The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1888-10-31
Down with monopoly taxes!
Harrison and the Wage Workers.

Harrison and the Wage Workers.
Gen. HARRISON in his speech yesterday
afternoon at Tomlinson hall condescended,
for the second time since this campaign
opened. to refer to certain charges made
against him by Indiana members of the
X. of L. concerning his attitude during
the great railroad strike of 1877 To these
charges, in so far as they related to the
exact language used by him at the famous
meeting between the strikers committee
and the citizens committee, he entered
an emphatic denial. But he did not deny
that during those troubles he was actively
on the side OF the corporations; that
although he was drawing princely sums
from one of them "a their attor-
ney he helped to organize and COM
handed company of militia formed to
put down the strike; or that he accepted
membership in the citizens committee,
whose nominal purpose was to effect an
adjustment between the strikers and the
railroad companies, and upon which he
could not serve with impartiality, or with
any sense of proprety, because of his re-
lations to one of the parties to the con-
troversy; nor that during his service on
such committee he openly insulted the
representatives of the strikers, who re-
scented the affront by Withdrawing in
body IA fact which does not rest upon
rumor, but is attested by the reports of
the incident printed in the Journal and
Nelcs at the time.) Gen. HARRTsoN did not
denv any of these things, nor did he deny
that after the strike was ended he prose
cuted four of the strikers and succeeded
in getting them sent to Jail. Neither dill
he deny that during all the years that
have elapsed since the great railroad
strike organized labor in Indiana has been
antagonistic to him; that it protested
against his return to the senate, not only
because 0f his record before he entered
that body, but also because of his votes as
a senator in favor of corporations and of
unrestricted Chinese immigration; nor
that he owes his nomination to the presi-
dency to the favor with which he is re-
garded by the great monopOlists and cor
poration magnates of the country, who
are recogniz d throughout the length and
breadth of the land as the unrelenting
enemies of labor.
We would not willingly do injustice
to Ben HARRISON, notwithstanding the in
famous methods that have been employed
by his campaign managers, and which he
could ut any time have stopped with Il
single word. But no man who is familiar
his coraar COR, tr,,fnfr,1Ix- that i
one to commend him to the favor of the
toiling men and women OF America; that
he has ever manifested any sympathy for
them in their struggles against the OPP
pressions Of capital; that when his wage
working neighbors were engaged in life
and death struggle with giant corporations
he proved himself their friend; that in
his public capacity he has ever shown any
interest in or concern for the working
people whose votes he is now beg
ging for so abjectly; or that in his
character of a citizen he has not
studiouslY held aloof from those whom he
regards as his social interiors. Every
body who knows BES HARRISON knows
him as a proud, exclusive, supercilious
man, who has always avoided contact
with his fellow-men as much as possible,
except when he was seeking immediate
political preferment.
The question of whether he did or did
not use the precise words attributed to
him by some of the workingmen is not
very material, when his whole career
shows him to be on the side of corpora
tons and capital and against labor. We
do not understand that organized labor is
against him, only because it is believed
that on a certain occasion he made use OF
very offensive language to its representa-
tives. 1t is because his acts, in public
and private life, show that he is
not in sympathy with the wage
earners OF the country; because
his associations are with the great monop-
olists who have grown rich and powerful
by robbing labor of its rightful dues, and
because he stands upon a platforms made
in the interest of the trusts and combines
and against the interests of the great
masses OF the people. Ii his general
record showed him to be man of the
people, single unkind or offensive re-
mark would not be treasured up against
him. 1t is for what he is and has been,
and for what he represents that the wage
workers of the country will defeat BEN
JAMIN HARRISON for president