Indian chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1882-1902, 1892-07-14
LAST wnnk,s BATTLE.
A Review, with Some of the
Principles involved.


| beg the privilege of offering
through the columns of THE CHIEF
TAIN few thoughts suggested by
the battle on the banks of the
Monongahela; that battle has
brought questions to the public at.
tention which will refuse to be set
tied at the mere demand Of Mr.
Frick OF any other man, aud il be-
hooves our citizens To give little
time to q careful study Of the
problems involved in the situation.
| judge that nine years experience
as a wagc-earner in iron mills has
given me an acquaintance with
that industrial system which quail.
ifies me as well to speak as any
man in the Indian Territory of
equal candor and honesty is quail
flied to speak.
Unquestionably our laws are
framed for the protection of prop
erty and OF vested financial inter-
ests, and under ordinary condi-
tions rightly so unless l am self.
deceived i would protect at the
cost of my life Mr.. Shanahan the
druggist, Messrs. Swain and
Balentine the merchants, in
the possession of their prop
erty and in the exercise Of
a lawful business against any
body of men who should endeavor
to dictate to them whom they
should employ or what they should
pay for labor. Obviously it is for
the general interest that such men
should be free from interference;
it is the business of labor TO find
those who are willing to employ
il; labor has no more right to force
itself on these tradesmen than
they have to force people to pay
for their wares who do not want
them.
The above Judge is a fair and
candid statement of the proper re-
lation between capital and labor
under ordinary conditions. /
claim, however, that this reason
ing does not apply to the Carnegie
case. it usually has been however;
up to this time our public press has
as with one voice applied this prin-
ciple, and through ignorance, as
honest and white-souled men as
ever wore the mantle of American
citizenship have been stigmatized
as anarchists, sots, and enemies
of society. Now what are the
facts; in my private and semi-pub-
lie lite in Indian Territory now ex-
tending over five years, my verac-
ity has never to my knowledge
been questioned, and l expect
now to tell the truth and
nothing but the truth. The illus
tration / am about to give can be
verified in the experience of mil.
lion men in the great industries
of our common country. You are a
wage-earner receiving two dollars a
day. am an Irish emigrant; | and
ten generations of my forefathers
have existed q will not say lived)
under an absentee landlord system;
for ten generations / and my fore
fathers have starved in the midst
Of plenty; for ten generations we
sold every pound OF butter and
grain and every egg to pay rent to
our landlord and to pay taxes, for
the landlord paid no tax out of his
rent, and | and my father and
brothers and sisters are raised on
the buttermilk with a potato. That
landlord class has so hedged about
its privileges with law that if kill
rabbit or il | catch a fish in the
streams of my native land, | am
guilty not of misdemeanor but of
felony, and | and my family are
branded with infamy as long as
the memory of my punishment
fingers in the mind of one of
my fellowmen. 1 never wore
pair of shoes until | came to this
country; three.fourths of your
wages are a fortune to me; / can
treat myself to the unwonted lux
ury of white wheaton bread and
fresh butchers meat. 1t is a SIM
pie fact that three-fourth of the
Irish laboring families in the coun-
try live almost exclusively on these
articles, and keep themselves on
the verge of rum buying this costly
and comparatively useless food;
the cheaper and better food they
will not have. / have taken your
Job and a year passes; this year of
good fare has widened the circle
of my wants; | want a starched
shirt with a laundered collar for
Sunday; if am young and regard
full of my standing with the bet
ter sex, ! want cuffs; | may want TO
marry wife and hire a pew in the
church where | can sit with her on
Sunday; | want a carpet for the
floor she walks on; my dollar and a
half which once seemed big now
seems small; it was my price how
ever and | am willing to squeeze
through with it, but less would be
intolerable. Alas! the intolerable
like the unexpected is what us
ually happens; Ireland is not the
only unfortunate nation in Europe;
the social condition in continental
Europe, which, in addition to a
ieudal aristocracy supports vast
standing armies, have produced
a type lower than /. A boy whose
father was in the army, and who
as an infant was strapped to his
mothers back, while with brogans
on her feet and a dung-fork in her
hand she spread stable ofal over
Europe, comes on the scene and
casts an envious eye at my dollar
and a half; he takes the job at
a dollar per day; no skill can save