The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1894-08-15
WHO ARE THE ANARCHISTS
An Address Delivered by VI. w. Chun1
Mt LuXerna, Mimi

s"o AXE THE ANARCHISTS
An Address Delivered by NJ. w. Chun1,
at Luverne, Mimi.
If we follow definition in the Century
Dictionary and designate as an anarchist
any person who promotes disorder or ex-
cites revolt against an established rule.
i'd" or CUSTOM, then it is plain that some
oI Americas grandest patriots were an
archists. The American revolution of 177G
was a revolt against the established rule
OF George III. 1t was as great an act of
treason to dispute the right of Great Brit
an nag TO wave over the soil of America
as 1t was to dispute its right to wave over
the soil of the mother country. Were tho
American patriots of 1776, who threw off
the tyrannical rule of George Ill and laid
the foundation of a new and better gov
eminent, real anarchists and promoters of
taWlessne.s? Was not George III. himself
by virtue of his repeated injuries and
uSulpatlonS the real anarchists? The
American patriots overturned cruel and
unjust law. George III. overturned hu
name and just law
Among other provisions of the omnibus
OH passed by congress in 1850 was the
fugitive slave law. This law went So far
IN its arrogance and barbarity as to com
mand the citizens of the republic to assist
IN the capture and return of runaway
slaves to their masters. AS judged from
the strictly legal standpoint the liberty
loving men and women of the North who
excited revolt against the iniqutous law of
1890 We're anarchists. But who were the
real anarchists of 1850? They were the
southern Shareholders, who dictated the
provisions of the fugitive slave law: they
We're the cowardly members of congress
for
ole law; they were the miserable cravens
or the Northern states who endeavored to
ENFORCE that lnhuman law. l trust that if
had lived in a free-soil state in 1850 /
should have had the courage to DEFY both
state and federal authorities if they had
come to demand a slave who had fled to
me for refuge, and to die, if need be, in
defense of the liberty of a fellow man.
The test of good citizenship is not obedi-
ence to whatever laws the legislative
branch of government may see fit to en-
act 1t is only the tyrant who counsels
absolute obedience on the part of citizens
to the laws of the land whether such laws
De human or lnhuman, moral immoral
Higher than any Legislative enactment
yea, higher than any provision of state
or federal constitution, the good citizen
places the moral law. The good citizen
would rather suffer fine or imprisonment
or death itself as the penalty for viola ting
the law of the land than suffer loss of
conscience or manhood as the penalty of
violating the moral law.
To even the casual observer it is plain
that there are in the United States today
thousands Of men, women and children
whose condition is no better than that of
the African slaves fifty years go. l do
not wish to detract one jot or title from
the accused influence intemperance has
had an enslaver of mankind. Intemper-
ance has begotten a vast army of slaves
and pauperS, but an unjust land tenure
and an Ubiquitous financial policy have
begotten as vast an army of slaves and
paupers as has intemperance. I am not
the man to join in an indiscriminate de-
nunciation of capital. Capital is nothing
more than labor stored up and saved. The
difficulty in the problem of labor and cap
ital is that the world has reversed the true
relations between them. 1t has regarded
labor as dependent on and inferior to capt.
tai, while in reality capital is dependent
on and inferior to labor.
Let us take a glance at the condition Of
labor in some parts Of the United States
in 1S94-31 years after the issuing of the
emancipation proclamation We visit the
coal mines of Pennsylvania, and We find
a heartless syndicate paying its men barely
wages enough to keep body and soul to-
gether The syndicate, not content with
exacting long hours of labor from it's men
in exchange for the miserable pittance it
offers Them establishes stores at which it's
penalty of being discharged. When you
own the coal mine in which a man delves
the house that shelters himself and family,
the store at which he is forced to trade,
and to crown the iniquity, you are able to
keep his wages at such point that neither
by hook nor crook can he get one dollar
ahead what more would it profit you if
you owned the body of the man?
Let us glance briefly at the way some of
the railroads treat their employees The
L@I
most rigid system of espionage over its
employees. The company fined the employees
so heavily upon the slightest pretext that
the fines a man had to pay in month
often swallowed up his entire wages for the
month. The courts of law, in this case at
least being owned by the railroad corpora
ton, the employees could get no redress
therein. The only hope of lettering their
condition lay in joining in the sympathetic
strike. The railroad corporation summoned
to it's aid state and federal troops The
backbone of the strike was broken and the
employees were forced by circumstances
again to do the bidding of their overbearing
masters. The state authorities instead of
sending the militia to coerce the striking
employees, ought to say to the railway
managers Gentlemen, you arc public
wants and as such it is obligatory on YOU
to do your duty to the public. The people
are compelled to suffer great Inconvenience
as the result of your suspension of railroad
traffic You must run your trains within
4S hours or forfeit your charter There is
no moral law to justify railroad CORPORA
ton in robbing the travelling rublic { f their
rights as result of the corporations des-
potic dealings with its employees.
Again. it is hardly necessary to say to
YOU what you know already, that our ma
tional law-making body has been for years
in secret or open partnership with trusts
and monopoies that are antagonistic to the
interests of the common people. Ccxey
marches to Washington with few hundred
followers, and attempts to read Il petition
from the steps of the capitol. He is ar
rested in consequence Havemeyer, the
president of the sugar trust, rides to Wash
ington in a palace car and virtually tells
the United States senate that he is willing
to pay them if they will allow him the
privilege of defrauding the American people
of $40 100000 or s50,000000 year. He gets
what he wants in the way of q protective
tariff and goes home rejoicing. If last
spring the American people had marched
to Washington q hundred thousand strong
and ousted the senate from .he legislativ