, 1874-01-11

| M0nOpol1c8.
10 The Editor u The Chicago Tribune:
SIN: The geeat bugbenr Of the "worzing-
| man p" is the Monopolist. OF this monster he
| seems to dream ali night and cogitate all day.
Set him to state grievance, With tongue or pen,
| and he
BEGINS AND ENDS WITH MONOPOLY,
while Monopoly ills up all the space between
! end and beginning. Monopoly buys votes. con-
! trolls legislation. Expresses the poor, 6eyours
widows houses, and, having no soul to damn, >"
does not even make pretense OF long prayers.
He just stalks rough-Ehod, in among his vic
tins, slays to the right of him, cuts to the left
OF him, destroys all before him, and, like the
iron and clay feet Of Daniels vision, ''stamps
the residue" under his feet. He Is worse than
the t'Old Man of The Sea," who mounted Oh the
shoulders OF shipwrccked sailors, and rode them
more numerically than some men ride borrowed
horses. Our next great political party is to at
tack the ecaly creature, as ST. George did the
dragon. There is to he domestic war. in which
Antl-,IonopoIy and the Railroad King. Old Uncle
Monopoly, are to marshal their forces and do
terrible battle; but, il Anti's light infantry of
words ever 1outs his Leayy battalions OF hard
cash, she will havo to organize q flank move
ment and attack him in the rear. No General
ever was more thoroughly intrenched aud had
larger, proportionate, reserve force. Behind
him 1arges line upon line serried host OF
Monopolcs, stretching away into the twilight Of
tho unknown. 4 war with Monopoly is but an
attack on our eocial system. which is mob OF
Monopolics, each in deadly conflict with all the
Others
AS familiar illustration, let me return to the
striko OF tho
PITTSBURGH PuDpLERs AND BOILERS.
Each had a separate trade connected with the
manufacture OF ifon,-sometding about melting
or boiling Of metal, and handling it i'll liquid
form. Each monopolized the skill necessary to
do that particular work, and decided not to do
that work, and not to permit other men to do it,
Their work being material part of great net
work OF labor, they wera able to throw thousands
of other workmen out Of employment, to de-
preciato the value Of the moneycd capital in
vested in that manufacture, to ruin mil1-owucrs
ard bankrupt merchants. This power they re-
mofselessly e3erc1eed and the withdrawal Of
that capital OF skilled labor winch they monopo-
lizel, and locked up i'll the moldy old vaults Of
idleless, MAS an lrIeparable loss to themselves,
to tho men who had given them ample oppor-
tuni1y to win honorable Independence. and to
every branch Of American industry. This whole
Western country is the poorer to-day for the
loss of that labor; and
THE WORLD Is THE POORER
for the Generalization OF tens OF Thousands OF
laborcrs. Before that time, cents bushel was
the price of coal,-1 cent for the coal. for dig
suffered for fuel; no widow shlvcred over. au
empty grato; and coal-diggers were a much
more respectable Get Of men than they have ever
been siuce. When iow men had monopolized
the righ: to melt md puddle iron. q larger num-
ber concluded to monopolizo the righ: to dig the
coal necessary to melting iron. SO coal-mluers
found class-corpo1a;iou Monopoly, and struck.
They have been striking over since,-stEikiDg at
the prosperity Of the country; striking at the
respect with which they we're formerly regarded,
BY trying to become unworthy OF it; striking 1T
their own moral nature, by acquiring habits Of
idIeness and its steady companion, vice; etrlk-
ing at all other classes OF workmen; and strik-
ing, hardest always, at the poorest, most nnfor-
never has been an unusually hard winter, from
then until now, in which the oal-miners have
not struck. AB provident, well-to-do people al
ways lay in their yearly supply of coal in sum-
mar, these strikes have been
AIMED DIRECTLY AT THE POOR;
and these sralwart sous OF toll have not heei-
tated to put out tho widows little fire when
SHOWS lay hcayily on her cottage-roof or blocked
her way in the narrow atloyB through which she
passed to her poorly-pald days work. Strong
men have contended for their So day, wrung,
in large part, from women who worked more
hours, and harder, for SO cents. But no matter
who staggered under their blows, they have
mover stopped stirling and manya poor man
and woman reels to-day under the weight OF
their strokes, past, present and prospective.
It used to be that, in winter, farmers aud their
cons. or hired help, when farm-wogk was scarce
went into coal-pits and got out years supply
for themselves or neighbors, and often dug for
tie general market while men whose business
was more especially mining came out in SUM-
mer, made familiar acquaintance with the sur
face -gIories Of their grand old Mother Earth,
mingled with the upper world, and had expert
ences aud aspirations like other men. They were
not human moes. blind to everything but the
CLEAN OF minerals by lamplight; but '.tho