Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1900-1909, 1904-12-06
AN APPEAL TO THE PATRIO=
TIC PEOPLE OF OREGON.
{BY GEN. T. J. THORP.


in the interest of the propaganda
of any pc itical party. Neither
is it made with any hope of arous-
ing to action any citizen whose
highest conception of American
citizenship is satisfied by slavlsh
obedience to the mandates OF a
political boss.
Patric tic citizens and patriotic
orders, however, will take some
decided and prompt action for al
resting the purposes of those cor
porations which the Inter State
Commerce Commission has de-
cared to be ungovernable by any
code of laws found in the stat
utes of tie Federal Government.
It is believed that remedy
sufficiently drastic, will be found
in the following address, which
sets forth the reasons and neces-
sity for it now that the whole
power Of the government has
ignominiously failed to restrain
the unlawful and overt acts of the
chartered corporations of the
United States.
OUR APPEAL:
The organic law Of nation
may ordain and establish politi-
cal liberty-liberty of its citizens
to prosecute their chosen calling
under just rules of action.
The government of such a ma
tion may write its statutes and
enact its laws in harmony with
the provisions of its organic pow
ers and provide for freedom of
speech, press and action, and yet
rule race OF slaves.
Ihv process ut cnslaving any
Eace or class ui men, outside OF
ronqu4sl by the SWORD, IS, and ever
has been, bv the slow and aggres-
sive action Of some power work
ing SUI j'avoc with the right, Of
the comnnon people.
The nations which for centur-
les ruled the countries of the
Mediterranean, in the fullness of
sime, nullited the rights of the
private citizen whose liberty fin-
ally became absorbed in the pre-
negatives of some favored chief or
prince through special grants OF
franchises in the public domain.
With those grants came the pow
er and authority to rule and gov
ern those franchises in the inter-
est of the favorite proprietor.
This is the origin OF patrician
Nobllity under the Roman En-
pire. This is the origin of the
nobility OF continental Europe.
This is tie origin of every sp1cies
of European oppression in an
cient or modern times. This is
origin of the castles and classes of
European citizenship. Royal
grants of franchises to private in
.}ividuals have made a race of
dependent citizens in India and
~ every Oriental state.
Nor mas the form of govern
ment in any manner modified the
aisor OF that dependency, ranging
from the distinguishing type of
abject slavery to the condition of
labor for the miserable colnpen-
satiou of precarious supply of
even the most common necessa-
1ies of life.
RepuhHCS as wei as monarch.
les may < cate C.,.>es> OF CitiZeus
by graIuls trauCG!-eS to coIpJT-
ations organized by men of
wealth to whom are granted
charters as tyranical and arbitra-
~ in their application and in
their administration as the char
tiers Of King George III. Under
such charle-s the railway corpo-
rations cf tie United States have
made combinations with no high
er motive than the spoliatlon of
every citizen of this Republic
who is engaged in any legitimate
business, or in developing any of
the natural resources of the state.
Railway transportation and
freight rates are 50 manipulated
under charters that only those
who are stockholders, or are 9TH
erwise interested in such railways
can receive reasonable and fair
commercial treatment.
A pirate upon the high-seas
- l. y