Wheeling majority. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1907-192?, 1913-05-15
10y o. /. H. Fersuson.)

B
Superstitions are being exploded
every day. Conditions of the. life OF
the people are constantly changing. And
with the changing of the conditions
of life, the ideas of the people are
also always changing. Ideas that have
been considered as firmly planted In
the minds of the people as the Rock
of Gibralter. OF insurance fame, are
constantly dissolving into thin air.
And the strange thing about it all is
that the men who have first advocated
new ideas and were denounced during
their lives as dangerous agitators and
demagogues are today honorcd by af
men while their prosecutors are either
entirely forgotten or else looked upon
with absolute scorn.
1t has been so since the beginning
of history. The Christ was crucified
because he was opposed to the order
of the day. And what is thought Oh
,'e Christ today? A little later in his
tory Calico invented the telescope
ma as "A result OF his discoveries, the
Holy InQuisition' got busy, and to
save his skin Calico was forced to re-
cant Again, Giordano Bruno, the
great Italian philosopher. was burned
at the stake by the same Holy" up
holders of the system. of that day.
Today the names of Calico and Brun .
are honored by the people of the
world, while the Holy Inuuisition"
is only spoken of with horror and dis
gust.
Later on the American colonists ana
the French revolutionists decided
n q
right of kings had gone far enough.
During the mix-up in France, quite
number of aristocratic men and
women got the closest shaves of their
lives. Thomas Paine, Patrick Henry
and Washington and the leaders of the
French Revolution are honored in his
tory while the blindness and the pig
headedness of their opponents are
duly set forth.
Again about fifty years ago another
divine ''Ssuperstition was exploded. Il
used to be perfectly just AMI right to
hold chattel slaHee. The preachers
proved it by the bible and the law up
held the church That was all there
was to it. But unfortunately for the
standpatters" of fifty yearsGago, GER
cain undesirable agitators went up and
down the land preaching freedom for
he black slaves. They didn't have
particularly pleasing time. Elije
P. Lovejoy out in Alton, ILL.,, had his
printing plant destroyed four times
and was finally shot to death by re-
spectacle mob. VIM. Lloyd Garrison
was dragged through the streets OF
Boston with a rope around him by a
mob of the "eminently respectable"
citizen of that burg. It is interest
ing to read the notice Of his policy as
the "Liberator," which appeared in
1881. Garrison was speaking on the
wrongs of chattel slavery: Il will be
as harsh as truth and as uncompTo-
missing as Justice. On this subject l
do not wish to think OF speak. or write
with moderation" Garrison was de-
fanatic" and public enemy. Yet
the seeds that Loyejoy and Garrison
sowed so carefully, in few years bore
fruit though that fruit was gathered at
a terrible price of blood and money.
The negro slaves were free. at least
in name. t'
The world is now in the midst Of a
struggle greater million times than
any that has ever gone before. The
struggle for the abolition Of wage slav-
cry is raging in every civilized cor
ner of the globe. In fact, wherever
modern factory methods OF production
have been introduced there have also
appeared the labor unions and the po-
litical organization of the workers, the
Socialist Party. ~ =
The same forces of conservatism that
stood against the abolition chattel
slavery are again aligned against the
uorI1in q close Vo& IL mokoa M DIFF