The Weiser signal. [volume] (Weiser, Idaho) 1890-1904, 1899-04-27

o~"'"su S'C'Si"hu 5O oCfSiViy haV be
known that he, himself, was to serve
the same master later The philoso.
pher Seneca-Do less impregnated
with the moral obliquity OF the times
Than ioday's apoIogists-defeL ded
Nero for the fearful deed Of matricide.
This concerned the death OF only one
but our defense OF the lagos who
plot to perpetuate this monstrous
system which ruins both employer
and employee--which crusLes mil
lions OF hearts and lives, our di, :
stimulation is more to be deplored,
for You well know the failure to get
a satisfactory answer to this labor
question will drive The millions of
workers into blind acceptance OF
foolish creeds which will battle our
fair lands in blood. If to YOU has
come an answer in your long years OF
study, yon should speak it forth and
not dissembe. Do not deceive your
self with the wish that the masses
have accepted Industrial and finar-
cial serviude as the law OF their
ives, because the many wear their
degredations as a badge upon their
b. east There are few free men
left who will offer their lives, if nee
essary, for the sake of great prin-
ciple.
According to our last census re-
port fifty-two per cent Of our popula-
ton are born in poverty and consign.
ed to life of servitude. Half of
our nation own but three per cent of
the national wealth, practically all Of
which the labor OF their class has
created. This class is increasing
rapidly in numbers, for the middle
class is constantly being crowded
down into the already congested
ranks of labor Our mills are forced
o recapitaize, l. e.: freeze out the
weaker stockholders, and finding
this will not save them they form
finally into gigantic combines or
trusts. 1t is not alone the weaver
and the spinner and the carder who
listen patiently for some suggestion
from you, but the treasurers of the
mills point to average dividends OF
one per cent on last years business.
Are you not afraid OF their displeas-
ure when you enter our historic pub
ic library and preach as you did /:
eff | am asked il the laborer receives
his relative share in proportion to
the capitalist, ! answer nor Really,
Mr. Wright, are yUu not hard on the
capitalist? Are you not afraid OF
losing your friend Edward Atkinson 8
esteem, who claims thut "labor has
absorbed almost the whole?" Let
me quote to you from his essay,
Labor and Capital Allies, not Enc
mics, published twenty years since
During these later years OF depres-
sion and of restricted consumption,
the capital Of the cotton mills Of the
United States has not been able to
secure to its own use even three
parts of hundred Of it's product,
but labor has absorbed the whole Z"
To absorb is to swallow up; perhaps
that is why they haven't it today.
Is 1t because you ale more honest
than the champion of gas stoves,
and know that the passing of a divi-
dend does not argue profitless bust.
nessY Or do you, knowing that
dividends must be paid at the ex-
pense Of the wage fund, wonder
where labor stands at the end of
every limited period he is allowed to
work If dividends are averaging about
one per cent? Did it ever occur to
you that our business men are look
ing to you for some display OF intelli-
gence? Did you know that our
yearly business failures had increased
from $50 to 1900 in few years?
You say: ono good answer can be
given to displaced laborer in
community today" But can you
give one to the displaced manufact-
u er? Or his widow and children?
Oh, learned chief juggler of labor
statistics Now, why can't you give
the laborer a good answer? Is he
not docile and patient, and do not
his family snffer in ST ence? Are you
ignorant or malignant? Or, does the
power that appointed you restrict
your utterance to current sophistry
and mere Pathological twaddle? You
were once fearless exponent OF the
truth. When you exposed the red
hand OF the railroad magnates in Chi.
clgo in 1894 setting fire to their own
property to gain the sympathy of
the nation, that they might arrest the
champions OF labor, you were on the
side of justice and fair play. When
you showed that the American Rail.
'oad Union decided that a strike
should not be ordered, and went
home to abide by this decision, but
earning during the night that the
Pullman company had ordered
lockout" and that they were thus
'orced to reverse their decision and
rider strike in self-defense, YOU
we're impartial and faithful to your
'filce. But when you came IN O
his old American town where liberty