The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1892-09-30
PLAIN WORDS AND BOLD.

PLAIN WORDS AND BOLD.
Standing Armies and National Guards Are
at the Service Of Capitalists-Let Capitals
lists Man as Well as 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
Pinkerton is dethroned; his mantle has
fallen on the shoulders of the governor;
his outcast, traitorous voice is silenced
in the words: II 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
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
bayonet is the only answer given from
that time on until hunger does it's
work. Look carefully through the
| ranks of the soldiers, scan we'll 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 workingmen and merchants. Here
and there an officer may be wealthy,
but the greater part are workingmen.
Just think of it for moment, and then
ask if the advice I 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 a 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 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 we'll 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
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.
| If real danger threatens the nation, let
workingmen do as they have always
done, as they did in 81, 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
Il oto TO ,1o or6 oHiO,,c Inv tho 40
| 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
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 we'll before speaking.
| They should instruct the men how TIC
vote instead of shoot; they should tell
them that while capital has the power
to direct governors, our political sys-
tenn is wrong, and that they, as 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 splitting in
future conflicts.-T. V. Powderlv, in
Journal of Knights of Labor.
| Trades Unionism.
The following extract is taken from
a conversation between Josiah Royce
and the prime minister of Austria, as
| told by Mr.. Royce in an article to Serb