The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1916-05-12
Why Not All be
Free and Equal?

Editor of Pennington Times -
With reference to the workingman,
the Declaration Of independence did
not make all men Stree and equal",
and the American revolution did not
throw off all the shackles Of labor.
Politically, America was free to enter
upon her glorious career among the
nations of the earth; economically,
however, the revolution did not effect
a direct, immediate improvement in
the condition of the workingmen. The
newborn country awoke to the It'd
ings of peace and independence, suf-
fering, impoverished and debt-ridden,
and to the American workman the
overthrow of British sovereignty did
not, at least at the outset, bring high
er wages, or wages in better money.
The history of the United States from
the Declaration of independence, in
1776, to the Emancipation Proclama-
ton, In 1868, is the solution of the la
Dor problem-the problem Of slave
versus free labor. From the founding
of the Republic there had threatened
an irrepressable conflict between the
labor of freemen and of bondmen.
Men saw that one of two things must
come to pass: the freeman must break
the shackles of the slaves or the slave
would forge letters for the free. The
workingmen, especially the working
men of the North, cried aloud for the
abolition of chattel slavery, and it
was in large part due to the patriot
ism of American workingmen that
chattel slavery disappeared from the
North American continent. Fifty
years have come and gone since APP
pomatox, and what sad change has
come to the American nation in this
more than fifty years-a change from
black chattel slavery to one of white
free slavery. | make the assertion
that there exists today a far worse
state of slavery than ever existed in
this country prior to the Civil war.
Any one who will take the time to
read history, both Ancient and Mod
err, will arrive at the conclusion that
chattel slavery is to be preferred to
that of industrial slavery. Space will.
not permit of me going into a discus
sion Of the evils of the two forms of
slavery. Suffice to say that industrial
slavery instead of being local to a
certain section of our country as was
chattel slavery, it infests every nook
and corner of our country, including
island possessions and we men of the
Lead Belt who work hundreds of feet
under ground, both day and night,
pouring a golden stream into the cof-
fers Of few Eastern mining barons,
are an excellent example of the indus
trial slavery system that has been
built up in this country since the close
of the Civil war; The time has ar
rived when we must arise as one man
and demand of those for whom we la
Dor that we be recognized by them
as men and not as mere animal ma
chimes, created for their benefit and
enrichment. There are large stock
holders in some of the corporations op-
Grating in the Lead Belt who would
give those who create their wealth
a squaEe deal if they We're in a posts
ton to do so. Such one, for instance.
is Mr.. Robert Holmes of st. Louis,
whose financial interest in the st. Joe
and Doe Run companies is large, but
the wise men of the East" have de-
creed that he shall have nothing to
say, no voice in how the property in
which he is vitality interested, shall be
managed. Furthermore, we know that
Mr.. Holmes is friend of the working
man and since the death of Parsons
and Graves we have had no one in the
councils of those companies to advo-
cate the cause of the employee. There
fore, we, as workingmen, should do
everything within our power to have
Mr.. Holmes made member of the
board of directors of those companies,
not because his name happens to be
Holiness, but because we believe that
we who produce. the wealth should,
at least, have an indirect voice in the
condition under which we produce
that wealth.
CITIZEN.