Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1922-07-01
Saturday, July I, 1922.
SLAVERY 1887. 1922

Elijah Parish Lovejoy, because he
dared to publish a paper in which he
told the truth about slavery, was
murdered Nov. Z, 1897.
He wanted the laborer free in this
country to dispose of his toll as he
might wish.
1t was in the State of Illinois that
laborers who sought to sell their lab
or in the work Of mining coal were
murdered June %, 1922, massacred,
torn limb from limb by as ruthless,
as fiendish a mob as ever disgraced
the world. This mob assumed, now
assumes, to represent union labor,
that prates about human slavery!
Those murderers are yet said to be
in good standing in the labor union,
have gone UNPUBLISHED by their or
ganization, their hideous crime goes
UNPUBLISHED by the community and
the state in which they live. Even
the Federal Government, that pro-
tests against Turkish massacres,
blinks uncertainty.
Organized labor, which by-its atti-
tude tolerates the awful crime, Is
now telling the United States author
tiles that it will not accept their de-
cision with respect to railroad regu-
lations and wages.
Eghty-five years ago the slave
owner and driver virtually controlled
our Federal Government. The great
ma jority of the people did not care
or dare to interfere. At that time
,far-seeing leaders might have been
able to settle the slavery problem
without bloodshed. Instead it was
allowed to tester. The Lovejoy MUIR
der inflamed right-thinking people OF
the North. The seed of 4 crusade,
which might only be ended by the
slaughter of armies on battlehelds,
was then sown.
AS the negro in the cotton fields
then, so the white or black man
today, is in some very important
respects a slave, and may not earn
his living at honorable toll without
the permission of the autocrats Of a
few thousand Of men banded together
in the name Of labor. One was black
slavery; this is white slavery.
Who is the slave driver of today if
not the walking delegate? Who are
the virtual slave owners If not the
few who dominate the councils OF
labor? What has become of mans
rights in this land of the free If he
may not work without first getting
permission Of this tyrannical govern
ment which does not recognize the
higher authority Of the laws?
"Who is so deafe or so blind as is hee
"That wilfully will neither heare nor
see?"
Twenty years after the murder OF
Lovejoy, Abraham Lincoln Of Illinois
saw and had the courage to declare
that this nation of ours could not
continue half slave and half free.
How long will it be before we wake
to the fact that American manhood
cannot exist where a man is denied
the privilege Of earning his bread?
How long will it be before the up
standing American, liberty-loving
members of the labor union wake to
the fact-so startlingly demonstrated
in California when organized labor
was toppled from it's throne because
of it's arrogance-that there is not
only limit to the patience OF the
public, but there also is limit to the
life of the union? Already. observing
men recognize that labor is losing it's
skill and its self-respect under a rule
which tries to keep the incompetent
on a wage level with the competent.
There are many union men who real
ize the gravity Of this situation and
we believe are far-seeing enough to
recognize what the outcome must be
for them unless these conditions are
improved, unless laws are obeyed.
unless rights Of others are respected.
unless skill and industry are to be
rewarded. Unionism's future is now
I'D to those men; what will they do
about it?
The labor problem in France Is