Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1902-08-13
The Riuhts Ct Labor.

We near much in these times about
the rights of labor. Labor has its
rights and they should pc fully protect
ed but unfortunately for the cause,
those who shout the loudest in the mat
ter are usually demagogues of the most
vicious type. men who mold that free
speech" means freedom to intinnidate
those who persist in exercising their
legal right to work in defiance of a
unions mandate, and men who de-
nounce the calling out of troops in
Penns ylvania to protect .'scab" work
men from the strikers who wish to
mark them as ''traiters' but cutting OF:
their ears. THE rights of labor" is a
much abused term arc is toe ftsn en-
ployed by those who refuse labor its
legal right to earn an honest living.
There are tyralts in this country who
arc more of q menace to our working
classes tl.an the sc-caiicd tyr 'rts' y.
apital who Ell pl'y them.
Since the troops hnve been called out
in Penrsyly: MA, General Goblin t,s re-
"eived the following letter from a Door
woman at Turkey Run in that state. 1t
is published in the New York Tribune,
and we give it in full here because it
is such a striking illustration of the
so't OF human rights which ere T. o fire.
Quentlv ignored in this country.
1 now take the opportunity of writ
ing you these few lines to let you
know my life stands in danger and
also the life of my husband. We stand
in as much danger as any one can.
The polanders threatens to blow up
my house with dynamite and they are
firing shots around my house every
night. l am afraid of my life to lay
down to sleep. / call on you for life
protection. My bedroom windows was
battered IN with stones and my baby
was in bed it was o'clock in the night
and she was within an inch of her life
of being killed. One of the stones laid
on the pillow at the side of her head,
my child is sick, and 1 am nearly being
confined. They are doing all sorts Of
planning and plotting in the night time,
they are up and down the street all
hours of the night. Not only that they
hung a black and white Grape on my
door when I got up in the morning, I
seen it there.
Kind sir please give me some kind of
answer for l am afraid of my life. 1t
would be a blessing if the troops were
here for they are needed here bad. The
reason the foreigner polanders are
down on us so much my husband
| started to work, he had to for we had
no means of living, We buried a little
| girl in March and we had not her
funeral expenses paid yet when this
strike took place. 1 was going down to
| the clubhouse last night and a shot was
| fired at me by Polander.
Think of the pathos of the case OF
that poor woman! Because her hus.
band tried to work to support his wife
and sick child and to pay the burial
expenses of child that had died, she
is abused and insulted and attacked
by the strikers! 1t is not enough for
them to seek the life Of the husband:
! they must also attack the home and
the wife. Shall not injunctions be
| issued and enforced to thwart the
diabolical activities of such strikers
Shall not troops be employed to protect
her and her home and others like them
! from the stones and bullets of the law
| less and brutal foreigners? OF
| course. they shall. But there are many
| men. labor agitators and demagogic
politicians, who prate loudly of 1.-THE
| common people" and 1.-THE rights oil
labor" who say otherwise Mr.. Bryan
has not been above denouncing the use
of courts and troops for just such pur-
poses as to answer that poor woman's
appeal. Such men use ''the rights 81
labor" as cloak for despotism and
crime and oppression. Labor's worst
enemies are not in the ranks of CAPT
tai. 4tsis gRiEWD,