Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1904-11-02

government makes q bond out Of rags
and allows the banker to issue rag notes
on the rag bonds. What children we are,
after all! Some men go around in men
tai swaddl!ng clothes all the days OF
their blessed lives.
The peoples party favors the public
ownership of public utilities. In nearly
every civilized country the government
owns the railways, the telegraphs and
the telephones. The last two should be
a part of our post Office system, towhich
should be added the parcel post, to free
our people from the extortionate charges
OF the express companies.
The peoples party has always earnest
ly advocated the graduated income tax.
This would not only throw the support
of the government upon the rich, where
1t should be, but would, in great meas
ure, prevent the accumulation of huge,
unnecessary and dangerous fortunes.
We favor the eight-hour law, and the
abolition of child labor in factories,
where the unhealthy moral and physical
conditions are almost certain to destroy
the child We believe it to be part of
mans natural liberty and equality to
labor for himself and not for a master,
and that the laws should be so framed
that there should be no monopoly of the
land for either the living or the dead.
In Memory of Gunsaulus.
Recently we have heard the insiduous
voice Of those who tell us that man is
not born free, but most earn his free
dom" This pernicious and false state
ment comes from one of those million
aire colleges where opinions are Gen.
sored, just as books are censored for the
Carnegie libraries.
Upon this subject Mr.. Jefferson said
that 'The God who gave us life gave us
liberty at the same time" He also an
nounced, as principle, that THE earth
is given as a common stock for man to
labor and live on. If for the encourage
ment of industry we allow it to be appro-
priated, we must take care that other
employment be provided to those ex-
cluded from the appropriation. If we
do not, the fundamental right to labor
the earth returns to the unemployed -
To this doctrine heartily subscribe.
I cannot bring myself to believe that it
was ever Gods intention, or that it was
ever Just, for any portion of the human
race to deprive other portions of that
race of the opportunity ito labor the
earth,'' or in lieu tho eof. to be pro-
vided aoith other liberty to 1oork. Idle
land auhich no man is permitted to
aU0rk, idle hands aOhich are not Gll0,0ed
to 1UorE. form an indictment against
any ruling class quhich ;Dil' result in
a verdict of guilty before any impair
tiaz jury of intelligent thinkers.
Mr.. Jefferson further said "The earth
belongs in usufruct to the living; the
dead have neither right nor dominion
over it,
One of the evils of our system is that
the living can transmit monopoly to
their descendants, and thus the grip of
the dead is never loosened.
Labor Deceived and Knocked by
Politicians.
In considering the labor question, we
should not loss sight of the fact that our
working classes have had much to en-
dure. Those who know something OF
the horror of their condition in the Penn
sylvania coal fields, for example, as
shown in congressional Investigations
can we'll understand their point of view.
madness by hardships, brutalities, op-
VI CS0IOA, " ulSu MAUI CoA11oh
always stand. The virtual slavery which
exists in many mine is no secret. The
despotic control which employers exert
over employees in many fields of labor
deprives the laborer of any real political
serfdom. These men have been Knocked
by many a pledge and promise. Many
a politician has ridden into Office as their
ocrooio1 rorrocorfoffuo or1 o1vNoo q
only to bring disappointment and de-
spair to those who trusted him. Time
and again national platforms have prom
Used abolition of sweat-shops and un-
reasonable hours of labor Sweat-shops
have not been abolished and unreason-
able hours of labor are much too COM
mon. In spite of all this talk of general
prosperity, deny it exists. The mass
of the people have no surplus money. All
our large cities are crowded with human
drift-wood. the floating wrecks beaten
to pieces in the great storm of life. Into
noisome tenements they are huddled in
such numbers and under such conditions
that morality becomes an impossibility
The evil influence of these dens of filth
and vice does not confine itself to the
immediate occupants of the tenement
Such places are nothing less than can
GERS, eating their way into the very life
of the nation.
Upon the one hand we have the young
men and young women of the excessive
ly rich. giving their lives to pleasure, to
a sensualism which does not even wear
a mask.
Upon the other hand we have the boys
and girls Of the excessively poor. grow
ing up under conditions which make un-
blushing immortality matter of course
The rapid increase of this class Is appall-
ing What is to be done about It? Does
such a problem enlist no interest from
those who frame laws and direct the
government? Can there be any prob
lem more important?
Mans Unhumanity to Man.
The vast majority Of the human
wreckage which encumbers the cities re.
suits from bad laws and bad government
AS rule these men and these women al
some time in their lives made earnest
honest efforts to sustain themselves by
work AS rule they were simply
knocked down and out by stronger mer
of existence. Hard work, small wages
often is that the life-story in the shor1
and simple annals of the poor. Tens Of
thousands of these wretches are the vic.
tins of swindling stock issues, worthless
paper, which they bought because J. P
Morgan or H. H. Rogers, or some Other
king of finance, was known to be en-
cheering the DEAL
Other thousands are the frozen out
weaklings of some railroad reorganiZa'
ton, or some manipulation Of stocks ant
bonds by the majority holders. Other
thousands are men who labored for bare
subsistence until old age came and ther
were turned out to shift for themselves
Mans inhumanity to man is at the bot.