Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1903-01-31
w I, Mock
Temperanceville, Va.
January %, 1903.

~ ASOC'
Editor MISREPRESENTATION reading
accounts OF the manifestations OF
greed and avarice displayed by some
OF the coal officials OF this country, |
feel that every true American is full
ly jus tilted in showing a spirit of in
dignation. We call our country the
"land of liberty" but doesn't this
expression carry with it the bitterest
irony to the recent sufferers from our
coal famine? And isn't this irony in
tensified when we consider that mer-
CHESS corporations have been with
holding from these sufferers thous-
ands OF cars OF coal in order to en-
rich Themselves
l welcome the day when the courts
of our land will takes rigid measures
to crush this spirit OF despotism. |
say despotism; the guilty ones, doubt
less, call it liberty. And just here, it
may be said, there are perhaps but
few words in our popular vocabulary
which carry with them more con-
fusion of thought than this magic
word, liberty. Indeed, each Ameri-
can has his own, vague definition of
it. And many of these mere hazy
conceptions are as difficult to har-
monte with each other as is the per
picking doctrine of the scheme OF
Necessity" with mans free agency.
In the light of this, we need pot be
surprised to see the word used by the
officials of the most despotic syndi-
Gates and corporations as weapon
Of defense against the just indigna-
tion Of wronged people. Whenever
efforts are being made to hold in
check the continual formation and
development of power Of the most
DANCE rous syndicates and trusts,
with the view OF protecting our peo-
Pile from the cruel despotism of greed
and avarice, we are held at bay with
the sophistry; that nothing can be
done to prevent their formation, or
| to limit their controlling power, with
out the sacrifice of civil liberty"
This absurdity can be answered
with one question. When the So
cal ed liberty of syndicate is clear
ly seen to antagonize, or cripple that
Of the entire nation, which should
be sacrificed?
Why shall we "strain at gnat and
swallow q came?n 1t is indeed time
that our people should awaken to a
full apprehension of the perils Of our
rights, and gu ard them against the
invasion of these arbitrary, remorse-
less organizations which have
neither bodies to be kicked, nor
souls to be damned"
Since the assassination of Presi
dent Mckinley the whole country
has been more or less exercised over
the intricate problem of the extermi.
nation of anarchy in the United
States. The problem of this menace,
however, is likely to remain unsolved
so long as the great pendulum Of our
politics is allowed to swing so far in
| tho ppDOsita diraction
We are aware that many political
economists hold that labor and CAPT
tai must go hand in hand, that each
is dependant upon the other, that
therefore, there should be no con-
flict between them, as mutual an
tagonism is only detrimental to both.
This argument, doubtless, holds good
when the law of demand and supply,
regulated by the conservatism oil
competition, decides the market
v.lue of our produce. But when APP
piled to the present conditions OF our
country, where competition oforgan-
izatians is swallowed up in arbitrary
trusts and the natural laws OF de-
mand and supply are annihilated
the argument is involved in cob
web OF ENHANCEMENT. And this en-
clement is not easily unravelled SC
long as honest business is converted
into legalized, wholesale robbery.
The great statesman, Webster, In
his eulogy on Alexander Hamilton
said: "He touched the dead corpse
Of the public credit, and it rose upor
it's feet" Oh, that some mighty
statesman could now arise, and toucf
the crumbling corpse Of American