The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1913-07-09
The Lobby Of Terror.

with 1000 active members con-
trolling capital of ten billions and
employing 100000 persons, the Ma
tional Association of Manufacturers
might have been a legitimate polit-
ical party of the first rank, as The
New York World says. But the Ma
tional Association of Manufacturers
is not a political party. Political
parties operate in the open. Their
purposes and principles are more OF
less public. Their agents are known.
Possessing some of the resources
of political party, the National As
sociation Of Manufacturers attempted
to exercise its power In secret and on
all sides. It bullied labor. It cod
died capital. Yet it claimed, to rep
resent labor as we'll as capital. 1t
was Republican in some places and
Democratic in others. 1t had rewards
to bestow and pains to infict, as its
correspondence now proves.
In it's finances it followed the
methods of commercialized politics.
It collected money from manufactur-
ers for various uses. Some of it
went to fight labor unions, to bribe
their leaders and to carry on costly
litigations. Some Of it was devoted
to the maintenance of a lobby in
Washington. Some Of it was used to
re-elect friends of the association to
Congress and some of it to bring
about the defeat of enemies.
That this organization. strong in
numbers, wealth and secrecy, under
took and for some years succeeded 10
large extent in the task of making
individuals, parties, Congress and
Legislatures subservient to its inter
ests. It had prodigious powers
which it used without scruple, but
in nothing else was it so mighty as
in it's conceaiments, its disguises, its
deceptions.
These things are fully set forth in
the extraordinary revelations Of Col.
Martin NJ. Mulhall in The New York
World of Saturday. They do not rest
upon Col. Mulhall's word, though The
World has testimony that this is
good. They are supported by 10000
letters, kilograms and reports which
came into his possession during the
ten years that he was lobbyist,
field-worker and strike-breaker for
the National Association of Manufac-
turers.
In the terrorism thus exerted in
behalf of gluttonous industry we can
find no difference morally from that
maintained for so long time by the
McNamaras, who are now in the peni-
tentiary. Many distinguished names
give dignity to the National Associa-
ton of Manufacturers, but under
their shelter men and interests have
been dynamited as truly as any OF
the victims of the structural iron
workers plot that was formed at In
dianapolis. 1t was not fair politics.
It is not the old vulgar lobby of wine
and women, OF an occasional bribe, of
ground-foor investments, Of almost
miraculous winnings at cards, of
providential tips in the stosk morket
or of lavish and inexplicable attor-
neys' fees.
1t is the new lobby of terror, that
works in the dark, that stabs in the
back, that assumes to speak for mill
lions Of men and billions of money,
that has resourcefu1 agents in every
State and in almost every Congress
sional district, that even in the pres
ence of the peoples sworn represen-
tatiyes boasts of a higher authority,
wheedled the weak, bullied the timld,
corrupted the greedy and destroyed
the self-respecting.
To say, as the President did, that
this lobby is industrious and insidious
is an understatement. 1t is all-per-
vading and in many cases omnlpo-
tent. 1t is hidden. 1t has none OF
the virtues of a lusty though a per-
verted partyism. 1t is not content to
boss one party. 1t seeks to rule all
parties. It's aim is from corner OF
the Capitol, from a private ofhce,
from a star chamber, to govern gov
eminent!