The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1892-09-30
I PRINCIPLE OF HUMANITY.
ssThou Shalt Not Muzzle the. Ok When He
Treadeth Out the Corn"

| ~ PRINCIPLE OF HUMANITY
..Thou shalt Not Muzzle the OK When He
Treadeth Out the Corn"
|! In an old book time honored and
time tried. we find the following
quaint commands: Thou shalt not
muzzle the OK when he treadeth out
the corn
The command was uttered long be-
fore the days of modern threshing
machines. says the Chicago Express.
The necessity of the law may
therefore have passed away. but
the principle involved still e~ists.
Instead OF threshing machines run
by steam it was the custom in those
days to tread out corn wheat with
oxen. They were turned loose upon
the grain and made to walk over it
till it was completely threshed out.
Naturally enough the oxen would
want to eat enough of the grain to
satisfy them-and just as naturally
there were old skin flints in those
days the same as there are IN these.
who begrudged the occasional mouth
full of grain which the poor toiling
around from morning till night
making threshing machines of them
selves. These stingy old curmudg-
cons would therefore put muzzles on
the oxen so that they covld not pos
sibly get mouthful.
But about this time certain man
by the name of Moses had an inter-
view on the top of Mount Sinai with
the Lord God of Israel and among the
many excellent things that the Lord
God suggested to Moses was the in
humanity and injustice of muzzling
the oxen that did the work of thresh-
ing grain. According to Moses state
ment this same Lord God of Israel
.thereupon then and there" as the
lawyers say in their special pleas
| proclaimed the eternal law of justice
| and equity which we have heretofore
! quoted and which we quote again:
Thou shalt not muzzle the OK when
| he treadeth out the corn.
Yes the Almighty God stopped
from heaven and in behalf of a poor.
dumb toillng OK proclaimed
| divinely grand principle of humanity.
In the latter days of threshing ma
| chimes that ancient custom and that
Godgiven law have both passed away
and. sad to say the principle itself
| has become obsole e!
On evcry hand we see human oxen
muzzled even as they toll year in and
year out producing that which sus-
tailA human life.
Men spin and weave. yet they and
their families perish for the want of
! clothes
Men work from morning till night
making boots and shoes yet they and
theirs go barefoot
Men SOW and reap and yet they and
their wives and children are pinched
with hunger. ~
These giants of Labor feed clothe
and house the world; and yet they
are so muzzled with cunningly do
vised laws that they cannot even par
take of that which their own labor
produces.
The producing vampires of So
ciety, the bankers. the Shylocks the
! corporation cormorants. have muzzled
the toiling OK as he 'treadeth out the
corn"
The OK has been muzzled by giving
upwards Of 200. 900. 900 acres of the
peoples land to soulless corporations.
The OK has been muzzled by the
creation Of an untaxed bonded debt.
The OK has been muzzled by giving
to banking corporations the power
and profit derived from ssuing bank
notes.
| The OK has been muzzled by giving
to corporations special privileges
whereby they have been able to &C
| cumulate hundreds and hundreds of
millions of dollars.
| The OK has been muzzled by special
! legislation which has enabled less
| than twenty men to accumulate in the
| last fifteen years one thirtieth of all
| the property in the United States; less
! than 100 corporations to accumulate
tenth of it; less than 5. 900 indi-
| viduals to accumulate one fifth of it
in ALL about 5. OO0 corporations and
| individuals tn accumulate One-third of
! all the property which a great nation
has produced and created in two hum
dred and fifty years!
The OK has been muzzled By adopt
| ing system Of taxation which throws
the entire burden of supporting the
| government upon the shoulders of
wealth-producers instead OF the
wealth holders.
The OK has been muzzled by Great
ing transportation monopolies that
; dictate prices at which the producer
shall sell and the consumer shall buy
the necessities OF life.
A Pertinent Query.
| If it takes force of more than one
| thousand Federal soldiers of all arms
to put down a rising of discontinued
miners in Idaho aud an army of eight
| thousand five hundred men-horse,
| foot artillery and Gatllnrs-tO allav