The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1882-05-04
Liberty's Enemy.

Liberty's Enemy.
The great fight is to come. Ths
people Of the United States have
had many hard struggle since the
memorable day when the immortal
few pledged their lives, their for
tunes and their sacred honor on the
issue thus made up. Sometimes the
prospects have been dark, indeed
and at others brighter, but always
the people have had occasion to real
ize that to themselves alone must
they look for the preservation oil
their rights and liberty. They have
had to be their own shield, other.
wise they would have had none. So
far they have been victorious, but in
the near future, from the signs of
the times, they will again have occa-
sion TO raise their bucklers for self
protection and to resist a fiercer,
more subtle and more dangerous foe
than any they have before encounter.
ed. This time it comes not with
trumpets and drums, with weapons
and artillery's loud mouthed roar
Its approaches are soft, slow and
careful, even as the steps of Oliver
le Dain, the famous barber of Louis
XI Of France, but thrice as danger
Gus. It's presence is recognized in
Legislatures, in Courts, and lastly in
the marketplace, and there it is om-
nipotent, for it has the money to buy
all who would sell. This Dweller on
the Threshold of Constitutional Lib
eIty, whose approach is so terrible
and disastrous, has neither body nor
soul, no actual life though it lives,
no real limbs though its blows ami
hilate-it is the artificial entity
known as corporation. This is the
being which owes its origin to man,
and the latter will be fortunate if his
best interests aud dearest hopes are
not destroyed by the monstrous
shape he created. For there is no
limit to ito growth, no control on its
power, save the measure Of man.
kinds greed and covetousness, and
where and when was that determin-
edi So mighty and so far reaching
is the power of this modern hydra
that resistance would be hopeless
were it not for the instinct of self.
preservation. Individuals and small
coteries corporations can awe, Sc
duce and use as tools, but the great
masses Of the people OF the United
States are realizing the danger and
are banding together to attack and
slay the monster. They are begin
ming to feel it Is duel to the death.
The United States of America, vast
as are the confines included within
its borders, are not large enough to
hold both. One of them has to 60
down. One must be vanquished;
must be destroyed, killed and utter
" exterminated, for the other to live
in peace and safety. Their interests
are apart, their aims diverge, and
between them there is and ever will
be an irrepressible conflict. It is a
struggle for life and death, and who
ever comes between the opposing
forces win be ground to powder, for
the battle must be fought, and even
now the eombatants are setting their
forces in array. Turn to the record
Of everyd day events. Every pulsa-
ton Of the electric messenger brings
tidings Of the gathering of the cor.
porate power. Railroad, telegraph,
manufacturing and other corpora
items are combining and closing up
their ranks. Whatever money will
do and all the weapons which money
gives, that they are doing and those
they win weld. The greater has
moro money than the lesser. there
fore, If the latter resists, all that the
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