People's Pilot, Volume 2, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 June 1893 — Nolle Prosequi. [ARTICLE]

Nolle Prosequi.

Union Dispatch. Sunday’s dailies announced the dropping of the charges against Frick and his partners in connection with the Homestead riots. " They had money and consequently influence. Then their crime was only that of treason, conspiracy and incidental murder. Shall rich men be punished for crimes so insignificant? Not under present

conditions, lor we have arrived at a time in our country’s history when money is the god we worship, and the man with money is not amenable to the law, but is a being so superior that all men worship at his shrine, and courts of justice are swayed by his mighty will, and the crimes for which a common man would be hung are but the necessary steps to maintain his exalted supremacy! No, no! such men as Fnck must not be punished, though they thrice commit all the crimes in the calendar.

But these other fellows, laboring men, men of the common herd! What rightshave they? And to think that in this age they would dare try to protect their homes against the designs of such men as Frick and his partners! They ought to have known better. It is their duty to worship these men of wealth, and gladly comply with their will! They blundered miserably and they must be punished! Yet this is free America! The land in which we have proudly boasted that all men are free and equal! There was such a time in our country’s history, but that time is not now. The worship of gold and the rule of wealth have brought their corrupting influences, and all is changed! Money controls all our legislation, and dictates too often the judgment of our courts. Money is king, as it was in Rome when she fell! Yes, the charges against Frick and those with him have been withdrawn, but the strikers must stand trial. Frick and his men were the aggressors, and their crimes were much the greator, but they have wealth. The strikers have only their labor, and that belongs to the capital that gives it employment. Will these strikers and their co-laborers vote again for the supremacy of present conditions? Or will they stay by their votes, that manhood and not money shall rule in free America?