The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-08-17
Stories of an inland State.

|
THE passion of its leader is tainted" he
| said 10 himself, land has sullied all the fol-
| lowing. a riot here and a wreck there
will never break the chains. 1t is the old
barrier of organization. Willis must up
| hold the name Of the organization. II II
| were no organization it would have no
| rame 10 uphold. Willis says in his inter-
view that his men have committed 10 act
of violence. HIS organization has commit
| ted no act of violence, Then the name OF
the organiza ton is of more worth than the
| organization itself. The trouble is with
the leader, not with the men. Il is his
rganization-ownership. And ownership
means pride and pride plays with bauble
of name, and forgets to act. have one
hope left-that the men will overcome the
| leader, and the movement having many
leaders, shall have none. Let them once
get into violence and they can not blow
them out with shot or shell or shrapnel-
Let these men throw OFF the yoke of fear,
and the organized armies of the world can
not stay them. A giant once was taught
from infancy he was a weakling, but was
orce angered and saw the lie. Shoot down
a few. Mr.. Mayor and Mr.. Governor and
Mr.. President, and popular anger will tell
this giant people what they are. Give
them the taste of violence, and set seethinS
in their minds the question of a difference
between death from a gun furnished by
public funds and a gun purchased pri-
vately. Death is to the individual and. OF
| all things democratic, and the manner Of
mans dying is trifie. If it were
rot common death would be heroic, but il
is common and only fools fear it. Beware
how you teach. They have all been fools.
fools who have spent their days al your
request unty;ng an inextricable knot. Do
not show them a blade lest they cut IT,"
Sometimes he went down into the business
section Of the city and watched the throng-
ing crowds OF the city trades and wondered
at their indifference to the great struggle
going on about them.
These people" he said "are too busy to
be free. Industry is damnation. Ii has
never found time 10 make but one defense:
An idle brain is the devils workshop"
and that is lie. A greater law practice
would have made jefferson a tory; ap-
plicat.on would have made Bunyan the
best tinker in his neighborhood and saved
many pot al Bedford. Industry would
have built young Christopher Columbus up
in the wool-combing business in Genoa and
saved him from a hurniliat:ng death In
prison. Idleness left a vacant stand a. a
carpenters bench and gave the world
Christ. The busy bee has the weakest in
tellect and a queen. Industry is the name
that selfishnesS best likes TO be known by
He fed from the busy streets. The in
difference of the throng to the great strug-
gle waging so near them. sickened and dis
gusted him. and he cried:
1T is not with you that we shall get our
rights. The busiest slave is the last to
hear of liberty. Out on the country high
ways, where they dream in summer lang
Uor, out among the loafers in theliItie coun-
try towns the idlers at village stores, the
lazy gossipers from peaked Maine to Cali
fornia, who have time 10 be disconnected
we shall find the force that will revolt and
strike for liberty. The government thinks
not-and is fool They are concentrat-
ing their standing army near the largest
cities and foreign population. These for
e:gners who come here-what can We do
with them? They have known nothing
but the dry bread of slavery. True when
they reach our shores and are given cake
they are grasping and cry for more than
their share. But that makes them merely
sick, and there's an end to Il. / could tell
authority something-that II is the Ameri-
can they have to fear and him oniy-that
ii Is intelligence which is the governments
Gercest enemy-not ignorance. Authority
can dominate ignorance, it can only antago-
nize intelligence. The desperation of the
brute can be subdued; the desperation OF
intellect heightens intellect. The most
courageous is the least daring, and ne Is
truly brave, who feels fear and is furtherest
removed from the brute's disrespect OF fear.
II is in your country towns and country
neighborhoods where the revolt is growing
not here among your foreigners and indus
try-ridden bees. 1t is there, where man
is more the master OF his own thoughts
there where the treadmill is less justified
because it is the fashion, there where
brotherhood has stood longest against sell
fshness. and there where the never-dying
spark of liberty lies smouldering, glinting
under your rotten house OF finder. LOOK
10 the farms, authority. Your towns are
but specks beside them on the maps. You
can not organize them 10 overcome them
the more easily through bride and fear and
treaty with their leaders.
He went on. home-ward bound. studying
the pavement as he walked and busy with
his thoughts.
s.-rbev saw the country Is excitable,'' he
said This strike of Wills stirs the coun-
try I'D and they call It excitement. Elk
element from whence? No, latent SYM
pathv. Let it succeed and see how public
sentiment drops its cowardice. Upon the
whole Willis is doing well. And 1 must
prepare TO act-soon."
As he thought the word. his face drew
into grim lines of determination. He must
have held a figure in his mind for he said
in attenuation of his purpose:
..As a man l would not touch him, but a.
the head of the system OF Industrial bond
age. he must go. He wears the title and
the office He assumes the applause and
nattery rendered it as his Own? Why not
the penalties against it?''
He ate his supper in silence and did nos
answer the questions Nell Everett put TO
him. Later in the evening, without know
ing how closely she was watching and fol-
lowing him. he trudged up the stairs and to
the door OF the secret room.
ne onened the door and with quick
rush forward she crowded in before him,
and as he followed her angrily she closed
the door and locked il and removed the
key.
gr,ly.
around the room.
Nell Leave this room a. once"
TT exc.tes NY curiosity. Chemicals and
re.orts. furnaces. clock work, cotton. fuse
ana these books"
She picked up a volume and read:
Chemistry. Organic and Inorganic" and
another Migratory motions produced by
detonants."
And statecraft." she said. has come %
this. Chemistry has succeeded oratory."
''Gur-powter made war rare. dynamite las
made IL obsolete; another chemical may
--aEo a. if,S-f~e f-1,-, -.<Sibi. -