Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1889-11-21

L0c0m0hce FTemeRS WdgdztHe. 1t will
repay you to read it.
Impudence, hypocrisy, chicane, knav,
| cry and such other mental and moral
defects as go to make up the modern
scoundrel have no limits, and if such
moral monstrosities have cash, as in the
case of Corbin, they are able to push
| themselves to the front, and, with eXhi-
| billions of effrontery that defy eXaggera-
ton or characterization, play the role of
! injured innocence, and demand for
themselves a verdict of Endorsement in
the face of facts which pronounce them
irredeemably vile, depraved and capable
of perpetrating deliberate crimes, richly
meriting the title of villain, and which
ought to subject them to penal servitude.
The times, prolific of such abnormal
productions, have not brought to the
surface creature of mental and moral
deformities more repulsive than Austin
Corbin, who, in the October number of
the North AmericdR Recietc, writes of
"The Tyranny of Labor Organizations"
Austin Corbin has money, a boast that
any successful burglar, counterfeiter or
pirate can make with equal nonchalance.
Money, more than charity, is made to
obscure a multitude of faults, but in
Austin Corbin's case, while money para
lives Justice, thereby permitting him to
practice his schemes of knavery, it has
not saved him from the detestation of
all honorable men. He is known to be
a depraved wretch capable of connecting
schemes of robbery, and this he has
done with such a reckless disregard of
law, with such shameless perversity,
with such piratical defiance of right,
Justice and public opinion, that the Con
gress of the United States was called
upon to investigate his deep-laid schemes
of wreck and robbery, and a committee
of Congressman visited the "black hills"
where his rule has produced poverty,
degradation and famine, and, as directed,
have prepared a bill, which, if it be-
comes a law, will, in some measure at
least, check the evils his rule has inflict-
ed.
That such an abnormal combination of
all that is loathsome in greed, of all that
is depraved in morals, of all that is dis
reputable in business, of all that is false
| i'll profession, not content with reputa-
| ton for infamy which makes his name
the synonym of all things despicable,
should seek further conspiCuousness by
slandering labor organizations, can be
accounted for only upon the hypothesis
| that his inherent venom, like that of the
rattlesnake at certain seasons, has so
| ditfused itself through his mental, moral
and physical organism as to render him
| blind to all things decent. There is not
labor organization on the continent
that does not loathe the name of Austin
Corbin, and his article published in the
RecteT will serve to intensity their detes-
tation.
Austin Corbin, more properly Austin
Cobra, starts out by saying sit is a mis-
take to assume that employers are always
wealthy capitalists" Nolabor organiza-
ton in the country ever made such a
mistake. On the contrary they know,
as well as does Cobra Corbin, that in a
vast majority of cases employers are not
men of great wealth." Many stock
holders in great enterprises are people
of moderate means. Such was notably
true in the case Of the Philadelphia
Reading Railroad, in which widows anG
orphans and men of small means made
investments and received large div
dends, but when such men as Cobra
Corbin got hold and dominated the
affairs of the splendid property it was
wrecked and became the most corrup
corporation on the continent, but neve
until Cobra Corbin inserted his fang
into the corporation did it reach such
low degree of decentralization as to de
mand of the Congress of the Unite,
States an investigation and legislation t.
check, if possible, career of unprece
dented scoundrelism. The rascalities O
Corbin are now as well understood a
the treason of Benedict Arnold, or tn
colossal Doodle career of Boss Tweed.
This 1nnplntiun raaarl Of l.
now known to the nation by virtue @
the report made by the Congressiona
Committee. 1t is not given to ever
scamp to have national reputation, no
is every exposed knave proud of note
rioty. Corbin is an exception. III
seems to glory in his infamy, and ha
the vanity to suppose that by denouncin
labor organizations his name will G
down to history after the fashion of tn
fool bull that tried to arrest the speed G
a locomotive.
In his article on "The Tyranny c
Labor Organizations" Corbin assert
there never has been time" an
assumes there never will be" tim
, the worker will not be permitted to leay
"his employers service;" and upon tn
heels of this old chestnut remarks
''The worker in this country at leas
under the law, happily, is not slave.
By all the Pagan gods at once, what
discovery Not slave 'under the law
Hol all ye workingmen, are you NJ
under lasting obligations to Cobra Corbi
for the declaration? And vet this en-
bodiment of hate toward labor organize
tions without law has compelled men o
the Philadelphia d Reading Railroad
and in the mines controlled by that col
poration, to play the part of slaves, t
renounce their rights as men and cit
zens, and yield to his dictation, the pen
atty of refusal being idleness. "Som
employers" says Corbin, and he is o
the number, 'employ no new men VIII,
are members of any of the labor unions
applicants are required to promise not tc
join any while retaining their employ
ment those who prefer the unions are
required to quit the service, and promo.
tions are entirely confined to those OF
undouJted loyoty 10 their employer and lis
p0licy"
1t is eminently worth while for the
workingmen, and all others who are
interested in labor problems, to compare
the tyranny of labor organizations"
with the tyranny of Corbin's rule in the
anthracite regions of Pennsylvania, as
set forth in the paragraph we have
quoted. But the preliminary to such
comparisons as the terms "tyranny"
and "tyrant" should be defined. In
this country the laws recognize neither
one nor the other nevertheless in def
ahce OF laws men exercise tyrannical
authority over the affairs of men as
autocratlc and despotic as characteriZes