St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1903-06-27

81
''strike for your affairs and your fires,
Strike for the green graves Of your sires.
Strike until the last armed foe expires"
used to speak that speech, and
when l got to that part which said,
'sThey come-they come-the Greek
the Creek" put on martial agony
and elevated my voice and shook the
floor. thought of all this the other
day when I read about the strikers
in Atlanta going to Mr.. Byrd's pub
fishing house and trying to seduce
his nonunion printers to leave him.
His partner, Tom Lyon, showed fight
and used some cuss words and drove
them off, and they had him arrested
and the recorder fined him for dis
turbing the public tranquility, but il
had been the recorder would have
excused Tom.
This thing has come home to me
At last, for Mr.. Byrd is printing .
book for me and can't get copy,
and am fighting mad about it. The
striking interlopers get all his print
ers away but two or three, and the
rascals hung around the back door
all that Tom could do was to watch
them and exclaim: ''They come they
come-the Greek-the Creek" But
Tom is game and says he will whip
the fight and have some books for
me by the last of the week. The
first edition has all been sold and the
second is in the press and has been
delayed and enfiladed and barricaded
and paralyzed by these contempti-
BILE strikers, and il there ever was q
justifable excuse for using cuss
words man ought to he hired to
stand at the back door and cuss 'em
by the day as fast as they came.
I've no patience with these strikers
and less with their leaders. One Of
my boys has just established tele-
phone plant in Houston, Tex, and
had about 40 girls employed at good
wages when suddenly some interlop-
ers came and made them all strike
and he hired others to take their
places and the interlopers went round
to all his patrons and tried to get
up boycott, but failed. The rich
Mr.. Huntington is the chief owner
and he telegraphed my boy to whip
that fight regardless of expense, and
he has whipped it. Last year ut Day
ton, O., big-hearted rich man estab-
lished q cash register plant and had
200 girls employed and he cared for
them just like they were his chill
dren, and had bath rooms on every
floor and hot and cold water, and
mirrors and soap and towels. so that
they could battle and clean up before
they went home and the girls were
contented and happy, for all this was
no part Of the contract, but some
interlopers came along and ordered
q strike because some poor old wom-
en- who did not belong to the union
had the job of washing the towels
that the girls used in their bath
rooms.
Well, now, that il one side Of the
case, but it is said every case has two
sides. The war between capital and
labor still goes on, but labor has but
little to complain of in this blessed
land. We see by the papers that
these union strikers in Atlanta have
plenty of money in their treasury to
live on while they are idle and some
OF them have gotten up q baseball
club and are having good time gem
orally. There il NO suffering here
like there was in London Is years
ago when Tom Hood wrote the song
OF the shirt and the lay Of the la
borer. 1t would make an angel weep
to read that poor woman's song:
"For Its work. work. work-my labor never
flags.
And what are its wases-a bed Of straw,
A crust Of bread and rags.
This shattered roof, this naked door, q
table, broken chair,
And wall so blank. my shadow Ithank
For sometimes falling there"
Her sad song aroused all London,
but there was no strike. Our own
George Peabody was there in the
banking business and it aroused him.
Immediately he bought the ground in
the suburbs and spent $2,000,000 in
building cottages for the poor. Nice
cottages, with bathrooms and hot
end cold water and flowers in the
front yard and vines over the door,
and paid the taxes and charged only
e. little, nominal sum for rent, just
enough to keep up the repairs, and in
less than year he had comfortable
homes for over 10000 people. That's
the kind Of philanthropy.
Our wisest statesmen ask for an
income tax as they have in England,
and it is based on that principle that
the more man accumulates the
heavier his tax should be-a gradual
ed income tax-and so il he has piled
up $4,000, 900 in year, take half of
it for tax. This would stop Rockefel-
Ter and Morgan and Cornegie and the
surplus would be, as Bob Toombs
said, Poured back in the Jug" 1t il
no great honor to man to give
good part of his profits to charity. It
is surprise and that Is all. Men
forget that all they have got is but
q loan and sooner or later they give
in all up and pay the debt.-Bi Arp.
in Atlanta Constitution.