The Ohio Democrat. (Logan, O. [Ohio]) 1886-1906, 1894-07-21
Free Men.
Cleveland Plain Dealer.

try were dangers more imminent.
Even in the dark days of 1860 the
country was not in greater peril.
Then for nearly thirty years con-
stant agitation on the slavery ques-
tion had made the issue plain and
distinct. Demagogues in the north
cried "Peace, peace" when there
was no peace. The great question
was freedom or slavery; the irre-
pressible conflict was upon the ma
tion and there was no peace; there
could be no peace until the ques-
tion was settled. 1t was ordained
that the conflict should come, and
it did come and the power of the
government and the right of man
to be free was established. The
blood that was spilled and the
money that was spent mark the
cost and measure the conflict.
Did we say that man had been
made free in America? Would to
God that statement were true, But
it is not true. The conflict wiped
out the form of African slavery,
but it did not establish fully and
freely the order of free men in
America. While the people were
breaking the chains from the necks
of the negroes, quietly and stead
lily, for the last thirty years an in
stitution, almost if not quite as
dangerous as African slavery, has
been growing on this continent.
We mean by this the institution
called trusts. 1t has many ramifi-
cations and branches in every form
of monopoly, or combination, or
union that deprives men of free in
dividual action in business and in
pursuit of happiness. Men are not
free in America. In trusts they
give up the freedom of doing busi-
ness on business principles in order
to enhance prices and compel the
masses of the people to pay unjust
tribute.
The masses, or at least certain
classes, are not free because they
give up in combinations or unions
the right of contract and individu-
al action in selling their labor and
in doing their business in their
own way, just rs free men ought
to do. 1t does not help the mat
ter any to say that the tyrant of
monopoly and organized capital
forces men to organize into unions
as means of self-defense. This
is historically correct.
There is deep unrest among
the people not confined to work
ing men alone, but it is widespread
among the smaller trades people,
and, indeed, it is a settled convic-
tion in the minds of all thinking
men and women. They ali know
that unless these wrongs are right
ed and the errors corrected a revo-
luton in society is as certain to
come as that it has come in every
other country when the liberties of
the people have been trampled up
on or sacrificed. We all know that
unless there comes resumption of
business, so that the people can be
employed, there will be bread riots,
labor riots, insurrection and finally
revolution.
OF the peoples m oney, one-half
has been destroyed by legislation /;
of the property of the people, one
half has been destroyed by the de-
monetization of silver, which was
the peoples money. The debts of
the country have been doubled by
unwise financial legislation which
makes gold, and gold only, the
money of final redemption in the
payment of debts.
In our boasted freedom who can
find free man? If you enter the
department of manufacturing there
is not one man, either workman or
master or owner, that is free in the
broad and original American idea
of freedom. If the owner goes into
the markets to buy goods that are
needed in his business, OH every
side he will be confronted by a
trust that fixes the prices and con-
trolls certain lines of materials that
are essential in his business. Ifhe
goes into the labor market he will
find that a labor union in his own
works or at his door confronts him
and says that he cannot run his
business unless he employees GER
tain class of wOrkmen. If his own
son wants to learn his business he
will find that he has not the free
dom that his father enjoyed when
he entered the trade, served his ap-
prenticeship and became master.