Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1897-10-21
IRoNTON. NO. THURsDAY. oCTOBER FL 1907
The Latimer Massacre.

shameful affair we shall ma thab Int
real culprits have escaped detection b.
both the papers and the people gener
ally; and, of course, they will escap'
punishment, for the law does not mere
Iy consent to such crimes bat is framed
expressly to cover and protect thost
who primarily cause them.
Twenty years ago the miners in the
middle anthracite regions of Pennsyl
vania were Irish. German, Welsh
Scotch, and a few English and Ameri
cans. Then, as now, the landowners
and operators, were ever pressing
wages down; but the miners were st
well organized that their oppressor:
were comparatively powerless, until
the peasants of Austria-Hungary were
imported by the protected coal barons
to displace the labor already employed
in protected % industry. Wealthy
steamship corporations saw a chance
to turn a few pennies in these impor-
tations and flooded all southern Europe
with glaring advertisements and circu-
lars describing America as paradise
for the poor and oppressed; and the
patriotic ~ owners of these steamship
lines dumped the human garbage they
had gathered, where it would most
readily gravitate into these mines
The old miners mostly intended to be-
come citizens. and to make their homes.
and bring up their children here; to
make this in fact their country. They
had brought with them a hatred OF
monarchy. and oppression. and were
open to the lessons of freedom both by
inclination and intelligence. The men
who displaced them were in education,
manners, and modes of life, centuries
behind our day; and they came, as
the Chinese come, to make money and
to carry it back with them. Although
they did not, until very recently, mo-
lest English speaking people, they
quarreiled, fought, and murdered
among themselves like savages. Ac-
customed to drudge for pittauce, and
to bear oppression and restraint, they
continued to be patient for years under
their new aud more exacting masters.
Rents for novels hardly fit for beasts
were exborbitant; at enormous prices
they were compelled to buy at the COM
pany stores or lose their jobs; again
and again their wages were reduced;
and even justices and constables bull
lied. cheated and oppressed them. In
short, bad as the conditions were that
had produced them they were subjected
to treatment in this Land of the free
and home of the brave" that was cal
culated to make them worse, not bet
ter
Then some labor agitator told them
how to raise their wages by refusing
to work at all for the time being
gave the tiger a taste of blood; and
all that has followed is but the natural
and, sooner or later. the inevitable Sc
quences ~of pre-existing conditions.
They resorted to violence. aud met vio-
.ence. Sheriff Martin NAV be guilty of
wrong, but we must grant something
to human judgments under such per-
picking circumstances. If he had not
shot them in the road he would have
been forced to do so on private prop
srty. He seems to have chosen his
posse with care to avoid the rough and
tough elements so commonly chosen
for such jobs. Under the exciting cir
it was as easy to make a
as it is for US to criticise him
adversely. 1t is only those who have
had the possibility of life and death
thrust into their hands who know what
It is to go through such an ordeal. and
we shall do we'll to wait till all the
evidence is in before we criminate or
exculpate that officer and his men.
But with reference TO the underlying
causes that brought about the whole
trouble about it is our duty to act at
the earliest, and upon every opportu-
nifty. Millions of acres of coal lands,
like all other lands. had gone into the
hands of the rich and exacting few;
and they have attempted to make in
dustrial slaves of. the many. Organ
lied labor struck, but was soon dis
placed, and still human greed was not
satiated. Men want land for but two
purposes, a good purpose, and a bad
purpose; to get the results of their
own labor or results of others labor.
Yet the American flag does not wave
over foot of ground to-day, where
men are not encouraged to hold land
for bad purpose and the laws of ev-
cry state are framed to such landhold-
ers no matter what shames aud crimes
grow out of it, and this is just as true
OF Missouri as il is of Pennsylvania.
Surely the massacre at Latimer is a
lesson for every citizen Of the e. S.
But let there be no attempt to make
capital out Of this bloody drama BY