Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1902-09-25

f, of visits to big mills in a populous manu-
featuring city across in New Jersey.
These mills are all owned by Simon
! Legree," he informed Harris "and the
unions have been crushed out of them
by methods of which he is pastmast er.
! don't know, but II may be possible to
| get you in there"
They tried a half dozen mills in vain,
and at last they met foreman who
knew Halliday who consented to hear his
plea.
"You are fooling away your time and
| this mans time, Halliday" he told him
| in a friendly way. I'D cut my right
arm of sooner than take a negro In these
mills and precipitate a strike"
but would a strike occur with no
union organization?"
''Yes. in a minute You know Simon
Legree who owns these mills. If a dis
| turbance occurred here now the old devil
! wouldn't hesitate to close every mill next
day and beggar fifty thousand people"
"Why would he do such stupid thing?"
Just TO show the brute power Of his
| fifty millions of dollars over the human
body. The awful power in that brutes
hands. represented in that money, Is
something appalling Before the war he
cracked a blacksnal1e whip over the backs
of a handful of negroes. Now look at
him. in his black silk hat and faultless
dress. With his millions he can commit
any and every crime from theft to muir
der with immunity. His power is greater
than monarch. He controls fleets of
ships, mines and mills, and has under his
employ many thousands of men. Their
families and associates make vast pop
ulation He buys judges, juries, legisla-
lures and governors and with one stroke
Of his pen today can beggar thousands
of people. He can equip an army of
hirelings, make peace or war on his own
account, or force the governments to do
II for him. He has neither faith in God,
nor fear of the devil He regards all
men as his enemies and all women his
game.
''rhey say he used to haunt the New
Orleans slave market, when he was young
and owned his Red river farm, occasional
ly spending his last dollar to buy hand
some negro girl who took his fancy.
Look at him now with his bloated
face, beastly jaw, and coarse lips. he
walks the streets with his lecherous eyes
twinkling like a snakes and saliva trick
ling from the corners OF his mouth prac-
tically monarch of all he surveys. he
selects hts victims at his own sweet WILL
and with his army of hirelings to do his
bidding, backed by his millions, he lives
a charmed life in a round of daily crime.
How many lives he has blasted among
the population Of the multitude of souls
dependent on him for bread, God only
knows 1t is said he has murdered the
souls of many innocent girls in these
mills"
surely that is an exaggeration," broke
I'm Halliday.
"On the other hand / believe the pic
ture is far too mild. l tell you no human
mind can conceive the awful brute power
over the human body his millions hold
under our present conditions of life.
There was a tinge of deep personal bit
terness IN the mans words that held Hal
l.day in a spell while he, continued:
under our present conditions men and
women must fight one another like beasts
for food and shelter. The widest dreams
of lust and cruelty under the old system
of southern slavery would be laughed at
by this modern master"
He paused a moment in painful reVerle.
There lies his big yacht in the harbor
now. She is just in from cruise In the
Orient. She cost half million douars'
and carries a crew OF nifty men. With
them are beautiful girls hired at fancy
wages connected with the stewardess' de-
partment. She ships a new crew every
trip. Not one of those young faces Is
ever lifted again among their friends.
He paused again and tear coursed
down his face.
Il confess / am bitter. loved one of
those girls once when l was younger.
She was a mere child of seventeen His
voice broke. Eyes, she came back shat
tered in health and ruined. / am sup
porting her now at a quiet country place.
She Is dying.
''Think of the farce of it ALI! he contin-
ued, passionately.
THE picture of that brute with whip
in his hand beating a negro caused the
most terrible war in the history of the
world Three millions OF men few at each
others throats and for four years fought
like demons. A million men and six BILL
lions of dollars worth. of property were
destroyed.
''He was a poor harmless fool there
beating his own faithful slave to death.
Compare that Legree with the one of to-
day, and you compare a mere stupid man
with prince of hell. But does this hend
excite the wrath of the righteous? Far
from II. His very name is Whispered IN
admirihg awe by millions. He boasts
that dozens of proud mothers strip their
daughters to the limit the police law VIII
allow at eveBy social function he honors
with his presence, and offer to sell him
their own flesh and blood for the paltry
consideration of O life interest in one
third of HIS estate! And he laughs at
them all His name is magic!
II know Of one weak fool a petty
millionaire. whom Legree lured into
speculative trap and ruined. On his knees
in his Fifth avenue palace the whining
coward kissed Legree's feet and begged
for mercy. He kicked him and sneered
at his. misery. At last when ne nad tOr-
tured him to the verge of madness he
offered to spare him on one condition
that he should give him his daughter as
ransom. And he did it,
mo. the brute power Of such a man
today is beyond the grasp of the human
mind His chances for debauchery and
cruelty are limitless. The brain of his
hirellngs is put 10 the, test to invent new
crime against nature TO interest his appe-
tites. The only limit to his power Of evil
IS the capacity of the human mind TO
think, and his body to act and endure.
When he is exhausted, he can command
the knowledge and the skill of ages and
the masters of all science TO restore his
strength, while satellites lick his feet and
sing his praises
Risk the within of such a man with the
lives OF these poor people dependent on
me? No I'd sooner kill that negro you
have brought here and take my chances
I of detection"
Halliday gave up the task, returned to
| New York and sought the aid of the
! greatest labor leader in America, who
had arrived in the city from the west the
day before
''No. Halliday" he said emphatically.
Send your negro back down south. We
don't want any more Of them, or TO come
in contact with them 1 have just come
| from the west where a desperate strike
was in progress in one of Legree's mines.
Our men were toiling in the depth of the
aarth in midnight darkness, never seeing