The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1894-05-01
ooxEYIsM AND PROJECTION.

destination, to prevail upon Grover
Cleveland to give them free silver"
tissue ''non-interest bearing bonds and
find them all work at large wages on
1.-The eight hours per day rule. How he
is to do this they have not the remotest
idea. But they have been beguiled into
the falsehood that he is the cause of
the lack of labor, and into the foolery
that he holds the power to rectify all
the wrongs of the country.
In scanning the faces of the men in
the ranks, not over dozen could be
found of bona fide residents of this city.
They may all be classed as transients.
We do not mention this by way of re-
proach, but simply to note fact. 1t
is not the genuine Salt Lakers or Uton-
Iians who are thus marching on this
fools Grand Many of them, no doubt,
have come here to get work and have
failed. Others who served the purpose
of the former city administration are
now stranded. They were glad to get
away with the crowd, to try their
chances elsewhere.
1t is sorry sight to see our fellow
mortals distressed for lack of employ
ment and ignorantly led into the errors
which influence them to follow this
Coxey delusion. And ii is provoking to
see brighter and better-educated men
contributing to this nenacing move
iment, by the PRONUNCIATION of those
ssocialistic and paternalistic notions
which induce the multitude to regard
the government as the cause and cure
of the social ills of the times. The idea
that the government can and ought to
regulate wages, is a step to the fallacy
that the people are to be supported by
the government, instead of the govern
ment by the people.
The idea that mobs may become a
factor in legislation, no matter how just
may be the cause for popular discon-
tent, is a most pernicious theory and
discreditable to all who countenance it
in any way. In this free land no voice
is stif1ed. The poorest and lowliest is
equal to the wealthiest and proudest at
the polls. The ballot is the freeman's
true weapon. Majorities at elections,
not mobs at the seat of government,
express the will of the people. Dema-
gogues who encourage the craze now
agitating the multitude moving on to
Washington are tanning flame that
may lead to the destruction of this great
republic.
The erratic notions that have fired
the brains of the Coxeyites are akin
to and the offspring of the theory,
that the government ought to use it's
powers and shape its financial policy
for the special protection of a class
If the manufacturers are to be the
proteges of the government and if leg
islation has for its object the mainten-
ance of wages at a given figure, if
laws are to regulate the hours of labor
why should not the principle of gov
eminent regulation of economic affairs
and government interference with the
relations between employers and en-
ployees be carried still further? The
logical sequence of the whole question
is-Coxeyism, socialism and commun-
ism.
The danger lurking in the movement
which is being fostered by a certain
class of politicians, to give a bad black
eye to the present administration, is
in the disappointment leading to des-
peration that will probably result from
the failure that faces the mobs mass
ing at Washington. The blatherskite
at the head of the crowd which <>s
just left the city cried out on their de-
parture that if peaceful petitions
should fail, then the word would be
ITO arms" It will only need some
rash and forceful fellow to raise this
cry. and the consequence will be blood
shed and terror.
The kinship. that exists between this
crazy pilgrimage and protection. was
well defined by Secretary Morton of
the Department of Agriculture a few
days ago. Said he:
so far I have heard of no farmer
| leaving his home for the purpose of
walking to Washington in the ranks
| Of the 'Coxey army, and 1 doubt
Il f7ra-1 7ar-
! either a rural or a suburban home in
/ the entire multitude. However, work
| ingmen for thirty years have observed
| that protection pilgrims have been con-
stantly invading Washington for the
! purpose of securing legislative aid in
their business enterprises. The protec-
tionists during these years have taught
the wage-earners of the United States
| that the object of the protectionists in
formulating legislation was invariably
| so to adjust the laws as to compel
them chat is, the protectionists-the
manufacturers to pay higher wages to
their employees, and at the same time
force them to sell the products of the
| labor of these employees at smaller
prices and lesser profits. The Coxey
expedition to Washington seems to me
J to be very logical sequence of the
protection pilgrimages which we have
had heretofore.
| The difference between the wage
Garner and the protectionist manufac-
turer is that the former comes out
openly and asks direct government aid
for a class, while the latter has always
come in Pullman cars and asked aid
under the pretence and disguise of
seeking philanthropically to help the
wage-earners. The Coxey army is
simply large kindergarten class in
| protection. After years of Mckinley
hau