The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1882-11-22
Judge Jere s. Black on the Monopc-
lies and Duties of Citizens.

Hon. Jere S. Black has addressed long
letter to the editor Of Justice on certain as
poets of the political situation. Hewrites
This monopoly dragon had many heads
and power Of multiplied reproduction.
Everywhere and at all times the rights of
| property have suffered from its irightfuI
/ depredatioBs. In this country the devices
are innumerable by which it appropriates s
TO itself the earnings OF labor, the products
of land, and the profits of legitimate COM
merce, without right of title, except what
it gets by corrupt legislation and the favor
of vicious government.
What makes it more formidable is the
| high character Of the men who support it
and the good faith in which they act. Mo-
nopoists never feel a doubt about the
righteousness of the system which builds up
their colossal fortunes. How they manage
their consciences | do not know, and them
selves are not able to tell but they do it
successfully. / have known hundreds OF
large manufacturers who got their labor at
starvation wages and sold the products in
| a monopolized market at double price; and
all of them, with one single exception,
| blessed the tariff which protected them in
the practice of their double extortion. Gov
ernor Stanford of California, is a perfectly
honest man, but he believes that the pile
| Of uncounted millions which he has won by
desolating the land and seourging the indus
| try of the country with his railroad monop-
oily is as justly acquired as if he had earned
it BY the sweat OF his face. Moreover he
has publicly aYowed his conviction that the
great highway between the oceans, built
and equipped at the public expense by pub-
lie authority for the public use, benefit and
oehoof, is the private property of himself
and his associates, who are appointed to
manage il as agents of the public; and he
will acknowledge no right of the public
which may conflict with his proprietary
dominion. Aud to this doctrine other good
men with similar interests devoutly say
ameni They do not see what is palpably
plain to impartial persoas-that an admi-
raj of the navy might as we'll claim to be
the owner of the fleet he commands and use
it to levy for his private chest "as much as
the traffic will bear" upon all the commerce
Of the seas
This faith in the moral and legal good
ness of their cause makes monopOlists active
and gives them powerful influence, They
are very sincere, respectable, greedy, rich,
strong and unscrupuous in the use of their
strength. They have modes of operation
which you can neither adopt or counteract
The popular insurrection which threatens
10 defeat them at the coming elections may
cripple, but will not kill them. They will
reassert their control over your representa-
tives as boldly as ever; and how success
fully you may judge from what has happen
ed in Pennsylvania Our Constitution de-
clares that railroads and canals are public
highways, devotes them to the use of all
people upon equal terms, forbids all manner
Of fraud and favoritism, all extortion all
oppressive exaetions and all determinations
between persons and places. 1t then ex-
pressly commands that the General assem-
bly, shall carry these provisions into effect |
by appropriate legislation. We elect our
legislators and regularly swear them not |
merely to support but to obey the Constitu- |
ton. Nevertheless, arguments which mo-
nOpoly alone knows how to use, have con- |
yinced them that this part of the Constitu- |
tiOn ought to be treated with silent disre- |
gard and the abuses of railroad power not |
only go on but get worse and worse.
The actual consequences resulting to the |
country from the measures of the monopo-
lists have not, | think, been truly repre-
sented or properly considered. For many |
years past all legislation has been partial to
large capitalists and eorrespondngly injur-
ious to the rights of land and labor. To /
what pernicious extent this system has been
carried | need not say, for it is seen and
known of all men. 1t can not and will not |
come to coed. Artificial regulations of
that character have never since the begin
ming Of fine world had any effect but a bad
one on the general condition of the society
that tried them. But the monopolsts in
sigt that they have changed the nature of
things and enriched the Masses of the
people by the simple process of filching
from them the fruits of their toll. They
iOuGly cry out that the whole country is in
4 state OF boundies prosperity. They get
this brag inserted in political platf rms
wherever they can and thunder it from
every stump from which they are permitted
to speak. But it is false. They themselves
are, indeed superabundantly rich; and, in
vested as they are with the privilege of plum
dering their falow-citizens, why should they
not be rich? But for every millionaire they
have made a thousand paupers. The rela-
tions between workmen and employers
have never been SD unsatisfactory as now.
Laborers are complaining everywhere of in
adequate wages, and the complaint is true
without doubt The law ought to secure
them a living rate of compensation; but cap
suffer aything to be done for its relief The
farmer who tilIs his own acres can make but
,he barest living. The carrying trade ofthe
world has passed away from us into the
hands of our great rival simply because our
legislation will not permit us
20 buy ships abroad or build them at home
without paying tax on the material, which
enhances their cost; and by reason of this
hat is to say, from sheer inability to carry
t or get it carried by the nearest way-we
nave lost what was and should be now, the
.ichest portion of our foreign commerce. Is
I'll this loss and suffering of the industrious
,lasses to be ignored IL
If we estimate the prosperity of a country /
,nly by the overgrown fortunes of individu-
lis specially favored by the law, then Ireland ,
: prosperous as we'll as America for there,
IS here, the legal machinery is in perfect
rider which makes the rich richer. while it
,rinds the poor down into deeper poverty.
But there, as here, the lines of Goldsmith
ire ever true and ever wise:
Hard fares the State, to fastening ills prey, l
Where wealth accumulates and men decay. {
Rev. Howard Crosby says he has voted i
he Republican ticket because he believed it I
o represent virtue and political wisdom, / :
m a Democrat, with sentiments of unspeak-
ale reverence for the founders of that par
Y and strong attachment to the true and
.ood men who in later years struggled so
aitbfully, against fearful odds, for personal Y
liberty and the right of local selfgovern- {
nent But am Democrat according to G
nv own definition of Democracy, which is !
his The common sense and common hon
sty of free people applied within consti- !
utional limits to the making and admins
ration of the laws. | trust am as ready 9
IS Mr. Crosby 10 denounce any political or t
whether it be his or mine, I
which goes into open partnership with the )
firm called by him Monopo- :
Y, Greed, Trickery & Co." !
Yours very truly, ]. S. BLACK.
York, Pa, October q, 1882.
Changing His Skin. t
richmond Dispatch.
There lives in Henry county. Va a |