Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1893-01-18
attiseeltaneuus 8eading.
ANOTHER MARCH CONVENTION.
The Wage Farmers Declare War
Against the RefOrmerS.

Against the Tte1Ormers'
A few weeks ago mass meeting of
workingmen was held in Columbia to
protest against certain acts of the leg
islature, including the new railroad
law and the new factory law. The
meeting was made up of citizens of
Columbia and other parts of the State.
After considerable discussion as to
what should be done, committee was
appointed to issue an address and draw
up platform of principles. This COM
mittee held a meeting in Columbia on
Tuesday of last week, and after dis
cussing the various papers submitted
by different members, finally adopted
the following:
Fellow Wage Workers and Sympa-
thizing Fellow Citizens: Your COM
mittee having been appointed to formu-
late plan, upon the basis of which an
organization, capable of correcting the
evils of which we complain might be
effected, feel that they cannot do better
than preface the plan agreed upon with
q few remarks calling attention to the
grounds upon which we seek to justify
our action.
Speaking of the possibility of op-
position to the iniquitous laws
enacted at the recent session of the
legislature, it has been said "Your
head is in the mouth of the Reform
lion, and so long as the lion don't
close its jaws it is policy to keep
quiet and not enrage it to crush you
such opposition would enrage and en-
bitter the triumphant faction, and you
would bring down upon the corpora
tions and towns perhaps stricter laws
than those which they seek to escape.
1t would be political suicide to every
ambitious man enlisted on the side of
the minority"
In this manner does the triumphant
faction seek to freeze the manhood in
the veins of those who might undertake
to oppose it's unhallowed course! Thus
is the vaunted intellectual civilization
of the nineteenth century resolved
again into the kingdom of brute force
So has it been decreed that we shall
bow down in homage to the edicts of
this political Nebuchadnezzar !!
But surely the God of hosts, who
delivered Daniel out of the den of
lions, will deliver us, also, who have
the courage to declare our manhood,
out of the mouth of this "Reform
Lion" How, then, shall the Scrip
lures be fulfilled, if, in the sequel, there
be not "weeping and gnashing of
teeth ?"
Has it not been written that 1.-THE
zeal ofmine house hath eaten me up?"
And have they not testified to the zeal
of both houses in doing as well as in
leaving undone? Witness how sala-
ries have been cut down! Behold the
reduction of taxes! Mark how the
rum trust was defeated Oh, prohi-
bition, requiescat in pace, for "when l
have more convenient season will
call for thee!' See how "justice to
all sides" has been meted out. What
matters the might of ten thousand
against the might of fifty? "Damn !'
Wherefore should corporations and the
dwellers in cities and towns object to
beiug lcgislated "against Why
should druggists, keepers of hotels,
saloons, restaurants, and places of pub
lie amusement complain because ex-
empt from this new dispensation!
Under such conditions is it "policy to
keep quiet? ?" Shall the fear of "em-
bittering the triumphant faction" per-
nit the sword of liberty to rust in its
sheath, or the shadows of "political
suicide" cause the hand to tremble, as
it is drawn from its scabbard?
Friends, let us not '!strain at gnats
and swallow camels )" pious exple,ives
are not issues of vital Importance to
the people of this State. Let them
damn on to their hearts content, so
long as they shall not undertake to
dam the sacred stream of individual
liberty, by denying equal rights to all;
by granting special privileges to any;
or by challenging the right of judicial
appeal, right which has been to a
free people as "the shadow of great
rock in weary land" 1t is, how
ever, the violation Of not one, but all
of these, which causes us to take coun-
sci with each other.
We are in q minority, yet why
should that discourage us? Let us 60
forth like David, with naught but the
stone of honest purposes in our sling,
and so shall we have strength to
fight against Goliath and his Philis-
tines in defense of the heritage of free
men.
We are not, and must not become,
a class. Let us welcome to our
counsels and our comfort the farmer
and the mechanic, the operative and
the laborer; for our cause is a COM
mon cause. We are minority ofthe
people of South Carolina, but, like the
woman of Macedon who appealed "to
Phillip in his sober Senses" we claim
the attention and challenge the reason
of the majority of our fellow-citizens.
Let us begin now to educate our
selves so that we may judge between
the wise and the unwise, the evil and
the good: for in no other way can we
hope to have our efforts crowned with
success, conclusive Of the integrity OF
our purposes.
Your committee recommend the or
paniZation of an Industrial and Wage
Workers Democratic League, which
shall consist ola State league, with SUBJ
ordinate county and district leagues;
and. in connection with the State
league, the establishment of bureau
of information and, finally, when the
objects sought by the organization of
the Industrial and Wage Workers
Democratic League shall have been
attained, through the enactment of
Just and equitable laws, in which the
rights Of every individual citizen, how
soeyer humble, shall have been duly
considered, your committee recon-
mend that we disband, so that we may
not become a political machine in the
hands of designing men, to the detri-
ment of the interests Of this State and
its citizens.
Your committee will appoint an Or
ganizing committee in each county,
with instructions to organize county,
municipal. township and ward leagues,
and to arrange to send delegates there
from to a convention to be held in the
city of Columbia, March the 18th,
1898, for the purpose electing officers,