The prison mirror. [volume] (Stillwater, Minn.) 1887-1894, 1891-08-20
Saltwater, Mimi, Thursday, Aug 20, 1891.

the sought of the wise men, the object of
kingly hatred-preached from the shores of
Galilee that men should ''Love one another
He did not mean that few should govern the
masses to their own ACKNOWLEDGMENT and
their neighbOrS' woe. He did not mean
that millions should Starve that few might
live in luxury. The greed for gold in this
land of ours to day is the one great curse of
its existence. To reach the goal, the rich
man, the pampered son of society, will,
with determination begOtten of insanity,
root out from his heart every christian SEN
timent, trample under foot every law human
and divine. close his ears to the walls of
suffering and sorrow he is creating around
him and shrivel up every vestige of human
ity and honor within him that in the end he
may be dubbed millionaire and be admit
ted member of those rObber trusts and
combinations which at present lie like
dark pail DER the peace and prosperity of
this land of so called liberty. Now, what
does this gold hunt mean to the general
public and particularly to the workingman?
1t means-amOng other wOes-as Howard
Crosby says, 1.-THE destruction of many in
dependent tradesmen and makes of them
servants in gigantic monopoly" The hap
py homes OF freemen become the pinched
quarters of serfs. From his own indie
pendence. limited though it be, the heretofore
happy small trader who has been eaten up by
this inhuman monster is made clerk and
drudge in some huge establishment, while
his little family is thrust into the unsavory
surroundings of tenement house to pine
away IN sorrow for the delicate refine
ments of that once quiet home which is
lost to them forever. TO the horny.
handed son of toll it means idleness, a
pinched existence and a pauper's grave.
But may be told that this is only the nat
ural law of trade. l say where natural
law works evil to the community, statute
law should govern the offensive principle.
At the present time almost every indus
try is controlled by the money barOns of the
East who dictate the market prices and la
Dor wages all over the land. They have
their representatives in almost every state
in the Union. Periodically the wages sched-
ue is reconstructed and every turn of the
wheel OF reconstruction means a reduction
in the daily pittance of the workingman.
A few weeks ago down in Tennessee
these rObber monOpOlists discharged some
hundreds of poor hard working and honest
miners and by schemes the most foul and
inhuman filled their places by the cOnvicts
of the state whose services they had secured
for sum not equal to one fifth that which
they were paying their citizen employees.
The miners. driven to desperation at the
privation and misery of their suffering little
ones. sought a remedy which did honor to
their manhood as American citizens. and one
which if tried little Oftener would be the
means of bringing those robber gangs to a
sense of their duty far quicker than any
other method that has yet been adopted.
They marched in body to the mines and
demanded the return of the cOnvicts who
were working under the protection of the
glitterng steel of the sOldiery, and empha-
sized their demand by raising the cry of
"Work or blood. Work. that they and theirs
might live, blood for blood should their lit
tie ones die of hunger and want. 1t made
those poltroons tremble, for every pulsation
of the heart of the wretch whose life is one
of fself.aggrandiZement and consequent an
tagonsm to the heavenly dictum of Chris
tianity ever re- echoes that of coward. and
ere the demand had died away on the morn
ing breezes it had been granted. and victory
for the time being rested on the banner
arms of Right against Might. Next day
the public press-Or at least that part of it
which constitute those paid hirelings of
moral depravity wherever located-stated
that 1.-THE men by their action had lost all
public sympathy" ''that they should have
appealed to public sentiment" ''petitioned
the governor" etc., etc. But while serving
up such an unSavOry dish of nOnsensical
literary hash these So called mOlders OF
public opinion neglected to inform their
readers the quantity of public sympathy.
sentiment, etc., necessary to the makeup
of meal for hungry man. While the
comparative black.strap of popular good.
will is being cooked over the slow fires of
doubts. delays and despised half-heartedness
and while prayers for deliverance from the
clutch of that monster monopoly are being
sent to the throne of authority, what, ask.
is to feed the hundreds of starving wives
and children whose bread. earners have been
driven from employment through no fault