The weekly register. [volume] (Point Pleasant, Va. [W. Va.]) 1862-1909, 1877-07-05
THE MnLLIE MAGUIREs.

persons belonging to the notorious
Mollie Mcguire organization were
hung in Pennsylvania for murder
The Mollies our readers know, is an
organization of the miners of the
coal region Of Pennsylvania,and their
object is to maintain high prices for
their work at any cost. For certain
acts on the part ola member of the
organization, or an employee they
prescribe the death penalty and the
crimes of the parties hung on Thurs
day,were committed by them in obed-
fence to the instructions Of the order,
they being the parties selected to- en-
force the death penalty in various
cases. Doubtless the execution Of
every one Of them was just, yet there
are two sides to every question and
diferept lights by which to view all
subjects. This Mollie Mcguire or
ganization and the hanging of these
men can be viewed in more ways
than one. tits the'oldfght between
capital and labor. The Pennsylvan-
ia col hes are owned and controll-
ed by a few powerful corporations
They employed a great many miners,
they quarter them in miserable shan
ties that never saw white wash or
paint, and where the families in
thousands ofcases are obliged to sleep
and cook in the same room. Let the
miner work as hard as he may he can
never build for himself an attractive
home. He lives in one ofthese mis-
cradle, imprinted shanties and sees
himself surrounded by them, There
is no spot allowed to him where he
may planta garden or raise q flower
to relieve The bleak and dreary scene
that surrounds him. His months
wages when paid him is at once
transferred into the hands of the
same corporation from which it came,
for they own the stores from which
he is obliged to purchase his supplies.
Is it any wonder that he becomes
low and brutal? is It any wonder
that he has no sense of the true, the
beautiful and the good? What is
there to train his moral faculties?-
His children are brought up in ig-
norance. Soon as they can tell a
large lump of coal from small one
they are compelled to go to work for
the same gigantic corporation, for the
parents are too poor, to poor to edu-
cate them and is obliged to put them
to work early in life to feed and cloth
them. Can you expect these child
rem to be anything else but hard
hearted, immortal men ready to go
into an organization that would
strike down and kill their masters
whenever they think their interests
demanded it or their burden becomes
too oppressive.
We hold these men responsible for
their acts, but are they entirely re-
sponsible? May not their conduct re-
bound upon others. What shall we
say for those who established that
social system and still maintain it,
that bars them from the way of ad-
vancement and of social attainment.
That confines them and their off
spring to dreary huts, that teaches
them to be machines and beasts OF
burden. What shall we say for the
gigantic corporations that in many
instances drive these men to desper-
alton and that has gone up to power
and influence, by crushing them and
reducing thOm to the level of the
mule that is their co-laborer in the
mine.
Society abhors the murderer and
throws up its hands with horror at
the scaffold and at the shanty of the
miserable and debased, yet society
built the scaffold, erected the shanty
for the benefit of its votaries and in
nine cases out of ten made the crimi-
nal. Every man who was hung
Thursday was guilty, but there are
accessories to his crime who reyel
in the luxuries of this world who will
have to answer for part of these crimes
in the day of final reckoning. We
hope none will say there is no such
day of reckoning, there must be such
a day. Its coming is a necessity
NcrS.
The recent order of the President
regarding office-holding politicians
does not meet with the approval OF
all the country postmasters who arc
newspaper editors. To the objection
that the Republican party cannot
live without ofIice-holders to manage
its campaigns and the government
rN,,or,,,r,, 20 furn;eb finds IL may be