Middletown transcript., 1905-05-27
A FIGHT FOR FREEDOM

0HSdSeu Is d HStiJ 1OI pidOO nhu
a fight against project of plum
der; but it is far, far more than
this.
"It is planned upon no narrow
lines; it has no sord j. motives;
it has aims and purposes which
reach outward to the most
sacred rights possessed by
American citizens. tits, in fact,
contest for liberty, not less
serious, not less important,
though it be made within the
confines of a single town, than
the battles fought for freedom
by our ancestors in England
against their king, and by our
ancestors in this country against
another tyrant.
"What our fathers strove for
in the old time was the right to
govern themselves; and precisely
that is what we are striving for.
The only difference is that while
their conflict had the kind of dig
nifty that was given by the lawful
kingship of their antagonists,
our battle, just as righteous and
just as necessary, must be made
in the filth, with brigands who
have no more right to control our
affairs than they have to rule
Mexico.
"Thus it is only an incident OF
the fight that certain offices are
at stake; it is just an accident
that gas works lease has been
made a strenuous issue. The
essential matter is that evil men
have usurped our government
and bound us hand and foot that
they may plunder US. It is to
break this shameful bond that
the war is made.
ut is the peoples money that
lies in the Treasury; but the Gang
says: You shall not spend it.
We and our creatures will
squander and scatter it as we
please.
"It is the peoples offices
through which the business of
the city is conducted; but the
Gang says: 'They are our offices,
filed with our servants, and they
will obey US, not the people who
pay the salaries.
"The police force, in truth, be-
longs to the citizens; but the
Gang says: No, the policemen
belong to US, they will do as we
say; they will not protect citizens
if the theft and the harlot need
their protection first.
''The ballot-box is the very
citadel of free government; it is
the heart of the Republican sys-
tenn; but the Gang says: we con-
troll that The election officers
are ours; our creatures fill the
assessors lists with fraudulent
names; we have gangs Of Salters
who make the Republican ballot
box contemplate and ridiculous.
'The men who sit in the Coun-
ellis chambers are in theory the
representatives of the people.
No, says the Gang, they are
our representatives. What we
order, they do. We own the
complete outfit, with fifteen or
twenty exceptions
"Also, when we turn to the
State Legislature, we find the
Gang and it's leaders all-power.
full there when we hold out our
hands to the Governor, we find
him too busy to look at US he is
signing a bill for Quay statue,
or an act to clinch the Machine S
hold upon this afflicted city. The
Organization controls the United
States Senator, and, through
him, the Federal patronage. 1t
has even gone so far as to put
its instruments upon the bench,
so that the citizen who is in pur.
suit Of justice must walk circum'
specify when he seeks a court ir
which to bring his cause.
eff some one with prophetic
vision, in 1875, could have fore
seen and foretold to the men who
were signing their names to
great cry for liberty, that the
people of Philadelphia, in little
more than a. hundred years
would be thus enslaved, he would
have been heard with derision.
1We shall be unworthy to cal
those great men our fathers, ant
unworthy the magnificent heri
tage we have from them, if VIZ
do not fight to the death the vul
gar and insolent usurpers wht
have~dared to try to make them
selves our masters. tits alnlos
impossible they should win il
such a struggle /; but if that
indeed. should be, free govern