Iron County register., 1886-06-03

principles first in the worlds history
promulgated on July 4th, l776, and for
the establishment of which patriots
left their bodies to rot upon fields en-
sanguined with their blood.
A pure judiciary-one like Caesars
wife, "above suspicion'-is, then, the
keystone of the arch of all free peoples,
and when it is lacking the whole
structure of freedom must inevitably
| fall.
Citizens. Ask and answer for your
selves a few questions. Is the Judi
ciary of our country abovereproach? Is
there not more than a suspicion of en-
tangling alliances between the bench
and certain political factors? Have
any judges any political debts of grati-
tude to pay? When corporate ons band
| together to put man within the er-
mine is there not debt? And does
not the history of the past years show
that monopolists are veritable Shy
locks, and require their "pounds of
| flesh?" And if such alliance exist; if
such debts are to be or have been con-
tracted, shall we-shall we, American
citizens, with our heritage of glorious
memories. and inalienable rights, ap-
prove tn EN-?
Are the corporations of this country
of sufficient power to he political fac
tors? Do not one hundred men con-
troll all the railways in this broad land
Of ours? They lave SO much power
that one, few weeks past, dared to
file pleading in the circuit court of the
city of St. Louis in which it was, in
black and white, announced that it
was wrongful and unlawful" for free
men to quit the employ of railroad cor
porations whensoever it pleased them!
This sounds like a putting white men
into slavery. This is retrograding to
a point beyond 1872, when villeinage,
or " hite slavery, was done away with
by Charles II. Is not our country in
danger when legislatures, and courts,
and the press, and large body of citi-
zens, are owned or controlled by soul.
less and unpunishabie corporations?
Are we not in jeopardy when our form-
az safeguards attend, hand-maidenlike,
upon the beck and call of the money
power?
We believe in giving corporations
their every right under the law: the
right to SO manage their business as to
enable them to live and prosper, with
out undue let or hindrance. The law
and the state must give them that
protection to property accorded evsry
sovereign citizen. But being the crea-
lures of the State, chartered by its
laws into being, they must not, shall
not, dictate to the sovereign peoble.
| But TO q few facts. In 1883, Hon. G..
! ID. 9ancey, Senator from the 14th Sem
atorial district of Missouri, endeavOred
TO get passed law compelling rail-
roads to pay their proportionate rate
and part of the taxes. He was never
able to get even vote upon his meas
ure. The railroad lobby at Jefferson
city prevented at. He compiled a state-
had granted the railroads of the State
more than hundred million of dollars,
and though the railroads were paying,
in net earnings, more than six per
cent. upon four hundred and thirty
eight millions of dollars, those same
railroads, under the def, ctive operation
of the then law, and its inefficient en-
forcement, were only assessed thirty
three millions of dollars! Mr.. Yancey
sent these facts in a communication to
the great daily papers of st. Louis.
Was it published? No. The city
papers were muzzled. They dare not.
He sent it to the country press, and |
publication therein forced a tardy pub
lfeation in the city papers. Those fig |
ures remain relatively unchanged. The
private citizen has to bear the burdens
necessary to support the government
from which the major advantages are
enjoy ed, which seems to be run solely
in the interests of these shrking cor.
p0rations. Does not this show their
corrupting power?
In 1876, the people ct the polls adopt
ed constitution which is the supreme
law of the land, and which every of
ficer is required to swear to support;
yes, every officer, from constable to
governor. In that supreme law is
provision that no man or set of men
shall own, control or operate rival and
railroads. In Missouri there
are such roads SO controlled by the
same men. Have we ever had al Of
ficer who dared keep his oath? Have !
we an Attorney-Generalw who dared en-
force the constitution? Have we
court which dared declare the charters
If those corporations forfeited? Not ]
1ne!
Is this a dangerous exhibition of
power? .
We say that our common country %
n danger: it is time for citizens to /
awake to a sense of the situation; that .
Inless the growth of the power and in G
luence of corporations is soon checked.
t will be forever too late. And we 7
will pass down to our children, not a !
glorious heritage of liberty, but
lamnable device of slavery. slavery to {
money. Can there, then, be any doubt {