The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1946-06-07
PAY-DIRT. A PARABLE

the thought is father to the dream
Also, as everyone knows, it is only {
step from a mountain top to heaven
So it is not surprising that our gents
each dreamed that he had taken thai
'step and sat down to talk business
with the Almighty. According to this
dream, the Almighty was tired OF
man and his eternal problems and told
the boys to take over.
/, On waking, the gents remembered
the dream but they mistook it for
reality. They really believed that they
had been officially vested with Gods
prerogative of life or death over men.
These new little gods had vestments
of one of the baser metals which rat
tied a bit and came apart at the seams
when they did battle with one an
other, but that didn't matter; what
mattered was that this is how vested
interests are born.
Diggers Lowered to Estate of
Slave Labor
Despite the early battles between
tAiS ANNAfA dddAo hllSu VIC SudIl HOW
call the interests, the business of send
ing men into the earth to dig the gilt
ter went ahead very profitably. Be-
fore the turn of this century the way
had become quite smooth; the diggers
had been lowered to the estate of
slave labor and there didn't seem to
be much chance of trouble.
But trouble came, and it came, iron
ically, from another dream of another
dreamer. The interests found to their
dismay, that though you may enslave
the body of man, his mind and his
dreams are apt to elude the yoke
This dream was one which came to
a man with the preposterous name
of Gompers. In it, the Almighty told
him that man should be free, that
man should never stop fighting for
freedom, that man had always had to
fight to gain freedom and to fight
eternally to keep it, Mr.. Gompers had
proper humility and he didn't mistake
his dream. He knew it was a dream,
but he thought it was worth the fight
to make it a reality.
The pay dirt diggers had been de-
prived of the privileges of man and
had become pawns in a game. Comp
srs told them that if enough pawns
pushed at the same time against the
milestone they could get it off their
necks. He used simple words to tell
them this, something like, united we
stand, divided we fall"
Only Weapon Was Force
This was a simple philosophy, but |
t wasn't as simple of accomplishment
Is it sounds because the pawns didn't
lave any legal rights. The law had
somehow or other got on the side of
he interests. In those days only prop
srty was inviolable in the eyes of the
aw and men were exceedingly ex-
)endable. The pawns found, like the
throughout the ages, that
heir only weapon was force-force
# their vulnerable muscles to blast
he control of their destiny from the
lands of venal men. This was all they
lad to compel a hearing in govern
mental circles of their rights as men.
So an era Of violence began This
vas as necessary violence as the vio-
lence employed by this nation in
IT'S, 1861, 1917 and 1912 in the battle
f freedom. 1t was skirmish in the
anne eternal battle.
Now it should be remembered that
he interests had gained control over
he physical destiny of the diggers
ut they had also bought control over
he political destiny of all of the peo- +;
lie in the territory, the diggers and {
II their neighbors. When the inter-
SITS began to realize that they weren't (
ding to be able to go on controlling
he physical destiny of the diggers J
hey feared the spread of the cpl {
emic of freedom to those who seemed !
} have failed to recognize that they t
lso were held in bondage. The inter- I
SITS could hold political control over '
10 territory only so long as they To- q
allied the epidemic. {
MONS Smeared AS Form of Leprosy i
Looking back, you wouldn't think d
ley had chance, but desperate men
i'm to desperate measures and now y
HEIR only weapon was fear. Scare =
lem," they said Think of a nice !