The labor journal. [volume] (Everett, Wash.) 1909-1976, 1910-03-25
THAT INNOCENT THIRD PARTY.

Every time there il strike or in
du,trial conflict 81 any great magni-
tude, large PERCENTAGE Of the daily
papers Of TIE country howl loud and
long about the innocent third party r.
the general public" Y9aW zee cartoons
Dicturnq poor Old general public getting
bIaze. batted out Of him by a giant
labeled organized labor on one side
and q giant labeled organized capital"
N the other side. Newspaper writer's
pal. oat She Ii-pa-on stop and thunder
how about the innooent general pub
.o that has had no hand IN bringing
this e5nfiet about but must suffer most
n all from the brutal assaults of the
aIa-hing intere-tss"
The espitai.t mouthpiece- harp 80
consistently m this sting that people
come 70 believe it and the purpose Of
capital f. accomplished and little
more prejudice against labor unions in
s.illeI into the minds of the thousands
of nsvspaper reader. in every part Of
the eountrv.
The Philadelphia labor war has given
these gentry another opportunity to
yelp about the innocent general pub
licr and they haze made the most Of
their opportgn.re j. might be well 70
investigate q little az ~ iH-t how "in-
nocent7 the general public f.. and We
are willing 70 take the citizens Of
Philadelphia a. a case in point. We
might az vel substitute New York or
St. Ioui. or Chicago for Philadelphia.
the only difference being that the eiri-
zens Of the Quaker City have been
little mare willing tn have their necks
bowed ~ corporate greed than those
d other cities. So az the other feIlovs
are throwing Philadelphia IN our faces
we1l talk about Philadelphia.
The Quaker City has been and IS
notoriously corporation ridden The
corporations Of the city long ago pooIed
their interests 10 control the city gog.
eminent and thereby secure franchise.
which enriched them at the expense ri
the people. Created by consent Of the
pople fostered by the passigitv of the
people, IL was comparatively easy 20
manipulate municipal politics and place
their plant tools in office. The people
always had the power to protect them
selves at the ballot box but they were
too incident. They let the bosses do
their political thinking for them The
most notorious Of the corporations that
infested the city was the gas ring and
80 bold did they become that they had
introduced and passed 20 It's second
reading in the city council. franchise
steal which smelled TO high heaven. n
was rather than even the compliment
citizens Of Philadelphia could stand and
storm Of protest arose that shook
the government Of the city to its fouu
dation. The leading citizens got up on
their bind legs and let out roar that
scared the life out Of the gas ring. The
city dads read the handwriting and
killed the franchise. Philadelphia had
mighty civic awakening and at the
next municipal election seized the ring
candidates by the seruff of the neck
and iammed them into the political
basket. The result Of that election was
hailed with joy everywhere by lovers Of
good government as an example Of what
the good citizens Of city could do
when they got together at the polls A
brighter day had dawned for Philadel-
phia. Yes II had The ring,
fled TO cover and further ne
iarious seheming, the good citizens,
victorious. went back to their business
ares and straightway forgot there was
sch a thing az a gas ring Do you
,now what happened The corporations
ust went about on another tact with