Industrial freedom. [volume] (Edison, Wash.) 1898-1???, 1899-05-13
The Coming Strike
BY CLINTON BANCROFT,
CONCLUDED

'Why not" asked Cavendish imparturba-
bly,. "You yourself while ago declared that
If the capitalists of the country would they
could bring about general system of coope-
ration which you acknowledge to be desira-
BILE. You say that they alone stand in the
way of reform, and even seem to believe that
they alone, their methods, make reforms i'm
peratively necessary, for these men are hui
man like ourselves They are as amenable
to reason, as susceptible to sentiment as res
ponsive to conscience
Are they?" interrupted Dalton. $50 is
every other professional criminal in the land;
so are their brothers and sisters in crime
everywhere, the drunkard-maker, the bawds
the card-sharps. the confidence men. They
are all amenable to reason, responsive to con-
science and susceptible to sentiment: but not
when it affects their business. Did you ever
notice that? On that subject they are un-
sound, insane, moral lunatics if You please
And the rich head the list in sclfshness, in
inhumanity, in heartlessness. They are
easily first in warped minds in rotten hearts.
in shriveled souls. They are the source of
more social. industrial and political impurity
than all the rest that | have named. Yes
and of moral impurity as WELL for their pow
erty producing methods, their corruptions,
their exactions, their grindings, their blood
sweating of the poor, are responsible for the
largest part of the crime-producng misery
among us. And their utter Inconsistencies
of it proves the hopeessness of their condi-
ton. Like the mad-house patients, the fact
of their moral insanity is the one thing it
seems impossible for them to realize To
themselves they are the salt of the earth, the
leaven of the meal, the wheat among the
tares, the very lily blossoms of civilization.
Moral arousement indeed You might as
well talk to the asylum doctors about the
mental arousement of the inmates of their
padded cells as propose the moral arouse
ment of wealth. OF course that would be
the thing most desirable, perhaps but how
would you go about it? Would you send
back the soul of some modern Dives from its
present abode to warn his brothers of the
wrath in store for them? If the egotism and
self-complacency of the ancient rich was so
dense as to make them reject not only Moses
and the prophets but even the testimony of
one just risen from the dead. do you think
that anything less than the Yawning Gulf it.
self would move those of our times? Would
you send another Jonah through the streets
of our New Ninevehs to cry yet forty days
and We shall be destroyed Are there not
thousands of them now going up and down
our land sounding such warning? Isn'tthe
labor and the reform press full of such theat-
ening thunderings? Isn't every strike and
riot and every movement of the military
a deadly monition OF the destruction that is
gathering about them? Have they needed?
Have they over raised their heads to listen
ing attitude except perhaps when the sound
of actual strife reached their ears or when
they heard the accounts of the spread of the
riot-breeding strike? Physical danger is all
these people really fear. Loss of property
affects them but little. 1t cannot be all des-
troyed they think, and they can recoup them
selves in a thousand ways for all that the gov
eminent does not make good. But physical
danger they dread as only the mean-hearted
and cowardly can. 1t is the only threat they
ever listen to when they know you mean it.
The gaunt old prophet knew howto reach their
nutshell souls. He shook their iellied hearts
with fear and they tumbled down on to their
knees into the dust. Pharoh never yielded
up his slaves until the sound Of mourning was
heard in his own household. That is the
moral arousement that reaches them. And
to that | feel commissioned as truly as was
the avenging spirit that touched with
hand death the households of Egypt But |
90 after Pharoah himself; his first-born and
his innocents / touch not; and will find him
wherever he may be. Into whatever spidery
retreat it mag be his pleasure to retire, there
will the Vigilantes search him out On
Boards of Trade, in directors meetings, in
the bankers Office, in legislative lobhies. in
Judges chambers, wherever oppressive or
corruptive wealth shall manifest itself, there
shall the peoples sword OF justice sink into
some guilty heart. And then but not till
then will the moral arousement you speak of
begin"
well, Dalton" said Cavendlsh rising to
go, II see that the fervor OF an enthusiast
is upon you and your course cannot b. stayed.
But mark my words, you will either swing
from gallows or swim in bloody eyolu-
ton. You or your country viii suifer; per-
haps both. But promise me this; watch the
course of the American Trades Alliance, and
IL when the crisis comes, IL can offer you rea-
sonableproof OF its power to pass ii in safety
give me your assurance that upon our doing
so you will abandon your bloody project and
allow us to pursue our method to some deci-
sive end
Il will agree to that, so far; in such an