Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1898-06-25
MUSINGS OF a MOSSBhCK.

What are necessities and what lux.
uries is question of quite frequent
discussion. Why, brother, it depends
upon whom you are talking about.
A bicycle, for instance, is a necessity
for working man, but the man who
doesn't have to work for living has
plenty of time to walk. and needs the
exercise. If his shoes are sole-less and
his clothes threadbare, no matter, he
does not have to keep up appearances.
There are many things which are
luXuries, pure and simple. to the cou-
pom clipper that are necessities to the
man who digs in ditch or runs an
engine.
But the coupon-clipper gets-well,
thunder, who said anything about get
ting? We're talking about needing.
Good wholesome food, and plenty of
it, is a necessity to the woman who tolls
long days in a factory or sweat shop;
weak tea and a crust of bread will
serve all the need of the woman who
has only to see that the servants keep
things running smoothly.
but the working woman gets the
crust" No, friend, not always she
don't. Not by mill site.
Children who live in sitting tene-
ments absolutely need summer outing
at the mountains or seaside. 1t is "a
useless luxury to those who dwell in
| brown stone palaces.
We grudgingly dole out a Fresh
Air Fund that brings touch of sun
shine into few darkened lives, proba-
bly, intensifying the shadow when the
sunshine is past.
Like the Irishman at the fire. who
put his pants on hind side afore and
| jumped from a second story window
this luxury-necessity business is fatal
ly twisted.''s
But no more so than the whole sys-
TEN: IA whole train of carts webbing
skew gee in front of their respective
| horses; regiment after regiment of
Irishmen with their pantaloons on hind
side afore Fatally twisted" is the
poor old apology for civilization, and its
doom can be read in the slowly awaken
ing intelligence of the human race,
Children under sixteen years old. :"
OF all the wrongs of our misfit "hand
me-down" civilization. the crimes com
mitteds in her name against this much
oppressed class will be her heaviest in
dictment if ever she is called to the bar
of justice.
y man is accused of a crime counsel
is appointed for him: forced process is
used to obtain witnesses in his behalf:
a jury of his peers is selected: every
safeguard of the laws he has violated is
thrown around him. A triumphant
acquittal. Discharged Call the
next case"
a trembling child is brought before
the court: no charge is made. no jury,
no attorney, no witnesses. An UNI
natural parent swears to few glib lies
''lncorrigible!' and the doors of the
Reform school clang behind it for an
indefinite term of years.
For them the curfew tolls the knell
of parting day" indeed: or would
if certain misguided. though we'll
meaning people could have their way.
Ordinances banishing the children
from the streets at certain hour are
in force in some towns: are being
worked for in others.
Do the people who favor these know
what it means? They haven't the
slightest conception. They see the
dangers they seek to shield the children
from, but have no idea of the greater
dangers they force upon them.
For fear of the children becoming
criminals they begin to educate them
at tender age in that most necessary
of criminal tactics, the art Of lodging
the police
From eight o'clock. until daylight
they outlaw the future citizens of the
state that they may grow up citizens
uad not outlaws,
That the children viii take pains to
break the law cannot bc doubted, No
oaa obeys an unjust law from any mo-
tive but fear of the penalty, and YOU
cannot deceive the children us to the
| injustice of this law. Nou may pull q
grown mans right leg out foot, and
/ he win come around cheerfully next
morning to have the left one pulled out
to match it, but you can't get a child to
swallow the same bait twice
There are two sides to the question
admit. The streets, under our COM
petitiye system, are not tit places for
those under sixteen NOR over sixteen
after eight o'clock nor before
But why do Vice and Sin and Crime
]