Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1907-02-19

which face its eastern wall, he Won
ldered in which particular mansion
had been Matched this wicked, IN
iquitous plot against wholly blame
less American citizen. Here, She
| thought, were the citadels Of the
plntocrats, Americas aristocracy of
money, the strongholds of her coal.
railroad. oil, gas and ice barons, the
castles Of her monarchs Of steel, cop.
per, and finance. Each of these
million-dollar residences, he pondersd.
was filled from celler to roof with
costly furnishings, MASTERPIECES of
painting and sculpture, priceless art
treasures Of all kinds purchased in
every corner of the globe with the
gold filched from Trust-ridden peo-
pie. For every stone in those mar
BILE halls a human being, other than
the owner had been sold into bond
| age, for each of these magnificent
edfices, which the plutocrat put uD,
in his pride only to occupy 1t two
months in the year, ten thousand
American men, women and children
had starved and sorrowed. III
| Europe, thought Jefferson as he
strobe quickly along, pointed with
envy to Americas unparalleled pros
perity, spoke with bated breath Of
her great fortunes Rather should
they say her gigantic robberies, her
colossal frauds! AS a nation wa
were not proud of our multimillionI-
aires. How many of them would bear
the search-light of investigation?
| Would his own father? How many
millions could one man make by hon
est methods? America was enjoying
unprecedented property, not because
of her millionaires. but in spite Of j
them. The United States owed it's
high rank in the family Of nations tor
the country's vast natural resources.
its inexhaustible vitality, it's great
wheat fields, the industrial and me-s
chanical genius Of it people. 1t was
the plain American citizen who had
made the greatness Of America, not
the millionaires who, forming class
by themselves Of interruptions
capitalists, had created an arrogant
oligachy which sought to rule the
country by corrupting the legislature
and the Judiciary. The plutocrats-
these were the leeches the sores in
the body polite. An organized band
of robbers, they had succeeded in
dominating legislation and in secur-
ing control of every bench of the ma
TONS industry, crushing n1ercilessly
and illegally all competition. They
were the Money Power, and such a
menace were they to the welfare OF
the people that, it had been esti-
mated, twenty men in Aemerica had
it in their power, by reason of the
vast wealth which ihey controlled, 10
come togethe, and within twenty-fonr
hours arrive at an understanding by
which every wheel OF trade and COM
merce would be stopped from revoly-
| ing, every avenue Of trade blocked
and every electric key struck dumb.
Those twenty men could paralyze the
whole country, for they controlled the
circulation of the currency. and could
create panic whenever they might
choose. 1t was the rapaciousness and
Unsuitable greed of these plutocrats
that had forced the toilers to combine
for self-protection, resulting in the
organization of the Labor Unions
which, in time, became almost os
1 tyrannical and unreasonable as the
bosses And the breach between
capital on the one hand and labor on
the other was widening daily, masters
and servants snarling over wages and
hours, the quarrel ever increasing in
bitterness and acrimony until one day
the extreme limit of patience would
be reached and industrial strikes
would give place to bloody violence.
] Meantime the plutocrat, wholly cares.
less of the significant signs Of ths
times and the growing irritation and
resentment Of the people, continued
their illegal practices, soothing at pub
lie opinion, swapping their fingers at
the law, even going so. far in their
insolence as to mock and jibe at the
president Of the United States. Feel
ing secure in long immunity and act,l-
ally protected in their wrong doing by
the courts-the legal machinery by its
very elaborateness defeating the ends
LOT justice-the Trusts kings impu-
IDENTIFY defied the country and tried
Il impose their own will upon the peo-
pie. History had nus repeated it.
self. The armed feudalism of the mid
i die ages had been succeeded In
twentieth century America by the
j tyranny of capital.
CONTINUED In next issue.)