The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-04-10
Our Laws Not Made to Accomplish
the Greatest Good For the
Greatest Number.
Nor to Protect the Weak and De.
fenseless Who Need Protection.
But to Rob Them For the Benefit OF
the Plutocrats and Giant
Corporations.
Changed Conditions Imperitive or
Utter Ruin and Anarchy In
evitable.

evitable.
"said Christ. our Lord, I will go and see
How men, my brethern, be lieve In me-
He is grandly welcomed by priests and
Great organs s1rged through arches ar h dim'
And in church and palace and judgment
He saw his image high over all.
But still wherever his steps they led,
The Lord in sorrow bent his head;
And, from under the heavy foundation
The Son Of Mary heard bitter groans.
Have ye founded your thrones and altars,
On the bodies and souls of living men?
Which shelters the rich and crushes the
poor?
"Then Christ sought out an artisan,
A low browed, stunted, haggard man.
And mothe less girl, whose fingers thin
Pushed from her family, want and sin.
"These he led in the midst of them;
And, as they drew back their garments
For fear of defilement do, here said he
1.-THE images ye have made OF me-.
This poem, denominated parable,
by James R.Lowell, ftly illustrates the
tendencies of the times and the real
condition of things. We boast of our
progressive civilization and our mani
fold achievments in all lines of hu-
man enterprise and intellectual de-
velopement, and yet there are but
few who seek to analyze and illustrate
the many expressions that are heaped
upon the masses Of the people by
heartless Plutocracy. While the
thrones of kings and the privileges of
blOoded aristOcrats are the fruits of
murder and robbery and were founded
upon human suffering and the immo-
lation of millions of mankind as hu
man sacrifices, our own despotic sys-
oppression and human woe. The
above mentioned poet beautifully il
lustrated his thought,
Have ye founded your thrones and affairs
On the bodies and souls of living men.
And think ye the bui lding shall endure
Which shelters the noble and crushes the
pOOr?'
Our giant corporations, resulting as
they did from the tolls and sacrifices
OF one generation, are appropriated by
q few plutocrats of the next, until
but few hundred beings control the
entire transportation interests of the
United States, and the great manu-
featuring plants are in like manner
owned and controlled by but COM
paratively few. The independent
artisan of the past generation has be-
come the wage serf of the present and
Is practically dependent in the same
sense that the serf was under feudal
lord Lowell illustrated this in the
above poem. .....
"Then Christ sought out an artisan,
A low brOwed, stunted haggard man.
And motherless girl, whose fingers thin,
Pushed from her family, want and sim"
The change of the masses of the
people from the position of compara-
tive independence to that of depen-
1ence may be aptly illustrated from
many standpoints. From the close OF
our war when the plutocrats of Eu.
rope determined to subjugate the
United States to their uses, until the
present, they have from time to time
used numberless instrumentalities tC
subserve their purposes. The most
controlling of American legislation
The first year mark of their inroads ir
that direction will be found in the
bribery of Republican Congress in
1873 in which they procured the de-
monetiZatiOn of silver, therefore g
steady resistance to remonetiZatiOn
the procuring of the amendment O
the Bland silver bill by Senator ALI
son in 1878, which prevented the same
from being a free coinage measure
and the procuring of the Republican
president to veto it even in that form
and after the same was passed owe
the veto Of that tool of the none,
power, they procured such cOnStruc
tion of the act as to preclude the sam,
from being 4 part of the money of the
country which could be used in tn,
payment of national obligations
Through the metropolitan press o
the country, of which they early pro
cured control, the plutocrats yea
after year belittled the Bland cOinag
law,created prejudice in the minds o
the ignorant until finally they pro
cured it's repeal by the Reed Congress
in July 1890, after which they col
rupted Cleveland and the controllin
element of the Democratic party sc
cured the repeal of the Sherman lay
and thus overthrow Silver4aS fully an
effectually as they had done by stealt
and bribery in 1873. In 1873 the PEE
pie were. just recovering from the Ell
feet of great war, during which p;
triotism had been illustrated in
thousand forms and the people wer
still jealous Of their rights and indl
pendence, and hence at that time th
only method they could pursue We
bribery and stealth, but they accom-
plished their purpose by procuring tn
passage Of the law through fraud an
Inserting clause in the bill whic
was overlooked by the president an
who did not know that silver was d