The examiner., 1881-11-26
Have the People Cause to Complain

peaceful enjoyment or the fruit of their
 toil
 It must also be admitted, by every i1i- teIligent observer, that, this dnty is but
 half performed.
 Our laws, indeed, undertake to protect ! the physically weak from wrong at the hands of the physically strong. But, in the light of our advanced Civilization and knowledge, we see that its just as impor. tant that men of ordinary Requirements and knowledge should be protected from wrong at the hands of tleir mental and intellectual superiors.
 I Has one man any bettes slat to employ his superior intellect z Knowledge to wrong his fellow than another who pos sesses superior physical sssSgth has to use that for the same purpose and if not, should not the government protect it's cit izens from one class of wrongs as much as the other?
 What real difference between the man who abstracts a two-dollar note from my pocket, and the man who by cunning con- trives to control the markets so as to con- pei me to pay him two dollars advance on the ton of coal I am obliged to buy. Yet the first is called stealing, and the power of the state is invoked to, pursue, convict and punish the offender, while the latter passes for a successful business operation.
 Flour advances from eight to ten dol lars barreE> We trace the cause to it's source, and find that a Chicago wheat king has a corner in the market
 Kerosene goes from Twenty to thirty cents per gallon. Has the supply dimin- ished? No. Has the demand increased? i? No. Have the wages of those employed in its production and. refinement been raised? No, No. The Standard Oil company, with ded to levy and collect it's periodical tax from the laborers and producers of mate rial wealth throughout. the country.
 No matter how abundant and bounteous may be the harvest of the western plains, neither the eastern mechanic nor the east ern farmer is suffered to profit thereby. For in passing through the tollgates of the great transportation companies. the surplus is always passed to the credit of sooner does the inventive genius harness the lightning and bid it work for man. than the reins are passed into the hands of some gigantic soulless corporation, Whieh jnda n a 5af aa tft strggls for gain drives
 Our legislative halls, instead Of defend ing the rights of the people, and enacting laws for their protection, have become mere breeding places and nurseries, from which hundreds if not thousands of these ravenous wolves are annually turned loose to prey upon the people.
 These corporate monsters, goverened, controlled restrained by no law, hu- man or divine, with their artificial, invisi- ble bodies, always present to devour, yet never within reach of appeals for mercy or justice, aided by a corrupt and subser- vient press, are able to seize upon every addition to the stock of human knowl- edge and forge it into @ link of the chain they have already used to bind the masses to the never teasing treadmill life of toll.
 And as the issue of this union of forces we have the aristocraey, which is con- stant menace to our form of government and it's institutions.
 Counted among the offsprings are the Goulds and Vanderbilts, who play with the rights of the people as their fancy moves them and in addition to system atic and well laid plans for constant un- ceasing extortion, occasionally astonish their admirers with successful opera tion of some bold scheme that sweeps into their coffers the accumulated earnings and savings of hundreds and thousands of un- suspecting victims.
 All of these powers opposed to the inte- rest of the people surround Congress and our State legislation with their minions in the persons of the smiling, smirking, lodging, button-holing, gentlemanly loby- ists who, in their eagerness to secure the passage of their pet scheme, fairly dog the peoples representatives, bringing to bear upon them every influence their fer tile and cunning minds can suggest.
 Think of it, men, into what @ disgrace full and polluted surroundings we are obliged to send the peoples representatives to make laws for their government, and cease to wonder that the vast far reaching schemes to rob and defraud the people, are carried into successful operation. Cease to wonder that public land equal in area to that of several of the largest States of the Union, has been granted to single monster corporation. Cease to wonder that through the success of plum dering plots and schemes, by the so-called financiers, the whole country is periodi- cally thrown into panic during the tur- moil and confusion of which the chief actors are able to amass vast fortunes | from the wreck.
 Then ask yourselves the question, have the people cause to complain? F.E.C c. (To be co,st5nated)
 During the past week one of the leading Dry Goods Houses of the City, has been