But suppose that we widen the thought a little. At this very moment, the iron monopoly of this country is raising a fund to head off a tariff revision, or to bring about an increased duty. What can be said of the Iron Monopoly? This, as one fact; that in Pennsylvania, it employs miners at _fourteen_ dollars a month, charges them _five_ dollars a month each for a tenement in which to live, and charges them exorbitant prices for the food and provisions which, in spite of a law prohibiting the system, _must_ be purchased at the Monopoly's stores. At the end of the month, many of these miners have not only consumed every dollar of their wages but are actually in debt. It is stated, further, as an incontestable fact that, "a miner who objects to the amount of work or wages given to him gets no more of either, for he is at once dropped from the rolls, and his name is sent to the neighboring mines as that of a man unlit for employment." These people subsist--miraculously--on scanty and unwholesome food, and frequently are subjected to the greatest hardships. We assert that this is no fanciful picture. It is the absolute truth, with the worst untold. Monopoly is fond of calling these pitiable men "Molly Maguires,"--"a dangerous class that must be carefully watched!" These men are _protected_, and their industry and their entire living afford a charming picture of the results of the "protective" system, so far as the Iron Monopoly is concerned. With such facts as these to ponder over, and with the additional knowledge that there is not a single person today employed in a cotton or woolen mill in the United States who is not taxed _in the name of protection_, to enrich the corporation for whom he labors, it seems almost inexplicable that _honest_ men should neglect one of the greatest and, as God knows, one of the most threatening problems of this age and country, and waste words and precious moments over that most arrant humbug--Civil Service Reform. The People are more important than the Government: for to-day the Government is the politicians. * * * * * HISTORICAL RECORD. September 10.--The seventy-second anniversary of our first great Naval victory was celebrated at Newport, R.I. The most important incident was the unveiling of the statue erected to the honor of its hero. Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry. The order of exercises included a brilliant oration by the Hon. William P. Sheffield, chairman of the Perry statue committee, this oration by courtesy of its author being printed in full in this number of the Bay State Monthly; other addresses at the unveiling were made by Governor George Peabody Wetmore and Mayor Robert S. Franklin. At the banquet among the speakers were the Governor, Hon. George Bancroft, the historian, Mayor Franklin, Judge Blatchford, Chief Justice Durfee, Admiral Rodgers, and Admiral Almy. The occasion was an exceedingly notable one.