The Waco evening news. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 1891-1894, 1893-06-30
order Ch.~c-.1At Palmer's

ton upon the great mass of the peo.
pie who are compelled to purchase
their wares or to Iatronize their
monopolies. The political power
OF the state is debauched and the
public mind is corrupted by this
system of legalized robbery perpe.
trated under the sanction of the
government, while the toiling mil.
lions of the land are daily pilfered
in purse and pride to swell the
illimitable acquisitions of corporate
avarice.
"The circulating medium of our
money, contracted and controlled
by these powerful agencies, is in
sufficient to meet the demands of
our complex and developing COM
merce, our whole financial system
is distorted and its usefulness i'm.
paired by the concentration of
capital in few hands, and every
department of industry and enter
prise has fallen into the same mar.
row channels of selfish and privi-
legged monopoly. Encased in the
triple armor of Legislative franchise
judicial protection and the invul.
nerable charm of untold wealth,
these artificial aggregations of pri-
vate property, clothed with gov
ernmental powers and attributes,
today practically control the social,
industrial and economic life of
this republic. The modes and
means Of transportation and com.
munication, the handling and
manufacture of the products of the
mine and farm, the countless rela.
tions and transactions of every days
commercial, professional and in.
dustrial existence, are all under the
more or less direct and positive die
tation of these organized bodies of
wealth and privileges; and by COM
bination and cooperation among
them the comforts and convent
ences, the necessities and Injuries,
the physical and the intellectual
wants and pleasures Of all the peo.
pie can be diminished or modified,
without the let or hindrance of
those whose rights and enjoyments
are most affected thereby. That
most vital, universal and necessary
of all the relations between men in
organized sociefy-the free relation
of contract between employer and
employees even sought to be
dominated by the all-prsSailing
spirit of corporate power, and at
this very time the highest court in
the Union is considering the
proposition whether, under a law
framed ostensibly in the interest
and for the protection of the whole
country, a laborer can be held to
his task against his will, as the
galley slave of Rome was chained
to his oar until he died in his seat.
The wages of the workman, which
are the available wealth of society
at large, are arbitrarily subjected to
the caprice or the cupidity of these
associated agencies, while the
articles he consumes for subsistence
pay tribute to the employer who
denies him the just rewards of his
toll.
"The distress, discomfort and
agitation consequent upon this state
Of affairs affect every class of our
citizens, and in the attempt to re-
lieve against the oppressive and I'M
Just conditions brought about by
the operation of these causes, our
people are being led into the most
pernicious and revolutionary meas
ures. The most natural and logical
remedy that first suggested itself to
the public intelligence was to meet
combination with combination-to
oppose the concentrated organiza'
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