The Glenwood post., 1910-01-29
grinding monopolies and tyrannies of


prize worth contending for in this
world is men, and all things else, all
trade, all commerce, all industry, all
government, all pleasure, that do not
contribute to the making of men, must
rest under his displeasure.
"He insists upon it that the man
side of the button machine or a mill.
or a factory, is infinitely more than
their output; that the producer is al
ways more than the product. He will
not have the spirit of a man crushed
out of him in making buttons, or pins
or shoes. He will not have the soul Of
woman drawn into the threads and
| colors of the cloth she weaves. He
will not have the laughter of little
children choked out by the atmosphere
of sweatshops or smothered by tb,
whirr of wheels.
"And because He insists upon hu-
man emancipation, because His Let
my-people- go forever rings down from
the skies, the struggle for liberty never
ends. Our fathers fought for liberty of
conscience, liberty of speech, liberty of
| worship, and they fought well. By
their tears and trials and blood they
wrung from mitered tyrants and crown
ed despots the priceless heritage of
freedom we enjoy today.
But we, their children, are unwor-
thy of them if we do not battle on.
Still God is saying, Let my people go.'
The area of liberty must be broadened.
The eternal demands emancipation in
the world of industry and trade. He
demands that the people shall not be
in bondage to trust tyrants and corpo-
ration tyrants and that the golden
chain of property and plutocracy shall
not be about their hearts and limbs
He demands that there shall be no fla
varitism shown to wealth, no sops
thrown to utility companies by truck
ling politicians, no concessions and
special privileges granted to combina-
tIons of men who have money.
He demands that no peers. or lords
or captains of finance shall be allowed
to climb into a position where they
can say imperiously to the people,
Keep off; You have no right here. ;
He demands that liberty shall expand
and crowd into every avenue and inter
est of life, as the ocean crowds into
every nook and creek and cove along
the shore.
For dividends they are made to
pinch and suffer. For dividends the
prlee of food has been put up and up.
until for great multitudes of the poor
II has become almost prohibitive For
dividends King Leopold of Belgium in
tlicted most awful cruelties along the
ongo, playing the part of royal
butcher for personal enrichment, and
for dividends fawning and cowardly
church eulogizes him at his death.
For dividends little children are
snatched away, almost from their era
dies, and compelled to stife growth
and wear out their hearts in the dust
and CRIME of factories. For dividends
human life is cheapened and neglected
and the world is excited for iay AMI
an hour over holocausts like that which
occurred recently at Cherry, Ill. For
dividends food is adulteratei and hurt.
full drugs are poured upon the public,
and vile advertisements find their wav
into our homes in the columns of the
daily newspapers.
''It is the dividend germ that is in
fecting our social and political and
business life. and dividends are only
another name for property.
Our laws and our courts protect
the saloon and the brewery because
they are property, but for the home
that is shadowed, for the mothers
heart that is broken, for the lives that
are ruined by the rum traffic, thew
seem to have little concern, because
lives are only people.
what officer of the law, what po-
lice magistrate, ever disturbs the slay-
ers of virtue and the assassins of char.
acter in the redlight district of the
city where the young and innocent arc
dragged down to hell?
Let the mills of impurity and
prostitution, where souls are blasted
and ruined, grind on. But suppose
that any man or woman, or any set of
men or women. were to open up mills
for the manufacture of bombs and ex.
plosives and implements with the de.
liberate purpose of using them to blow
up buildings and banks and stores, how
long do You think they would be toler-
aed? Not for single day.
"Thus in what we call our civilized