The Irish standard., 1905-05-06
A FALSE VIEW POINT.

Just now there is more real fighting
taking place in the city of Chicago
than there is in the far East or in all
Russia. We read glaring headlines
about the May Day slaughter in War.
saw and other districts and the So
called frightful condition is charged
up to the Russian government. Our
people seem to forget that we have in
this great free country of ours the
same labor troubles that are the cause
of the outbreaks in Russia. We do
not ascribe the labor troubles in Chi
cago to the tyranny of our government
but on the other hand try to make our
selves believe that they are the nat
ural results of the strife between or
ganized capital on the one hand and
organized labor on the other. In this
country we call the organized laborers
the unions, but we call the un-organ-
lied labor of Russia mobs. The whole
trouble with a large portion of the
American people in reference to the
Russian question is just this: That
they are trying to paint picture to
adorn a tale. 1t is only very recently
that we discovered so many bad
things about Russia. 1t is since the
London press commenced it's cam
paign to poison the opinion of the
American people against Russia and
in favor of Japan. The troubles ex-
listing in Russia today are labor
troubles just as the troubles existing
in Chicago are labor troubles, and we
have no more right to ascribe the con-
ditions in Warsaw to the Russian gov.
ernment than we have to ascribe those
conditions in Chicago to the United
States government. The Russian peo,
pie are making more progress than
any other people in the world today
and the Russian government has with
in the last ten days done more in the
cause of liberty and human rights
thon Great Britain has done for a
century. Russia, country where
practically all the people belong to
the Greek church, has granted to the
small minority complete religious free
dom.
1t is only little over half century
that we need to look back in order to
find Great Britain denying to 100000
900 people in Ireland the right to wor,
ship their God in their own way, and
it is still less a period since Great
Britain denied to Irishmen the right
to vote. The people of this country
should be fair and not allow them
selves to be led around by the nose
by British interests. England knows
that her interests in the far East are
threatened by Russia. She realizes
that there is potential power enough
in those 15O,00O,000 Slavs to complete
ly destroy in the near future her as
tendency in the councils of the great
nations. How long since has it become
our place and our duty to sympathize
with and aid the only nation that we
have found it absolutely necessary in
the past to fight with, first in order to
gain our liberty, and secondly to pre-.
serve it. When was it that Russia,
which came to our aid with her ships
in the Civil war, when England was
secretly aiding the South, became an
object of hatred to the American peo-
pie? Has anything transpired to
change our relations and feelings
towards Russia since the Civil war?
Nothing at all. The changed condi-
tion of public feeling is due entirely
to a campaign of falsehood carried on
by the American press at the instiga.
ton of the British press and in the
interests not so much of Japan as OF
her ally, Great Britain.