Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1893-03-15


labor will use no revolutionary meth
ods, nor will it strive to institute
reign of lawless anarchy. 1t is not
labor, but rather it is plutocracy which
Is revolutionary. If there are anarch-
lists they are not to be found in labor's
ranks, but seated in high places are
they, corrupting the Judiciary and buy
ing legislators; with blood stained
lucre overturning and overriding all
law and constitutional barriers AS
Edward Bellamy we'll and tersely
writes:
We maintain that the rapid concentration of
the greater part of the wealth of the country in
few hands, and the establishment so swiftly
going on by means OF combinations and consoG-
dations OF a commercial and industrial oligar-
ehy, constitutes revolution against the spirit
OF the republic which will, if successful ulti-
mately overthrow its forms also. We declare
the capitalists and their agents who are en-
gagged in this movement to be, in effect II not
intentionally. revolutionists and enemies of
American liberties and institutions, and as
such we oppose them in the only efectual way
and call upon all patriotic and loyal citizens to
support US In Russia we should be properly
called revolutioniStS because the nominal and
traditional government of Russia is despotic
but in America we are conservatives because
we seek to defend the republic handed down by
the fathers against those who would substitute
Tor 1t government by petty minority under
the methods Of plutocracy Our flag is no en-
sign of revolt but the standard OF the republic,
to which its enemies and assailants have no
right The black flag of piracy is the proper
banner of the business-wrecking. law-defying
man-crushing party OF the trusts and syndicates
which we resist
Gaze at the fields of battle and take
glance at the opposing forces. On the
hgV, 4,.i., l..
plutocracy, seemingly impregnably en-
trenched behind the bulwarls of special
privileges and class laws. Claiming
the ownership of the earth, Gods gift
to humanity, they control all natural
| opportunities and all of natures re-
sources The coal and timber, the iron
and lead and the multitude of Gods
bounties they arrogantly claim in fee
simple and control the output and dis
tribution of all the prime necessities of
life. With a long line of legal pre-
cedents and an imposing array of man
made laws they set at naught the law
of God and the rights of man and exalt
their vested rights" far above the God
given rights vested in a common human
ity They own all the tools of produc-
tion and distribution, all the money
and avenues of transportation and
claim an Indebtedness against the world
OF humanity, to pay the interest
upon which requires the best efforts of
the whole nation and virtually means
the perpetual slavery of the people to
these august personages. Behind
them, subservient to their will and sup
porting their pretentious claims, stands
the national and state judiciary and
the legislative departments of the sew
eral governments, while subject to
their beck and call is the police force of
the nation. the state militia, and as
last resort, the United States army.
Leagued with them and fighting their
battles are the demons of hunger,
| cold and despair, while all the forces of
nature, the resources of inventive
genius and the mechanisms of science
are used by them to retard the onward
march of a progressive civilization and
hinder the development of a higher,
nobler type of manhood
And labor! What of labor's hosts? A
mighty army is that of those who labor,
numbering thirty or forty to one of
their exploiters and oppressors But
mark this-in their numbers lies their
weakness, not their strength, and it is
upon this fact that the eight-hour de-
mand is based and around this truth re-
wolves the agitation for shorter days
labor. Labor's army is molly and
heterogeneous band, composed of fight
ers, neutral non-combatants and (en-
forced) sympathizers with the enemy.
In 1892 labors forces were proba bly, di-
vided as follows:
Engaged in manufacturing and mining 2,491, ,sO2
Engaged in transportation. ........... 7J5 625
Engaged in personal service. ....... 2424 O29
Engaged In agriculture Qabors) 4,254, ,S45
Otherwise engaged. 1904 010
Total. .......... ........... IL, $40 Sll
These figures are given as an approx
imation, in the absence of any official
statistics, and are based on the statis-
tics given in the census of 1880.
The eleventh census returns showed
| 6,940, 81 males in the United States in
1890 of voting age-21 years and over
| (native born, 1851, S52; foreign born,
4,34S, ,459)-increase since 1880, 4, 1O9, 962,
or 03 per cent Per centage of ma
tives, rs 43; foreign born, 1851. Of the
| total 4,34s, 459 foreign born males of
voting age, 9, SAC, ,O37 were naturalized,
| 406, 139 were uudescribed as to citizen
ship, 1856, ,069 had taken out their first
papers, aud 1,i60.214 were aliens, of
whom 791, ,S76 spoke English and 1858, 3SS
another language. The total vote, how
ever, cast for president in November,
1892, was only 12,0S1, ,316. Now deduct
from the 16, $40, 81 males over the age
of 81 years 340,3 to represent the plr-
tocracy that owns at least three-fourths
of all the wealth in the United States,
and we have left 16, 900, 600 adult males
engaged in the productive and dis
tributive branches of labor and in
the various professions OF this
number it is a very liberal esti-
mate to assume that 5000, 900 stand
identified with labor organizations,
which body of well drilled and disci-
pliued men may be said to be the fight
| ing men or active combatants in labor's
ranks 1t is difficult, in the absence of
authentic official data, to exactly ap-
portion the remaining $1,000, 600 to their
respective callings and occupations, or
to determine just how many are wage
workers and how many are engaged in
trade and traffic, banking, insurance
and the multifarious professions and
occupations Eugene v. Debs, in the
Locomotive Firenen's Magazine, say.
that 5000, 900 of them are practically
scabs," with no more independence and
self-respect than SO many prairie dogs
They are Chinese Italians, Huns, Poles
and that degenerate riff-raff with q
large per cent of Americans) who sub
NIT in this country as in the lands that
gave them birth, to degradation with
out protest-accept it as their normal
condition.
But the most important fact, fal
reaching in its bearings and conse
| quences, is that more than a million OF
these men are out of employment, suf
ffanssr IL.