Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1892-10-19
PLAIN WORDS AND BOLD.

Standing Armies and National Guards Are
at the Service of CapItalists-Let Capital
lists Man as Well Captain Them-DO
Not Enlist Either In the State Militia or
the Regular Army.
The railroad magnate or iron master
has but to touch the button in future
and the governor will do the rest
PinkertJn is dethroned his mantle has
fallen ON the shoulders of the governor;
his outcast, traitorous voice is silenced
in the words: 81 will mortgage the
state" Men who live in other states
and foreign lands grow rich and fat on
the proceeds of the labor of Pennsyl.
vania and from the products of her soil
They live so elegantly, or rapidly that
the enormous profit already given Is
not enough; they want more, and order
a reduction of wages. Workmen al
ready struggling to keep the wolf from
the door ask for conference in order
to talk matters over with the employer.
The conference is cut short. Autocratic,
arbitrary action on the part OF
the employer follows, and then he de-
mands that each workman assert
his independence and come to him di-
rect, to be discharged for his temerity.
The workmen strike, and before blow
has been struck or threat made state
troops file between the men and the
workshop, or the railroad; other men
pick up the tools in places where home
builders labored, and the thrust of a
bayonet is the only answer given from
that time on until hunger does its
work. Look carefully through the
IL - %An
forms and faces of the men who defend
with their lives the property of the
millionaire, and you will find no mill
ionaires or sons of millionaires among
them. They are all workingmen, sons
of workingmen and merchants. Here
and there an officer may be wealthy,
but the greater part are workingmen.
Just think of it for a moment, and then
ask if the advice l give is not proper
under the circumstances. Workingmen
have heretofore joined the militia. We
may or may not belong to labor organ
: izations, but we all want fair share Of
the value our labor creates. Our broth
ers in another place demand some con
cession, and the military are ordered
out by the governor to stand guard at 1
mill, shop or mine, while naughty EN-
ployer sends cheaper men In to take the
| places of the strikers. Working meI
are also tax payers We have to sup
port the state, pay the salaries of TIT
governors and others, as well as the ex
penses of the militia: Militia working
men leave situations in which they re
ceive from two to five dollars day to d.
duty at from thirteen to thirty dollar
month in guarding the bricks, mortar
buildings and machinery of those VIII
become too arrogant to longer trea
with their old employees.
My advice to workingmen from thi
day forward is not to enlist in eithe
state militia or regular army If thes
institutions will DO used to do duty 70
capital, let capital man as well as office
them. If these institutions will be OF
dered out to defend the property G
millionaires, let millionaires enlist il
them and defend their own property
If real danger threatens the nation, lie
workingmen do as they have alway
done, as they did in '61, enlist and saw
the nation from her enemies; but froI
this time forward do not enlist
strengthen the hands of those who AZ
lowering the standard of America
wages Do not enlist to do battle fc
your enemies and against your friend
Do not usurp the place which was mad
detestable and odious by the presenc
: of a Pinkerton, and when you hay
sense enough to do that, the Taught
l employer of labor will think twice b
7 fore he strikes a blow at the right {
T men to organize.
Our friends, the railroad men, have
many places petitioned against tt
/ ownership of railroads by the govern
b ment But few more experience
4 with the McLeods and Webbs will s.
o the lesson we'll in mind that until tn
, government takes possession of the "a
t and telegraph lines, there will be I
d Justice melted out to the men who ma
4 age the trains and lay the rails Tho
4 who talk so fiippantly of bloody revol
i ton should think we'll before speakin
0 They should instruct the men how
y vote instead of shoot; they should Il
e them that while capital has the pow
Is TO direct governors, our political sy
IS tenn is wrong, and that they, as pa
d of the voting machinery of the natio
:. should look into the question Of &c
h ernmental ownership and vote this yea
v next year and every year until it come
10 ln the meantime do not enlist in t
y militia or regular army: the arts
y peace are nobler far than those
y strife and war. Let those who viola
a. the laws and constitutions do their oy
fighting and their own blood splitting
N future conficts.-T. V. Powderly,
er Journal of Knights of Labor.