Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1895-11-07

Chicago Daily Press: From time to
time plutocratic employers Of laboring
men spring the question Of the adVis-
ability Of tagging their employees as
Western ranchmen brand their steers.
These plutocrats claim that the en-
ployment Of vast herds Of human cattle
makes 1t necessary to tag and number
them, that their business may be con-
Quoted more satisfactorily to them
selves; and with an impudence that de-
fies exaggeration they ''round up" their
cattle and submit to them the propriety
Of substituting tags and numbers for
names. One of the strange features OF
this scheme of degradation is seen In
the fact that the men whom the pluto
cratic employers propose to tag and
number as If they were penitentiary
convicts deem it prudent to discuss the
subject as if it were business PROPOSE
ton rather than shrewdly devised
scheme to ignore their manhood, destroy
their individuality as men and citizens,
and make labor unspeakaDly odious.
That this is the case, adVices from Mil
waukee, Joliet and Chicago fully estab-
fish. In these localities, where corpora
tons are engaged in iron and steel
manufacturing enterprises, and a large
number Of wOrkmen are employed, the
proprietors have unblushingly proposed
to tag the men, and the men are discuss
ing the proposition; but so confident are
the plutocrats that the men will con-
sent to their own degradation that the
tags have been ordered and are ready
for use.
1t is difficult to grasp the ineffable in
fanny Of this degrading scheme.
If 1t were devised for convicts, gal
ley slaves, criminals transported to
penal colonies, it might be regarded as
prudent; but that plutocratic employ 1rs
should suggest the infamous practice
for American workmen is to emulate
the policy of the Russian despot, Who
tags and numbers the victims Of his
wrath whom he consigns to torture and f.
" uGdlu III his DUET ldu Lllu6s
The scheme of tagging and number
ing workingmen proposed by the IL
linois Steel company and kindred cor
porations leaves little more to be done
to reach the lowest depths Of wage
slave degradation in the United States.
The tagging and numbering infamy ac-
complished, the branding iron and the
iron collar will be in order,
Will American workingmen quietly
submit to be tagged and numbered?
Indeed, will they accept the degradation
under any possible circumstances or
conditions?
Confronted by propositions and prep
arations to degrade workingmen to the
level Of beasts of burden, to the level
of dumb driven CATTLE" is 1t not time
for American workingmen to protest
and resist to the DEATH If required, to
maintain their liberty and their man.
hood, to rescue their home from being
numbered as stalls for cattle, their
wives from the degrading designation
Of dams" and their children as the
progeny of some sire known only by his
tag and number?
II American workingmen have not
abdicated their manhood, II the fires OF
liberty and high aspirations are not
totally extinguished, they will give cor,
porations to understand that at any and
every sarcifice they will resist this last
and most infamous invasion Of their
rights and liberties, and that with their
wives and children they will go down
to honored graves rather than live the
tagged and numbered slaves Of corpora.
tions. EUGENE V. DEBS.