The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1900-05-02

ure in our national life, stand dumb giving
not a word of cheer or sympathy to the gal.
liant Beers, nor uttering a syllable OF con
tempt for the vampire Of nations now suck.
Ing the very life blood of the TransVaal Re
public.
| "The moment the Great Republic assumes
| as lord paramount TO hold any people Ia
vassalage (euphemize In the beginning, If you
prefer, and call II state OF tutelage) that
moment the corrodng cancer begins its dead.
| ly work and the. poison will soon strike the
very vitals of the Republic. The external
| forms of free government may remain, but
the heart and the spirit, which make free
| men, will be gone. Long after Rome became
an empire, and individual liberty to the
Roman mere name, the emperors claimed
to act by authority OF the Roman Senate, and
electlng their tribunes. The legions OF
| Bouaparte shouted for Liberty, equality,
fraternity" shut became, in the hands OF
the Emperor, mere instruments for imposing
servitude.
"The claquers for the new career upon
which 1t is declared our country has entered
are clamorous. too. for an increase of the regu-
lar army. Professional soldiers have always,
In every age and every CLINE, been the great
est instruments for oppression. Their educa-
tion and discipline remove them from the
ommunIty OF thought and feeling and stand.
ards OF life that governs the other members OF
the body polite. No ruler desiring to oppress
a people has ever been able to use q citizen
soldery In doing 1t. The militia OF couu try,
always available. for the preservation of order,
are yet stern enemies OF irresponsible power.
"a most cruel wound to our free institutions
has been made In Idaho. On the Goth of April
OF last year a mine In the Couer d. Alene re.
glon, the property Of the Standard Oil Com
pany, the most gigantic and powerful trust In
the country, was blown up with dynamite.
On theSd OF May, nearly twelve months ago.
the Governor OF that State, at the instance OF
the Standard OIL magnates, declared a cond-
ton Of insurrection to exist In Shoshone
County and called upon the President for
troops. They were furnished, and from that
day TO this martial law has prevailed in
suspended. bands Of hired detectives belong.
Ing to the Standard OH turned loose in the
com untty, men oy the hundred arrested by
them without process Of any kind, detained
for months In the "bullpen" without the
scintilla OF criminal charge brought against
them, houses broken open and searched with
out other warrant than the bayonet and the
strong hand, nobody allowed to work except
on permit issued by tool OF the Governor
and issued only when the applicant will sub.
sympathy with organized labor, even men
rSapF 1sG no Ps yRHq @snou
possibility ofredress until III 6eases their in.
generators TO release them, ,s6pd permits re.
quired TOR even typewriters and stenograph.
"Well may any man take alarm for the future
when such condition OF things exists In a
sovereign State Of our Union. How long be.
fore the States will be reduced to the condl-
ton of mere provinces and the people be
without an effective voice in the govern
ment?
"We need to study anew the political axiom,
Eternal vigilance is the price or. liberty"
Well may the sentinels upon the watch.tow-
ers raise the alarm Of "ImperIslism" and
Militarlsm." The warning needs to be
sounded in trumpet tones until the people
shall be walked to a realization OF the danger
70 which the commercial greed now domina-
ting our national councils Is leading u.s.