The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1903-09-07


society is the Spectator, gambler and
schemer, who are the favored ones.
They have ridden on the backs of the
men with hoes so long that they regard
it as a divine right, hence their hue and
cry against the trade union.
Don't understand that / mean to assail
all employers of labor. No, indeed, there
are thousands of broad-minded men who
are generous to fault in their treas-
ment of their employees.
In teaching men that an injury to ore
is the concern of all is to teach men
the spirit of altruism. that the interests
of all are greater than the interests of
one. To teach men that they do live for
themselves alone, that the most miser-
able man in all the world is he that
lives for himself and that the happiest
man is the man who gets as far away
as possible from himself. That this spir-
it has been fostered by the trade union
can not be gainsaid.
The splendid heroism displayed by the
men who lay down their tools, not for
themselves, but for others, coupled with
the self-sacrificing spirit of the man
who fails to draw his strike pay, that
it may go to keep in line his weaker
comrade has no parallel in history.
1t was not many years ago when free
labor was unknown. when the laborer
who asked for little more wages vas
branded with a red hot iron on the fore
head with the letter or meaning
the lash was the answer to every appeal
for justice and mercy. That conditions
have changed is not fault of the Parrys
and the Baers.
NO POLITICAL CREEDS.
From the earliest times philosophers
have sung of the time to come, when
manhood, not dollars, should be the
badge of nobility. When the spirit of
commercialism should give way to the
spirit of humanity, when the
brotherhood of man should be the NOV
ing ideal of every nation.
How can we do our part toward
bringing about this consumation for our
selves, is the question that confronts
the human race. That force has failed
to do it is manifest. 1t is. rather by
the fostering of corruption, jealousy and
distrust that this spirit of altruism has
so long been held in check.
There are various schools of political
thought, who appeal to the workers
claiming that allegiance to their doc
trines will prove a solution of all the Ills
of the Man with the Hoe"
The Republicans come forward with a
protective tariff, which. while it keeps
out foreign goods and protects the man
ufacturers, leaves the doors open to
cheap labor that completes with our wage
worker The Democrats stand for a tar
iff for revenue only and an enlarged
currency.
The Socialist advocates collective own
ership of all the means of production
and distribution, claiming that the man
who owns the machine can always die
tate terms to the wage worker, who OPP
crates the machine: that our industrial
and national life should be shaped with
view to making better men, rather
than profits. They claim that COMPETE
ton among capitalists is dead and that
in the trust we have socialism for pri-
waite gain
The Single Taxer believes in free and
unrestricted competition. That under
our present laws that tends to favor1t-
claim is that if land was taxed to its
full rental value speculation in land
would cease and every man could live
by having access to the land; that the
values made by the public in the shape
of unearned increment that now go into
the pockets of the Spectator to enrich
him Ca value that he has not earned ana
has no right tol would go into the peck
cts of the people. IA
The Populist believes in an enlarged
currency issued directly to the people
without the Intervention of banks; in
the government performing all govern
mental functions; government owner
ship of railways, etc. and in the mu-
nicipilization of all public utilities.
All these political creeds are repre-
scented in our organization. and as yet
they differ greatly on political action
Yet we all agree on some common prop
ositions; the most essential and funda-
mental of all being the movement for
shorter hours. When DR.. Arnold
Oknown as the great schoolmaster of
Rugby school was asked what he in
tended to make of his boys, is said to
have replied: Il am going to teacn
them to think" Now there is not
university in the land that can do more
than this Some three years ago
teamster came to my house with load
of coal I said to him joldngly, Now
l suppose I am contributing about LOO
on this load to the coal trust" and the
man did not seem to understand. so
thought 1 would try and reach him
about the meat trust. don't you? You
know that the trust is forcing you to
pay more now than formerly for meat?"
mo" he replied, my wife nor family
have not tasted meat nor butter for six
weeks" well" 1 said, don't you read
the papers?" He said NO" my wages
are only $500 per week and / have
large family and can not afford to buy
papers and if I could L cannot spare the
team out of the barn a little after six
in the morning and 1 don't get home at
night till 8 or 8 o'clock, and then / go
to bed"
MY friends. that man is a type of
thousands in our land today. He is SIM
ply an animal He goes home and rolls
into bed, tired out. taking but little in
terest in his children, his home nor the
beauties of nature have but little at
him whether there are carpets or sand
on the floor. The politician about cleo
ton time can buy his vote with a
cigar. What matters it to him who is in