East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1906-04-25
The Anti-Slavery Move
ment Repeated

Joseph Wanhope, a noted socialist
lecturer who is now on the Pacific
coast, recently addressed an audience
of 5000 in Denver. ON the subject of
capitalism and wage slavery and In
reviewing the far-reachlng causes
which brought about the Coeur
dAlene strikes, the subsequent mur-
der OF Ex-Governor Steunenberg and
the more recent imprisonment of
Meyer, Pettlbone and Haywood, offic-
ials of the Western Federation of
Miners, on charge of conspiracy in
the murder of Steunenberg, Mr.. Wan
hope said:
"a few months ago | stood in the
old state house in Boston. In one of
the glass cases an ancient looking
handful attracted my attention on
the top 1t bore the legend one Hun
dred Dollars Reward The contents
disclosed the fact that in the year
1885 certain John Thompson had
been proclaiming publicly in the
streets of Boston that it was unjust,
immoral and criminal for one man to
own another, just because that other
happened to be encased in black
skin instead of a white one.
This revolutionary doctrine at
tracted the attention of several right
thinking prominent. wealthy and pat
riotic citizens of Boston, and the
handbill referred to. which offered
500 reward to anyone who would tar
and feather Thompson, was circulated
by them.
give years after this, two other
citizens of Boston repeated the crime
of Thompson. Their names were
Wendell Phillips and Lloyd Garrison.
The right-thinking people, the sane
and safe" citizens then, determined to
suppress them and hired mob for
that purpose. The two men were
caught. dragged through the streets
with halter around their necks, sub
jected to the blows. taunts and in
suits of the mob, and narrowly escap-
ed with their lives.
"rhe cause for which Charles Meyer
and William Haywood now stand
under the shadow of the gallows is
marching with irresistible power to
an ineXorable end, to the destruction
of the capitalist system and the eman.
cipation of the workers of the world
fIonl the thraldom of slaveryit i'm.
poses on them.
Great as was the cause for which
Garrison and Phillips suffered in tn,
olden days the cause for which Moyel
and Haywood are now suffering is in
finitely greater. It exceeds it as 3
universal worldwide wage slavery ex
ceeds local and limited chattel slavery
Socialism means economic freedom
not only to the people of one state o.
nation, hut to all the toilers through
ont the whole world.
"FIad Meyer and Haywood poison
ed 10000 of their countrymen wit
embalmed beef, sweated the Iabo
of helpless women and little childre
with starvation wages, grabbed tn
assets of insurance companies an
swind'ed the widows and orphans q
| the workers. cornered the food suppl
of the country, corrupted legislatures
p bribed judges and debauched the pub
lie life of the community what height
of respectable infamy might they nc
have attained to. what pinnacles G
y sanctimonious scoundreism Nigh
= they not have reached?
? "They might now have been enjoy
G ing the immunity of Rockefeller
They might repeat in the law coul
the insolence of a Rogers. The
S might have treated public opinion
with the contempt of a Baer or Var
q derbit."