The Labor enquirer., 1886-07-03


is matter of common nOtOriety that he who
is rich may defy the laws and go unwhipt of
Justice, while that citizen who has not the
means of corruption or the win to bribe
needs but to be arrested in order to rot in
goal.
They have siezed also upon the control of
the Executive power and have used it with
out scruple to enforce the decisions of their
courts and their combinations.
Through these executives they have sus-
pended the rights of habeas corpus, of trial
by jury, of public meeting and assemblage
in many places and at many times.
By their corrupt cOnspiraceS and combi
nations, in which they are protected by off
claldOm, they have secured control of the
telegrarhs Of the country, have established
monopolistic bureaus for the dissemination
of news to the press, haYe used such asso-
Citations to suppress and kill all newspapers
opposed to them, have manufactured intelli-
gence, suppressed the truth and lied to and
deceived the people.
By similar cOnspiracieS they are in control
them, by pools and combinations they levy
and collect taxation upon the whole pro-
ducing and consuming population, uneXam-
pied in amount and impossible to resist
They have interfered in business, have de-
strOyed the business of hundreds, have
stolen the lands of thousands, have butch
cred settlers on their own acres, have cut
wages and shot down with hired rifles their
starving, striking employees.
They have made combinations and fix the
price and limit the production in this land of
oil, coal, coke, nails, iron work, powder.
glass, lead, rubber, files, grains, fruits,
paper, cloth and various other staples of
life
They have by the introduction and mOnOp-
oily of labOr-saving machinery, by the impor-
tatlOn of pauper contract, alien and cOOlle-
slave labor, by prison competition, by the
employment of women and children, created
a system whereby they are attempting to
control the price of labor and reduce it to the
standard of a slave state; aiming as well to
break our spirit, destroy our pride as free
men and reduce us to the status of the Mon
gOlianS Helot They have opposed labor Or
ganizatiOn and education, have sent their
spies and detectives into the unions to incite
us to riot and disorder, that they might have
opportunity through their bands Of hired as
SaSSinS to shoot us down.
And they have here in America already
established an aristOcracy foreign to the
spirit of American ideas. They already
have the neuclus of a class living without
labor on inherited wealth. Some of them
have purchased titles of nobility from for
eign pOtpn ateS, one tor instance having
knelt for the accOIade at the hands of half
breed chieftaIn Of POLYNESIA? They have
imported the accent the customs, the van
ty, the seltishneSs and the insolenCe Of a
corrupted foreign nobility, have made it
their own, and have deported their daughters
to Europe to marry its Off-SCOuringS. They
have provided themselves with retinueS of
Obsequious lackeyS, have put them into iV-
cries, have built palaces, have manufactured
genealOgieS and pirated coats of arms and
have booted and spurred themselves to ride
the people"
More than one of them has clamored
openly for crown, and more than one has
threatened us with an empire built up by the
bullet and sustained by the bayOnet.
And besides this, in this land where 100
years ago prostitution and poverty was prac-
ticalIy unknown among the people, they
have established already a state of shame
and degradation without parallel in his
tory. Here now men are corrupted and sell
their country, women are hungry and sell
their bodies, and little children toll in the
city mill bereft of the joys of childhood and
made ripe for entry into the path of crime
Here now in this land 100000 Of men cry
out for labor merely that they may earn
daily crust of bread, and those who rule over
US make no sign, nor have they voice to
answer.
In every stage Of these expressions we
have petitiOned for redress in the most hum
BILE terms; our repeated petitions have been
answered only by repeated injury. a class
whose character is thus marked by every act
that may define a tyrant is unfit to be the
ruler of a free people. Nor have we been
wanting III attentions to this class whom we
looked upon as our brethren. We have
warned them from time to time of attempts,
by their officials, to extend an unwarrantaDle
jurisdiction over us. We have reminded
them of the circum stances of the settlement
here of our Joint ancestors and tter glorious
struggles for the liberty of all of their pos
terity We have appealed to their native
Justice and magnanimity and we have con-
iured them, by the ties of our common KIN
dred, to diSavOw these uSurpatlOnS, which
would inevitably interrupt our connections
and correspondence. But they have been
deaf to the voice of justice and cOnSanguin-
Hity. We must, therefore, acquieSce in the
necessity which compels the course we take,
and hold them hereafter as we hold the rest
of mankind, enemies in war, in peace
friends.
We therefore, the representatives OF the
wage workers and producers in this repuDIlc,
in General Congress assembled, appealing 10
the Supreme Judge of the World, for the
rectitude of our intentions, do in the name
and by the authority of the good People OF
these states, solemnIy publish and declare:
That the People of these United States
of right ought to be FREE AND INDE-
PENDENT OF CLASS DOMINATION; that they
are absolved from all moral alleglence to
such laws and institutions as maintain and
hermit class slavery and public corruption;
that to secure in fact the practice and en-
forcement of the principles of American Lib
erty is the FIRST duty of all honest men and
women.
For the support of this declaration with
firm reliance on the protection OF DIVINE