Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 August 1891 — THE CASE IN PENNSYLVANIA. [ARTICLE]

THE CASE IN PENNSYLVANIA.

The Encyclopedia Britannica.

[lndianapolis News, Bep.] New and fervent in the Republican faith is the New York Recorder, and behold it has along editorial entitled“Pennfjtvania a Doubtful State,” beginning: ‘ Our friends in Pennsylvania are rapidly advancing toward a unique distinction.— The most R' publican of States—the one which since Fremont has been oar banner commonwealth —is J slowly becoming a “doubtful State." Pennsylvania, once proud to be in the cluster which embraced Vermont, Kansas and Massachusetts, now swings into company with Indiana and Oregon. It is sad enough, but we may as well look it in the face. The inquiry might have added, “and where is Massachusetts—is it sure? and where is Kansas?” Some of the things that are the matter with Pennsylvania, in the opinion of the Reoorder, are intimated thus: Let the political action become a matter of money —cold, ooarss, vulgar money. That always at the outset. Let office become a question of barter and sale; let the newspapers bejblackmailed out|of their honest dues as a “rebate” to the tune of 40 to 60 per oent.; let the one man 1» ad who has the strongest “pull, ” and by pull we must understand the drilling of jail-birds into the work of repeating and stuffing the ballot-boxes; let no laws be enacted except as they serve the interests of corporations who drain the State for the benefit of other commercial outlets, and you will have made a long, sure step toward having a doubtful State.

With this free-hand sketch by way of intimation as to “what is the matter with" Pennsylvania, the Recorder draws something more of a detailed likeness, thus: The politician goes his way, earns and squanders money as in this deal and the other,jcompelled sometimes|to pardoniconfessed and convicted felons to save political houses from being unroofed, becomes associated with defalcations and Treasury deficits, is tarred to the arm-pits with jobbery and reeks from toes to eartops with malodorous exhalations, and demands vindication. He hag not been put in jail, so he must be vindicated. The day of jubilee, when everything is condoned, mm t sound. Bar the party good; bar the state welfare; bar everything. There must be “vindication.” Revive the old racket, beat the old gong, make a canvass on the old gags, let us have the war, treason, Andersonville, British gold, all the old business. He must be vindioated J Well, when politics are run, as in Pennsylvania, upon Monte Carlo principles, what more apt than a doubtful State? We have the noisome rumor that Mr. Quay will lead the campaign this year as chairman of the Pennsylvania State Committee.

We are to have another campaign of vindication. Delamater was not enough. Bards ley is forgotten. Another turn at the wheel, The color may be the red. No feature of this picture can be repudiated as untrue. Meantime what has the Republican party there done for the people, what for the millionaires? While it has been tolerating all this corruption have the millionaires, the rich corporations in Pennsylvania been protected and cared for in their pursuit of gain; have the people been protected and cared for in thiir pursuit of a livelihood, or have these been turned over to those a prey, denied even the rights of humanity? The country knows the answer to those questions. It knows the story—a continued story—of evictions, of killings at the hands of Pinkerton thugs, of p’underings bv the company “pluck-me” store, plunderings of £esh and blood in the la bor of children against the laws of the State i nd the laws of hmanity. If while the revel in political corruption goes on, the.rights of the rich—their lawful rights were curtailed, corporations invaded, ; in their just privileges, how long would it be befo e public opinion wonld rise, the rascals be driven irom power and the reign of justice be brought in? But the feeble cry that comes up from the mines; the slaughter of a few of the imported European paupers, their half starvation and entire plundering by the manipulation of wages—these things go on year after year. Within the last week a Philadelphia p§per has given this picture of the oonditicnof Pennsylvania.. It it but a feeble sketch, so to speak. But it indicates what has come to pass there, In portions of the coal, coke and iion regions of Pennsylvania tbe number of unemployed workingmen with destitute families may be counted t y thousands. These are, for the most part, victims of the labor strikes that have not yet been brought to a conclusion. In this condition it might readily be imagined that there is no real want of willing labor in those regions; but this would be a great mistake. In the demand for labor the unemployed men who are on the Bpot and ready to work are hardly taken into the account. The great corporations continue to "make requisitions upon the newly, imported immigrants, and the ranks of an unemployed “proletariat” are constant. 1 growing in the coal and iron districts of this State. This is a social and economical problem which becomes more difficult of satisfactory solution as the ye rs advance. The State, which has creatod the great coal companies, finds itself powerless to bring to bear upon these corporations such > pressure as would lead to a reform of the existing evils connected with the employment of labor. As the policy of these corporations toward their employees is dictated wholly by selfishnest and greed, they are loading upon themselves a weight of responsibility for whioh they will, sooner or later, be compelled toafisweral the bar of public opinion, if not in the Courts of law. Among the advertisements that now and then come under the eye o’ newspa-

per readers are Buoh as the following: Wanted—Five hundred immigrants for a great operation in Pennsylvania. Traveling money not necessary. Constant employment and good wages. The object of these advertisements is to repleoe cheaply the workingmen who were unwilling to work at the nsual wages, and who organized a strike when the advance they demanded was refused them. With their employers the aim is to obtain the raw material of human sinews at the lowest possible cost. The corporations and individual mine-owners and operators who aot upon this principle have thus reduced to a system the management of the Huns, Italians and other undesirable importations of contract laborers. Whenever this olass of la orers become sufficiently “assimilated” to demand wages above those that are necessary to keep soul and body together a strike naturally arises out of the situation or is cunningly provoked. Instead of seeking or.agreeing to a settlement on a basis satisfactory to both parties, the employers close their works, evict their old workmen, and send to the immigration depot in New York for another supply of the oheap raw material of hnman flesh.

This thing is not new, by any means, tn th coal and iron regions of Pennsylvania. It has been going on ever since it was discovered that southern Europe could furnish to the mines and iron works of this State an exhaustless supply of labor. But a chroniocondition has now been reached in the existence of a large and increasing body of nnemploved labor on the soil of Pennsylvania. It is needless to urge that the inoreaße of this combustible material is fraught with danger for the future.