The Goodland republic. [volume] (Goodland, Kan.) 1891-1907, 1897-02-19

United StStes.
General Master Workman J. R Sow
eign Of the Knights of Labor has writ
ten a letter to the Industrial Advocate
Of Denver which contains some extra
ordinary statements. It is as follows:
SULPHUR SPRINGS, Ark, Feb. 5.
Editor Industrial Adyocate:-Private
Dalzeli, in a recent article in the Wash
ington Post, writes q long tale of woe.
He mentions our 100000 enforced
idlers, our 100000 tramps, the over
orowding of our penal institutions, the
increase of landlords and tenants, the
hopeless increase of debt and long
list Of other lsmentsble conditions.
Concluding he says:
Civilization, as Napoleon said Of ar
mics. travels on its stomach, and it is
very hungry now, for the most part.
But where can it be filed? Hence all
this unrest, all this wild war talk and
discussion Of silver and gold and tariff
by people who have neither silver nor
gold nor anything to pay customs.
Relief shall not come in that way. 1t
never did at this stage of society. It
will come in the old way, in war, and
not otherwise; either insurrectionary,
which God forbid, or foreign, which
heaven hasten if it shall quiet this peO-
pie and give them rest, if only the hon
ored rest of a patriots grave, lighting
for humanity"
Private Dalzell seems to overlook the
fact that as the result of the recent
election 100000 voters in this country
lost faith in the ballot, that the Iron
brotherhood and the Industrial army,
both secret revolutionary societies, are
now being rapidly organized in every
part of the country.
l still entertain hopes of peaceful
solution Of our difficulties and will
work to that end. But if, as Private
Dalzell says, the only remedy is in war,
I prefer to have the war at home. What
moral right have we to impose war
with all its cruelities, destruction and
desOIatiOn on a foreign country, as the
means of relieving our own distresses,
the result Of our errors? Furthermore,
to provoke a foreign country to war
would not prove a permanent remedy
for domestic wrongs. 1t would initiate
the volume of government securities
and impose increased burdens On the
debtor classes. It might also result in
adding our country to the couquests
of some monarchial or despotiC power
and make US slaves to tyranny and OPP
preston a thousand times worse than
we now suffer.
Private Dalzell's proposition is dan
gerous to the peace of this country, for
no one posted in the history of wars
between nations will accept it as a
remedy for industrial depression. It
is both foolish and dangerous. If he
succeeds in convincing the people that
the only remedy lies in war, he will in
cite them to instruction and revolu-
ton. for every student of economics in
this country is clamoring for a read
justment of conditions at home, which
can never come through war with
foreign powers.
If ] we're convinced that our only
remedy lay in war, I would urge every
wOrkingman TO get a gun and get ii
quickly and prepare to fight foreign
institutions and customs now operating
in this county. In fact; it would not
necessarily indicate war or revolution
if every wOrkingman in this country
had gun and knew how to use it, for
every legal robber in America to.
! day is a moral coward and would
submit to a wholesale reimbursement
rather than ruu the risk of losing all in
4 general insurrection. John r. Nc,
Lean made a forcible suggestion to the
millionaire classes when he said he pre-
ferred to pay an income tax now thar
: to lose all few years hence.
What We need is an agitation at home
that will force the people to a test
against cur own social and economic
disorders. But that it should come
through iusurrection with all its revolt
ing horrors is a proposition repulsivt
to ali the higher impulses of humanity
Instructions, like great confagra
tons, start with a spark and art
quenched only with deluge. One rea
son in favor of Instruction to idle
starving and debt-burdened people il
more potent in exciting war than {
thousand reasons against war are in
| preserving peace, For that reason Dial
zell, at this time, is a dangerous writer
He may not know what the secret re
evolutionary societies are doing. Fol
his benefit I quote the following from
a prelude of a secret circular now being
distributed by one of the revolutionary
societies above mentioned:
"Comrades-There comes a time il
the affairs of men and nations wheI
desperation compels the human minC
to pause and bring to It's aid that ele
ment of reason so long discarded. w
/ have reached such a crisis in the des
tines Of this American republic. Ont
hundred years of national existenet
have demonstrated that the politica
fabric of our government contains
within its warp and wool the element.
of its own destruction with the fac