Hutchinson gazette. [volume] (Hutchinson, Kan.) 1895-1902, 1896-05-14
THREE OF A KIND.
EXAMPLES OF OUR BoASTED
CIVILIZATION.
Every Day Occurrences-Men in This
Land of Life, Liberty And Pursuit
of Happlness"-FOur Hours a Day
Enough to Work.

money lEOm q ldEuuOu56 near Tic
State fish hatchery, was found guilty in
the criminal court this afternoon and
his punishment fixed at five years in
the penitentiary.
San Francisco Dispatch: Charles b.
gard, convicted of burglary in the Sec
ond degree, was sentenced by Judge
Belcher to Imprisonment for one year
In San Quentin. This is the lightest
sentence for the offense allowed by the
law, and was administered because
Judge Belcher believed Bogards state
ment that he had entered the bakery
where he was caught to steal bread
because his mother was starving.
Spokane, Wash, Dispatch: Thous-
ands of people crowded the morgue to-
day, but it was not until late this sf
ternoon that the dead mans identity
VISA revealed. 1t proved to be. Frank
Robinson, hitherto respectable citi-
zen, who resided in Lidgerwood Park
with his family of a wife and three
small children. When his wife was
DAOu5hI " lllC 6uG ~ luCIllly TIC
corpse, she fell in faint. Poverty
drove Robinson to commit his first
and last burglary.
Five years for a starving man for
taking something to eat! One year for
taking food to keep his mother from
starving! Death for trying to take
something to keep wife and three
babies from starvation; What a
glorious civilization. What humane
laws and judges! What a hell on
earth this social system tas made, any
how, that places few mouthsfull Of
food above human life! These things
are common, they pass unnoticed ex-
cept few lines as above. Every day
they are printed, but the most Of such
cases, which are thousands, are not
printed, and the public hears nothing
of them. To punish men for taking
food or clothing to keep from starva-
tion without first offering them honor
able employment at wage that will
support their families in comfort and
school for their children, is illogical,
unjust, inhuman and brutal. If men
cannot find employment they are
forced to steal, and why should men
be punished for what they are forced
to do against their will and desire?
The real criminal is society. It allows
and insists on a condition that COM
pels men to do these acts. Society is
controlled by a few, by the press, pull
pit, politicians and officers the very
judges who send men to prison are
themselves eating the labor Of others
without giving those others an equiv
alent 1t was this very phase of So
ciety that inspired the lines of the
poet:
Justice always on the scaffold
Wrong forever on the throne"
And do you, my dear reader, think
this can go on and on forever? Do
you think that men will always suffer
state of society to exist that dresses
the useless in the finest linen and |
clothes, the laborers in snoddy rags
and even prison stripes? Do you think |
that society is safe that is continually |
increasing its army of unemployed I'M
til they number millions? Do you
think that men who can get no work |
do not get hungry and cold just the
same as those who have work? Let |
me warn you that you are mistaken il
you do. Every labor-saving machine |
adds a nail in its coffin; every combina-
ton of private capital that dicharges
men drives a nail in its coffin; every
time a monopoly squeezes up the price
of goods drives a nail in its coffin.
The coffin is all but finished. And
when it is, in it will be placed the
causes of life's misery-prlYate profit
railroads and telegraph, private profit
coal fields and oil fields, private profit
city franchises in street cars, gas,
electric light, telephone, water, pri-
Vate property mills, factories and
shops-in short, private property
in any form used in producing goods
or taking them to the consumers. The
change may come in peace or it
may not, but it is coming and coming
soon. And when it is over men will
be free, hope will again spring eternal
in the human breast, man will aspire
to higher things, and love and sun
shine will return to bless him. No
private monopoly will be his master.
HD will not be denied work and sent
to prison for hungering. Man will
own and control all things, and not be
controlled by few men who hold vast
assign all people to work.
money will lose its power to debase,
because work, not money, will give
men the only right to enjoy a share of
the wealth that labor creates. Four
hours a day will create everything the
physical or mental man can consume,
more than that he cannot have. If
you want the change in peace vote for
men who believe in public monopolies,
else the starving, ragged, despairing
democrats and republicans rise Up, like
Huns and Vandals, and destroy the
nation. Hunger will drive them to It,
Will you be as blind as we're the Roman
property owners? Will you not see
the inevitable until it is too late to
avert a cataclysm? Will you worship