People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1892-09-23
PLAIN WORDS AND BOLD.

Standing Armies and National Guards Are
ut the Service OF Capitalists Let Capital
lists Man n Well as Captain Thom-Do
Not Enlist Either Ia 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
Pinkerton 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, aud order
reduction of wages Workmen al
ready struggling to keep the wolf from
the door ask for a conference in order
to talk matters over with the employer.
The conference iscut 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 d.
rect, to be discharged for his temeritv.
The workmen strike, and before a 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
ranks Of the soldiers, scan well the
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 worlkingmen 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 a
mill, shop or mine, while a naughty en-
ployer sends cheaper men in to take the
places of the strikers. Working men
are also tax payers We have to sup
port the state, pay the salaries of the
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 do
duty at from thirteen to thirty dollars
a month in guarding the bricks, mortar,
buildings and machinery of those who
become too arrogant to longer treat
with their old employees.
My advice to workingmen from this
day forward is not to enlist in either
state militia or regular army. If these
institutions will be used to do duty for
capital, let capital man as well as officer
them If these institutions will be or
dered out to defend the property of
millionaires, let millionaires enlist in
them and defend their own property
Ii real danger threatens the nation, let
workingmen do as they have always
done, as they did in '61, enlist and save
the nation from her enemies; but from
this time forward do not enlist to
strengthen the hands of those who are
lowering the standard of American
wages. Do not enlist to do battle for
your enemies and against your friends.
Do not usurp the place which was made
detestable and odious by the presence
of Pinkerton, and when you have
sense enough to do that, the naughty
employer of labor will think twice be-
fore he strikes a blow at the right Of
men to organize.
Our friends, the railroad men, have in
many places petitioned against the
ownership Of railroads by the govern
ment. But few more experiences
with the McLeods and Webbs will set
the lesson well in mind that until this
government takes possession of the rail
and telegraph lines, there will be no
justice melted out to the men who man
age the trains and lay the rails. Those
who talk so fippantly of bloody revolu-
ton should think well before speaking.
They should instruct the men how to
vote instead of shoot; they should. tell
them that while capital has the power
to direct governors, our political sys-
TEN is wrong, and that they, as a part
Of the voting machinery OF the nation,
should look into the question Of gov
ernmental ownership and vote this year,
next year and every year until it comes
In the meantime do not enlist in the
militia or regular army; the arts of
peace are nobler far than those of
strife and war. Let those who violate
the laws and constitutions do their own
fighting and their own blood spilling in
future conhicts.-T. V. Powderly, in
Journal Of Knights Of Labor.
Trades Unionism.
Tho follo1uinor aytracf IL Talon from