The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1886-04-08
JAY COULD.
THE GREAT MILLIONAIRE
FIERCELY DENOUNCED
BY THE STRIKERS.
THE KNIGHTS CHARGE HIM WITH
THEIR MIsFORTUNES-G
ERAL STRIKE NEWS.

ST. LOUIS, April 6.-The following ad-
dress was issued this afternoon by the
joint executive board of district assem-
blies 101, II and SO, Knights of Labor, to
the workingmen of the world:
Friends and brothers: Hear us, for
we plead for our rights. Men of equity
look upon us, for We struggle against
giants of wrong, mad with frenzy, of
pride, of self-adulation, begotten as it is,
of the success of outrage and infamy.
There stands before US giant of aggre-
gated and incorporated wealth, every dol
lar of which is built upon blood, injustice
and outrage. That giant of corporate
wealth has centralized its power in, and is
impersonated by an eager fiend, who
gloats as he grinds the life out of his fell
low men, and grimaces and dances as they
writhe upon his instruments of torture.
Oh, ye workingmen of America! who love
your liberty and your native land! Ye
great creators of wealth who stand as the
foundation of all national
good, look upon your broth
ers to-day! Gould, the giant fend,
Gould, the money monarch, is dancing, as
he claims, over the grave of our order;
over the ruin of our homes and the flight
of our lives before him. The world has
smiled in beauty, but his wake is the grave
yard of hopes, the cyclones path of devas-
tation and death. Our strong arms have
grown weary in building the tower of his
strength and yet he bids us build or die.
Our young lives have grown gray too soon
beneath the strain of unrequiting, con-
slant toll. Our loved ones at home are
hollow-cheeked and pale with long weary
waiting for better days to come. Nay,
more than this, the grave-yards are hiding
his victims from our longing eyes.
Brother workmen, this monster fend has
compelled some of us to toll in the cold
and rain for fifty cents day. Others have
been compelled to yield their time to him
for seventeen and thirty-weary hours for
the pittance of nine hours pay. Others
who had dared to assert their manhood
and rebel against his tyranny, are black
listed and boycotted all over the land. He
has made solemn compact with the high
est authority in our order and then has base
ely refused to fulfill pledges. Helives under
and enjoys all the benefits of a republi-
can form of government, ,and yet advocates
and perpetuates the most debasing form
of white slavery. He robs rich and poor,
high and low. with ruthless hand, and
then appeals to corrupt and purchased
courts to help him to take our little homes
away. He breaks our limbs, mains our
bodies, and demands that we shall release
him from every claim for damages or be
black listed forever. He goes to our gro
GERS and persuades them not to give us
credit because we refuse to be ground in
his business mill He turns upon us a
horde of lawless thugs, who shoot among
our wives and children with deadly intent.
Then he howls for government help.
"Fellow-workmen:- Gould must be
oyerthrown; his giant power must be
broken, or you and must be slaves for
ever. The Knights of Labor alone have
dared to be the David to this Goliath.
The battle is not for to-day; the battle is
not for tomorrow; but for the trooping
generations behind us in the coming ages
Of the world; for our children and our
children's children. 'Tis the great ques-
ton of the age; shall we, in the coming
age, be nation of freemen or nation
of slaves? This question must be decided
now. The chains are already forged that
are to bind US. Shall we wait unit they
are riveted upon our limbs? May God
forbid! Workmen of the world! marshal
yourselves upon the battle field. Work
men of every trade and cline, on to the
fray. Gould and his monopolies must
go down, or your children must be slaves.
Think of the little olive plants around
your hearthstones, that will be blighted
by his curse. Think of the little homes
he is seeking to rob you of. Think of
the wife, from whose eyes he has wrung
floods of tears and from whose heart he
has tortured drops of blood. Who can
look calmly at his perfdy, his outrages,
his crimes? for he has sought to incite
felony among our rank and file; he has
brought the perfdy of vile men to entrap
the unwary, that he might stain our fair
name, gloat over our misfortunes.
"Once for all-fellow workmen, arouse!
let every hand that tolls, be lifted to
heaven, and swear by Him that lives for
ever, that these outrages must close
Let every heart and brow be turned to-
ward our common foe, and let no man
grow weary until, like Goliath, our giant
is dead at our feet.
by order of the executive boards OF
district assemblies 101, SO and II.