The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-05-20
a LITTLE OF EVERYTHING.

! TO! year or two years, and I'll call
them a legislature. And he did it
and went on his way. And the body
of men met and they made money with
the rich mans goods and Sold some
and mortgage;l others and despoiled
| Others And the suffers and lobbyists
f1ocked around as vultures around a
carron, and the rich man remonstrat-
ed and held mass meetings and scream
ed himself hoarse. And the body of
men looked at him derisively and said
to itself: Surely we have worked for
these offices and they are ours, and you
can't put us out, nor reverse our acts,
but are bound by them" and they
laughed in their sleeves at the rich
man. Again, an election came around
and the rich man chose another set of
men of the same sort, and. having un-
trammeled power, they did likewise
And many moons waXed and waned
and the rich man did not seem to learn
by experience, but really he was grow
ing very mad and at last he rose up
and said: Il will choose We as council
ors, but we shall do naught that I do
not wish, and We shall do the things
wish, and III veto any acts of yours
that l do not like by the referendum,
and if We will not pass the laws l wish,
J myself will start them by the initia-
tive And the latter end of that man
was better than the former.
Pingree is bully boy with a glass
eye. He's the nightmare of the Repub-
lican party. They don't know what
to do with him. He's the bull in the
China shop of corporation privileges
combination forms to raise the price
OF asphalt for paving the streets of De-
troit. He slips off to Trinidad or some
other place and brings back a company
ready to furnish asphalt at one-third
1.-THE price asked by the trust It
grlts its teeth and swears, but can do
nothing. The legislature passes a law
about the sale of mileage books at two
cents mile. The Michigan Central
refuses to obey it and says, What are
you going to do about it," Pingree
as private citizen offers them money
for such ticket and brings suit be-
cause they refuse, and, unlike most
suitors, instead of getting on his knees,
he brings them to theirs. And now.
worst of all, he's actually called the
legislature together to remedy the in
equality of taxation. and he says:
In violation of the spirit If not the
letter of these provisions of the con-
stitution, laws have been passed from
time to time by which railroad COM
panles, express companies, telegraph
and telephone companies, now owning,
according to their sworn returns, at
least one-third Of the property of this
state. are required to pay only about
one-twenty-sixth of the taxes levied
for state. county. and municipal pur-
poses, leaving their just proportion of
public expenses to fall upon the farm
ers, laborers and manufacturers and
other property owners of the state''
Now this is rank confiscation. It's
opposition to special privileges, and
everyone knows our civilization is built
upon special privileges. The Repub-
lican machine has tried to down him.
but he's bigger than the machine. He
don't talk much, but he acts It's well
to keep your eye on Pingree. He's
bad, bad man and the people love
him.
Yes. prosperity is on us. It's COM
ing in great big chunks. The news
papers recently had a t1amboyant para
graph about the starting up of glass
factories at Steubenville, O., and how
they We're working night and day. l
was there recently and made some in
quiries. The factories have started up.
One at least is working night and day,
and Sundays, too. 1t works the men
and women in two shifts-no eight
hour day for them, but twelve and
fourteen hours. And what does it pay?
Able bodied men there get 65 cents a
day for twelve to fourteen hours ex-
haustive work. The highest paid get
$1.20 day. But they don't employ
many men; women are cheaper. They
pay them $1.65 per week for seven days
work. And then they fine them for
hardness. imperfection and all sorts
of things. One girl, SO my informant
said, received IS cents for seven days
work. The result is the employees are
constantly changing. I was told they
made almost complete change every
three weeks. And. the sad part of it
is, they can always get new hands at
these rates. The dawn of prosperity
has produced so many unemployed
that such an employer can draw on the
great reservoir of the unemployed al
most Indefinitely Alas!
Some half-baked reformers are talk
ing about a settlement of the money