THE GBOUNDSWELL OP TO-DAY. 27 



1 Thou, too, sail on, Ship of State ! 



Sail on, Union, strong and great 

 Humanity with all its fears, 



With all the hopes of future years, 

 Is hanging breathless on thy fate ! &quot; 



THE GROUNDSWELL OF TO-DAY. 



If there be one danger of more threatening aspect than 

 any other in the present juncture of affairs in the United 

 States, it is the disturbing and corrupting influences flowing 

 out of the existence of great moneyed corporations that, 

 year by year, take on more and more of the characteristics 

 of conscienceless and irresponsible monopolies. By various 

 arts, extending even to the shameless purchase of legislative 

 votes, these strive to shape the domestic policy of the State 

 to their own ends, with less and less regard for the general 

 welfare. The industrial classes are keenly sensitive to the 

 effects of this policy of selfishness and greed, since upon 

 them the burdens imposed by the &quot; all-controlling few &quot; fall 

 the first and most heavily. What wonder, then, that we 

 behold to-day another popular uprising, in earnest protest 

 against attempted wrongs ; or, that the farmers, emphati 

 cally the great producing class of the whole community, 

 should seek a closer union in council, business plans and in 

 fluence, and thus to roll onward the waves of their mighty. 

 groundswell f 



A groundswell on approaching the shore is irresistible ; 

 the surging waters, as one mass upheaving and sweeping on 

 ward, bear all before them ; no anchorage will hold. The 

 only chance of safety is to give way by degrees, and thus 

 allow the wave to spend its strength more gradually. Di 

 rectly the force of one shock is past, the slack must be hauled 

 in, and the vessel drawn back to its anchors, ready to be. 



