Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1897-09-27
FREELAND, SEPTEMBER 27, 1897
The Great Evil of the Times.

A Taxpayers Defense League has
been formed in Chicago, and the Rev.
DIR. Holbrook, one of the editors of the
Bt5ltotheca Sacru, president of the
League, has officially addressed an open
letter to the palace-car magnate, George
NJ. Pullman, who seems to be reckoned
in that region as one of the worst offend
ers in the form of wrong-doing WHICH it
is the special work of the league to attack
and overthrow. In the central parts of
his model town, Mr.. Pullman, on land
which, by his own estimate in his an
nual report to the stockholders, is worth
$17,00 an acre, but is really worth near
ly twice that, pays tax on an assess
ment Of only about S74l an acre, SO that,
according to the rating of the league,
the Pullman corporation has been pay
ing less amount of taxes by some $780,
900 each year into the city treasury than
it would have done had it been assessed
as ordinary property owners are assessed
in Chicago.
Referring to the memorable strike OF
1894, the damages on account of which
to the amount of SIG 900, 600, and in be-
half of this same George NJ. Pullman,
rest against the city of Chicago or
against Cook county, the letter says:
All these events recall the unsympa-
thetic attitude which you assumed
toward your working people in their
distress at that time, many Of whom
had been in your employ for years.
Won rnAnpnl thpir ,va bpt t,
reduce their rents; you permitted many
to work just long enough to earn for
you their undiminished rent, and then
left them to provide their food and cloth
ing as best they could until another
month could come around and possibly
bring them relief. These facts came
before the grand jury, of which the
writer was member, and there was not
dry eye in that jury room when they
were rected. In the midst of this
trouble you left for your summer resi-
dence, and let the state and federal
troops and the grand jury fight your
battles.
Further, this league letter says,
speaking more generally or in sweeping
terms of the whole Pullman class of tax
shrkers:
The rights of property are now war
ring on the rights Of man. Monopolies
and trusts on the neccsSarieS of life
threaten the destruction Of the state.
Capital and labor may each organize for
all lawful purposes, but when capital
corners the market on coal, iron, sugar,
oil, coffee, salt, oatmeal, and is thus able
to raise the price artlicially to the con
sumer, it is a crime under the statutes of
most of our states. But men of wealth
are now doing this very thing. They
keep the letter of the law; they violate
its spirit, They take from the poor man
a 1.-THE of his daily food and in return
make gifts to the public to satisfy the
conscience or to throw dust in the eyes
of the people. Society is between two
malefactors-the criminals above and
the criminals below; the trust magnato
in the palace and the anarchist in the
slums; the plutocrat and the mobocrat.
The so-called great newspapers in
the chief cities of the country, only toe
often, as many are coming to say, ap
pear disposed, with mingled sneers anC
depreciation, to disparage efforts of the
character here noted. 1T is observed
that they have much to say in very
dignfed terms about Incorporate Ian
guage and all that, but the evil, as tn,
candid of mind perceive, is an immeas
urably serious one, that will certainl,
have to be cured, and that those wh
trne with it, no less than those whit
commit it, are simply supremely danger
Gus enemies of society and of thei
country.