Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1898-10-22


government is a failure. Which is it?
Did you ever think of this? We
start out on a rabbit hunt. We know
nothing Of the condition of the rab-
bits as regards fairness, We kill one.
1t is fat. We proceed to hunt others
fully expecting all to be fat. And so
they are. If one is fat all are fat.
Why? Simple enough. If nature has
made provision for one, it has pro-
vided for ALL and all share alike. We
do not find one healthy rabbit fat
and other equally healthy ones poor
There are too reasons for it. One is
that no rabbit would be mean enough
to deny other rabbits the use of the
earth. The other reason is that the
other rabbits have too high sense of
justice to submit to it. Then have
we less sense than a rabbit? We GER
tainly have. But what has this to do
with government? 1t has all to do
with it. Place over the rabbits the
same fool laws under which we live,
and compel them to obey them, and
their condition would be no bet
ter than ours. Give one rabbit the
exclusive right to the use of the field
and he would have more than he
could eat and the others would have
nothing. What. says one in horror,
do you mean to say that our awful
condition is the result of govern
ment? That is just what we are try
ing to say. Is such government a
failure? Ask Yourself the question,
and answer it. if you can.
The hills are full of coal. and the
city is full of freezing people. Ma
ture has furnished the coal free, and
without the labor of any man. 1t
was here before man was. The freez-
ing people are not only willing, but
they are anxious to dig the coal that
their children may ne warm. But
they dare not do so; there is some
thing that says they must not. What
is this heartless something? What
ever it is it is certainly responsible
should any suffer from freezing. Are
there no laws regulating this thing?
oh, yes, plenty of law, but unfortu-
nately the law that is supposed to
protect people in their rights is the
very same law that says to the freez-
ing man, you must not dig the coal.
Does that sort of government "ensure
domestic tranquillity,"or secure the
blessings of liberty? We know that
it is an awful bad thing for one to
ask such questions, and the man who
does ought to be hung as an Anarch-
list, but while you are execrating him
and preparing to execute him, just
before you draw the black cap and
adjust the rope, suppose you answer
the question: Is not such a govern
ment a failure? We say it is.
If the plodding oX-driver of a CEN
fury ago could have lifted the veil of
the future and taken one glimpse at
our wonderful railroads of TODAY, he
would, no doubt, have pictured in his
mind wonderfully happy and pros
porous people. He would, no doubt,
have fancied to himself, as he beheld
these phantom monsters of iron,
steam and fire prancing over the
plains and through the mountains,
and drawing after them their long
trains, how they would annihilate dis
lance and place the fruits of the
tropic at the very door of the Lap
lander, while the fish of his own catch
will safe the palates of those who
dwell in the land of everlasting sum
mer; how the coal fields of the
Rockies would be practically trans
planted into the plains of the great
Mississippi, and how the corn fields
and the wheat fields of Kansas would
practically ripen their golden harry
est under the very shadow of the
miners cabin; how friends Could be
neighbors though separated hundreds
VI uhllSos hp" a NHhhb hiNhf ~ N""A'S
his beloved young wife from beneath
the parental roof, could feel that even
the earth itself was not broad
enough, rivers not deep enough or
the mountains high enough to deprive
him of the ever.present consoling
counsel and admonitions of his dear
mother.in-law. But could he have
lived to realize these things, how very
far short of his dream would he have
found it. Instead of this great in
vention benehting all the people, as
IL should, it has been turned over to
a few people who use it TO rob the
masses while they enrich themselves.
Railroads are not operated for the
good the service would do the people.
but for making money for those who