The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1892-09-01
CAPT ALFRED E. LEE ON THE LABOR
TROUBLES.


Capt. Alfred E. Lee contributes a
valuable article to the Columbus Press
on the recent strikes and labor troubles
Capt. Lee is an old time Republican, a
veteran soldier and was for long time
editor Of the Ohio State Journal.
Under the administration of President
Hayes he served his country abroad as
u. 5. counsel to Frankfort-on-the-
Main. He is still Republican on the
| old issues, but of course he does not
endorse the robber tariff. What he
says on our present labor troubles Is
worthy of a careful reading. We quote
few extracts from Capt. Lees article.
"As for the anarchists, there is no
| denying of course, that they are the
| chief authors of all our sins and
troubles. American men are, in one
respect, like their sisters: their virtues
are innate, their frailties have all been
taught them. Cur frailties have been
taught US by few Williams who have
been expelled from European prisons.
If these outcasts had Lot come over
here and educated us we would not
know any wrong, much less do any.
But how dees it happen that such con-
spirators get into the United States
when 1t Is the sworn duty of McKin-
ley's custom house officers to keep them
out? These officers manage to exclude
foreign pig iron, pearl buttons, linseed
oil and scores of other innocent things
for which we might exchange, with
great profit, our wheat and bacon; why
| do they not also exclude Anarchists ?
Do not say that there is no law for it,;
there is plenty of law for it, and has
been for many years. Why does not
the Harrison administration enforce
it? Is the secretary of the treasury,
whose special business this is, too
much engaged in "dabbling" III Ohio
politics to spare time for matters of
| that kind?
But it so happens that our most mis-
| chievous anarchists are native born,
| and not Europeans at all. The only
| professional anarchist ever arrested in
this city was colored woman, who was
locked up in jail until her friends took
her away. Possibly she might have set
the town in blaze If she had been per-
mitted to speak, but as to that we can
| only conjecture. That either she or her
fellow anarchists have had anything to
do with bringing about the present labor
strikes and troubles is not a matter of
historical record. If the Sunday News
can make it such, it should lose no time
in publishing the necessary evidence.
If the prohibitery tariff organs can
prove that the existing unrest of labor
is due to any form of socialistic agita
ton, by all means let them prove 1t.
They could not more effectually set the
| seal of condemnation upon the doc
trines they advocate.
What is currently known as McKin-
leyism is socialism In one of its worst
forms. 1t is q scheme of forced distri-
button of property through the United
States treasury. 1t is a scheme for
making the government partner, If
not chief manager in the functions of
production and distribution. 1t says
to A, ~ shall take from you by taxation
certain proportion OF your earnings
and pay it as q bounty to B." This is
called protection" but its real char
acter can not be changed by name.
1t is socialism, and differs from the
orthodox sOcialistic scheme only In
making its distribution TO a favored
few instead of to the many.
To all socialists and anarchists the
prohibitory protectionists have them
selves given the cue. They have forced
upon the American people socialistic
system Of taxation which majority of
them believe to be little better than lob
berry. BY this system they have produc-
ed the economic conditions out of which
all the present labor troubles have
grown. When they raised the average
tariff duties from AZ to 60 per cent. they
assured us that they were going to make
labor more lucrative and contented
than it had ever been. See the result
If we had revenue tariff the protec-
tionists would point to the strikes
and say: There is your free trade"
Let them now behold the equally logical
results of tariff prohibition.
The true remedy for these things, so
far as they can be remedied by law, is
not increase of taxation, but reduction;
not government by and for millionaires
and monopolists, but government by
and for the people. The conditions un-
der which we are working are forced
and artificial. AS result of this, the
relations between labor and capital have
become abnormal and explosive, and we
see now but faint beginning of what
we shall have if we continue to make
our national government an instrument
of spoliation. The only road to safety
ana peace is the road which leads us
back to natural conditions and the free
operation of natural laws, infinitely
wiser and better than the laws of Con-
prpgS ATEDEn n