The herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1893-1900, 1896-09-20
POLITICAL "ADVICE OR Pc.
LITICAL TREASON

The great trusts, corporations and
combines in this country have taken to
advising" their employees in politics.
We do not mean their political employees,
such as councilmen, legislators and con-
gressmen. When such corporation as
the Southern Pacific of Kentucky hires
a congressman 1t does not pretend to ad-
wise, 1t orders. What we refer to is the
the immense extension of the practice
of intimdating employees in their poll
tical action in this campaign. To call
this impertinent invasion of the liberty
of the citizen, advice" is a very thin
veneer When an employer goes to his
employees with suggestions as to their
use of the franchise, it is a form of in
timidation. Even as genial and effective
political advisors as Sherman or Wood
of the electric lines in this city can not
mitigate the wrong done to the fran
chise and to the republic
1t is useless for man to say, as an
other representative of a great corpora
ton did the other day, that he was not
going to use force in making the men
vote for Mckinley, but that he was lad
vising" them to do so. Force is behind
the advice. The manager knows it and
the men know it. In this last step prac
tically all the syndicates and trusts are
united. They are all doing this advising
in one way or another. and all advising
for Mckinley. One of the schemes is the
secret employment of men among the
employees. or as regular employs, to
talk and work for Mckinley" These
men also act as spies upon their fellows
The integrity of our institutions and
the life of the republic can not long sur
vive a general corruption of the ballot
Bribery or bulldozing will in either case
destroy the force of the franchise and
turn it into a mockery. The holders of
wealth of any kind can not afford to
have these desperate and irresponsible
corporate behring's destroy the strength
of the republic. The strength of the re-
public is in its honest self-respecting
citizens. If these are tempted, intimi-
dated, bribed and bulied into the loss of
their manhood then the countrys
strength is gone. The strength Of this
country doed not rest on the fortunes of
the Rockefellers, Brices, Hannas, Bel
monts, Ickleheimers, Morgans, Hobarts,
Vanderbilts and others of that ilk. 1t
is in it's men that the republic lives. The
wise controller of great corporate pow
ers should be the. last to attack the
strength of the citizen, which is in fact
the foundation of security of all prop
erty.
The corporation is a creation of law.
1t is thing without a soul to damn or
"a stern to kick. 1t rests on the good
xx-;1T
determination of the great body of cit
liens to respect, obey and to enforce
the law
And yet in spite of this most apparent
fact, it is the large corporations, with
vast property at stake, that constantly
evade public duties, refuse to pay pub
lie taxes, and debauch public men. Our
corporations in California, especially
the Southern Pacific of Kentucky, have
for years been undermining the conf
dence of the people in their public men,
and public business matters have gone
so far that there is3a profound distrust
through the whole body polite of the
acts of public men where corporate
abuses are involved. Our legislative
bodies have fallen into a lack of public
0ohiueiice mat IL is no eXaggeration to
call contempt
If these corporate agents can not see
where this must end every home owner
in the state should open his eyes to it.
1t is both un-American and impolitic for
all the corporate and trust abuses to
unite IN an open campaign for Hanna
ana his man. But when they carry their
advocacy to the point of invading the
Tree political action of their employees,
they are in effect committing treason
against the republic.