San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1878-06-01
The Attacks Of the venal Press.

prevailing among the workingmen in
this country has had the effect of di-
recting their minds to the consideration
of questions that have too long been
ignored by them. They look around
them and see Nature with bounteous
hand lavishing her favors upon men;
they see the land producing enough and
more than enough to support the popu-
lation of the country; they see thou
sands and thousands of acres of the
public domain now lying idle, inviting
the army of the unemployed to come
and till them; they see tho bowels of
the earth Offering their stores of wealth
for mans use; they see on all sides the
accumulation of their past labor, in the
midst of which they can scarcely OBJ
tain enough to maintain life in them
and their little ones; they see around
them the possibilities of making life
the very reverse of the hard struggle
for existence that it now is. Seeing all
this the question forces itself upon
them, why they should starve in the
midst of plenty. They ask themselves
what baneful fiat is it that forbids them
to reap the fruit of their labor, that for
bids them even to work. They begin
to question whether this poverty in the
midst of so much natural wealth
whether this paralysis of labor with its
attending miseries--is not directly due
to the system under which we are liv-
ing. They are beginning to discover
that any reform that leaves our finan-
cial and economical system untouched
is but temporary measure ct relief
an anodyne, not remedy.
As this conviction grows and finds
expression, the jay GOulds and the
Vanderbilts, who prosper on the gen.
through the venal press that stands
ready to do their bidding, assail the
workingmen with bitterness and I'M
scrupulousness that do not hesitate to
make use of every means to blacken the
character and misrepresent the motives
of those who undertake to champion the
cause of labor.
The gathering strength of the Labor
and Greenback movement throughout
the country has thrown the organs of
these men into perfect paroxysm of
fury. The principal dailies Of New
York are devoting column after column
to vilifying the men who are engaged
in the effort to restore to the country
an honest system of finance and to raise
labor above the state of pauperism to
which the owners of these journals
would reduce it. First and most con-
spicuous in these attacks is the unscru-
pulous organ Ct the notorious gambler,
Jay Gould. Not long since it devoted
over page to the task of showing that
the trades unions and other working
mems associations are formed for the
purpose of disorganizing society. SIM
liar calumnies appear day after day in
the editorial columns.
The Tribune is aided in its work of
viliication by the Herald. the Times
and the World. However much these
journals may differ in politics, however
Numerically opposed their views may
be on other questions, they all present
q united front in their opposition to any
movement that looks to the ameliOra-
ton of the condition of the working
men. Owned and controlled by men
whose interest it is to perpetuate dis
honest system of finance, and to keep
labor at the starvation point, these
journals try to form in the public mind
q prejudice rgainst all reforms that will
have for their object the lettering of
the condition of the laborer. Conscious
of the weakness of their position, they
abandon argument and entrench them
selves behind abuse. This action of
theirs clearly indicates the weakness OF
the cause they espouse. 1t cannot stand
the clear light of investigation. Its only
hope lies in keeping men from direct
ing their thoughts to the consideration
of the wrongs that are being perpe-
trated under the present financial and
economic system. To do this they shake
in our faces the scare-crow OF commun-
ism. Rioters, communists, cut-throats.
financial lunatics, are some OF the pet
names that are lavished on the men who
have set themselves to work to reform
the abuses that are at the root of all the
suffering and misery that now fill the
land. Here is q specimen of the way
that these journals hope to successfully
combat the men who are advocating a
Just system of finance. Speaking OF
the Greenback Convention held, lately,
in Philadelphia, the Tribune says:
"Thcy want to get the capital Of other people,
or the use of that capital. without paying what it
is worth. They want to pay debts with money
that has no value. Wherein do they differ from
the tramps, who want to get a living without
working If a really descriptive name, short,
convenient, terse and fit, is wanted for the
Pennsylvania National Greenback Labor party,
why not call them the Pennsylvania Tramps."
No doubt Jay Gould's organ thinks
this an effective way of preventing the
growth of the party that threatens to
put stop to its owners dishonest way
of making money.
But it is time that the Tribane should
tIat Don lxyor nj 10