Little Falls weekly transcript., 1894-09-21

Of the employees Of any Of said railroads
to refuse or fail to perform any Of their
duties as employees Of any Of said rail
roads or to leave the service
Of such railroads. In the main this
order is, as the Chicago Times said,
'*eminently just and equally unneces-
sary,' but to get at its real purpose and
to clearly understand the latest prece-
dent established for abridging the rights
Of the citizen it is necessary to select
those portions which are clearly inno-
vations and which offer the only excuse
for the promulgation ofslaws understood
by all and which the officers are sworn
to enforce. Note this sentence, construct
ed without the slightest strain upon it's
meaning or intent, from what is quoted
above: ''All persons whatsoever are Or
dered to refrain from attempting to in
duce by persuasion employees to leave
the service Of such roads" It is not
necessary to discuss the full meaning of
that sentence nor the extent to which
it can and may be applied if allowed
to stand. Each reader can work it out
for himself, but this thought I will Of
fer: If the order issued by Judges Wood
and Grosscup is accepted as good law,
then all labor organizations are forbid
den to discuss or vote upon proposal
to strike for any cause.
To my mind the hatefulest and most
serious phase of the strike and the Incl
dents growing out of it is the attitude
assumed by almost the entire daily press
of the country. no longer am surpris-
ed that it is called 1.-THE satanic press -
If plutocracy was as strong in all its
parts as it is in journalism, democracy
and a republican form Of government
would be doomed in this country. New
er since the printing press was invent.
ed, not in any land at any period, was
there ever such infamous use made of
it as during this trouble between the
railways and their employees. With the
constant reminder that no cause can tri-
umph which does not have the approval
Of public sentiment the plutocratic
press, upon which vast majority of
the people depend for information, ex-
aggerated, misrepresented and lied out
rageously all through the trouble for
the purpose of prejudicing the public
against the strikers. The dastardly pol
icy of falsehood and deceit was not con-
fined to SO called editorial matter. Even
the news and telegraphic matter was
cut to the villainous pattern designed
IN the brains prostituted by the filthy
lucre of plutocracy. Pullman and the
railroad managers are angels of spotless
purity compared with the black hearted
iends who, to gain applause in pluto
cratic circles and to win the dollars of
the barons Of commerce, have deceived
the people and blackened the reputa-
tions of some of Gods noblemen.
There is no occasion for me to quote
from the blasphemous sheets. My read
ers have seen the evidence themselves,
and l would not know where to begin.
By a rough estimate over 900 columns
Of the poisonous stuff passed over my
desk during the period Of three weeks,
and l haven't seen one-hundredth Of
it. I was talking with the old veteran,
John Swinton, on this subject the other
day, deploring the fact that men so base
could be found by the agents of capital
ism within the ranks Of journalism.
"Why," said he, buchanan, you can
hire men to write upon any siGc of any
subject at any time, and I was about to
say for any price," You can understand
what Imean, then, when say that one
Of the two most startling phases of this
question under discussion is the attitude
which was assumed by the daily press.
1t means positive danger to the repub-
lie. The metropolitan daily press Of this
country, with few exceptions, is as
dangerous foe to democratic institu-
tions as the press of Russia. A strong
statement? True nevertheless. No sane
man who is informed doubts but that
plutocracy is aiming to establish "a
strong government over the people of
the United States. It cannot be done all
at once, but it may be reached by de-
grees if the people are successfully
hoodwinked as to the significance of
each step and the end aimed at The
press is employed to do the hoodwink-
ing. Is it plain?
Some OF my newspaper men acquaint-
ances smile when I give utterance to
these sentiments in their presence, and
others tell me am foolish crank. All
the same there isn't one of them but
admits that he either has to write as he
is ordered or quit, and that many of the
ordinary items of news must be con-
structed in accordance with the "posi-
tion of the paper'' even if the writer
has to omit a part of the truth or add
a lie. These truths being recognized,
it is only necessary to know what the
position of the paper is to determine
whether there is any sense or reason in
my claim. The elevator boy knows that
the policy of the paper is fixed by and
guided through the bank account of the
proprietor: "The paper is edited from