The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-10

,nan to labor and live on. If for the encouragem of industry we allow 1t to be appropriated. we must take vided to those excluded from the ap- nropriation. If we do not. the funda- poentaI right to labor the earth re- turns to the unemployed.
 I can not bring myself to believe that if yvas ever Gods intention, or that 1t was ever just, for any portion of the human race to deprive other portions par the earth" or, in lieu thereof, to he nroyided with other liberty to work. Idle land which no man Is permitted fo work idle hands which are not all lowed to work. form an na indictment ,t result in a verdict of guilty before any impartial jury Of intelligent thinkers.
 MT. Jefferson further said, The earth belongs in usufruct to the living; the dead have neither right nor dominion
 one of the evils of our system is that the living can transmit a monopoly to their descendantS. and thus the grip of the dead is never loosened.
 Tn considering the labor question, we should not lose sight of the fact that our working classes have had much to endure. Those who know something of the horror of their conditions in the Pennsylvania coal fields, for example, as shown in Congressional investiga- tions. can well understand their point of view. In many. cases they have been goaded to madness by hardships, brataltiss tsnd wnioh rhs human man tuaI slavery which exists in many mine is no secret The despotic con- trol which employers exert over em- ployes in many neids Of labor de. freedom, and amounts to a systematic serfdom. These men have been mocked my many a pledge and promise. Many a politician has ridden into office as their especial representative and advo cate, only to bring disappointment and despair to those who trusted him. Time and again national platforms have promised abolition of sweatshops and unreasonable hours of labor. Sweat shops have not been abolished and un- reasonable hours of labor are much too common. In spite of all this talk of general prosperity, I deny that 1t ex- ists. The mass of the people have no crowded with human driftwood, the floating wrecks beaten to pieces in the great storm of life. Into noisome tene- ments they are huddled in such num- | bers 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 ten- ement. Such places are nothing less  very life of the nation.
 | Upon the one hand we have the young l men and young women Of the excess ively rich, giving their lives to pleas | ure, to sensualism which does nor 1 even wear mask.
 I Upon the other hand, we have the boys and girls of the excessively poor,
 growing up under conditions which make unblushing immortality a matter | of course The rapid increase of this class is appalling. What is to be done about 1t? Does such problem enlist
 no interest from those who frame laws
 be any problem more important?
 The vast majority of the human | wreckage which cumbers the
 cities results from bad laws
 men and these women at some time 1T
 their lives made earnest, honest of l forts to sustain themselves by work
 As a rule, they were simply knocked
 down and knocked out by stronger mer
 and stronger women in the fierce bat tie of existence. Hard work, smal | wages, a spell of sickness--then ruin
 How often is that the life story in tht short and simple annals of the poor
 Tens of thousands of these wretche' are the victims of swindling stock Is
 sues. worthles paper which they bough becaue ]. P. Morgan or H. H. Rogers
 or some other king of finance. wa; l known to be engineering the deal Other thousands are the frozen ou
 weaklings of some railroad -reorgani | zation, or some manipulation of stocks and bonds by the majority holders Other thousands are men who laboret for bare subsistence until old age came
 and then were turned out to shift foi | themselves. Mans inhumanity to mar is at the bottom of most of the trouble
 and the law itself has wrought much | of this havoc by arming favored indi' | Viduals and corporations with specia powers which become resistless weap
 ons in their hands against their fellow | man.
 1t was the power of special privilege
 given to the national bankers by Con | gress, which had put them in position 1 to create the panic of 1893. If H his | tory could be written of the inception of that convulsion. the base motives o
 those who brought it about, and tn, awful cruelty with which it. smote 1t, | victims, the world would shudder a
 the revelation. It was a cold -blooded l preconceived crime; 1t darkened man, l homes: 1t wrecked many life. and |
 was the legitimate offspring of class | legislation.
 ed itself because 1t had no money. Th' | parents put their little ones to death | and died with them. rather than sinl
 into the hell of vice and crime anC | misery which yawns for the man oI
 woman who can get no work. Thii | case was but one of thousand. Doe! | 1t deserve no attention from rulers ant
 lawmakers? Is 1t beneath the notic'
 
 cur all the odium which may come tt l me from making the statement that | social and political system under whicl such awful tragedies are of constan
 occurrence is profoundly unrighteous | is internally wrong.
 | There is absolutely no reason why
 our laws should not be so reformed al
 to bring about a more equitable dis | tributiOn of the good things of life; n,
 reason why the individual man or wo
 man. able to work and willing tt
 work, should not always find 1t, at { l fair wage; no reason under the sur | why the reign of privilege may not b, | brought to an end.
 Almost every III which now anlicti
 the body polite can be traced to iti
 ment, instituted for public purposes
 has been prostituted to private pur | poses: and that is the true secret o
 most of our troubles.
 It is today more apparent than i'
 ever was before that combined capita
 that union labor must be crushed The very spirit now actuates the Pullman | Car Company, the harvester trust com l panies, and similar considerations oi l capital. which moved the British Par l liament centuries. ago when it punish. l crime. Not only did the capitalism oi | that day deny labor6rs the right tc | form unions but a low scale of wages was prescribed, and the workman whc
 refused to work at the stated price
 was punishable by law as a criminal Having thus enacted legislation which | created poverty. there was only one
 more step to take. and they took it. | they made poverty crime The | moneyless man who could not pay his
 debts rotted in prison. The hungry
 man who begged for something to cal was hung During the reign of Henry