The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1899-09-29

Take no thought, therefore, saying
what We shall eat or what We shall
drink. etc. You are told to trust in
God and all will be we'll in the end,
and you have gone On for years trust
Ing n praying, but the conditions re-
main much the same as they were
years ago. / believe in the one God.
l believe that this is the best worll
that we could live in. Even our friend,
Col. lngersoll, could not have planned
1T better. His striking statements were
made to call attention to bigoted er-
rors. When the avs Of God and ma
ture are obeyed it will be just as Christ
said it would. We would be satisfied
with the law if We did not violate it.
We have political liberty. What is
IL but the means of getting economic
liberty? There is only one way OF get
ting a living. That is by labor. There
are two ways of laboring; for your
self as your own employer, or for some
one else for wages. When government
takes away the first opportunity it
forces man to take the other, but pro-
vides no employer.
was in Columbus this time las:
summer and l spoke from the state
house steps. While I was there this
thing Was brought to my attention.:
They have the state prison in that city.
Tho cfofo hr,tce and thn ctok. ,;,->
generally go together. Once or twice
a week several hundred men and wom-
Ell come to the back door of the Dr:i1n
and beg for the scraps and bits Of fOLt
that the convicts had thrown away
white men n m And there were
many in that crowd who would try to
break into the prison if they thought
they could stay there. In our prisons
the convicts are better fed than many
hundred thousands of free men.
The governor of one Of the western
states vas nee himself a tramp, and
when it was proposed to whip them
out of the state he said: None Of that.
I was a tramp once myself. and may be
ttHllu. III sIClri SUI OlcC WfOte:
II have never on the streets Of my
country seen 4 beggar." He was CON-
pairing this country. at his time, with
the countries of Europe. There were
n0 tramps then. but there are now.
Some of US think the tramp is a hard
citizen. You would be just the same
sort Of a fellow. I have seen tramDs
VII, ha vo rra1,,oto1, f,,,, ,~Jlo-. 80,
high honors-men who are we'll edu-
Gated. l have met men who had happy
homes. But some fools say any man
can get work who wants it. Some say
they don't want it. I was in the west
cnce and was talking to a railroad Of
ficer. He said that they had had a
great strike or that road. Seven thou
sand men struck and that officer said
they had no trouble to fill their places
Immediately with 1000 unemployed
men. Yet some say that men don't
want to work. It's a lie. Any man
who has a fair chance to work would
rather work than steal Or beg. God
never created a dishonest man. God
does not make dishonest men. They
are luc pIOuuCl VI ulJu6l IL NS.
You remember the French revolt
ton? In France ali the lands had
come into the hands of a few people:
the king and mobiles and a majority OF
the people were depending on them for
a living. The time came when those
down-trodden people rose up and Paris
streets ran with blood. Your country
Will have the same experience if you
keep on fooling with the laws of God.
Rome was ono the mistress Of the
whole world. She lorded it over the
other countries. But she fell, and
Pliny, her historian, lays the cause OF
her downfall to land and monopoly.
JOHN S. CROSBY.