The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1889-11-29

National, State and Municipal works.
10: The prohibition, by law, of the employ
OF children under fifteen years of age in
mines, shopg and factories.
II. To prohibit the hiring out OF convict
Yesterday was the day set apart by
the president OF the United States, forl
the purpose OF eating turkey, and being
thankful to an allwise and powerful Gre
.tor for the blessings we enjoy. This is
the statement Of a fact and it is proper
to follow the statement with a few re-
marks and inquiries on the subject Of
in general, and the caus-
es OF thankfulness that have fallen to
the lot OF the people whom this paper
representative farmers OF the Black \
Hills. First and foremost you farmers
should be thankful that you are alive.
After a third OF a centaury OF legalized
robbery, during which time YOU have
worn ragged clothes, lived in shanties, |
worked yourselves, your wives, your
children and your animals from twelve
to sixteen hours per day, good days and
bad days alike, yea should be extremely
thankful that you are still on this side
of the mysterious river, with lots OF hare
days labor in you yet. To be sure, you
can remember agreat many friends and
neighbers who used to labor by your
side, who long ago gave up the unequal
struggle against monopoly and robbery
and sank into untimely graves, but you
a comfort yourselves with the ref1ec-
ton that "the survival OF the fittest'' is
a law which nature applies without re-
serve, aud congratulate yourselves that
you belong to the ''elect". You proba-
bly, had a holiday yesterday, that is
you didn't work more than eight or nine
hours, and consequently had time to be
thankful that you live under a system
OF government that has produced more
millionaire during the last twenty Years
than all the rest OF the world combined.
You have no business to reflect that ev-
cry millionaire represents II thousand
pdupers, that is none OF your business.
You Just pay your two per cent. per
month and be thankful that you are not
an inmate OF the poor house. you have
a right to be thankful for your broad
shoulders, hard muscles and sturdy
limbs, and be glad that the little Jack
legged robber to whom you pay alI
your hard earnings is only fit to wear
line clothes. live in a palace, tempt his
appetite with the choicest viands the
land affords, sleep On downy beds, be-
deck himself with diamonds and devote
three or four hours per day to bossina
lot OF clerks while they dictate dun
ming letters to his Tagging "mudsills'' The
farmers.
Be thankful for IL kind government
which allows you to settle on lands thai
could be used in no other way and
which, when you have wrung from the
unwilling sod OF Il bleak prairie, enough
to feed you.sclf, taxes you three per cent
on every dollars worth OF property
which a monopoly elected assessor can
discover, while the money lender and
big dealers escape by paying on from ten
to twenty per cent. OF their capital. Be
extremely thankful that a wise(?) and
honestly legislature, which represents
your interests, as a hawk represents the
interests of a poultry yard, elevated to
the proud position OF United States Sen.
ators two OF the most unscrupulous
robbers and abject tools OF monopoly
who everlived on Dakota soil. At home
these two men might do untold mis-.
chief, where they are now they can't hurt
the farmers Of this section any nor
than they do those OF all the rest Of the
country. fit happens to be good sea.
son for bribery and iobbery while there
terms exist they may be enabled to I'll
themselves to be honest in future, on
the same principle that an anaconda is
quiet and harmless after swallowing al
the meat it can hold. Be thankful for a
legislature that allows cut throat chat
tel mortgages, whereby man can prom
Use to wait on you a year or mure anC
sell you out in ten days, make cost
enough to double the dedt, bid
erty in at a third OF its value and ther
sell it for double it's worth to some othel
thankful" farmer who will give another
mortgage.
But above all things be thankful tina
aglimmer OF light has come through TIN
world CT blackness. That the men who
produce what the balance. of the WORLD
lives on are at least awakening and pro
pose to have something to say them
selves. If you carefully study you:
needs and rights, say "get thee behinc
me SATAN to every small bore polit1ci
an, who comes to claim your vote. hell
elect only men OF integrity from you
OWE ranks and apply tar and feather
to all pledged representatives wko be
tray you and your interests, it is prob
able that in the course Of a few year
there will be a different list of things 10
you to be thankful for.
II the secrecy with which the comb
nations known as trusts are able t.
surround their conduct were takel
away from them there would probabl
be no "trusts,"
Why, then, do not the people compe
these combinations to reveal thei
operations?
All the political doctors are engage
IN studying these new scourges on til