The Irish standard., 1897-02-27
Brann In the IcOnOclast Discusses
the Statements of the
Railway Age.
road Employees Were not
,... COerced.
The Paper Named Has Little Influ-
ence in the Tin Bucket
Brigade.

Brigade.
In the January number of Brann's
Iconoclast the editor discusses the state
! ments of the Railway Age that the en-
! ployes Of railroads were not compelled
by threats to vote for Mckinley. He
! says:
For a rank specimen of sublimated au-
dacity commend me to that Pandarus of
the plutocracy and Judas Iscariot of the
wage-worker, known to infamy as the
Railway Age. Whenevr I see copy of
that currish sheet 1 am reminded of
Macauley's estimate of Bertrand Barere.
In it "the qualities which are the proper
objects Of hatred, and the qualities
. which are the proper objects Of con-
tempt, preserve an exquisite and abso-
lutte harmony" The Age attempted to
swing the railway vote for Mckinley in
the late election, and is now assuming
that it succeeded. I have no idea how
deep it was permitted to put it's venal
paw in the Republican s]ush-fund; but
il it received a single penny for it's
;; "fiooence" it should be indicted for OBJ
tanning money by false pretense. A few
of the upper servants of the railway
magnates-th who cultivate the art
Of fawning that thrift may follow
doubtless turn to the Age as a valuable
tutor; but it has little circulation and
less influence in the tin bucket brigade.
obsequious hoot-lick of the Bosses 1t is
the egestiVe organ of the Rockefellers,
the rheum voided by the Vanderbilts,
the faithful echo of the Ashleys, the
chambermaid of the Hills, the cloaca of
the Hutchinsons- the tail-wagging, sa-
| Nva-excreting yaller dog of the al
mighty dollar. It was with the Age
ever concocting some coarse insult to
the wage-Worke.' to prove it's fealty to
the plutocrat, some new skullduggery to
win hand-out from ,Dives-that those
pledge me- Mckinley cards originated,
which so many superintendent re-
quested the operatives to sign. When
the editor of the Age asserts that no
pressure was brought to bear upon rail-
way employees to bring them into the
Mckinley camp, he deliberately lies,
and that for no other conceivable rea-
son than that, like Pecksniff, he is $50
thoroughly imbued with the spirit OF
falsehood that he is canting even in dis
covery" No manager declared in so
many words that failure to support Nc
Kinley would result in dismissal, for
the simple reason that so fragrant an in
!; suit would have been resented with
force and might have resulted in tar and
feathers; but many Of them sent out the
Ages impudent pledge cards which car
ried the order to either sign or refuse to
sign, which was of itself a coercive act,
for none knew what penalty might fol-
ated they could not afford to give even
a shadow of offense. No man worthy to
wear the crown OF sovereignty, no man
possessing the instincts of a gentleman,
no man who is not corrupt to the hearts
core and an enemy of his countryside
serving to be hanged in a hair halter
oh
ical advice to men dependent upon his
good will for employment, unless he
gives them positive assurance that their
failure to heed it will be in no wise re-
sented. With labor so pitifully depend
:: ent upon the cooperation of capital, and
the obtainment of situations SO difficult,
the employer practically holds In his
hands the power of life and death. The
man who even permits it to be suspected
that he will employ this baleful power
in the field political, deserves to be
damned by an eulogy in the Age. The
feculent sheet assumes that the railway
vote went practically solid for Mckin-
ley; but says that IAN occasional worth
| less individual here and there voted for
Bryan, and adds that those affected by
the "dishonorable taint will suher for
! their folly Does the Age mean to in
innate that Democrats will be quietly
weeded out as worthless individuals"
and their places filled by political poems?
Is that the manner in which manly in
dependence is to suffer-" It is utterly
.. impossible to determine whether the
. bulk Of the railway vote went for Nc
Kinley or Bryan, the tables complied by
the Age in support Of it's theoTemn q simply
proving that it is q demasugic ass whose
appearance might be improved II, even
Il. iutallect not J1