The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1902-10-03
DEMOCRATIC NOMINEES.
INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS.

The strike Of the anthracite coal
miners; their heroic struggle for their
individual rights, against the over
whelming odds of corporate greed and
power, is attracting the thoughttul
consideration of men and newspapers
every where.
We read every day similar express
sions to these:
The lawlessness now prevailing IN
the anthracite regions of Pennsylvania
is a disgrace to the country.
The report of the stoning OF a Penn
sylyania railroad train loaded with
workmen, published today, ought, to
set every citizen who believes in law
and order to thinking. 80 Whether
the operators or the miners are at
fault in the present unfortunate con-
troyersy. is neither here nor there.
Doubtless both are subject to legitl-
mate criticism, but the principle that
men who desire to work shall be al
lowed to fulfill their desires Is as
sacred as the ark OF the covenant.
No one will controvert these say
. ,ngs No one can. But all this and
more may be said and admitted, and
vet not begin to satisfy the cry OF the
hungry miner for meat and bread for
himself and his starving wife and
children.
There is no use prating and preach
ing moral or legal ethics to densely
ignorant, grossly depraved and hungry
men. And especially so when they
are not altogether in the wrong.
These men, nearly all of them. came
from foreign shores to this; lured here
by fairy tales of a land Of freedom, flow
ing with milk and honey imported
by the hired agents Of large corpora
tions, contrary to law, to compete with
home labor. They were told OF how
American wages double and tripled
and quadrupled the wages OF other
counties, but they were not tolo how
the cost of living here was proportion
ately even greater.
Goaded by the intolerable conditions
of the old countries and lured by false
promises and deceptive hopes OF the
new, they came; and now that they
are here, speaking strange tongue in
a strange land; looking upon their
little cot in the coal regions as their
home knowing nowhere else to CO.
nor anything else to do, is it unreason-
able or unnatural or strange, thar
when their masters-their Unsuitable,
CREEPY masters, whom by their sweat
and toll they have made rich; these
masters. rolling in luxurious wealth,
and who squaDdeI upon one social func-
ton more than miners family VIII
spend in year aye, in life tlme'
some of them; these masters who
with fair promises lured them from
the land of their birth; is it strange,
when these masters turn them out to
starve, that they should stand and
fight for-self preservation?
OF course other men have right TO
work. But with these miners their job
is their living. 1t is their meat and
bread. 1t is all that stands between
them and starvation. This country,
its people and its language is all new
and strange to them. All they know
about this country is the job they
have. Other men have right to
work; of course! But having brought
them there, have their masters now
the right to bring others there to take
their bare, meagre, only means OF Hv-
ing from them2
There may be some element OF right
and wrong on both sides. But 1t is
not question of right and wrong. 1t
is question of money getting on one
slde and bread getting on the other;
a question of greed VS.. hunger.
And who can best yield the point,
the insatiate gold glutton, or the
desperate stranger struggling for lifeS
What cares the shipwrecked mariner
whose plank it is on which he floats ;
what cares he for the nice point OF
law as to ownership He will fight
for its possession with his life. And
no it is with these Ignorant miners
when others come to take their places
from them.
1t is a condition, forced upon the
country by the averice, greed and
heartlessness of soulless corporations,
that compels conservative men to sym
pathize with those they might other
wise condemn, and to question in
their own minds whether or not under
some circumstances the laborer has not
vested right in equity upon the job
he holds, which his employer is, or
should be, bound to respect.
IL the republicans would redeem