Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1921-04-22
THE SPIDER-WEB
(By John Bush)

Solon, the Athenian sage, and law
giver (639 B. c., said that laws were
like cobwebs,-for that if any trifing
or powerless thing fell into them they
held it fast, while if it were some
thing weightier, it broke through
them and was off.
All the American people are prob
ably thoroughly familiar with the
meaning of that saying as applied to
the domestic life of America. The
substance of the thought is that the
rich can afford to pay for justice,
and therefore they get it; the poor
cannot afford to pay, and therefore
get what is left, which is injustice.
Viewing the situation in the light of
cyllogism, it may be not proper or
correct to say the rich get justice,
but as for the poor getting injustice
there is no question. Justice implies
the strict and judicial rendering of
what is due; therefore it follows that
rendered many of the political and
so-called radical prisoners in Amer
ica's Federal prisons would be set
free in order to accommodate the
thousands of dollar flag-wavers who
so Justify sang "Keep the Home Fires
Burning" during the late war, and
who are now banded together for the
purpose of putting out the fires of
veterans and workers who assert
their liberty and right to organize for
their own protection.
Those profteers who are advocating
the non-union or open shop and
through artificial unemployment seek
to make the hearthstones of the
workers cold and their children hun
CRY, seem to be something weightier
than the law can hold fast. The rich
get what they want and the poor get
what is left seems to be the universal
rule.
If rich man plumbers the people
it is called high finance; if a poor
man steals loaf of bread it is petit
larceny. If a rich man shuts down
whole industry it is ordinary bust
ness; if poor man takes a vacation
he is called an outlaw and is fined one
or two thousand dollars and in default
of payment sent to jail for a year or
two. If group Of rich men get to-
gether and agree not to have any
dealings with labor unions it is called
an open shop campaign; if the labor
unions get together and agree not to
have anything to do with the rich
man it is called boycott, and the
members Of the union are fined and
their homes are sold over their heads
This unfavorable condition cannot
be attributed to our form of govern
ment nor to the laws as they are
written. The working people, those
who produce all the conveniences of
life, are today under the control of
an invisible power, a power which has
risen up in the government, greater
than the people themselves, consisting
of many and various and powerful
interests combined into one gigantic
mass and held together by the CO.
hesive power of the vast surplus in
the banks. 1t is this combination of
powerful interests that make our
laws seem like the SPIDERS web and
the views of Solon so fitting to the
present day. This powerful mass
may be likened to the spider which
has woven gigantic web around the
nation and now seeks to devour all
that come within its elastic entangle-
ment. 1t is not only the laborer but
the small business man as we'll who
has become hopeless prey. The
present business depression makes
this an apparent fact. There are
thousands of business men who want
to be fair and are honest, just and
upright, who believe in an equitable
distribution of wealth and happiness
and also realize that nothing but dis
order can and will be the final result
of the present attempt to suppress