The Idaho scimitar. [volume] (Boise, Idaho) 1907-1908, 1908-02-01
THE IDAHO SCIMITAR.


days and order of the 9th of January reduced the
working week to three days. At of the
whileom busy places along the system men have been
discharged the forces being too great for even the
half-week of compensated labor.
These are distressing conditions They carry
pinching poverty into many households demonstra-
ting acutey that the fragile castle of prosperity may
be demolished in one brief day of stock exchange
manipulation.
Mr.. Mohler, the vce-president of the Union Pa
ci6c, takes advantage of the distressing depression
and places himself in the public gaze the advance
agent of republican defeat at the coming election,
unless the railroads have their way, thereby perform
ing unasked service for the opposition party. He
counts for the disaster to labor in bitter terms say
ing:
"It is this Roosevelt prosperity that makes this
step necessary and it disgusts to think that his
mania for reform should make the working class
suffer.
just as long as the administration keeps up its re-
form activity, and so | unable to say how long
it will be before the old working time and the rest
of the working force will be reinstated."
This is a distinct invitation to the victims of re-
trenchment better their condition by casting their
ballots against the representatives of the reform
tivity" upon whom this railroad places the
blame. "Retrenchment and economy mean to the
of toll idle days and barren tables and the rail
road man fixes the blame for their presence on the
acts of the administration.
AS far back as 1896 the public became accustomed
to this method of coercng the ballots of electors for
it was then that the railroad employers said to their
employees that they could expect no opportunity to
support their wives and babies unless they voted in
to power the party they advised, by infer
ence, to vote out of power, unless it yields.
Corporation consistency evidently has nothing to
do with recalctrant parties. 1t demands that the
governing forces keep their hands off while the cor
poraons exact the last tribute from the publicelse
the public will be made to suffer through the depr
walton of wages and the things that wages buy.
In 1896 reformer stepped into the arena and the
people hailed him with loud acclaim. He would
have been borne into the presidential place the
wave of sweeping victory but for the interference
of capital, represented by corporation, magnates
among whom the railroad employer, with his influ-
ence over hundreds of thousands of men, figured
spcuousy.
The evolution of time has brought the head of the
then favored political party under the dspeasure of
the important element that opposed the champion
of 1885, and for the that Democratic promises
of 1896 have become partial reality, through in
PREVENTION from unexpected source.
1t may be stated in strict compliance with the truth
that not all of the political pets of corporate power
who participated in the harvest of favor twelve years
ago endorse the policies against which this railroad
declams Very many of them will agree
with him when he attributes industrial and CONNER
cal disaster to the methods of the existing govern
ment and they deep in conspiracy to secure
a governing head who will be acceptable to Mr.. Mob
Ter and his associates.
He has therefore seized upon opportune NOM
ent in which to offer immunity from suffering to
those within reach of his voice if they will place the
seal of their disapproval upon the methods of which
he cOmnlainS