People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1894-07-27

petition. The $4,000 miles of railroad in
this country are bonded for three times as
much as the national, state, county, school
district and municipal debt, and they are
stocked for as much more. There are sew
eral billions of fraudulent capital in thesu-
gar trust gas trust, street railways, private
vsterworks plants, electric-lighting plants,
and various frsnchised corporations. In
other words, a blanket mortgage amount
ing to $l0OOO,OO0OO0 covers every foot
and acre of ground in this country, and the
producers and their products are taxed to
pay interest on bonds and stocks that do
not represent one-hslf or perhaps one-third
of their face value. Nearly two-t thirds Of
this tribute, or fully S50O,OOO,OO0 a year,
has to be put into the Golfers of foreign
capitalists. Is it any wonder that the
country cannot stand this terrific drain
upon its vitals, notwithstanding its mar
velous resources and the weslth.producing
capacity of its population! No one doubts
the existence of these evils; no one ques-
tions but they will have to be remedied, or
that such remedy can only be secured
through legislation"
few weeks ago the AdUance, very
conservative religious paper, published in
Chicago, asserted that, il ever strike
had right on its side and should win, il
was the coal miners strike now in prog
ress. To corroborste this assertion, it
was shown that the miners of Illinois,
Ohio and Pennsylvania had been working
for starvation wages, and that the strike
was brought on by further reduction
TO which the miners would not submit.
Prof. Edward W. Bemis, of the Chicago
University, after thorough investiga-
ton, finds that the average pay of miners
in Illinois heads of families -prior TO
the strike was Sc 81 week.
Henry D. Lloyd-no mean authority
speaking of the strikers, says: 1.-THE Stats
tics of Illinois show that these men have
been starved. 1t is starve or resist with
them now" incidentally he says: ."0ur
only hope is that the third great party will
intervene; that the goveriS nent will take
the coal mines and operate them; pay
living wages TO the miners and sell the
output at cost"
"That is what is called socialism, is 1t
not 2"
81 do MT care what it is called. II means
peace it means a settlement Of the min
ing troubles. The present condition is
intolsrable."
It's TO be regretted but not wondered
at) that the strikers, the men who have
right on their side, have become lswless
in their endeavors to secure pitiful sub
sistence.
Why is it that the press and the pulpit
Of the country, with so few exceptions, de-
nounce these men who are but seeking that
which of right belongs 10 them, as "an'
srchists" and "enemies of free govern
ment"f If our government should be
threatened by some foreign foe, and cal
be made for volunteers to defend our flag
would not these very men, who are now re
garded as train stealers, anarchists, and
enemies of society, be as ready, II moi
reader, to risk their lives in defense of oul
common country as the men who would
shoot them down like cursi
The writer does not wish to be under
stood as upholding or defending mob Law
in the least. Far from it. No one is SAFE
where mob law prevails, and for that very
reason the men who are entrusted with the
law-making and the enforcing power should
see to it that the conditions which cause
strikes and mob law are removed, and that
speedily. What is here criticised is the
proneness on the part of the press to con
denim, in the severest terms, the lawless acts
of the poor, ignorant, frenzied men who
are rendered desperate by their cruel con
dition, while the acts Of far greater Grim
inals from moral standpoint are passed
by in comparative silence. Since the pres
emit strikes began, has anybody seen a word
of condemnation in any of the newspapers
against any of the railroad corporations
for stealing coal by the carloadi Goa
which was consigned to private parties
No. True, some of the papers ventured
so far as TO say some Of the railroad com
panies we're confscsting" al the coal
they could get hold of.
Yes, we need TO send to Washington
men with courage and patriotism and
common honesty, and hearts beating in
sympathy with the poor and oppressed
everywhere. If our present do nothing
Congress, our sugsr-cured millionaire sen
ate, could be retired TO the shades Of OBJ
livion within the next "a hours, and theil
places filed by such republicans as Judge
Tourgee or such populists as Senator PEI
fer, we might reasonably expect Legislation
that would be of substantial benefit. But
Just so long as the present spoils system
lasts; Just so long as the senatorships car
be bought, and lesser places are 10 any
very great extent filed by men of the all
there-is-in-it class, just so long it is al
most useless to hope for better things
Meanwhile, the clouds thicken and darken
With the militia of half dozen states o.
more in the field, who can predict whs
the outcome will be.
" God give us men time like this demands
Strong minds great hearts and willing hands;
Tall men, sun crowned, who Ire above the fog"
of narrow and bigoted partissnism.
JOIN A. MORTON.