Durango semi-weekly herald., 1902-07-31

} 100000 men are out of work. Tn,
Declaration of Independence is moi
yet realized as long as the present
status of man lasts. He has twt
hands and brain. These represent
his labor powers. Why doesn't he
work? He has no tools. The ma
chine costs thousands of dollars. TIL,
workman cannot compete against il
with his poor hands; he doesn't OWL
it. Unless he is asked to work and
his labor proves favorable to his EN-
ployer, he cannot work Often the
workingman does not know his EN-.
ployer; he has never seen him II
may be a corporation that employs
him The manager may be a hu.
name and generous man. but he. too
is employed. and unless he shows the
returns demanded, another will be
taken in his place The individual
employer almost wholly disappeared
long ago when the machine was dis.
| covered.
Everything was absorbed by corpor-
ations until, during the last few years
| corporations have found II necessary
to combine. and the last is the trust.
1t is the ripened fruit of the present
system. The men who compose them
fix prices. and the people have got to
pay. They fix the wages of the work
men and they are compelled to accept
them. The trust is a modern tool of
production. and when you talk about
destroying 1t. you talk about destroy
ing the tool. There will be more cen
tralization and combination. The
great firms will crush out the smaller
ones The department store the little
shops. the bonanza farm the lesser
one Property is going out of the
hands of the many. Eighty per cent
of the property of the country is now
| in the hands of the capitalists. The
middle class is in process of extinction
| ton Make a mental note of it. The
people will become slaves and serfs of
the trusts. You don't feel it so much
in this new western country. as they
do in theacongested eastern states, but
it is simply a matter of time. In n
few years you will find branches of
the great eastern houses established
here. Then your small merchants
will disappear Forty-ive business
men are failing every week. Eighty
per cent of them have less than $4,000
invested. You cannot destroy the
trust. strive against it all you will.
You will simply bruise yourself. The
trusts are governing the country. If
the smaller Legislature should pass a
law in favor of the people there is al
wavs a supreme legislature to declare
the measure unconstitutional. II you
have not been able to control corpora
tions by law. how can you expect to
control the trust. which is infinitely
greater. by the same means? He who
controls the means of life also con-
trolls the people. Everything that ac-
cords with his interests is legal and
also moral Chattel slavery existed In
the United States for 260 years. The
supreme court of the United States
was compelled to declare 1t a legal in
stitution The machine has replaced
the work of slaves, and If you should
gather the 1000 900 original ones and
present them to their former masters,
they would today have no use for
them AS long as slavery was neces-
sary to the ruling class. it was legal
and moral William Lloyd Garrison
was not afraid to speak out boldly
against slavery. and he was cast into
| Jail for declaring that slavery was do
| mestic piracy. One time when Wen
dell Phillips was addressing crowd
of people in Boston, little slave girl,
who had escaped from her master
came there for protection. The peo-
pie were in favor of sending her back,
| in accordance with the law that es-
capped slaves should be restored any
where, but Wendell Phillips. looking
up to the door, above which hung the
motto. God bless this common
| wealth." said, that if they, an intelli-
gent people, sent that child back, the
motto ought to be torn down, and in
its place hung another, reading God
damn this commonwealth" All the
influences of friends and neighbors
we're brought against Harriet Beecher
Stowe to prevent her from publishing
Uncle Toms Cabin" lest she should
incur the ill-will Of the people who
favored slavery Mr.. Lovejoy of AL
ton, H., said he could better AFFORD to
die at his post than to desert the
cause of slavery. His life paid the
penalty, and all the nation applauded.
Their grandchildren so honored him
that they raised a monument over his
remains.
| John Brown. in his crude way, took
the iniative step that resulted in the
downfall of slavery. After mock
trial he was condemned to death, and
on his way to the gallows, he took up
a little slave child and kissed it. The
rope was placed about his neck and he
was strangled, and when his great soul
went out to the other shore, the whole
nation applauded. In their eyes he
was the incarnation of all that was
fiendish and degrading and brutal and
degrading. Ten years later he was
only dangerous character. In ter
years more. he was only misguided. A
little while ago, it was conceded thai
John Brown, hero of Harper's Ferry
was sacrificed to a noble cause. JohT
Browns soul is steadily marching on
Who can name the Judge who sent
him Tn tho pallows? Lawyers editors