The labor world. [volume] (Duluth, Minn.) 1896-current, 1905-01-28
.B|CE[OW breaches on
TAX ON HUMAN ENERGY
Text-''f Their Front Door Is
Shut, They Will Swear the
Whole World Is Warm"
Many Men Voluntarily Steal in
Order That They Make
Sure of a Prisoners Fare.

Cincinnati Ohio, Jan. 26.-At the
Vine Street Congregational church.
Herbert s. Bigelow, the pastor, took
for text Kipling's lines: "They! If
their own front door is shut, they'll
swear the whole worlds warm Mr..
Bigelow said in part:
What you want in machine is the
maximum amount of power with the
least possible waste. It is not enough
that the engine Is able to pull the load.
How much coal does it consume? How
much friction is there?
Human society is a machine that
must submit to the same test. AS to
the many triumphs of our civilization
we may agree. But what is the per-
centage of loss? What is the cost?
Nay, is it not obvious that there is
serious flaw in the work?
The past week man was arraigned
in the local police court for stealing
coal. He had no work. and his wife
and sickly daughter were suffering
with the cold. Therefore, he helped
himself to coal from railroad train.
But he was not sent to the workhOuse.
The judge said: Il don't know what I
| would do if were placed in similar
| position
1t would seem that there is some-
IuuS OuC VI OIucT Wucll L11e OcCdAOSuc
will not work. Why do we approve of
| the humanity of this judge? Is it not
| because we have vague consciousness
| that the misery which drove this
| wretch to steal is itself the conse-
| quence of other and more respectable
forms of stealing?
| We cannot condemn the judge for
suspending the moral law when we
read in the report of the Industrial
Commission of Congress this official
| statement:
| 1T cannot be long before the anthra-
cite coal business Of the United States
| in all it's enormous extent and CONNER
| cial value will be entirely monopolized
by a few powerful financial interests"
Last Monday man walked into the
police station, stated that he had stol-
en- a clothes-wringer, and asked to be
arrested. The police were incredulous
and made investigation. They found
the wringer where he said he had
hidden it, and the man got a coveted
three months sentence in the work.
house.
This same day another man came in
and requested that he be arrested.
The police sent him away. Later, he
appeared drunk. Then the prison
doors were more hospitable. The next
morning, in police court. when he was
sentenced to term in the WOrkhouse,
he turned to an officer by his side and
said with evident satisfaction: II
knew I'd get it,
In the Hammond Street station, they
| have a room, where, on these winter
nights, you may always find men lying
down on the bare floor more thickly
than they will lie in their paupe1
graves. Now and then a man applies
for shelter who has uncommonly good
clothes or gives other signs that he is
just down temporarily and may get UP
again. The officer in charge told me
that it was their custom to accord
such persons the privilege of sleeping
in one of the cells with the prisoners
That was a sublime dream of Jeffer-
sons "a Republic which should protect
every one in his rights of life, LIBERTY
and the pursuit of happiness. Yet here
are our fellow citizens in this great
Republic committing crimes that they
may earn the privilege of wearing a
felon's stripes and make sure Of a
prisoners fare.
Are We those of whom Kpling
speaks! Or have we been committing
the crime of which that great French
statesman spoke when he said
1T is not error which opposes the
progress Of truth: it is Incidence, OBJ
stlnacy, the spirit of routine, every
thing that favors inaction"?
ED.-Herbert S. Bigelow will address
the people of Duluth at Odd Fellows
Hall on Tuesday evening, February
%, 1905.