Twice-a-week plain dealer. (Cresco, Howard County, Iowa) 1895-1913, 1897-08-17

| make Itself The mental vi railroad
bosses, adding to its lntamy py curtall-
| ing the POLITICAL rights OF Iowa voters.
Let US take just one nasty glance ut the
mal-adminlstratlOn OF Justice and the
| accountable effects OF class Legislation
from national standpoint. An OBJ
scure government clerk steals u few
dollars, he is Immediately convicted,
punished and forever dlsgraced. Mr..
Carnegie, who has been selling armor
plate TO the government at over lUU per
cent profit tor many years, having
actually received from the public treas
ury one great fortune alter another
without rendering an equivalent, this
gentleman was caught in the criminal
act of furnishing fraudulent plate.
Was he arrested, convicted and dis
graced? Oh, no! The arm OF
executive clemency encircled him ana
the crime was wiped out. An obscure
railway employe dlsregards an arbi-
trary order of a federal judge, he is,
without trial or conviction, incarcerated
for months in a felon cell. Mr.. Have
meyer, the king of an organized gang
OF public plunderers, deties the author
ity OF the United States senate, is by
that body adjudged guilty OF con-
tempt, the same federalauthority which
SO hastily imprisoned the railway en-
ploye for contempt as promptly comes
to the rescue of the sugar king, pro-
nounces him an innocent man, setting
him at liberty. A moonshiner defrauas
the government out of q few dollars
revenue; a common plug smuggles
through the custom house an extra suit
of cheap clothing; each is adjudged
guilty and punished to the tull extent
Of the law. Mr.. Vanderbilt and other
arlstocrats are given the liberty to lug
in hundreds of thousands of dollars
worth of dutiable goods free.
TOLERANCE OF CORPORATE GREED.
The burning OF railway cars and the
sporadic interference with the running
OF trains by maddened strikers is pun
ishable with instant death, while the
stealing of transcontinental lines of rail-
ways 1.-THE theft being committed by
millionaire gamblers possessing "busi-
ness sagacity'' is serenely permitted.
The railway lines of the country are
worth according to the best author
itles) not over five billions of dollars.
They are frauduiantly capitalized at
double this amount. Upon this extra,
spurious, counterfeit five billions the
people are by law compelled to pay div
idend earning fares and tolls. The
Western Union Telegraph monopoly is
permitted to plumber the people to the
unbelievable extent of making it's nom.
inal capital Sl2O, 200. 900 profitable, while
the entire outfit is not worth over $25,
100000. When great masses of honest
industrious mechanics and other labor
ers are going through the ordeal of
partial starvation; poverty and distress
prevailing throughout the entire coun-
try, your executive makes a secret con-
tract with foreign Jews who fitch from
your people S10,000,O0O (clear profts)
in less than ten days. Mr.. Rockefeller,
contrary to public policy in violation of
the very cannons of the common law,
is permitted to tnake felonious contracts
with other thieves, thus enabling him
to absorb one of natures great bounties
to man. His income is over $4,000
day, while millions of his fellow NOR
tails are denied the boon of earning 81
per day, largely because of the cruel
conditions he has helped to create. But
Imagine someone tells me that this
arraignment of present conditions is
too severe; that these things cannot be
helped; that some men have more
brains than others, and that some
brains are more active than others;
that these natural causes bring about
the inequality in the ownership Sof
property. Equality in the owning
of property is an ideal condition for
which the democratic party is not con-
tending.
MONEY POWER AKRAIGNED.
The equality we demand is the equal
lty OF all citizens before the law. 1t is |
equity, not equality, we plead for. 1t is
Justice, Impartial justice, we are bat
thing for. We freely concede the nat
ural superiority of some men over 9TH /
ers, but we never will concede that
Rockafeller's brain is 1000 times big
ger or $4,000 times more active than
other peoples brains. Besides, these
"bralny men," these superior men,"
who are naturally stronger than others
who can easily distance their neighbors
In the race of life, what need have they
of special privilege? If special protec-
ton is to be given the democratic party
insists upon giving it to the weak as
against the strong, instead of practicing
the republican method, giving addi-
tional power to The rich and strong so
oIASJ AAASy hhOh 2 OhSSooully OppTC5S the
weak. These men are not satisfied
with their enormous fortunes and con-
quests. To be sure of circumventing
the last effort the people may be cap
able of making to maintain semblance
of independence, the capitalistic class
has now arranged another conspiracy.
The worlds experience is to be set
aside, your constitution is to be violat-
ed; the great, vital sovereign right of
the people to govern their own
finances. is to be wrenched from them
forever and all power over the vast sub
ject OF money is to be given into the
holy keeping of the lineal descendants
OF the thieves and gamblers Christ
scourged out of His fathers house. Not
content with controlling the coal fields,
the oil fields. the ore deposits, the tim
Der supply, the provision market, the
labor market, the transportation lines,
the telegraph and telephone, to saw
nothing of the illimitable value of
municipal franchises; not satisfied with
owning the executive, the judiciary.
congress and most of the state legisla-
lures, and the entire metropolitan
press, these men like Alexander of old.
are looking around for new worlds to
conquer, and they have determined to
possess themselves of the vast addi-