The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-05-11
BoYCE's ADDRESS To THE MIN
ERS.

the Leadyille strike; the second to q
denunciation of all capital, and the
third to the duties of the miners
unions everywhere. the address being
very particular in this respect The
address can be characterized as moth
ing but incendiary and an Indictment
to lawlessness. Thus in the second
part Mr.. Boyce says:
The army of tramps and criminals is
daily increasing. and yet over four
million human beings are denied the
right of employment. Corporations
are constantly reducing the wages of
their employees, fastening upon them a
bondage from which there is no es-
cape; if the latter object they are easily
suppressed by the courts of our coun-
try; these august tribunals that stand
ever ready to execute the will of their
corporate masters. before whom labor
has no rights that capital is bound to
respectively are shot down by those
thirteen -dollar-a-month rnurderers that
compose the national guards.
There is no right TO employment, -"
and the phrase shows how easy it is to
use words without thought Every
man in America has the right to life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
If he has a right to employment"
then it is some ones duty to furnish it..
Now, whose duty is it? No one imbued
with American ideas of government
will say that it is the states, and no
one will say that this or that individ-
ual or corporation must furnish it.
Laborers have no more right to en-
ployment than capital has to say that
laborers shall work for it; it is mat
ter of contract, the rights of each to be
defined by it and to be enforced ac
cording to its terms.
For Mr.. Boyce or anyone else to call
the national guard in Utah, or in any
other state in the Union, ''thirteen-dol
lars-a-month murderers" is to insult
the people of the state as well as the
members of the guard. They are not
only lawful institution, but one in
which the state-and by the state we
mean the sovereign people Of the COM
monwealth-takes a just pride. In that
part of his address advising miners
unions what they should do, the sixth
and last recommendation is this:
SIXTH would recommend the adop
Z
should also be amended, so as to de-
clare all members of the national guard
ineligible TO membership, and withhold
our patronage and assistance from all
companies and individuals, or organi-
cations where any member Of the ma
tional guard is employed or admitted
to membership.
That is a very silly and absurd rec
ommendation, and displays bigotry and
narrowness of mind that little harmon
ICES with American ideas, east or west.
Mr.. Boyce should have ascertained the
character of the men composing the
national guard in this state before hav-
ing made his recommendation, though
of course it is we'll understood that the
is for all the states
included in the federation. The boy
colt here recommended may possibly
work in some other states; it certainly
will not in Utah.
But the most incendiary part of the
address, a part that can be construed
preplre for revolution, is the third rec
which is as follows:
Third deem it important to direct
your attention to article 2, of the con-
amendments of the United
States: 1.-THE right of the people to
keep and bear arms shall not be in
fringed." This you should comply with
every union should have
a rifle club.
I strongly advise you to devise ways
and means to provide every member
with the latest improved rife which !
can be obtained from the factory at a |
II 7 L.,
action on this important question, so |
that in two years we can hear the in
spring music Of the martial tread of |
twenty-five thousand armed men in the |
ranks of labor.
The miners are ''entreated' to take
action ION this important question. 1t |
is the only instance in which they are
entreated in a rather long address.
Where is the necessity for twenty
i've thousand armed men in the ranks
Of labor?" Or as for that matter, any
other number of armed men? It might
almost be fancied by one who did not
know better that the governments of
the United States and of the various
states were organized for the same pur-
poses that feudal barons held to be
-hSlI aims III i1e- OOeS MI. BOVce re-
alize that government in this country
'ests upon the consent of the governed
hat the people are sovereign? 1t is
lot contended that there do not exist
n this country inequalities and injus-
ices, that there are not wrongs to be
lighted, but it is not his special mis-
ion to right them. Because he is at
he head of great labor organiza-
ion it gives him no more license to
ncite to lawlessness than any one else.
ven the humblest. The trouble with
many who attain these prominent
places among the Iaboring classes is
hey get the idea that their organiza-
ions are the equal of the body polite
md that what they say should or
hall be has the force of law. The
ause of this is largely that they fail 10
distinguish between the political ac-
ion of the people and their private ac-
ion.
The miners have very poor adviser
Mr. Boyce, no matter how DESTROYS
lie may be of aiding them and further
ng their interests.
THE ISSUE IN 1900 I