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Image provided by: Minnesota Historical Society; Saint Paul, MN
Newspaper Page Text
The Legislature. There is no department of the state government more import ant to the workingman than the law making power. It affects them in many ways directly and powerfully, and in many others, because its actions are so indi rect as to be appreciated only after the closest scrutiny, its in fluences are none -he less far reaching and effective. The de partment has to deal with the control of corporations, the be stowal of franchises, the super vision of the levying and collec tion of taxes, the disbursement of public ftinds, the administration of justice, the promotion of edu cation, the preservation of the purity of election, and the pro tection of individual rights. On the legislature our local govern ment—the functions of city, town ship, county and judicial district —depend wholly tor their proper regulation. The developments of an ex panding industrial system which, if properly regulated and fost ered, is but entering upon the be ginning of its career, has especial importance to those who live by labor. Gigantic forces are being developed in the industrial world that existing laws are powerless to control. The new conditions demand new regulations. Labor, the human element, the vital, energizing, motive force of civil ization, if civilization is not to halt or go backward upon its course, must not only be pro tected in its bare existence, it must be guaranteed its share in the betterment of conditions and in the rewards of its growing productiveness, else dissatisfac tion on the one hand, and the in stinct of exploitation, that grows greedier faster than its oppor tunities can expand, on the other, set up in the social organism the forces of dissolution. Already these forces have been generated, and are at work. The de mand for their correction is everywhere apparent. And in this economic evolution it is of first importance that the men who shall become members of the law-making power, who shall have voice in the processes of transformations, instead of being bound by professional and personal relations to corpora tions and those whose prosper ity is opposed to the public weal, shall be friends of the common people and bound to them by THE LABOR WORLD bonds of sympathy, association and personal interest. The Appeal to Reason says if you p*t off voting for a real reform this year, when do you propose to begin? Will not the place hunters who are now cry ing out "one thing at a time" bob up two years hence, and four years hence with some other ancient, moss-covered fake ex humed from the bowels of the dead past, and rattle its dry bones in your ears and swear by all the gods that it is the issue? Look over the past quarter of a century and you will see the folly of present political methods. How much precious time has been lost by the people, what op portunities have been sacrificed during these years. Think what might have been accomplished in that time had the people been brave and courageous had been true to themselves. But no, they listened to the "one thing at a time" fellow, who beat his poli tical tin pan and yelled tariff, both high and low. Did it suc ceed? Yes, succeeded in putting the spoilsmen in office, first one set and then the other. Did the people get any reform? was the load on their backs lightened? No. Has anything flourished in this country during these years? Yes corporations, trusts, mono polis, landlords and lendlords have doubled many times in strength and numbers. It is no trouble for the plutes to have a dozen laws for oppressing the people grinding out at one and the same time. Why can't the people carry forward more than one measure of reform at one and the same time? The Republican platform is for the free coinage of silver when it can be done by an international agreement. Its stumpers are now telling the people every where that free coinage is a. fraud on the people that it means a fifty-cent dollar, and will cheat the workingman out of half his earnings. If free coinage is a fraud then the re publican party is for a fraud by international agreement. Do they mean to teach that multi tude justifies crime? The New York World has ad mitted that in Iowa 30,000 voters have left the McKinley ranks. The Railway Times gives figures showing that if the pub lic owned the railways of Amer ica the savings would amount to $661,000,000 annually. All classes in society—except ing the spoils politician and the plutocrat, arid their retainers— are interested in purifying gov ernment and simplifying its structure. While we have paid of our national debt yet the ing unpaid measured in the pres ent prices of bar iron, wheat, cotton and other products, which are the result of toil, and labor, amounts to more than the entire originally did. Li Hung Chang said that the Chinese are more intelligent than the Americans, and then to prove it declared that if he had been born in this country he would be worth a billion dollars today in stead of only five hundred mil lions. News come to us from northern Michigan that union workmen employed in the mines owned bv Mark Hanna in that section complain bitterly of unfair treat ment by the superintendents. The condition of the miners is said to be deplorable. The Eight-Hour Herald, pub lished at Chicago, is the only labor paper in the United States that is advocating the gold standard. How about govern ment by injunction, Mr. Carroll? —-Journal of Labor. The Minneapolis republicans claim a great demonstration for Bourke Cokran but they say nothing about how nearly every large concern in that city fur nished their employes with gold bug badges and forced them in the line of march on penalty of losing their positions. Lawyer Powderly is against the income tax, has endorsed government by injunction and approved federal interference with states' rights. N»t much wonder it required a detachment of policemen with drawn clubs to keep order when he spoke for the gold standard in Cooper union. How are the mighty fallen? tl Ys remain