Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-04-26
Paying Debts With Shotguns-Demo
Gratis and Democrats.

A week or two ago the st. Louis
Republican said that landlordism was
"the seed of poverty and discomfort
the parent of anarchy, socialism. COM
Jmunism, robbie rv and murder" Then
followed an assertion that if something
vas not done, and that very soon, in
this respect, farmers would have t.
pay their debts with shofguns. This
is very strong language for a paper
that bitterly opposes the single tax
which offers the only possible way OF
dealing with landlordis.n in anything
like an effective and equitable manner.
In this state such language would
perhaps, come under the Conspiracy
Act; for it not only hints at violence
but hints at it in way that justifies it
in some degree. Such resort Is not
necessary; the use IF little common
sense will make short and complete
work with laudlordism without resort
ing to the arguments of barbaiians
and brutes. Sensible ballots will prove
far more effective than warm buck
shot. There is a way of avoiding debts
by avoiding landlords, and it is wrong
to condemn a single class for something
that the whole commuNity, tenants as
well as landlords, are responsible for
We must get over the notion that men
can do their private duties and neglect
OF r,nhI;o i,tioc No man con dh
his duty to his family until he has done
his duty to his country. A man ought
to be ashamed to acknowledge that he
pays little or no attention to politics.
If we were to give to public questions
the thought and consideration it is our
duty to bestow upon them, we should
never have to settle anything with
shotguns or any other kind of guns. 1t
is only in default of proper thought
that we ever have to resort to force or
violence, and the party or paper that
a scouts certain, sensible and simple
remedy, while hinting at contingency
that we should and can avoid. is not a
safe guide for public sentiment.
A couple of weeks ago the REGl sTER
some impatience at a call
issued for United Labor Convention
in Iron county. When talking about
Democracy we must remember that
men may pass under other party names
and yet be genuine Democrats, just as
Thomas Jefferson was called Repub-
lican and his followers Republicans.
Democracy is name to conjure with,
and there has been a good deal of con-
juring done with it, too. AS name
applied to a political party, it antedates
the Christian era by five or six centur-
les, by chronology that is very prob
6 bly, under the mark some several hun
dred years. The genuine article has
always been marked by one popularity
or possessed one characteristic: wher
ever Democracy prevailed there was
the most equitable distribution of
wealth, and wherever or whenever
Democracy was lacking there was an
unjust distribution of wealth. The
fact that the United Labor party
makes an equitable distribution of
wealth its principle, if not its sole issue.
proves the genuineness of it's Democ-
racy, and if the party that claims the
title by priority is too blind to see the
issue or too perverse to adopt it, why
should it not
''Doff its lion hide for shame
And hang a calf skin on its recreant limbs"
What do we want? Simply to carry
into practice the declaration that every
man has q natural and inalienable
right to life, etc. We have been talk
ing about doing this for hundred
years, but so far it has been all wind
and no cider. We have always been
saying that men had a natural right to
live, but we have never given them
but purchasable right to
the means of life, and then we have af-
fected surprise that men grew hard
and Inercenary under our hypocritical
policy. Now, what does the so-called
party propose to do about
Jefferson's words into effect?
Well, 1t proposes to put off the issue,
and to kill time by frittering away a
presidential campaign, in most crit
ical period of our history, by comparing
the ugliness of long-tailed tariff with
the beauties of Q bub-tailed tariff, a dis
cussion we ought rather to be ashamed
haY hat l,p
see the absolute necessity of carrying
out the proposition and policy of the
father of Democracy in the United
States, should discredit a party that
ignores true Democracy,
though masquerading under its name?
United Labor is temporary name for
q revival of Jeffersonlan Democracy.
1t has diagnosed our case correctly and
points out the cnly therapeutics; it
cannot be met in argument: nor can it's
claims be ignored. We know that
men are denied all natural right to
natural opportunities, and we can just
as clearly see that if the possession off
natural opportunities by the individual
were made to depend upon full and
and not a partial, discharge
Of the duty of the individual to the
state, there would be room and plenty
for all who were willing to live by the
blessing conferred upon men when
they were commanded 10 eat bread in |
the sweat of their brow. Democrats |
.hnilld be united but if a politlcal |