Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-08-29
ABOUT, CORPORATE INFLUENCE

COiui1lt y AySIcIlCS. JHlS H1Oflllus YOlulS
out that a number of the men in the
republican county convention are EN-
ployes of the AMalgamated Copper COM
pany, and reaches the wholly unwar-
ranted and false conclusion that the con-
vention belonged to that or some allied
corporation.
Nothing could be more absurd or more
unjust. 1t is true that some members
for the concern that the Miner seems to
hold in such dread, but we deny emphat-
ically. and challenge the Miner to prove
the contrary, that those men did not
act as free American citizens in hi con-
v%ention. or that pressure or influence Of
any Kind vas brought to bear sn them
by their employers or by the representa-
tives of their employers. Must a man
be DISTINGUISHED or denied the right to
sit in Il convention because he works for
IA particular corporation? If all the men
who are on corporation payrolls must
keep out of politics and refuse to at
tend when honestly elected
thereto, of what sort of material would
conventions in Silver Bow county be
composed?
In view of the fact that the Anal
ganated and it's allied concerns employ
nearly four-tifths of the men employed
i'll this district in the mines and kindred
enterprises, how would it be possible to
hold a convention of several hundred
men without including a large number of
its employees?
TO assert without reason or proof that
these men. in attending the primaries
and conventions of their party are not
acting as good Americans. as independ-
ent citizens. and wholly without regard
to the wishes of their employers. is an
behal we denounce the i]nsinuations of
the Miner as baseless. dishonest and dis
reputable.
There are companies doing business in
~ crc are the properties of Senator Clark,
which, are owned by a company. and the
Montana Ore Purchasing company. They
ailp;oy hundreds of men. who so to the
p:itua les. to the conventions. and. on
election day, will 60 to the polls and vote.
They rave an undeniable right to do SO.
No newspaper has a right to assert tina
the. are tools Of the companies which
employ them, or that their presence in
political conventions is any evidence
Of their servitude to corporate power.
,r their employers by asserting that par
ticiiation of democratic laboring men in
politics; is an violence of serfdom. yet it
has quite as much p~rovocation to do so
as the Miner has to make similar charges
against republican laboring men; and
more, because many of the democratic
employees G. the two companies referred
TO voted at the republican primaries.
If tie Inter were of the opinion
that mining employees are dis
qualified from exercising the rights of
American citizenship. it might easily
ven,ion elected b. the trump county
con vention and ask that it be thrown out
bodily, for ~rea:l.' every one Of those 81
rlen is eiti'er az employe of those two
companies or is closely identified with
them in business. The esteemed Miner
should look over the list and ascertain
where each man works before raising any
objection to the regular convention on
the score OF the employment of some of
it's members.
The Miners assertion hat the repub-
lean tickle is not made up Of men en-
tirely Independent of corporate influence
Of the brand so offensive to that paper is
Ease md ridiculous on it's face. In what
way is =. w. Eacorn identified with any
corporation doing business in Butte?
What sane man will deny the personal
Independence of Byron H. Cook? Who
dares tell Col. c. Il. Lloyd that he wears
anything but a linen collar? Let the
Miner SO down the list and select the men
who are identified in any way with cor
poration influence and print their names.
AS to the legislative ticket. it is perfectly
free and untrammeled. 1t is made up
of citizens whose lives in this community
have been as an open book to all our
people. To accuse such men of sub
s~erviency to any improper influence is
wanton and reckless misrepresentation;
1t is the very ecstasy of political infamy.
If the Miner knows one thing on earth
It is that the REGULAR republican nrimaries