The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1899-05-16


kind. Am 1 too radical? The most Wig
orous denunciation of which 1 am capa-
BILE would be too conservative. 4,
"If not stolen. some dispositions are
on file in the office of the clerk of the
United States court atfFort Scott, taken
during the strike of 1898, in which the
operators confess that they deliberate
Iy provoked that strike, with all its con-
sequent sufferings of women and chill
dren. for the purpose of. compelling the
miners to give up in advance all beneht
of the screen law, which was to go IN
operation September l. or that year
/ know the crowds the miners have to
deal with and 1 confess 1 could love
them better if they speedily became
angels of some kind. Think of the lit
tleness of such stealing as Keeping back
a dollar a month of each miners wages
for the company doctor for whom the
miners have little use. What prince
lv salary a dollar a month from some
thousands of miners would pay! But
the company doctor is not allowed to
he kent out of the kingdom of heaven
by the possession OF any such wealth.
He is paid a reasonable salary ana the
cOnDanieS steal the rest HlSh 1llndeu
business: is it not, for gentlemen to be
engaged in? Imagine rich corpora
tion stealing the calico dress from the
back of a miners WlIe or the snoeS rom rom
the feet of his children, or the food
fror,, his meager tablet l would rather
helm the miners rid the state OF these
diseraceful wretches than to go down
there and tell the men to obey the laws
which protect the villains while the vii
lains nullify every law for the protec-
ton of the miners.
II Il have not told all. The officers of
the law have triHed to the point OF
crirninality with the mining law
IF miner should determine to vio-
late the law every day in the week for
n few years by stealing from the COM
pany some of the coal he has earned
bv his past labor, claiming that the law
against stealing is Unconstitutional as
class legislation or because the title is
not artistic, and he Should be arrested
and fined for his first days stealings
and should appeal that case, do you
suppose he could get the county attor-
ney, the judges and the attorney gen,
eral to agree to wait till that appeal
could be decided by the court of ap-
peals. then by the supreme court and
then by the supreme court OF the united
States. and let him ana all ms Iflehus
go right stealing coal every day III
the meantime without danger of fur-
ther arrest? 1 can Imagine near an
answer to this conundrum and that
there is a strong suspicion of profanity
in it But that is the way the coal op-
orators are allowed to enjoy themselves.
They deny the conshtutlonahty OF d
couple of laws they don't happen 10
like One operator is arrested and fined,
the court holding the law constitutional
The elegant convict appeals, and he ana
all the other operators go right on Vlo-
lating the laws day after day, out no
further arrests are made. The au-
thorities wait for the court of appeals
to decide that one case. The court OF
appeals sustains the lawsGand afhrns
the conviction, and the elegant con-
vict appeals to the supreme court Al
though two courts have now upheld the
law still no further arrests are made
and the OperatOrS go right on as If there
were no such laws. The authorities are
waiting for the supreme court to decide.
Should the supreme court sustain the
law then the elegant convict a1oreSalo
4I3x IlVrf Of
United States, for federal question IS
involved and the case can go there. O1
course. in that event the operators Will
go right on violating the laws just as
if no court had decided against their
and not a mothers son or
them will be arrested for it. The au-
thorities will wait two or three years
until the supreme court of the United
States shall have taken a day off some
time to attend to small matters accum-
ulated on it's docket and shall have de-
cided the case; then, perhaps, the au-
thorities may tell the operators to be
good or they may be fined twenty-five
dollars sometime If the supreme court
of Kansas decides against the law, that
will be the end of the case; it cannot go
any further.
would the authorities be thus
pa tient with the miners were they TO |
disregard laws because they claimed |
them unconstitutional? Whose fault IS
it that the miners have been so disre- |
garded2 Not theirs. They have done !
the best they could. They have tried to |
elect men they could trust. Is it their |
fault that they could not read Alright |
the future conduct of men? No man |
can shut his eyes. to the painfully glar- |
ing fact that men of means are treated |
by the law officers, no matter by what |
party elected. as if they were of diff
ferent race from the poor who have to |
work for a living. I have not one word |
to say in extenuation of the conduct
Of any officer who has been guilty of !
screening from
tons under these laws. Need condemn
them? Do not their own works con- /
lemn them? I am only stating some |
facts These laws will never do the
laws if passed. Why? Because the |
miners are induced by well-meaning but
fatally conservative leaders to be
patient to the point of unmanlineSS. and
lnly their votes are feared. Let them |
vote till doomSday, the operators eX-
0ect to see to it that the men actually !
elected or counted in shall be friendly to |
he operators after the campaign and |
hat the miners shall be content with
IN Occa sional grand-Stand play and an
interview telling how the officer is going |
o eVerlastingly do up the operators
when he gets time. l am satisfied that |
he ''be good" policy constantly urged
IpOn the miners by their leaders will |
lever bring them much honest attention
rom public officers elected by them to
nforce the laws against operators. 1t
$ only when working men break loose
md raise more or less disturbance that !
government finds time to give them
much attention. All the miners in south
.astern Kansas could have been put
nto Jail by the very same courts and
,fficerS in much less time than it has
o far taken to determine whether one
perator should be made to pay a fine |
hat would not make him short of cigar |
money for n day"
New Transpacific Line.