The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1891-05-15
OUR GREAT REPUBLIC.
AN INDEPENDENT PoLIT,cA,
ACTION ALONE WILL SAyEIT

POLITICA
ACTION ALONE WILL SAVE II,
So Long as working peopl, are Contsnt "a
vote With the Old partiesj and Fight
zach Other on Party Lines Plutocracy
Need Have no Fear.
me general master workman has is.
sued a proclamation calling upon all
members Of the order of the knights of
Labor to vote upon the subject Of indie
pendent political action. This, If prop.
erly understood and appreciated, is the
most mehientons question they have
ever been asked to vote upon. Shall the
republic live for the benefit and future
liberty OF our children or shall we allow
II TO be strangled to perpetually enslave
them? These are the real issues in
VOWED in this vote. 10 those who have
closely watched the course of events and
the action bf the law-making and execut-
Ing departments of the government. there
can be no hesitating as to how to vote.
10 the members of our order it will be
timely to give a little resume of reasons
why they should unanimously vote in
the affirmative.
All the advantages that labor has
ever wrested from monopoly up to the
present time has been achieved by the
strike and boycott alone. The pluto
cracy has been made to feel that so often
and severely that, In se1f-protcction, it
has been compelled to form all kinds of
counter combinations against it. BY
manipulating the law-making and exc
cutlve powers of the government it has
at last succeeded in getting q law that
will effectually crush out every labor
organization. The antitrust law will
make every strike or boycott a criminal
otfense under severe penalty. That be-
ing the case, every labor organization
that uses them not only can but will be
crushed inside of three years at the
farthest. The process of crushing out
has been going on for some time, in a
secret, quiet way, without re.
course to this law as yet. The
action of the New York Central railroad
is one proof of this; the outrageous ar.
rest and Siberian incarceration of the
striking Binghamton ~cigarmakers, the
wholesale discharges of the express com
panies' employees, the displacement OF
the old experienced employees on all rail
roads, as is proven by the fearfUlly nu-
merous accidents, are more. The tele-
graph companies arc doing tho same
thing. The old faces we have seen at
the windows for years are gone; girls
and boys fill their places; at what terri
BILE cost is shown by the recent railroad
smash-up, caused by an overworked boy
telegraph operator. Information comes
from all over the country that all the
large employers of labor are com
bining to suppress the hated trade
union. We already have bosses asso-
Citations in every trade. The press
informs us that they are even making
their combinations international. Soon
as they learn to know the efficacy of the
antitrust law, to forever rid themselves
of the hated unions, they will use it to
it's utmost limit. Then the days of the
trade union, with its strikes and boy
colts, will be foreverpast. Nothing will
then remain for the protection of labor
but it's vote. There will be no alterna-
tive but to convert every assembly and
every trade union into a political club.
This no law can prevent. The consti-
tuition guarantees all citizens the right
of free assemblage, so we. can fall back
on u constitutional rights. But the
plutocracy fears that vote worse than
the strike and boycott, and is doing all
it can to prevent workingmen from COM
bining at the polls. They are cunningly
manipulating the press and pulpit to set
labor organizations against each other.
How sweetly they are just now patting
the federation and the locomotive engi-
neers on the back and condemning the
knights. Little do they know that the
rank and file of labor have no quarrel
with themselves, much though their
leaders may at times have differed. But
while they are thus working the labor
racket they are not neglecting the poll
tical M either, but are working all
kind of schemes to keep them divided on
political lines. The whole tariff humbug
is only gotten up for that purpose. Nor
are they neglecting the legislative power.
The ballot will be the only recourse
left. This we will have to agree on.
The only difference of opinion will be
upon the question of how to use it,
whether to continue to wastei it upon the
old parties or unitedly join issue with
the new party that is springing to life
all over the country in spite of our
order. If organized labor but generally
knew and understood the true condi-
ton of affairs there could be no differ
OF opinion upon this question.
Ever since our order was founded it
has tried influencing both old parties to
take up u demands. 1t has supported
politicians who have pledged themselves
to work for them regardless of party.
And what is the result? After all these
years of that kind of effort we have not
q single effective law to benefit labor,
but many to plumber it and effectually
crush and further enslave 1t. They
have continually played us for suckers,
used as as ignorant dupes to accomplish
their own purposes. We have gained
very much less than nothing. By heav-
ems! IL we are fools enough to continue
kind of effort any longer, we de-
Serve to be shackled forever.
Inotice the republican campaign COM
mittee in order to catch workingmen's
votes, is sending out q document with a
title-page of red, white and blue
and the portraits of Grant and Lincoln,
and Boosting of the number of labor
bills the g. O. p. had passed at this ses-
sion of congress, mentioning especially
o number of important amendments it
had made to them. Now this document
10 q SldIiAS} UdicldCcu MlSISpTeS6uUd-
ton from beginning to end. The truth
is the 60. p. has not enacted a single
for the benefit of labor. But
the nature OF the amendments is partic-
noticeable, and shows how cum
they study and how low they
will stoop to deceive the working people
and to cater to votes. The amendments
are such as to really make the measures
entirely imperative by amending the
life out of them, or, as is the case with
the anti-trust law, making them just the
reverse OF whatSthey pretend to be, but
smoothly worded that q speaker, adj
dressing an audience Of working people,
cGp make them look 81 though really