The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1894-07-20
The lesson of the Strikes.

there will be no peace or rest in this
country till the two old parties are put
down. The machinery of both is in the
hands of a plutocracy that has usurped
every function of the government. The
action of the present congress has added
proof to the dreaded fact which the peo-
pie have striven to put away from them.
The independence, the manhood and
patriotism of the men those parties send
to congress appear to wither like grass in
the hot breath of the furnace, when the
trusts, monopolies and combines, backed
up by the money power, breathe upon
them through the machinery of the two
old parties Every attempt at honest
resistance on the part of would-be honest
members is squelched by the powerful
party machinery at their command.
The member who dares to oppose by
his vote in open session on the passage of
a bill the caucus ofhis party, is ostracized,
is unnoticed by the Speaker ever after.
wards, and hireling party press COM
nences to hound him down with abuse,
falsehood and every villainous means at
their command.
The recent strikes ought to be satisfy
ing evidence to the most slavish of labor
unions or organizations, that both old
parties are dead against every interest of
the laboring class. If they appeal for
relief by petition to congress their petit
! ton is sent off to the cellars of the cap
itol with other waste paper. If they
appear in person to petition as Coxey did,
they are fined and imprisoned on trumped
up charges without the shadow of law or
justice. If they rise i'll protest and refuse
to work, the vicious element which
swarm in tine large centres of population
are melted to riot and the military is
called out, and hurled against, ostensibly
; the ''1nob," but are sure to shoot a few
innocent persons who happen to be drawn
to the neighborhood through curiosity,
and the associated press always i'll the
interest of the corporations, misrepresent
and pile up charges against the strikers
and their leaders, under the plea that they
are the offenders, and not the thugs be-
tween whom and the police of the large
cities there is a chronic war without a
truce.
The Interstate Commerce law which
was enacted to stop the plumber and
spoliation of the railroads upon the people,
is found to be the lawful warrant for the
President to assume dictator's power in
time of peace, and order the army and
navy, on the request of one of his civil
appointees, to set up military government
in any and all parts of the country, over
riding civil law and State governments.
But the President and all the official ma
chinery have never been able to apply
the law to restrain one of the corporations,
for which it was intended, from single
act of depreciation on the rights of the
people.
1t is to be hoped that the labor unions
and organizations of brotherhoods have
had sufficiently strong object lessons in
the last miners and railroad strikes to
convince them that their "strikes" in
place of being a means of correcting the
evils they complain of, are the direct road
to slavery and serfdom. The men whom
they have persistently voted to place i'll
office and power, from President to the
ward constable, are always against them
that every law on the statute books is
made to take effect, and hurl the military
and judicial power against them, when
ever they rise in their opposition to injus-
tice imposed upon them. There is moth
ing palmer under the sun than that their
votes have been the primary instruments
in making these laws they complain of,
and of not having any laws on the statute
books to restrain corporate power in
Justice and greed The only road to relief
from the expressions and injustice of
wrong and outrage of which this earth
is filed is to vote into power men they
can trust, of their own class-not their
noisy, mouthy leaders like Gompers, who
have grown rich by selling their votes to
the corporations, but silent, thoughtful
men who are not scrambling to be lead
} ers in their ranks. Such men would
make laws that would compel corpora
tious to give all account of their business
to the power which created them and
conferred ON them their valuable fran
chises. Laws that would forbid and
restrain them from doubling and quad
rupling their capital by watered stock
Laws that would compel definite per-
centage of the earnings of all those colos-
sal, artificial persons called corporations
to be the property of the employees.
These complaining thousands who are
stripped of everything and imprisoned for
complaining of hard usage and shot if
they resist, could have, as easily as fold
ing ticket and putting it in the ballot
box, laws that would insure them every
right they claim when founded in Justice.
and abolish every abuse from which thew
suffer. Laws that would compel the
President to call out and use the military
power against the trusts corporations and
combines if they resisted, just as readily
as those combines can command him to
call out the military to reduce their
| present labor slaves to order vhau tho,