Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-09-08
SUGGESTIONS FROM
OUR CORRESPONDENTS

our fathers eontended in 1s76-the right of
every American citizen not to liberty
merely but 10 life itself as dependent on
a free access to the natural products OF
the earth that God has given as the com
mon heritage of all. Everybody can see
how preposterous 1t would be for the
greed of private monopoly to claim the
right of taxing US all for the air we
breathe; and yet the whole world has
been quietly submitting, for ages, to be
taxed for standing room on the earth
where we were born, and for the COAL
iron, and other necessaries which 1t pro-
duces. In resisting the claim OF private
monopoly to an irresponsible control or
these, the striking miners and the labor
organizations behind them are fighting
the battles of us all; fighting for us at
what cost Of privation and suffering 10
themselves only those can appreciate who
, know something of the hardships OF the
miners life, even at its best. Did you
eyer go down into coal mine, respecta-
BILE reader? If so. can you imagine any
thing more pathetic than that thousands
OF our fellow creatures should be driven
to the necessity of fighting for the wretch
ed privilege of sustaining life by so hard
and dangerous a calling?
N%Oh, but these strikers are only igno-
rant foreign trash who know nothing
swer, land are mere blind tools Of the la
Dor unions"
Well. granting, for the once. that this
assertion is true. who is responsible for
dumping this load Of foreign ignorance
and pauperism upon American soil? was
1t the American laborer, or the operator
who imported it for the purpose OF beat
ing down American labor? No one fought
against the importation Of this element
more strenuously than the labor unions,
and when il was forced upon them against
their will. like the white people OF the
south when confronted by the negro vote,
they had to deal with ii as best they
could and as a matter Of self-preserva-
ton got it organized somehow. among
their defensive legions. Now, when the
operators find themselves hoist with their
own petard they are out-heroding Her
cd in their denunciations of the foreign
I intruder.
But some quiet, easy going folk, who
have never given much attention to social
/ economies. may fail to see how they can
be benefited by a strike which threatens
their personal WellIbeing by raising 1Ae
| price of one of the prime necessaries OF
| life If personal convenience were the
| only, or even the highest object in lie,
| their view might be correct, but II Is IN
this very act of bringing the prospect OF
suffering home to our own doors that the
strikers are rendering their greatest SER
vice TO humanity In doing so they are re-
vealing. as no amount of argument could
have done. the danger of allowing private
monopoly to arrogate to itself powers SO
enormous that Il can, If unchecked, carry
its obstinate disregard of public welfare
to the point of quenching the warmth OF
every Preside and Of stopping the wheels
of every industry in the land. They are
furnishing the nation an object lesson IN
the. possible consequences of the criminal
abnegation of its powers into private
hands that If well laid to heart. will De
worth ali the money cost OF the STRIFE,
enormous as this has been. And that men
are laying the lesson to heart, we have
ample evidence in the free discussion OF
public ownership that is taking place on
an hands. Respectable journals that six
months ago would have gone into hys-
terics over the bare suggestion, as the
dream Of a ''wild-eyed socialist" are now
talking about the government controI %
public utilities as complacently as pru-
dent regard for their advSrtising columns
will permit.
There is lust one consideration that
would like to present here 10 al those
who have been awakened by this STRIFE
10 a sense of the common danger ana the
common duty. Is it fair and just for US
who are more fortunately situated TO
leave to those poor men the whole burden
of fighting our battle with the trustsY
they have not asked our help; the labor
organizations have stood bravely to their
oars and sturdily padded their own ca
noes: but is it fair. is IL brave. IS II
brotherly for US to leave the whole bur-
den to them? Ought we not TO put our
hands into our own pockets and extend
them such aid as we can in the unequal
contest they are waging with one Of the
most gigantic and heartless accumula-
lions of capital the world has ever SEEM
Their cause IS the cause OF every" honest
worker. whether with hand or BRAIN The
right for which they are contending-tne
right of every human being to the product
of his own labor-is as sacred and inalien-
able as the constitutional right to life,
liberty, and the pursuit Of happiness.
E. f. ANDREWS.
Washington, Ga, Sept. 4, 1862.