the reformers
had become scattered, but in '02 when
the long roll was beaten one mrillon
men rallied 1-round the nform ting.
When our bar nor Is hoisted high In air
again, and w bent the long roll, the
scattered hcrs will gather together,
re-euforced b, millions whom the logic
of events will have taught to use the
knowledge Imparted to them by the ad
vance guard of the new (virilization.
If all the reformers who now have
the blues will buckle on their armor
and go out to battle It will be but u
!' t time until all will be more hope
ful a 1 1 encouraged than ever before.
Missouri World.
l'nty of IVpnllats.
The duty of Populists In to get to
gether and by a strict adherence to
principle, prove to the world that we
are fighting for a cause and are not '
mere gang of place hunter. The rink'
and tile of Populism are not oilieeseek
ers and it is not right that a few chron
ic placehunters should dictate party
policy. The fusion deals of last year
and this may serve to sift out a certain!
class who have stranded the party,'
and if so it will do good. i
1
Rnistestive Facts. ,
The commissioner of labor in Mlaw
souri, Lee Meriweather, has made a;
very complete report of the street rail
way business of St. Louis, and the
facts presented contain much that la
of interest. The capital stock Is $22,-:
837,000 and the bonded debt $15,600,
000, making a total on which interest
or dividends are paid of $38,437,000. A;
liberal estimate of the actual cost of
the lines and equipment complete la
placed at a little less than eight and a
half millions, being but little over one
half of the bonded debt, while all of
the capital stock ot nearly twenty
three million dollars is clearly ficti
tious. During the year 1895 the net
earnings of these street railways waa
$1,92,4U8, being about one-fourth of
the entire value of the lines. The im
mense over capitalization of nearly
thirty million dollars can only repre
sent the value of franchises which
were granted free of cost by the city.
Even in the matter of taxation the
favors given the street car company
are simply enormous. The value of the
line and equipment is not taken into
account, but on the net receipts above
operating expenses a tax is paid of
2y per cent. This is about two-thirds
of one per cent, on the real value of
the property and not quite one-sixth of
one per cent, of the alleged value on
which Interest and dividends are paid.
The man who is paying tax on his
home at tbe rate of four to ten per
cent, on a 40 per cent, valuation can
readily figure out that he is bearing at
least ten times his equitable proportion
of the burdens of taxation.
We're Drifting That Wny.
An American missionary, Rev. T. S.
Wyncoop, writing from India, has
thrown a ray of light on the situation
which indicates that the famine In that
country is only the sufferings of a
wronged and plundered people. In a
letter written to friends in this coun
try, and published in the Cleveland
Recorder, he says there is enough grain
and rice to feed everybody, but it Is
held by the great grain niefthants who
have forced up the price, and "the gov- ,
ernment decides that it is not their
province to interfere with trade." H
last winter "visited a district where
the crops of the autumn were large,
and as the land holders get high prices,
they are better off than for many
years. Yet among the peasantry great
distress prevails." This all goes to
show that famine, distress and suffer
ing for the workers, doesn't always
mean any great loss for the landlords.
How long will it be, as things are now
going, before this country reaches the
condition of India or Ireland, where a
short crop means millions of dollars for
the landlords, but leaves the workers
suffering for bread?
The Fool-Killer- Lamrhs.
When Moses went down to Egypt to
release the Israelites, he did not go
to the government with a petition beg
ging for more work., He said, Let my
people go, that thej may hold a feast.
He did not beg for work, he demanded
liberty. But the modern slaves cry
like frogs, more work, more work; and
the Shylocks squawk like cranes, more
gold, more gold. Tie foolkiller laughs
and Fate spins.
Under a proper system of production
and exchange, an average of two hours
labor a day would t reduce an abund
ance to supply all material wants. Un
der the present system, those who do
the hardest work never have enough.
The wage slave, whtn fully employed,
is unsufficiently supplied with the
common necessaries of life. When out
of employment, t he tortures of want
and care abide with idm always. The
fruits of labor instead of being placed
in storehouses for the use of those who
produce them are shipped to Europe to
pay interest on bonds and mortgages,
or turned over for the purpose to na
tive plunderers who double the price
while the workers suffer want. Auvo
cate, Pittslicld, 111, j
A New Idee
If we do not get postal savings banks
pretty soon, the reformers may appeal
to Siiiie Leglslul tires tj inaugurate a
plan bv which the duties of each coun
ty treasurer will be so enlarged as to
accomplish for the people just what it
is hoped the postal savings bank sys
tem will do for them. Under proper
safeguards we wonder 'f this plan
would not work well until the govern
ment adopts postal savings banks?
Era, North Platte, Neb.
The Democratic party 10-day Is no
more uniformly, or radically, in favor
of Tree coinage, or so loud in Its de
fense of greenback money ns it wa
near a score or years ago, opposed to
national banks and the destruction of
the greenbacks, yet It succeeded In ab
sorbing the greenback party and secur
ing control of the government only to
aid the money power In fastening upon
the people its damnable policy of rob
bery and ruin. Visalla (Cnl.) News.
An inquisitive old sinner nsked us
Hie other day how many of the 135,000
striking miners we thought were
among the free excursionists who vis
ited the "advance agent" during the
last campaign In order to secure points
on "coming prosperity." We referred
him to Mark Hnntm, the agent of the
syndicate, w'o n! ! for those exuur
alons. Visalla tc..i.) News.
Call Judas Iscarlot a friend to our
Savior, Ananias a truthful man, Ben
edict Arnold a patriot, but don't, fet
the sake of your Intelligence call Jones
and Stewart of Nevada Popullats.
Southeru Mercury, Dallas, Texas.
