Newark leader. ([Newark, Ohio]) 1917-1946, 1922-09-15
VOTING
By John Bush

BY JOhn BUSH
Though the laboring people are con-
| fronted with numerous matters SO i'm
portant to their general welfare that
require concentration of thought and
tireless effort to advance their best
interests, the subject of their vote
seems the one most potent.
There is, perhaps, more varied
| difference of views on this one sub
| ject among working people than on
all others combined.
Among the union men, as in all
groups or classes of people, there are
few who give no thought to the elec-
tion of national or local servants of
the people. Fortunately for the ma
tion as whole the majority are in
terested and active as they should be.
President Lincoln in his message to
congress in 1861, cautioned the peo-
pie to beware of surrendering po-
litical power which they already pos
sess and which, if surrendered, would
surely be used to close the doors of
advancement against them.
At the present time events are TAX
ing shape that renderd more press
ing than ever the need for the ut
most possible power and solidarity on
the part of all union people in poll
tical way.
The employers, in perhaps ma
jority of industries, are now making
a big drive, politically as well as in
dustrially, to crush the unions and to
force us down to serfdom. Merciless
exploitation of the workers, land
grabbing, stock-watering, rebating,
bribing Of legislators and judges, en-
bezzlement, perjury-these are some
of the criminal methods habitually re-
sorted to in building up the present
ownership of the big industries.
And not content with that, they are
forcing the passage of bills that ap
pear on the surface to be measures
conducive to the nations best inter
ests, which would frequently be the
case if they were applied as the peo
pie were led to believe they would be.
1t is the garbling of laws by big bus
mess, through the bribing of legis-
lators, that makes voting a different
proposition for union men.
On many occasions legislators who
have shown themselves to be in sym
pathy with the labor movement,
through years of earnest effort, have
been condemned by them owing to the
misuse of laws which they voted for
in good faith.
Union men who take the proper in
terest in legislative affairs frequently
judge their legislative friends by
watching what bills they vote for and
against, and Big Business men, whose
chief aim it is to defeat the friends
of labor when they strive for re-elec
ton, are well aware of this fact.
With this thought in view, the
judges have decreed that
certain laws that were passed could
not be construed to mean or be ap-
piled as the representative of labor
Numerous bills have been presented
and made laws that really were bene-
fitting to the union men, but they were
so cleverly couched in high-sounding
phrases and double-meaning words
that the average person could not un-
derstand their real meaning. The
destroyers of personal liberty never
fail to take advantage in such cases,
and lose no time in spreading propa-
ganda among the working class to
poison their minds against those who |
voted in favor of making the bill a |
law.
These are conditions that can be
overcome in but one way, and the |
union men should be more active in
that respect. When a bill is proposed )
that will have direct bearing on la
Dor it is the duty as we'll as the priv
ilege of the working people, organ
ized or unorganized, to communicate
with their district Or state legislators
so as to make sure of the meaning and
intent Of the proposed law.
1t is not unfrequent that working
men have been misled by false reports
relative to the activities of legislators,
which is due to the fact that they
were not in close touch with their
district representative at the proper
time and did not express their views,
or did not know what their activities
we're.