The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1909-05-06

] y
rificed their lives to destroy a system
less cruel and less despotic than the
present day American aristocracy.
Old-world monarchs do not have the
spirit OF tyranny and oppression so abb
normally developed in their royal breasts
as some of our federal judges here in
free" America, who sentence honest,
patriotic citizens to Jail for violating in
functions dictated by capitalists who are
too cowardly to wage a square combat
in the open, but who must needs appeal
to the prejudice, bigotry or cupidity of
some small-calibre lawyer whose political
pull has been the means of elevating him
to a judges bench, which by character,
conscience or breadth of intellect he
was never fitted to occupy.
The rich of our land seem content to
recline upon luxurious couches and watch
through costly plate glass windows the
cold and hungry throng as it marches
past without lifting a hand to relieve
the awful distress. 1t is a condition and
not a theory that confronts US, and men
of character, courage and determination
are required to bring about a change.
We need expect nothing from the powers
that be, under the present regime; and,
because of an absence of concerted eff y
fort the unorganized working people can
accomplish nothing in the way of relief,
so upon the shoulders of trades union
lists rests the burden of changing the sys-
TEN.
The statement is incontrovertible that
a system is all wrong when it enables
one man to rob his fellows and leave
them starving upon the highway, while
he amasses wealth of such magnitude
that should he spend million dollars
a month he would be dead long before
..- .er-Une was half gone. No sane
man viii deny that a system Is all
wrong which enables d Wall street
gambler to corner wheat, make a minicn
dollars in week, feast upon the fat OF
the land himself, feed porterhouse steaks
to his dog and give champagne dinners
to his monkeys, while thousands OF men
and women in the ever lengthening bread
lines struggle like lost souls for a stale
loaf with the forlorn hope of keeping
life in their weak and emaciated bodies
a little while longer.
The blame rests primarily, with our
lawmakers that aggregation of time
/ serving towards in Washington City
known as Senators and Congressmen-
who have sworn to support the consti-
tuition of the United States and deal i'm
partially in the performance of their
official duties. These men seem to have
no thought Of enacting laws which will
be Of the greatest benefit to the great
est number, but the measures they enact
are without variation, favorable to the
interests OF capital; and the rights of
mans creature-property-are placed
above the rights of man himself. Our
Senators and Congressman are cowards-
double cowards-first, they are afraid OF
losing their official positions; and, sec
ond, they are afraid of giving offense to
the American aristocracy-the Rookie
fellers, Morgans, Goulds, Hills, Harri-
mans, Nanderbilts, etc. Property must
/ be protected, and certain classes must
/ be allowed to pile up millions, if men
and women starve by thousands in our
/ centers of population. No law shall be
| passed giving relief to the masses. for
fear it might displease a railroad mag
nate, steel trust director, or an off
cial of the Standard Oil Company; or
1 perhaps, force the rich to bear their pro-
/ portionate share of the burdens of gov
/ enment. law is passed, ostensibly
for the purpose Of eurbing the trusts
/ yet the law is never enforced exeept to
/ persecute members of trades unions. The
| present system is all wrong, and we un-
ION men must rise in all our majesty and
accumulated power, and force a radical
/ change.
/ And how we are to do itH Not with
bullets and bayonets, as the French pa
triots did, but with our ballots, which. if
we do not too long delay, will not be
denied Us.
! Do you suppose for an instant that
Taft the father Of the injunction and
tool OF the capitalist class, could have
been elected to the presidency if every
trade unionist in America had voted
against him2 Well, hardly Every un-
ion man who cast his vote for Taft, CON
tributed just that much to continue
tlon OF the present unjust and unequal
distribution Of the worlds wealth: for.
If the party to which Taft belongs is
not the father, mother and nurse of the
trusts, corporations and combines, who
in heavens name isl
We should begin now to organize the
votes OF the workingmen for the cam
: paign of 1912, and resolve to vote for
no man and no party not pledged TO poll
cies which viii guarantee a Just and
equitable distribution Of the necessaries
Of life and an equal apportionment of
e the burdens Of taxation. In his book,
3 Universal Kinship," Howard Moore
s ------------------