The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1890-10-30

the south of intimidating the poor. |
The Democrats of the south accuse
the Republicans of the north Of cor
ruption the poor. Both accusations
are true. Politics in this country is
SO rotten that it, stinks, and the
worst of it is, not that it is so, but
that everybody knows that it is so,
but almost nobody cares. The pitiful
cry of the Democrats after the re-
cent election in Maine was that they
did not have money enough to win.
Everybody knows that in every cleo
ton the party that can buy the most
votes will succeed, and that which
ever party wins the money lenders
and corporations will rule the people
for their own benefit.
The question is sometimes raised,
whether our republican form of gov
eminent will fail. 1t has failed.
This is not d republic. 1t is a plut-
archy. We are ruled not from
Washington but from Wall Street;
not from Albany but from the Grand
Central railway station. Our Presi-
and protected manufacturers. He
was elected by their money; he is the
agent of their will. Our governors
are the creatures Of the railroads and
cold mines. Our governmental Off
Gals, from the president to the
Pinkerton detectives are appointed
by the rich to look afte' the interests
of the rich, although t 'CTs paid by
taxes wrung from the
And the hopelessre ss of the sit
uation is that the poor. with but few
exceptions, approve Of it. They
whine about their poverty, they gnaW
their cruSts of bread and suck the
marrow out of their soup bones, but
they may always be counted on to
vote for the rich, and if a revolution
were to break out tomorrow, with
the object of getting justice done
for the poor, nine-tenvhs of all the
poor would shoulder muskets and lay
down their lives in defense of the
right of the rich to rob them.
Such a nation as ours: a nation in
which 100000 plutocrats tyranniZe
over 60, 900, 600 sodden slaves: if it is
not overthroWn by a foreign foe, or
drowned in its own blood, will die of
the gangrene.
I am no Jonah. I do not come to
you as messenger from Jehovah. I
only utter the words of PLAIN COM
mon sense, and each one of you know
that what I say is true.
Another sign of the timesis this
LabOring people can no longer hope
to get Justice done them through
labor unions. To the clear thinker
there never was any expectation that
wage earners could get their own by
merely combining, with the object
of forcing monopolistc employers to
pay them higher wages. This is the
reason why the politicians who fish
for the labor vote, and the editors
who bid for labor patronage contend
for the right of laboping men to or
ganize. They know that the union
Is perfectly harmless against the
power Of legal monopoly.
MOn0pOlists are few, wise, cum
ming, and secretly and powerfully or
ganized,, and they never quarrel
with each other against their own
interests. Vacant land owners,
money lenders, and managers of cor.
pOrate m%Onopolies constitute a more
Or less closely cemeRted CONSPIRACY
against honest wealth. producers.
They work into each others hands,
they vote together, they chip in
money together to buy votes and law.
makers and judges. The admins:
pFdUlQn may GP AnPuDllcal OF DemQ.
cratic, but in either case it admins,
tiers in the interest Of banded monop.
olists. Congress or the legislature
may be Republican or Democratic,
but in either case it makes laws in
the.interesb of the land owners, the
bondholders, the Stockholders, the
noteholders, the charter owners, and
mortgages. Sixteen Thousand bills
have been introduced during the
present session of congress, and every
one OF them against the interest Of
the landless, the moneyless the ma.
chineryless man.
an the other hand the lahor union:
lists are foolish unsophisticated, not
secretly and very loosely organized,
and always qAarFeling among them'